Half-tempted to let the gorge declare its sufferer, I proceed my pursuit from a protected distance, able to cease as soon as they’ve taken the leap and eliminated themselves from the equation. Maybe the cliffs would be the justice my anger seeks, sparing me the extra blood on my palms.

As a result of, regardless of my fame for bloodlust, I don’t get pleasure from killing individuals.

It’s a necessity that comes with the job.

Resolved to let destiny take its course, I maintain a gradual tempo, discovering some aid within the exertion of operating a number of miles in pursuit of the snake who thought they might get the higher hand on me.

However the momentary peace evaporates in a single horrifying immediate.

As a result of, because the witness bursts into the clearing that begins mere yards from the cliff’s edge, I lastly see who it’s I’m chasing.

Shock ripples via me as I acknowledge the acquainted contours of her slender type, the lengthy darkish hair that whips behind her like a black silk ribbon.

It’s Tia.

Panic grips my throat, choking me.

I’ve to do one thing—something I can to cease her.

However she’s too far forward of me. I’ll by no means attain her in time.

“Tia!” My voice cuts via the area between us, a determined plea for her to cease.

The phrase carries the load of my dread. And my abdomen drops like lead when she doesn’t sluggish and even hesitate. As an alternative, she turns her head, eyes huge as she seems again at me—away from the looming cliff edge.

For a fleeting second, our gazes lock.

Panic and worry etch throughout Tia’s delicate options, and it solely appears to develop when she sees I’m the one pursuing her. The look in her eyes cuts like a knife. Nonetheless, if I may cease her with a phrase, I’d. Nevertheless it’s clear now that she’s petrified of me. Nothing I say goes to cease her.

After which it’s too late.

The bottom vanishes out from underneath her.

Her scream is shrill and bone-chilling.

And the void swallows her entire.

“No!” My hand reaches for her instinctually, although I’m too far-off to achieve her.

Horror seizes me, stiffening my limbs as I watch her disappear. My thoughts races, grappling with the unthinkable—the mom of my baby plummeting to her dying.

A scream claws at my throat, however I stifle it, the sound choked again by the enormity of the second.

Right away, I’m on the cliff’s edge, flinging myself to the bottom so I can peer far into the abyss. The low solar casts eerie shadows throughout the jagged rocks beneath, making the bushes seem bigger and extra ominous than earlier than.

However I see no signal of Tia. Panic gnaws at my insides, a feral worry clawing on the edges of my consciousness. She’s simply… gone.

“Tia!” I name once more, my voice ragged with uncertainty.

The echo of her title bounces off the partitions of the gorge, coming again to me in a mocking refrain. I by no means ought to have chased her. I ought to have let it’s. However I used to be so hell-bent on catching whoever witnessed the execution that I didn’t learn the indicators.

I didn’t cease to assume.

In fact, Tia can be out within the woods.

When is she ever the place she’s alleged to be? When does she ever do what she’s alleged to? Naturally, it could be her wandering miles within the woods alone. She walked all the way in which from her house to my home social gathering the evening I met her, didn’t she?

A sickening realization takes maintain of me. I’ve misplaced her ceaselessly to the unforgiving rocks beneath me. It doesn’t matter that I can’t see her damaged physique. There’s no manner she survived the autumn. The gorge is properly over 100 toes deep.

Supply: www.seynovel.com