“I’d rather be dead.”
“That can be arranged.”
He grabs my hair and jerks my head back, and I gasp at the pain. He stares down at me, his expression hard while he uses his free hand to reach for my breast. I extend my arm, blindly searching for the pen beside the legal pad resting on the table. The second I locate the pen with my fingertips, I grip it like a dagger and bring it to his neck.
“Let go of me, or I’ll stab you,” I say.
Edward flicks his gaze to the pen and smirks. “Then you’ll die.”
The crows manning the computers are already on their feet, alerted by the scuffle. The three of them have their firearms aimed in my direction. At my head.
“Do you really think you can kill me?” Edward asks.
I press the tip of the pen deeper into his skin. “Why don’t we find out?”
He glares at me, but there’s no anger in his eyes, just the same cool calculation. “Careful, bride. You don’t want to do anything stupid.”
“Then let go of me before we’re both dead.”
He studies me for a moment before releasing his hold on me and backing away, a smile firmly in place. “I can see why my son is infatuated with you.”
With a confident stride, Edward approaches the cluster of desks lining the back wall. The crows watch me for a moment as I sink into one of the chairs, my legs finally giving out, and then go back to the control panels.
The council member brushes his hand over the keys with a familiarity that sickens me. Xavier told me about his father abandoning him in underground tunnels when he was younger. Now I’m wondering if this is the first time he’s been in a dungeon.
“Recruits, welcome to the second Trial.”
Edward’s voice echoes through the room and also throughout the cells where Xavier and the rest are being held. The young men’s heads all lift at once, their gazes landing on the camera in the upper corner of the space.
“You are about to begin a test that will demand every bit of your training and knowledge amassed over the past three years,” Edward continues. “Your task is to correctly identify and neutralize a poison, using only the resources available to you within your cells. You will have two hours to do so before the poison in your bloodstream kills you. Your time starts now.”
The room plunges into silence at the announcement, but the quiet is only in my surroundings. Inside, my mind erupts into chaos, and my heart screams like a prisoner, hammering against my ribcage. The cold realization that Xavier—and every other recruit—is now in mortal danger makes breathing a struggle.
A naive part of me still hopes this is just a horrific bluff from Edward to test their psychological resilience. But the sinking feeling in my gut rails against the thought. The council member wouldn’t hesitate to administer death. He believes too fervently in the brutal doctrine of the Order—forge through fire, or perish within it.
“Looks like they’ve really fucked us this time,” Ben’s voice comes through the speakers, followed by Xavier’s.
“Yeah, just another day in paradise.”
With trepidation, I watch as Xavier begins to methodically examine the items on the table in front of him, his movements precise and deliberate. It’s clear he’s wasting no time in identifying the poison to find a solution that’ll save his life. I want to get closer to the screen and shout at him to do whatever it takes to survive, but I can’t let Edward know about my distress.
I flick my gaze to the council member and find him observing the proceedings with clinical detachment. His indifference to thelife-and-death struggle unfolding before our eyes fuels a burning hatred within me. Not only because of what he just did to me, but for what he’s doing to Xavier right now and for what he’s done to him in the past.
I wish I could’ve stabbedthisDonovan three years ago.
Edward enables the microphone once more, and I stop breathing. “Recruits, one more thing. Anything you consumed during the Solstice Ball—every drink, every sip—has reduced your survival time. Each item ingested has taken approximately three to five minutes from the two hours initially granted. Calculate wisely.Mors solum initium.”
At the revelation, I slump in the chair. Edward smirks at me, but I can’t acknowledge him, not when my head is spinning. This cruel twist is one that turned the evening’s earlier festivities into a sinister prelude to this nightmare. Xavier wouldn’t let me drink anything, and now I understand why.
Declan might’ve accused him of being a paranoid fuck, but Xavier was right not to trust the Order. The test in the ballroom was for the recruits not to let their guard down. Under any circumstances.
My worry doubles. Then triples. It’s not just Xavier and Declan in those cells.
It’s Ben too.
My foster brother has always been more reckless with his choices. The memory of his dorm room, where the discarded wrappers and aluminum cans are physical reminders of his penchant toward gratification, rises to my mind. He would have indulged more freely at the ball, unaware of the danger, reducing his already limited time in this Trial. The thought sends a new wave of panic coursing through me.
I jump to my feet and turn sharply towards Edward, my voice tight with barely restrained fury. “If they’re all dead, you won’t have a society. You’ll have a tomb.”
