“Let’s move,” he snaps, disappearing inside.
The brothers surge forward after him, and I force my legs to follow, shaky but carrying me further than I’ve managed in weeks. The effects of the sedative mist are gone from my mind, fresh air burning sharp in my lungs, but every step feels like my bones are still remembering how to bear weight.
I clear the threshold and stop dead in my tracks.
The room is wide, bright, and merciless with the lines of lights shining down. Rows of stainless-steel counters gleam with organized instruments, screens pulsing with graphs and data I can’t decipher. Beyond them, in the heart of it all, an enormous vat sits, glass sides showing its content.
The liquid inside is darker than human blood, thick and familiar. My blood.
The label stamped across the tank burns into me in bold block letters:CONTROL SAMPLE.
My breath falters, the floor tilting beneath me as the sheer volume of my blood registers. Gallons upon gallons of crimson gleam under the sterile lights, far more than I could ever give without being bled dry again and again. Every drop proof of the endless times they’ve carved into me and drained me.
It isn’t just blood in that vat staring back at me, it’s weeks of my screams, my agony, and proof of my body being broken down into a commodity.
CHAPTER 17
BRIAR
Elias and Dante rifle through trays and drawers with frantic precision, searching for the ring. Metal scrapes, plastic bins clatter, their voices hushed but sharp as they tear through the sterile order of the lab.
I don’t move. I can’t.
My feet feel bolted to the floor as my gaze stays locked on the vat.
Movement flickers at the edge of my vision.
Callum doesn’t search like the others. He strides straight for the tank, his jaw clenched and at a brisk pace I don’t understand.
He grabs the first heavy object within reach–a steel instrument tray–and moves just off to the side before slamming it into the frontside of the vat with a roar. The sound rattles through the lab, sharp and violent. He swings again, and again, like a man possessed, each of his screams vibrating through the room back to me.
A hairline crack splinters through the glass and my stomach drops.
“Stop, you don’t know if there’s any alarms attached to that!” Elias’s voice cuts sharply from across the lab, but Callum doesn’t listen. He hammers harder and more frantically, like fury itselfguides his hands. The crack deepens, webbing wider, until with one final swing the entire panel shatters.
A tidal rush of red explodes from it, splashing up over his boots as he jumps away.
My blood spills across the white tiles, wasted and destroyed.
Callum staggers back, chest heaving as he stares at the ruin he’s made, his silence daring anyone in the room to tell him he was wrong.
The sound of the shattering glass still rings in my ears as the rush of blood spreads in a wave across the floor.
For a moment, I can’t even breathe as I repeat the scene over and over in my head. My knees nearly buckle as the truth slams into me: it’s all ruined and Terrance will have nothing left of me to use.
A jagged inhale of breath fills my lungs then, the weight of what that means to me almost too much to process. I’ve been so focused on my survival that I didn’t realize how badly I needed to steal this piece of myself back from their hands.
For the first time, I believe what Callum said earlier about his soul rotting every day he spends here. This is proof, painted in my blood.
His gaze lifts, locking with mine across the carnage. My throat tightens as my lip wobbles with an emotion I don’t want to name and most certainly don’t want to feel toward him, but I can’t smother it.
I swallow hard, the feeling thick in my chest as I give him the smallest nod of gratitude.
“Got it!” Dante’s shout cuts through the tension, and all three of us whip toward the sound. He’s at the far side of the lab, his hand lifted high, the glint of the ruby catching the light.
My ring.
Relief surges so hard through me my knees nearly buckle, but Callum is at my side and steadying me without a word. Dantestrides forward and presses the band into my outstretched palm without hesitation.
