The bottom line was I trusted Reeve more than I trusted myself right now.
13
ELENA
Reeve pressed a quick kiss to my mouth, and I barely had time to catch my breath before he murmured, “Go with Wizard. He’ll be able to put your skills to the best use. I’ll check on you soon.”
Wizard jerked his head toward the door. “Come on.”
I followed him down a long hallway I hadn’t noticed last night. He stopped in front of a door and leaned forward to unlock it using a retinal scanner.
A soft beep sounded, and the lock released. The door swung open, and my jaw dropped.
The entire far wall was covered in screens. A half-circle desk dominated the room, multiple computers humming on top of it. There was also a tiny kitchenette, a couch, and a smaller desk. Scattered across many of the flat surfaces were gadgets that looked complicated and expensive.
I stepped inside slowly, overwhelmed. It was very different from the art studio and tattoo shop I was used to. I felt like I was walking into a completely different world.
Wizard nudged a rolling chair toward me. “Sit. You do what you do, and I’ll match your reconstructions to the syndicate database I’ve been building.”
I swallowed, forcing down the anxiety and pulling my sketchbook and tablet from my bag. This was my chance to fix my mess. Even if my hands shook a little, I couldn’t afford to back down.
I opened to a clean page and began sorting the fragments Wizard handed me. As the first lines formed beneath my pencil, the familiar rush of structure settled into place and calmed the frantic beat of my heart.
Overwhelmed or not, I knew how to do this. And I wasn’t about to let Jareth use my mind against me ever again. Instead, I’d turn it against him with the help of the Hounds of Hellfire MC.
Wizard handed me the first set of partial photos and blurred screenshots that meant nothing to most people. But the moment I looked at them, the familiar pressure pricked at the back of my eyes.
I started with a half-formed symbol carved into steel. My pencil moved before I fully understood what I was filling in, the structure revealing itself beneath my fingers.
Wizard leaned over my shoulder. “You don’t even hesitate.”
“I don’t need to,” I murmured, sketching the missing diagonal and a thinner connecting line. “It only fits one way.”
I flipped to the next page, sorting symbols into three groups without thinking. I only realized I’d done it automatically when Wizard whistled under his breath.
“Good work,” he muttered, typing furiously on one of his keyboards.
As we moved to a new set, my anger grew. Every stroke of my pencil peeled back another lie Jareth had wrapped in praise. He’d given me exercises that felt like challenges meant toimprove my technique. But all along, he’d been training me to break down and rebuild these symbols without ever letting me see what I was actually doing. It was manipulation disguised as mentorship.
My jaw tightened, and I pressed harder on the next pencil stroke.
Wizard kept pace, assigning every variation I reconstructed to a criminal organization. But I felt no pride in what we were accomplishing.
Hours passed in a blur of lines and Wizard’s muttered curses. My hand flew across the page faster with each symbol.
The only times I snapped out of it were when Reeve came to check on me. He made sure I ate and stayed hydrated. His presence steadied the chaos swirling inside me. He didn’t say much, just squeezed my shoulder before moving behind Wizard to glare at the screens like he wanted to break something.
When he returned to check if my hand was cramping, the pressure building inside me finally boiled over.
“He marked me,” I choked out. “Like I was his.”
Reeve’s hand froze over mine, and the muscle in his jaw flexed so hard I thought it might crack.
I kept going. “Jareth used me. He shaped my brain as it belonged to him.” My breath hitched as my throat tightened. “He took advantage of the one thing that made me…me.”
Reeve’s breathing turned harsh, controlled only by sheer force of will.
Wizard pretended to be deeply engrossed in his monitors, but even he seemed to shrink a little at the tension pouring off Reeve.
