Dante’s jaw clenches as Callum presses on.
“I’m not saying I know what it cost you to becomethisversion of yourself. I don’t. But I do know that part of you that I knew isn't gone. You can still fight to be the version of you who can stand to look in the mirror and not see a husk staring back.”
For a heartbeat, Dante doesn’t move and part of me wants to snap to make up his fucking mind already.
His gaze holds steady and unyielding, until the smallest fracture cuts through the mask. A flash of an emotion I’ve never seen in his eyes before–hope, tentative and dangerous, like he doesn’t dare let it shine too brightly in case it gets stolen from him again.
He glances back at me, his stare searing through the small space between us. “If I get you that ring,” he says, “and we getabove the magnetic field blocking the magic, are you positive you can get us somewhere safe?”
Initially I feel justified in hearing there is some type of block on magic here, but then the weight of his question slams into me, burying everything else. Our gazes lock, unblinking and searching the opposing force for validation that this is possible. So much hinges on both of our roles in this…the two people who truly know what it means to feel Terrance’s wrath.
For the first time, it feels like it isn’t just me desperately trying to claw free of this place–it’s him too. Two survivors cut open by the same man in different ways, looking at each other across the ruin he left.
It doesn’t erase what Dante’s done. It doesn’t wash away the way he stood by and let me be torn apart. But I can see it now, with the clarity of someone who knows suffering down to the marrow: he did what he had to in order to keep breathing and surviving in this place.
My answer comes without hesitation. “I can.”
A tense moment of silence follows, the hum of the lights above filling the space between each beat of our hearts. Dante doesn’t look away from me, his jaw flexing as if he’s fighting something deep inside to come to a decision.
Then, with a low growl edged in venom, he spits the words that shift everything.
“Fuck this place and fuck him. I’m in.”
The air itself seems to lurch from my body in a jagged exhale, and for the first time since I woke in this hell, the possibility of freedom feels real.
Dante doesn’t waste another breath. The flicker of hope is gone, swallowed back into the cold precision I’ve always seen in him.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he says, his tone clipped, already moving into giving these orders like he’s been rehearsingthem in his head for years. “She needs to play like the mist is still doing its job. Head down, body limp. Make it convincing.”
Before I can even think, I let my chin drop harder against Callum’s chest, let my limbs hang slack as if the sedatives have gutted me through and through.
“Good.” Dante’s eyes flash over me once, then back to the brothers. “You’re going to walk with her slowly, up the stairs to the research lab on the next floor. In the meantime, I’ll head to surveillance and smooth over the shift change. I’ll tell them I ordered fresh samples from direct blood draws.”
Elias shifts, his jaw tight. “What about her ring? Where is it?”
Dante exhales sharply through his nose, the faintest flicker of tension in the set of his shoulders. “Last I saw, it was bagged in the lab. Evidence waiting to be tested.”
A low growl rumbles out of Callum, vibrating through his chest into me. “And how the hell are we supposed to get in and search for it without sounding every alarm in this goddamn place?”
Dante doesn’t hesitate. His tone sharpens, cutting clean through Callum’s frustration.
“I know how to bribe the guy in surveillance to buy us time,” he says flatly, as if he’s already weighed every angle. “I’ll get him out and start a full reboot of the surveillance system. That takes thirty minutes to complete and every camera will be down during it.” His jaw ticks, and the weight in his voice drops colder. “And if I can’t bribe him, then I’ll do what needs to be done.”
The words land heavily, and for a moment I’m shocked by this version of him. Not at the threat itself, but at how easily it leaves his mouth. No hesitation, no apology.
That’s the moment I know he’s all in.
Elias’s gaze hardens, but it’s Callum who snaps, “That’s great and all, but what if there is someoneinthe lab?”
Dante shakes his head once, quick, decisive. “There won’t be. They aren’t working nights anymore now that they’ve got what they wanted from her blood. The formula’s done. They’re focused on mass production during the day.”
The silence that follows claws at my skin and makes my body shiver. My blood. The formula.
Callum’s hand on my leg brushes the skin gently, as if he’s trying to comfort me. My ire snaps my eyes to his face, but he pays me no mind.
Elias and him trade a single glance before nodding, silent agreement passing between them.
Dante’s eyes narrow, sharp and certain. “Good. Once the cameras are quiet, I’ll meet you back at the lab. Wait there for me once you have the ring.”
