I can feel my bonds, stretched to their very limit, and I know they’re being held on the other side of the consortium if my small understanding of my bonds is true. Only, I can’t feel Marcus and Simon. I have to believe that Cassian would have protected Simon, but as for Marcus, I have no idea. I don’t have bonds with them, so I can’t read their emotions, and I’ve never used my affinity at such a range. I try, but all itdoes is bloody my nose. I can’t get my affinity to flow through me, and I can’t center myself, can’t focus on my breath. I try as hard as I can, but my thoughts are too frazzled, too fraught.
Without my pack, what hope do I have of being rescued? If the Soldiers I read are to be believed, and I have no reason to doubt them, Baphomet’s Prince has all the players in this horrific game exactly where he wants them. The army won’t attempt a raid and rescue mission for fear of hostages being killed. The resistance doesn’t have the numbers. No rescue is coming. We’re all at the whims of the Prince.
I’m trapped too far away from the other hostages to even know if the Soldiers have negotiated for the release of any of them.
I’m truly in the dark, and it terrifies me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“You’re going to help me with one of my procedures, daughter,” my father says, a dark glee in his voice that makes the bottom of my stomach drop out.
“Like hell,” I snarl.
“Oh, you think you have a choice in this? Trust me. You do not. Now, clean yourself up. You look pitiful.” He passes me his handkerchief, and I nearly gag at the scent of sandalwood and yew. Still, I scrub the blood from my latest vision casting from my face before handing him back the handkerchief. He seems amused by the dark marks of my dried blood, which only chills me further.
A Soldier comes and removes the cuff from the bedrail, keeping the other attached to my wrist.
“You have no idea how easy it is to set up a clandestine facility like the one in New Jersey. Of course, I had plenty of practice when I was locking your magic.”
The same thing he said in my peculiar vision.
I shudder but follow him when the Soldiers shove me out of the room. Like I did then, I bite my tongue, despitewanting to lash out at him. If he only knew how easily I could take him to his knees… I stare at the back of my father’s head, longing to use my affinity on him, but there would be no point. I’m guarded by two Soldiers of Saint Aldous who would strike me down if they thought I had assailed my father.
“But now you’ll see what we’ve built here. What you’ve beensocurious about. You flew all the way to New Jersey just to find out what I was up to. Honestly, I’m flattered.”
The two Soldiers guiding me come up to my side and each take one of my arms. Wherever they’re leading me, I won’t want to go willingly. If it follows my vision, I’ll be taken into an operating theatre…
“Now to show you what I’ve been doing. I’ve achieved a fifty percent success rate. You should know what my work entails, and you will, now that you’ll be helping me.”
Saints. My father intends to have me help him butcher an omega. Is that where my vision was leading me? I saw myself handing him a scalpel too.
“Watch, Juniper, as I make history.”
He pushes open the double swinging doors to the operating theater, and I fight against my guards, elbowing one in the gut before the other tightens his grip on my upper arm, strong enough to bruise.
I cry out, and my father delights in it. His crooked smile makes me sick.
“I told you not to fight, daughter, or I’ll kill your pathetic pack.”
The fight goes out of me, and I duck my head, staying where my guards position me beside a metal operating table.
I hear an omega’s shrieks, first down the hall, then coming closer, and then Ifeelher.
Pure animal panic consumes her, and her emotionsconsume me, dragging me under until I have no space for thoughts of my own.
The doors burst open, and three Soldiers of Saint Aldous wrestle a naked omega into the operating theater. I jerk my head up, though it’s pounding, to see her thrown down on the operating table. A serial number is inked on her shoulder. A hospital bracelet graces her wrist.
The Soldiers strap her down, and still she fights. She bucks against the leather bonds holding her in place until my father comes up behind me and jabs a needle into her neck. She goes still, sedated.
I flinch away from the bed, bile rising in my throat. I can’t. I can’t bear witness to something so heinous. I reach for my affinity, but it’s barely a flicker inside my body, drained from me by the omega’s fear. Saints, I’m tapped out. I won’t be able to call on my affinity to save me, to save this omega prisoner.
“I may not be hurting for test subjects, but you know we’ll find those omegas you stole from Radcliffe Industries, don’t you?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” I grit out. “Omegas aren’t property to be stolen.” Just how many test subjects does my father have access to? Are they coming from Rose Pharmaceuticals’ laboratories or coming to him through more sinister means?
“Aren’t you, though? You’re bought and sold every day.”
I say nothing. My father is trying to get a rise out of me, trying to taunt me into doing or saying something damning. I watch as he dons a surgical gown, shoving his hands through the sleeves. He doesn’t bother to tie it behind him. He dons a pair of gloves and passes me a pair, staring me down until I put them on.
