He was closer to Richard than she was, and he broke into a shockingly fast run, arms pumping. Hardly breaking his stride, he jammed the knife hard into Richard’s throat in one smooth practised move.

It was done with such force, Thea almost felt the punch of the blade in her own throat. She saw everything so clearly for one shocked moment. Wide eyes … arms twitching … the knife handle smooth and black and obscene …

Then Kyle wrenched it out.

He stepped over Richard like he was litter, the knife dripping in his hand and carried on running.

Straight for Thea.

Chapter 52

She had always been the last girl to be picked for school teams, but Thea ran like she’d never run before. She wasn’t hoping that she could beat the man behind her with that steely, emotionless glaze to his eyes, but she was hoping she could hide.

She was better at that.

Those double doors loomed once more, and she really didn’t want to, but she had no choice because that was the end of the corridor.

The double doors it had to be.

Dead end.

As she slammed into the room, a hand shot out and covered her mouth. A warm, living hand, gently but firmly guiding her back from the door, into a shadowed corner. The hand didn’t move but a face edged into her vision.

She blinked.

Rory.

He was holding a fire axe.

What he was still doing here, Thea no longer wanted to know. As he gestured to her to keep quiet and nodded to the door, hefting the axe, she knew what he was planning to do: hit Kyle as he came through. She knew lots of things in that moment. She knew she didn’t trust Rory. But she also knew that Kyle was going to appear any second and she hated him even more.

She grabbed the axe from Rory whose mouth dropped into an almost comical O.

There was no time to explain because Kyle opened the door and she swung the axe as hard as she could. It felt good in her hands, having something with which to fight back and she put all of her fear and hate and anger behind the swing, yelling gutturally. The blunt end of it missed its mark a bit but enough of it smashed into Kyle’s face and he stumbled.

She’d been expecting him to crumple and fall, immediately felled like the bad guys in a PG-rated film.

He did not.

He staggered, touching his face where the cheekbone had shattered, disbelief in his eyes. Then he lunged, swinging wildly because there was blood in one eye but barrelling towards her with surprising strength too. It was instinct, to close her eyes and drive the axe down once more, into something that snagged the axe blade and then nearly pulled her down with it.

She opened her eyes.

Kyle lay motionless on the floor.