“I’d rather die trying to get out,” I rasp, heat searing down my face with every tear I can’t stop, “than let this place finish the job slowly. At least if I die running, it’s for something. Not as some useless shell rotting under his orders as others suffer.”
The air between us feels stiff as Elias stands there staring at me like he doesn’t recognize the person in front of him anymore.
He lets out a sound that’s half-growl and half-strangled breath as his hands rake through his hair, fingers tugging at the roots until his knuckles whiten. He paces away from me,back and forth before stopping as his chest heaves with shallow breaths.
For a moment he just stands there, fists knotted in his hair. Then, slowly, his hands fall. His arms hang heavily at his sides, as if he’s surrendered to gravity.
When he finally speaks, his voice is barely a whisper. “Okay.”
The soft word barely makes it across the space to me, but it lands heavily in my chest.
“If we die doing this,” Elias says, his gaze locking with mine at last, steady even through the crack in his voice, “we die together. I’m not letting you do this alone.”
CHAPTER 15
BRIAR
Somewhere beyond the haze, the world stirs around me.
The mist wraps around me like a wet cloth covering my face, heavy and sour. It seeps into every breath until I can’t tell where my body begins and ends. My eyes are so heavy and dry that each flutter of my lids feels like sand scraping against my cornea.
At first I notice nothing but sounds floating around me. Slowly they slice through the fog.
“What the hell do you mean, relieved of duty?”
I don’t recognize the voice. All I know is that I detect hints of anger in the tone, and instinctively my body wants to curl away from it. Anger in this place never ends in anything good for me.
“This isn’t optional. Move.”
Callum.
His voice threads into me, recognizable through the haze, even when my brain struggles to hold the shape of his name.
Another answers, deeper and edged in disbelief. “We weren’t told of any change happening. You think I’m stepping off this shift just because some rich brat–”
“Watch your mouth.”
Elias.
Clipped and cold. His tone carries a different kind of threat, like a verbal knife pressed flat against their skin.
“You’re already in trouble for not feeding her properly. Do you want to explain that to him? Or do you want to get out of the way and keep your tongue?”
Their words drift through me, fragments sinking too slowly for me to be able to piece together an understanding of what they’re talking about.
Does he mean not feedingmeproperly?
No, that’s impossible. They wouldn’t speak with such contempt to someone on my behalf.
My mind spins like an empty wheel, trying to hold onto the fleeting thoughts of Callum giving me blood bags earlier and the brothers fighting over something.
That missing piece feels important, but the harder I try to fixate on it, the further out of reach it drifts.
Silence stretches, thick and anticipatory as I strain to hear through the walls.
Then Callum’s voice sounds again, firmer than I’ve ever heard it. “Move.”
The scrape of boots squeaking against the tile follows.
