With effort, I lifted my head, meeting the venom in his eyes.
He loosened my ropes slowly, then, without warning, shoved me hard to the ground.
The acrid stench of gasoline hit me instantly.
“What are you doing?!” My gaze locked on the lighter flickering in his hand, my voice trembling.
A cold laugh slipped from his lips. “Louis should just disappear, right? Let me make it quick for you, save you from haunting Eliana every day.”
The moment the lighter struck the floor, flames erupted with a deafening roar.
A scream tore from my throat, raw and desperate, piercing through the air and startling Eliana outside.
“What’s going on?!” She rushed in, her eyes widening at the sight of the blazing inferno.
Jovan acted fast. “Eliana! Louis said if he can’t have you, he’ll destroy you! He threatened to burn down the ancestral hall!”
Her furious voice cut through the crackling flames. “Put out the fire! What are you all standing there for?!”
But the flames only raged higher, the scorching heat twisting the air around us.
At that moment, the Anderson gates were torn open by several armored vehicles, the roar of engines shaking the ground beneath us.