“Everyone’s naked in front of it.”
Harder.
He bucks once against the leather. The chair groans. He can’t scrabble free from the pressure.
“I’ve felt it. Ibecameit,” I say. “Can you feel its icy kiss upon you?”
His chest stutters. The strap translates his panic into a small, ugly sound. I hold the pressure a heartbeat longer, then another. When I loosen it, air returns raw and punishing.
His lungs tear for it.
I don’t want to kill him. Not yet. But it would be so easy to just let his soul wither and leave his body. I could just… squeeze his throat a beat longer, to crush an artery, to stop his heart. I could ruin him here, now.
What’s stopping me?
I don’t notice my hands shaking until Talon’s fingers lace with mine and anchor them. He’s grinning, mischief on the outside, but there’s reverence glistening in his eyes.
“You’re magnificent,” he murmurs. It’s an obscene worship that makes my pulse thrum against his knuckles. Then, softer still, meant only for me: “Remember to release all that pain. Don’t drown in it.”
The emptiness in my chest shudders.
Then fills in all at once, to the fullest.
He’s right.
I’m not doing this toeasemy pain.
I’m doing it tocut it out.
Nathaniel closes the leather binder with a precise click and steps in front of Mark.
“Say her name. And what you did.”
Mark’s gaze flinches everywhere but toward me. The generator, concrete floor, the straps locking him down.
“I—don’t—”
The light above the door stutters. I tighten my grip on him again. I would be fine with doing this the easy way, but I demand him to acknowledge me.
I hurt because of him.
My heart still aches because of him.
I became nothing because of him.
“Use your words,” I say.
His eyes finally meet mine, and I watch the precise second he understands there are no exits that don’t go through me.
“Skye,” he rasps. “I… left you. With him.”
Talon’s jaw ticks. Nathaniel’s eyes sharpen. Cassian’s grip at my waist hardens.
“And after?” I ask. “Say it clean.”
Mark swallows like it cuts him open.
“I… killed you. So there’d be no witness.” His gaze flicks to the strap at his throat. “So it wouldn’t… spread.”
