IMOGEN'S POV
The world tilted sideways when the lamp connected with my skull. Pain exploded behind my eyes, white-hot and blinding. My legs buckled and I hit the floor hard, the taste of copper flooding my mouth.
Blood. So much blood. It pooled beneath my cheek, warm and sticky against the polished wood. The room spun like a carnival ride, but I could still see Deborah standing over me with that lamp in her hands, breathing like she'd just run a marathon.
This was it then. This was how I died. Beaten to death by Elijah's pathetic wife in the bedroom where I'd planned to destroy him. There was something almost poetic about it.
I should have been terrified. Should have been clawing for life, screaming for help. But lying there with my skull cracked open, I felt something I hadn't expected.
Relief.
I knew that look in her eyes. No one in this room was leaving here alive.
