Chapter 29: My First Kill

RORY

Time slowed, but not in the cinematic way they show in movies—no graceful slow motion, no poetic awareness of my own heartbeat. It was a jagged, messy stutter, where every thought was too loud and every breath scraped like glass in my throat.

Jace’s voice reached me first. Calm. Dangerous.

“Rory,” he said again, eyes locked on mine like he was holding me in place without even touching me. “Let him go.”

The man beside me—my maybe-ally, my maybe-enemy—leaned heavier on me, his breath warm and uneven against my temple. “Don’t,” he whispered. “You do, you’re dead.”

My pulse slammed against my ribs so hard I could feel it in my teeth.

Jace took one slow step forward. His hands were in plain sight, but I wasn’t stupid—he didn’t need them to hurt someone. “You’re not thinking straight. He’s using you.”

Maybe he was. But so were they.

The stairwell felt too small, the air too thick. My shoulder burned under the stranger’s weight, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t.

Then something shifted in Jace’s expression—subtle, but I caught it. A flicker of decision.

And I knew if I waited another heartbeat, whatever choice I had would be gone.

I reached for the gun.

It wasn’t some dramatic moment where it magically appeared in my hand. It had been tucked in the waistband of the stranger’s pants, hidden under the loose hospital shirt they’d given him. My fingers closed around cold metal, and for a second, my own reflection stared back at me in the dull steel.

Jace froze. “Rory—”

I didn’t wait for him to finish.

The stranger’s arm tightened around me, forcing my hand up. Not toward Jace, but toward the shadow that moved behind him.

I didn’t even think. Didn’t aim. I just pulled the trigger.

The sound was deafening in the stairwell, a single violent crack that ricocheted off the walls and buried itself somewhere deep inside me.

For a second, I thought I’d missed. Then the shadow—another man, dressed in black, a knife in his hand—staggered forward.

His eyes went wide, mouth opening like he had something important to say. He didn’t get the chance.

He crumpled to the floor.

I stood there, still holding the gun, my ears ringing and my hands trembling so hard the metal clicked against my knuckles. The body didn’t move.

Jace’s gaze dropped to it, then back to me. Something unreadable flickered across his face before he turned and kicked the knife away from the man’s limp fingers.

“You just saved my life,” he said quietly. “Congratulations.”

I wanted to throw up. My stomach churned like I’d swallowed acid, and my fingers refused to let go of the gun no matter how much I willed them to.

The stranger shifted his weight against me, a low, pained laugh escaping him. “Guess I was right about you.”

I barely heard him. All I could see was the blood pooling under the body. Dark, too dark.

“Come on,” Jace said, stepping closer. “We need to get you out of here before anyone else sees.”

I shook my head, backing up a step. “I—no, I didn’t—”

“You did,” he cut in. “And now you have to live with it.”

The words sliced through me sharper than the gunshot had.

The rest was a blur. Jace took the gun from my hand—gently, like I was some fragile thing that might shatter. He guided me back up the stairs, the stranger half-limping beside me. We didn’t speak. I don’t think I could have even if I wanted to.

By the time we reached the upper floor, Kai was there. His eyes swept over the scene, taking in the stranger, me, and whatever expression must’ve been etched into my face.

“Explain,” he said to Jace.

“She saved me,” Jace replied, no hesitation.

Kai’s eyes slid to me, unreadable. “From?”

“An intruder,” Jace said. “He’s downstairs.”

Kai didn’t move, but something passed between them—something unspoken and heavy.

Then Nikolai appeared. He didn’t say anything at first, just looked at me. Really looked. His gaze wasn’t sharp like Kai’s or mocking like Jace’s. It was steady, assessing, like he was weighing me against some invisible scale.

“Take him to a room,” he said finally, nodding toward the stranger. “We’ll deal with the body.”

I wanted to ask what “deal with” meant, but my voice still hadn’t returned.

The stranger was led away. Jace followed. Kai disappeared down the stairs.

That left me and Nikolai in the hallway, the quiet stretching too long.

He stepped closer. His hand brushed mine—not by accident, I realized—before curling around my wrist.

His voice was low when he spoke, just for me.

“Welcome to the family, Aurora.”

I didn’t notice the smear of red across my palm until he said it.

And when I did, I couldn’t breathe.