Pete chuckled softly, his gaze carrying a trace of indulgence as though he were looking at a misbehaving pet he couldn’t bear to punish.
Felicia’s face turned icy <b>as </b>she hurled thest knife in her hand straight at him.
The angle and force were aimed precisely at Pete’s heart. She wasn’t bluffing and truly meant to kill him.
This time, Pete didn’t move, but one of his subordinates did. With a metallic <b>ng</b>, the knife was deflected and fell harmlessly to the ground.
Felicia telt a pang of regret. If only she had brought arger de…
Pete’s eyes darkened as he spoke, his toneced with a cryptic nostalgia, “When I first <b>saw </b>you, you were just a skinny little thing. <b>covered </b>in bruises from beatings. But even then, you were as guarded as you are now. You had thrown a rock at me with everything you had. My dear cousin, you really haven’t clunged a bit. ”
She was speechless.
She racked her brain but couldn’t recall anything like that. Before the age of seven, she <b>had </b>lived in Alverton with Howard, Tabitha, and Shawn. She had been beaten so many times, and she always fought back.
Apart from that, she had also been asionally bullied by other children, who would insult or hit her. During those times, she would <b>pick </b>up rocks and retaliate with all her strength.
If she had indeed met Pete back then, it must have been because he made her feel threatened, prompting her to attack
Felicia decided not to dwell on it. Lingering on the past would only let Pete drag her into his verbal <b>trap </b>and she’d be him
‘d be string along by
Instead, she chose to bypass him entirely.
Cautiously, she circled around Pete and his men, keeping a wary <b>eye </b>on them <b>as </b>she made her way toward the crevice from another angle. Finally, she reached its edge.
Peering down<b>, </b>she saw faint movements at the bottom of the crevice.
She called out, “Stephan<b>!</b><b>” </b>
A sh of light from below momentarily blinded her. Before she could confirm if the figure was Stephan, a thunderous explosion echoed from the cliff above the canyon.
The st sent rocks of all sizes tumbling down.
Luckily, the explosion urred about 30 feet away from the crevice. Still, Felicia felt the impact as sand and debris rained down on her, striking her body.
Before she could steady herself<b>, </b>a second explosion rocked the area, sending vibrations through the ground. She staggered, struggling to maintain her bnce.
What baffled her was that, despite the dire situation, the people down in the crevice still showed no intention ofing back up. Was whatever they were after really that important?
Clenching her teeth, she decided to descend Gripping the jagged edges of the crevice, she carefully slid down its uneven walls andnded at the bottom.
Just <b>as </b>she turned her head to call out, she froze. Something was terribly wrong.
The area at the bottom of the crevice was devoid of Stephan or his people. Instead, the ground was littered with corpses!
And at the center of it all was Ka, her legs shattered and twisted.
When Ka was pushed into the crevice by Pete, she screamed as she plummeted. Despite trying to shield her vitals uponnding, the pain that tore through her legs had been excruciating. In that instant, Ka had heard the sickening crack of her own bones breaking The agony <b>was </b>so overwhelming that she passed out. By the time she regained consciousness, she couldn’t feel her legs anymore.