Chapter 199

The Prey

Shadows swallowed the last slivers of moonlight. The darkness pulsed, alive.

They were close.

I pressed a trembling hand over my mouth, choking down a sob. If they found me, they wouldn’t just kill me. They’d tear me apart. I’d die tasting my own screams.

A thud. Then another.

Terror paralyzed me. My body refused to move, refused to listen. The air stank of sweat and blood, thick with the promise of death.

A gunshot.

Silence followed with that weird ominous eeriness. The kind of silence that lingers before the final scream.

And then—

A voice. Low. Amused. Cruel.

“She’s here.”

My blood ran cold.

Hands wrenched me from the shadows before a scream through my lips. “Let me go!”

I was hauled by the back of my shirt from the pit. A guard yanked me forward. I thrashed, and kicked, but he was too strong.

“Gotcha,” he sneered twisting my hands behind my back as my back arched in pain