Everything in me howls to protect her. To burn these men to ash. To tear them apart with claw and fang.
The suppression holds.
“No.” Her voice cracks. “No, you don’t get to do this. You don’t—”
She wrenches free from Andrei’s grip and steps forward. Into the open. Into the line of fire.
“Take me instead,” she screams. “I’m the one from the Collective. I’m the one you need.”
Every cell in my body ignites with fury.
“Mara, get back—”
“Take me!” She shouts it at the operatives. Hands raised. Offering herself. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? I’m the one you’ve been hunting. He’s just… he was just protecting me. So take me and let him go.”
“Mara, no—” I fight against the hands holding me. Against the cuffs. Against my own useless, suppressed power.
Three rifles swing toward her.
The lead operative speaks into his radio. “Confirming—do we need both assets?”
Static. Then a voice: “Negative. Dragon only. The woman is not a priority target anymore. The boss doesn’t need her now.”
“You hear that?” The operative looks at Mara with cold assessment. “You’re not worth the trouble. But you keep interfering, and I’ll make you worth a bullet.”
“Then shoot me.” She takes another step forward. Toward them. Toward me. “Because I’m not letting you take him without a fight.”
She’s insane. Brave and reckless and completely insane.
And they will kill her.
“Mara.” I force command into my voice. The authority I don’t remember learning. “Stand. Down. Now.”
She looks at me. Our eyes lock across the clearing—hers wild with tears and desperation, mine burning with everything I can’t say.
I watch understanding break over her face. Watch her realize what I’m doing. That I’m choosing this. Choosing capture over her death.
The distance between us might as well be an ocean. Ten yards. Impossible to cross.
Her lips tremble. She shakes her head once. No. A denial of what’s happening. What we both know comes next.
“I can’t,” she whispers. “I can’t just watch them—”
“You can.” I hold her gaze. Will her to understand. “You can because I amaskingyou to. Because if you die here—” My voice breaks. “If you die here, I will have nothing left to come back for. Do you understand? You are what I come backfor.”
The words hang between us. Naked. Undeniable.
Her face crumples. She shakes her head, but her feet stop moving.
“Please,” I say, and I’ve never meant anything more. “Please, Mara. Live.”
A sob tears from her throat. She staggers back a step.
Andrei catches her. Holds her as her knees threaten to give out.
“Good girl,” I breathe. Relief and agony twisted together. A shimmer of flame ripples up my arms.
An operative strikes me across the temple with his rifle butt.
