“Astin,” a man cried behind me.
Someone was kneeling in front of me, grabbing my face, begging for me to look at them. I raised my gun to his temple.
Si—
“Hug me like the night sky holds the moon,” a voice rasped in my ear. “Come back to us, Astin.”
My whole body shuddered, and whatever had been pushing me to keep going vanished. A hand brushed my hair out of my face, and I looked up to find Ryker and Luca looking down at me with worried expressions.
“Tin-Tin,” Ryker pleaded.
“Ry,” I sobbed. “Daddy’s dead.”
“I know. I’m so sorry, my love,” he said, tears shimmering in his eyes. “We need to get you out of here and to a doctor. You’ve been shot.”
“No, I won’t leave him, Ry,” I argued.
“He’s coming too. Boykov has him and will make sure he comes home with us. We’d never leave your father behind,” Luca explained as he peeled my hand off a gun I didn’t remember holding.
I nodded, grief clogging my throat so I couldn’t speak. Ryker lifted me in his arms and headed to the back of the bar. The others were there, all of them looking worse for wear but alive and unharmed from what I could tell.Good, I didn’t lose anyone else.
My eyes drifted closed as I clung to Ryker. When we got to the car, I was handed off to Jace while Braxton wrapped a tight bandage around my leg, making me hiss.
“I’m sorry, but we need to stop the bleeding. Just hang in there, and we’ll get you fixed up in no time,” Braxton soothed, reaching out to take my hand.
Tears I couldn’t stop ran down my cheeks as I looked into his worried eyes. “Please tell me I didn’t hurt anyone but those who deserved it.”
“We all survived, thanks to you. No one knew who was friend or foe. Somehow, Harvey got his people into our security,” Braxton explained.
The darkness reared up at the mention of his name. “Harvey is next. He’ll learn to live in fear for the day I choose his death, and I’ll tear his very soul from his body. There will be no afterlife for him, no second-chance reincarnation. He’ll cease to exist when I’m done with him.”
“As the queen wishes, so it shall be.”