The words taste like bitter failure, but I force myself to continue. "Needless to say, these episodes were an inconvenience toArthur. The most powerful man in Reinmich couldn't have his only daughter screaming in random fits of hysteria at parties. So he dealt with Cosima the way he deals with everyone else who won't bend to his will. He forced her into submission."
"How?" Geo's question is barely more than a growl.
"With Cosima's mother, it was the threat of physical violence. Simple, brutal, effective. But Cosima... Cosima required other means." The words lodge in my throat like broken glass. "He had her mind altered. Surgically."
The room erupts.
"What the fuck?—"
"You're saying?—"
"Thatsickfucking?—"
I seize Nikolai's wrist in an iron grip, because I can tell he's about to lose control and carve into my jugular. We lock in a trembling standstill, muscles straining against each other as I raise my voice over their outrage. "It was technology the Refinement Centers had been developing," I snarl. "A way to deal with omegas who couldn't be fixed through traditional conditioning. Omegas deemed 'Irreparable.'"
"You mean a glorified lobotomy," Nikolai spits, his arm quivering in my grasp as he strains against my grip.
I don't deny it.
Can't deny it.
The truth is worse than any of them can imagine.
"You're telling me Maybrecht experimented on his own daughter?" Geo's voice drops to a dangerous snarl.
"And then some," I say under my breath.
Nikolai moves like lightning, slamming me against the wall again. "Andyoulet it fucking happen!"
"It happened before I ever came to Reinmich!" I snarl back, the impact sending fire through my wounds, fresh blood seeping through the bandages. "She was a child when it happened, barely sixteen!"
He releases me slowly, but the fury doesn't leave his eyes.
"When Maybrecht found out about us, about who she was to me, he realized he could use the implant to do more than just suppress her episodes. It became a fucking kill switch," I grit out. "No matter how far I took her, wherever we were in the world, as long as Maybrecht was alive, he could drop her to her knees with the push of a button."
"And if you kill him?" Raven challenges.
"If I kill Maybrecht, Cosima dies," I bite out bitterly. "As long as the chip is still in her. His contingencies have contingencies. He's not stupid enough to make himself the only failsafe."
Geo's the first to speak again. "So you're saying the reason you went AWOL, turned on your own country, is for her? You expect us to believe that?"
"I don't give a damn whatyoubelieve, but yes." No hesitation. No doubt. "I would burn every last inch of Surhiira to the ground, along with the rest of this accursed world, if that is what it took to keep her safe. I'd burn it to the goddamncore."
"Great," Raven mutters under his breath. "Now I'm not the hot oneorthe romantic one." Despite the jab, he still looks like he's ready to snatch the knife out of Nikolai's hand and finish me off himself.
Wouldn't blame him.
Geo grinds his fist into his palm, cracking his knuckles. "You're making it real fucking hard to justify killing you," he growls through his teeth. "Which is suspicious as fuck."
"You kill me, and there's no chance for Cosima," I warn him. "If I don't report back to Maybrecht in the next two days, he'll know something is wrong, and he doesn't take chances."
Nikolai steps back, wrenching his hand free from my grasp and spinning the knife on his finger. "So what do we do?" he demands. "I want fuckinganswers,Azzhole. There has to be a way to get that thing out of her."
"Not without killing her." The words scrape my throat raw. This is the last thing I have time for, shooting down all the desperate theories and plans I've already burned through trying to save her. "The implant is integrated with her neural pathways, and knowing Maybrecht, I'm sure there's a self-destruct feature. Any attempt to remove it could prove fatal."
"Does she know?" Raven asks quietly.
My throat closes like a vise. "No."
