King for a Day (The King Trilogy #2)(52)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

I stood and looked at his notes. He’d laid out, in detail, every attempt made to use the Artifact. He’d done everything I might have attempted, including praying, holding it, and laying it on the person or a photo of them.

So how did it work? Or was the Artifact nothing more than a rock?

I didn’t know, but I had to help him end this gruesome experiment. Besides, King had been dead for a long time, although I didn’t know exactly how long, but it was a while. So if that damned stone actually worked, I had to believe that one didn’t need a rotting corpse to make it function.

Lord, I hope.

Suddenly, there was knock at the door. Justin’s eyes widened with horror.

“Justin, we know you are in there.”

Vaughn? No! No! “Justin, run!” I screamed, but he couldn’t hear me.

Justin’s head swiveled as he looked around the empty apartment. “Shit.” He looked at the rock in his hands and blinked several times.

“Run! Fucking run! Run!” I wailed.

Justin took the stone and popped it into his mouth. I watched as he struggled to swallow. But the moment the door burst open and Vaughn entered with a sharp knife in hand, Justin found the will to choke it down.

“Where is it?” Vaughn asked.

Justin’s body shook. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Vaughn looked down at the dead body on the floor. Rage filled his hazy brown eyes. “You little f**ker. I was going to kill you for lying to me about the Artifact. Then your bitch of a sister robbed me of my fun, so I thought to skin you alive. But now,” he roared, “now I find you here! With her! Dead! I’m not gonna kill you; I’m gonna torture the living hell out of you!”

Justin held up his hands. “I didn’t kill her. Some tracker woman you hired shot her in Edinburgh.”

Oh no. It was Jamie who’d been shot in that warehouse in Edinburgh. King and I showed up moments after, looking for Justin, who’d been spotted earlier. We found the tracker’s body, but I knew someone else had died there, too. There was a pool of red light spread over the floor. But someone had taken that second body, and I couldn’t figure out why.

Now I knew. Justin had, in fact, been there. Justin had taken her.

“Do you think I give a f**k?” Vaughn screamed. “You think you can steal from me? You think you can lie to me, you little piece of shit. Where is that f**king rock?” he yelled.

“The Artifact is a joke. I traded it away.”

Vaughn shook his head. “Really, now? To whom?”

Justin didn’t answer.

“I’ll give you one chance, Justin. Tell the truth, and I’ll let you live. I’ll even let you keep the rotting bitch, too. But if you’re lying, I’ll burn you both.”

“Don’t believe him, Justin! He’ll kill you either way. Just run! Please,” I sobbed.

“All you need to know,” said Justin, “is that I traded it away for a potion that will resurrect her. I’m just waiting for it to work now,” he lied. “But you’ll never see the Artifact again. Not that the damned thing works. It’s just a f**king roc—”

Vaughn lunged at Justin, and I screamed. There was nothing I could do as the knife plunged into my brother’s stomach.

Justin screamed, but Vaughn held tight and twisted.

“No! Justin!” I yelled.

Vaughn tossed Justin to the floor and spit on his body. “May you f**king rest in peace with that f**king whore.”

I crumpled to the floor. God no…

“Mia! Mia!”

My eyes snapped open, and I found myself panting, yet unable to truly breathe.

“Mia!” Mack shook me hard.

“Mack?” I sat up and threw myself forward. “Vaughn killed my brother. He killed him,” I sobbed.

Mack stroked the back of my head. “Shhh…It’s okay.”

But it wasn’t. Oh my God. It wasn’t. My brother was dead.

“No,” I hiccupped. “He killed him.”

“It was a dream,” Mack said.

I shook my head and looked into his wide blue eyes. “It was real. But I couldn’t do anything because I was a ghost. That’s what happened when I died.”

Mack grabbed my face and stared into my eyes. He didn’t speak. There was nothing to say.

Justin is dead. Dead. Vaughn killed him…

“Mia? Can you hear me?” Mack gently slapped my cheek.

I blinked and looked at the people standing around the room. Spiros.

I wiped my eyes with my arm and stood, staring each and every one of them in the eyes. Hate and sorrow filled every ounce of my soul.

“Mia? Are you all right?” Mack said quietly.

I looked at the people around me. “No. I’m not f**king all right. And you f**king Spiros have twenty-four hours to find my brother’s body, or I will curse each and every one of you. Do. You. Understand? Do you hear me?”

Mack grabbed my arm and shook me hard. “Mia, Stop! You’re in shock. Don’t—”

“No!” I snapped my arm away. “I mean every goddamned word, and now there is nothing they, or anyone, can do to me.” I held up my hand to show them the ring on my finger. “And that includes killing me. So you better find my brother or start running. Because I’m done. Do hear me? I’m done playing nice with you f**king people.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

After my verbal rampage ended, the physical one commenced. I’d never been so enraged and devastated in my life. And I seriously doubted I ever would be.

The question I’d had earlier about being able to hurt another person simply to save my brother? Well, that had been answered. I was willing to hurt anyone just to feel better. Because Justin was gone, and that wasn’t right.

How he’d ended up being Jamie Henshaw’s lover or possibly the father of her baby, I didn’t give a f**k. They were all dead, and the person who’d taken Justin’s life wasn’t worth the dirt stuck to the bottom of Justin’s shoes.

I started in King’s room, breaking anything I could get my hands on. I threw chairs into mirrors, I slammed vases into walls, I broke anything within arm’s reach.

When I was done trashing that room, I yanked open the doors to the hallway, ready to destroy his precious f**king palace and burn it to the ground.

“Mia!” Mack yelled, trying to get me to stop, ducking and hiding behind doorways. I’m sure he hoped I’d get it all out and return to the nice girl I once was, but that was impossible. She was gone. Dead. Reborn. Angry.