CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY

ORLA

It felt like an eternity. The darkness. It had neither a beginning or an end. It took me—grabbed me in a suffocating hug and refused to let me go.

At some point—I didn't know how long it took, but it came to my understanding that the darkness was of my own making, and only I could free myself from its clutches.

So, I opened my eyes, and welcomed the light back in.

The first thing I saw was a face. One too familiar, and at the same time, dreadfully disturbing.

Blood seeped out of his nose, ears and mouth and dripped on my shirt. His eyes had gone blank, with its usual icy colour sucked into the cold emptiness of death.

Ryker was dead.

I pulled my hand out of his neck, unable to ignore the feeling of gore and slippery blood.

His weight had become suffocating since life no longer flowed through his veins.

I pushed his corpse off me, and sat up with a groan. The wound in my chest was still struggling to knit itself back together, but with the bullet still lodged inside of me, it wou