Selena
The lift slowed to a halt and the door opened, revealing a wide corridor running away from us.
“Perhaps this is it,” Cass murmured, evidently trying to move on from the horrors we'd just witnessed. “Maybe this is the end.”
Behind us, another door at the back of the lift slid open. Ten haggard Vs stood there, their eyes flashing with murder as they spotted us.
“Run!” I roared, fleeing down the corridor ahead. Kite and Cass were close on my heels, but so were the Vs.
The passage veered to the right; a staircase was the only way forward. We started sprinting upwards, higher and higher until my calves ached and my lungs burned.
Cass outpaced me, flying up the stairs two at a time with her longer legs.
A scream from behind caused me to turn back. A snarling V had hold of Kite's hair, dragging her into his arms. I kicked out at it, yanking her forward as my boot smashed into his face.
We ran on, her hand still clinging to mine as we rose, higher and higher up the seemingly endless flights of stairs. I knew I couldn't keep this pace up much longer. But if I stopped for even a second, I was dead.
To my left, a door flew open and a well-fed V charged at me. Kite shoved me aside at the last second, taking the blow herself. She twisted her stake up, slicing it through him, but his teeth had already sunk deep into her neck.
I dragged her free of him, encouraging her on, the V's body causing an obstacle for the others as they tried to pursue us.
“Now we're even,” she panted, but I couldn't manage an answer.
Blood dripped in a thick stream to the floor and Kite groaned as we soldiered on, licking her stake as she climbed at my side.
We caught up with Cass who looked exhausted, her feet dragging as she slowed to match our pace.
The screeches and high-pitched cries of the Vs closed in. I was breathless and aching all over.
Finally, the stairs led to another corridor and we flew down it at high speed, the level ground a reprieve from the hellish climb. The Vs had caught up, running just behind us, their fingers clutching at the ends of my hair.
I barged through the door at the other end and nearly lost my footing on the vertical drop immediately before me; we were outside edge of the tower, the island stretching out ahead of us. Kite pushed me aside in seconds, the two of us tumbling onto a platform beside the exit, just wide enough to stand on. Cass hadn't been so lucky, falling forward and catching herself on the edge, dropping her stake as she hung from it with white-knuckled fingers.
I reached for her in desperation as Vs poured out of the door, falling with twisting, writhing bodies as they plummeted toward their deaths.
Kite clung to my side, blocking my path to Cass.
“Help me!” I begged, trying to reach her scrabbling fingers.
A buzz of a helicopter hummed in my ears and the huge machine swooped past us; the rush of wind that followed it nearly dragged us off the ledge. Kite screamed profanities at it that would have shocked me under any other circumstances.
It circled around, hovering several feet from us, the side door open and waiting for us.
As the last of the Vs fell the hundred feet to the ground, Kite slipped back into the doorway, ducking down and grabbing hold of Cass.
I crashed to my knees, crawling back inside, my cloak whipping around me in the wind. Together, Kite and I managed to drag Cass inside. Her back was clawed with marks from the Vs that had fallen, trying to save themselves. Her cheeks were pink from the wind and her lips were trembling.
“We have to jump,” Kite said, gesturing to the helicopter before us.
Terror ripped through me. “Are you kidding?”
“Go, you can do it,” Cass panted, catching her breath as she huddled in the wind-swept corridor.
Kite stood, pulling me after her. I glanced at the helicopter with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Kite turned to me, tonguing her cheek. “Always kind of admired you, Grey.” She grabbed my head and pressed her lips to my mouth. I was so stunned, I simply froze in her hold.
Pulling away, she shot me a grin, then dove toward the helicopter.
Time seemed to slow as I watched, my heart nearly failing as she sailed through the air. Her arms were outstretched, her fingers reaching, her dark hair sailing about her in the wind. She looked like a hero, diving through the sky. And though I knew she wasn't a good person, in a way I admired her too.
Her fingers grazed the metal railing beneath the door. And with a horrible, gut-wrenching certainty, I knew she'd misjudged the jump.
Her fingers brushed the metal, then she was falling, rushing toward the ground. A scream tore from her lungs and I called out her name, clinging to the edge of the doorway.
She hit the ground, looking like a fallen angel amongst the broken Vampires around her.
I gasped, unable to drag down enough air. I couldn't breathe. I was frozen by fear, gazing at the way ahead and knowing I wasn't strong enough to go on. I stumbled backwards, my legs hitting Cass. She gazed somberly up at me and I dropped to my knees, taking her hand.
“We can do it together.”
“Can't do it, Selena.” She knocked her head back against the wall and that's when I noticed how damaged her legs were. A V had surely hung from them, tearing her skin to shreds.
I started shaking my head and tears pooled in my eyes. “You can do it. You just have to jump.” I lifted my stake in the hopes of finding V blood, but it had been washed clean in the water tank and I hadn't used it since.
Cass tapped her cuff and two minutes illuminated on the timer. “No. You have to jump.”
I started sobbing, hugging her to me, refusing to go on without her.
“Selena, you have to go.” She pushed me back, acceptance in her eyes. “I don't deserve to win this thing,” she breathed. “All those people...” She grimaced, the guilt in her expression tearing at my insides.
“You didn't mean to do it!” I cried, clutching her icy fingers and trying to pull her up.
“I lit the match,” she whispered.
“Please,” I begged. “All you have to do is jump.”
She shook her head, a tear sailing down her cheek. “You've got to make it home.” She lifted the cuff higher.
Thirty seconds.
Our cuffs started flashing red, warning us that the capsules in our heads would go off if we ran out of time.
“Selena,” she said firmly, clasping my neck, her emerald eyes blazing at me. “Make sure they pay.”
I nodded, sucking in a breath as I found something to hold onto: revenge. For her, for Kite, all of them.
I nodded and she pushed me up, squeezing my hands one last time.
I turned, a breath rattling around my lungs as I faced the helicopter.
“Go!” she commanded and I forced my legs to move, running flat out toward the edge. I screamed my defiance as my boots hit the edge and I launched myself into the air.
The wind pulled tears from my eyes as I flew toward the helicopter. My muscles flexed as I reached with desperation, the image of Kite falling running through my mind over and over and over.
The timer hit two seconds just as I collided with the metal floor of the helicopter. I skidded forward, crashing into a row of seats.
The helicopter pulled up and I turned back to Cass, her body slumped in the dark, rectangular hole in the side of the tower.
As the timer hit zero, her head dropped forward and my heart split in two.
“Cass!” I screamed, my voice breaking. I huddled on the floor, shivering in my damp dress, wishing this helicopter would fly me all the way home. So I'd never have to face the monsters that did this to me. Part of me had hoped Varick would be here to greet me like all the other times. But I was alone. Entirely alone. A flame was snuffed out inside me as I considered the possibility that Varick had been executed by the Helsings for helping me.
As the helicopter sailed over the island, a sound caught my ear: a wolf howling, the haunting note somehow comforting me in my moment of anguish.
The castle came into view on the horizon, just a hulking shadow on the cliff edge. My hands curled into fists as the helicopter circled the enormous building, flying past its four immense towers, one on each corner. At the heart of it, a flat roof awaited us and the helicopter lowered, swaying left and right as it came in to land.
With a soft jolt, we touched down. But I didn't move. I remained huddled on the floor, not wanting to face anyone. Unable to drag myself out of the dark place my mind was retreating to.
“Selena?” a deep voice called to me, but I didn't move. Incredibly, Varick was here. Alive. But even he wasn't enough to take away this pain.
“She's going into shock,” a woman said, then a needle was digging into my leg.
I barely fought it, the sting hardly registering with me. Whatever I'd been injected with provided peace. And I slipped away into numbness, where nothing but darkness awaited me.