He takes a step toward me. “You think you’re special? You’re not the only one who crawled out of hell.”
Something snaps behind my eyes. The walls close in. I see them, men and boys in identical uniforms flash before my eyes—blood-slick hands clutching knives, screaming, fighting for a single crust of bread. The smell of iron and smoke thick in my lungs.
Inhale. Aim. Exhale. Kill.
“Priest!” Raze’s voice cuts through the noise just as my gun’s in my hand, aimed dead center at Arsen’s chest.
He doesn’t move. “Do it.”
My finger trembles on the trigger. For a second, I can’t hear anything but the high-pitched ringing in my head. Raze lunges, shoving my arm aside. The shot explodes into the wall. The echo ricochets through my skull.
I stagger back, teeth bared, and reach for my lighter. The click is too loud, the flame too bright. I drag it against my palm, pressing until flesh sizzles. The pain cuts through the static for a heartbeat—just enough.
“Jesus Christ.” Raze tears the lighter from me, hurling it across the room.
The scent of burnt skin mixes with smoke. I stare at the charred line down my hand.
Still nothing.
Except her.
Her voice. Her scream. The look on her face when I killed him.
You killed my father. You killed everything.
I dig my thumb into the wound on my side. Her proof she can hurt me. She shouldn’t be able to. But she does. She fucking does.
And I hate her for it.
And Ineedher for it.
“You’re half a fucking heartbeat from losing your mind, and we need you here. Focused.”
I blink once. Twice. The room wavers, bending around him.
He jams a pack of gum into my chest. “I will shove this entire fucking pack down your goddamn throat if you don’t pull yourself together.”
I don’t move.
“Now, Priest.”
The words hit something reflexive. I tear open the pack, shove two pieces into my mouth, and bite until the metallic tangof blood mixes with mint. The chewing drowns the static, the noise, for just a second.
Arsen exhales, pacing again. “Axe is trying to reach the West and East. If we can’t get the other High Chancellors on board before Sterling turns the Council, it’s over. He will be one step closer to dismantling the South.”
The gum splits between my teeth. I light another cigarette and bandage my hand. “You do what you want. But I’m not saving the South. I’m burning what’s left.”
Silence.
Smoke coils through the air. The gum grinds between my teeth. And under it all, I realize something I shouldn’t: I don’t feel the pain anymore. Just the ache of her. And the goddamn noise that won’t stop until I shut it off. And there’s only one way I know how.
I land another solid kick to the door, my bare heel thudding against the metal, before I collapse on the mattress. Arsen—fucking bastard—locked me in this windowless bedroom. Said it was “for my own good.”
I’d rather bleed out in the dirt than rot one more second under Sovereign control. All they have done is ruin everything and everyone I’ve ever loved.
My ribs are wrapped. My head’s bandaged. Fresh stitches line my palm from where the blade slipped after I drove it intoPriest. I should be resting. But all I want to do is scream. Shatter something. I want to kill him. All of them.
The doorknob creaks.
