Chapter 168

The Prey

“Come here, Ptichka,” he said again and his voice deceptively soft. “I won’t say it again.”

I took a step back. “I’d rather drown—”

My foot slipped, and before I could even scream, I was plunging into the icy water.

The shock stole my breath, the cold slicing through my skin like knives. I thrashed, as my soaked clothes pulled me under.

The water swallowed me whole. My lungs screamed for air, but I only sank deeper, the surface above grew more distant, blurry, like a half-forgotten dream.

This was it. This was how it’d end.

You destroyed my life. Had I screamed those words at Judas or myself?

And I wanted to know why. What a cruel question to ask when the answer wouldn’t save me. The truth wouldn’t fix this. Nothing could.

I was drowning, but it wasn’t the water that killed me. No, I’d been drowning long before this. Drowning in his words. His touch. His lies. Judas wasn’t just my night