Spellbound - Cara Lynn Shultz [112]
His shirt was a thick black thermal, so I put all my force into it, plunging the sharpest end of the stick between his shoulder blades. It pierced the fabric, ripping into his skin and twisting itself into his flesh as the rest of the stick broke off in my hand.
Anthony fell forward onto his knees with a bellow, his hand flailing behind him as he tried to remove my crude weapon.
Finally, in the distance, we heard the sirens. Brendan’s green eyes found me, and for a minute we thought it was over.
Then Anthony’s head snapped up at the sound of the sirens—and a manic look took over his face. He lunged forward, shoving Brendan back and using his massive arms, hoisted himself over the stone wall, around the fence and onto the rocks.
“Emma, just get out of here,” Brendan ordered. “I’ll take care of him. He’s not getting away.” Brendan ran after Anthony, pulling himself up over the wall and around the fence.
“No, Brendan, please!” I screamed, trying to follow them and not quite able to get my footing.
They were just a few feet away but they may have as well been wrestling on the other side of the world. I gripped the bars, trying to scale the fence and watching in agony as Brendan and Anthony had a bare-knuckled brawl on the rocks, more than a hundred feet above the Turtle Pond.
Brendan was fast—but Anthony was desperate. He didn’t have the precise aim Brendan boasted, but he had an almost feral strength, blindly landing punches with his grapefruit-size fists.
I jumped up again, and this time, I was able to get a grip on the stone wall. I hauled myself over it, and landed on my ankle with a thud.
I gasped at the pain, and Brendan jerked his head my way. Anthony took advantage of the distraction, launching an uppercut that connected right underneath Brendan’s chin. He stumbled backward, losing his footing and falling backward mere feet from the edge of the rocks. Anthony towered before him, his fists curled at his side, panting. His silhouette looked more otherworldly, more demonic than I could have ever imagined—this hulking, dark figure that had come straight from Hell for me.
One kick and Anthony could send Brendan over the edge, more than a hundred feet down.
I dashed behind Anthony, farther out on the rocks.
“Emma, no! What are you doing?” Brendan yelled, scrambling to his feet.
“Over here,” I screamed. “Hey, jackass! Over here.”
Anthony whipped around, his massive chest heaving as he faced me, wiping the blood from his nose.
“Ant, I’m the one you want to fight. Not her. What, can’t you fight a man? You have to fight a girl?” Brendan taunted, approaching Anthony.
But the monster just moved closer to me, twisting his body to keep us both in his line of sight. Anthony began walking back and forth in between us. Panicked, I looked around me—I was at the end of the rocks—the very end. All he had to do was race toward me and push me.
Anthony coiled, then relaxed his body. Beyond him, I saw Brendan’s face twist with a thousand different emotions. Panic. Fear. Fury. Rage. Vengeance.
Anthony’s toying with you. He’s got you trapped. It’s like he’s playing with his food.
The lights, the dreams, the belief that I could be the one to break the curse, it was all a lie. All just a game. A game I was going to lose. I wasn’t going to survive this. I had all the warning signs—and yet I’d just run into danger’s welcoming arms and given it a kiss.
Anthony’s blood-soaked blond hair whipped around in the wind as he turned toward me, his eyes gleaming as he picked his target.
He began running straight for me. I tried to get out of the way, but my feet wouldn’t move as quickly as I wanted them to. I felt like I was in a dream, where you’re trapped in slow motion.
And then I was shoved aside, my ankle collapsing as Brendan pushed me onto the frigid rocks. The tumbling mass of limbs rolled past me, disappearing into the blackness of the drop below.