“Why?” Ender asked sharply.
“Because I’m getting Seri back.”
“And if one of them betrayed you?”
“Someone there likely did…and I’m going to make them regret it.”
“Severo…” Ender trailed off.
“Contact my parents…tell them what I haven’t.”
He heard the Gorgon shudder over the phone, before the man barked angrily, “You bastard. You can’t just brush that off on?—”
He hung up, too tired to care. He didn’t want his parents involved…but if something happened to him…they would make sure Seri and Skya would be taken care of. He knew they would.
Taking a shaky breath, exhaustion weighing down on him, he called Cyrus.
The man answered quickly. “We didn’t have a call scheduled today.”
“We were compromised. Seri was taken. I escaped with Skya. Tell me you had nothing to do with it.”
Tears of anger formed in his eyes when, instead of an instant denial, Cyrus remained silent.
“WHO DID YOU TELL?” he roared.
Startling Skya, she began to cry again. He crouched with her, setting her car seat down, and gently ran his hand over her cyan curls, trying to soothe her.
“I saw a path. One that would lead to events happening sooner rather than later. The outcome was better than if we'd waited. But it also gave someone one last chance to turn back… The results would have been better if they had chosen good…but no worse than if they hadn’t.”
“You!” he ground out between clenched teeth, but couldn’t say more for a moment as the weight of it hit his chest. Severo had told Seri he could trust Cyrus…
Yet…hadn’t he known how Grimms worked?! How they saw things differently… Saw outcomes and threads… Had he really forgotten that they never considered the harm it caused to those involved? How cold they could be while they viewed the world in black and white, as if things being determined meant there was no reason to feel anything about it all. Seri…he’d…trusted him. Tears slipping free, he took a shuddering breath.
“I’m coming back,” he growled. “And I’m going to kick you’re a—butt, you hear me! And then I’m going to pull every last secret out of the trash you told, and anyone else you are holding right now, so I can rescue Seri before that monster hurts him further. And if ANYONE tries to take Skya from me, I’m going to shoot them.” He hung up without letting Cyrus say another word.
Seri gasped, eyes snapping open. And he wished more than anything he could close them again, and that all he saw would disappear. But closed or open, the scene before him wouldn’t change. He was back…
He eyed the room, gripping the covers as tears formed in his eyes. The gray walls, the ugly black overly sharp angled furniture…
He was back in Preston’s bedroom on the sixth floor. At movement in his peripheral, his gaze flicked right. Seri’s eyes widened on seeing a maid disposing of his old clothes in a bag. It made him aware that he was in one of the hideous frilly nightmares Preston loved to put him in. He could feel the frills against his skin. At the flash of silver in her hand, he lunged towards her without thought, grabbing the necklace from her hold. She held onto the strap, wide eyes meeting his.
“Please,” Seri begged, even as the pain from his action spread through his chest. “Please…” His heart raced in fear. He couldn’t lose it. He couldn’t…
She hesitated, expression remorseful. Even though he had never seen her before, she seemed to be fully aware that he didn’t want to be here. Slowly, gaze glancing back and forth from him to the door, she let go.
Hand shaking, Seri gripped the necklace tightly, just watching her walk away with his old clothes. When she had left the room, he slipped the necklace between the mattress and the box spring, making sure he could still reach it without too much effort, before ‘relaxing’ back in bed. His head felt…floaty, he was hungry, and his mouth was overly dry with a bad taste. He was overly dry. Seri eyed the thick bracelet on his wrist, looking much too close to a shackle. Then again, that was what it was…and no doubt much harder to get off than his previous one had been.
There was a dull throbbing in his right leg, and the pain in his chest became just as dull as he continued to lay there unmoving. He could tell without looking there was a cast going up to his thigh. The bad taste was likely due to whatever they used to knock him out. He vaguely remembered laughing at the bastards who held him and then…a sharp pain. Apparently, they’d kept him drugged until making it back here.
His stomach churned, even though it was empty. Seri really was back… Free for months, and now….
No…No… It wasn’t time to panic. He would escape. More than likely…Severo would come for him. But even then…he would find a way. Seri had the compound still.
All he needed to do was wait until he was strong enough to move… A week? Week and a half? The cast would likely be removed, wouldn’t it? He’d be in pain, but if he could move, he could escape.
Severo would come, but he wouldn’t sit around waiting. It wasn’t in him to sit around and wait to be rescued. As long as Skya was safe with Severo, Seri could act in whatever way he needed to get free. Preston couldn’t use her against him.
As if the mere thought of him summoned the bastard, the man himself walked in. Face arrogant as always, but despite the smile, Seri could tell Preston was angry. He had been around him long enough to detect his moods. It was more of a survival instinct than anything. Too bad for him, Seri didn’t give a flying fuck if the man was angry, or really about his moods in general. So, he just silently glared at the man while he approached.
