My body responds before my mind does. Spine straight. Eyes forward. Hands flat to the concrete.
Don’t speak. Don’t twitch. Don’t breathe unless told.
“ONE-EIGHT-SEVEN!”
Louder. Closer. I brace for it—the whip across my back, the boot to the ribs, the steel table pressing into my spine.
My fingers twitch against the floor. The cuff rattles.
“Priest. PRIEST.”
I snap out of it just enough to suck in a breath. Not hell. Not Valcross.
“I’ve been talking to you for five fucking minutes.”
I blink again and finally register the other cell across from me. Raze’s silhouette half-lit in the dim hallway light that bleeds through the bars of the Depths.
He’s chained up too. Bleeding from the temple. Shirtless. Eyes locked on mine. My leg twitches. My back arches. Every inch of me is vibrating to move, to kill, to escape.
My tongue scrapes over my teeth. I need?—
“I need some fucking gum.”
Raze lets out an exasperated breath. “You think I’m hiding a fucking pack in my ass?”
I don’t answer. I don’t look at him. I don’t look at anything.
Especially not the cracks in the wall to my right.
Because if I start counting, it’s over.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5…
No.
I shove my head back against the wall with a dull thud. Pain flashes behind my eyes.Motherfucker. Stay present. Stay here.
“You swear you didn’t help her?”
I roll my jaw. Metal grinds in the cuff when I yank on it. Just once. Just enough to stop myself from lunging at the bars like a fucking animal.
“Say that shit again. See what happens.”
“I have to ask,” he snaps back. “Because if you did, I need to know.”
“I didn’t fucking help her.”
“Well who the fuck did?”
I laugh, a dry, hollow sound that dies in my chest. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”
The sound of boots fills the corridor as Sterling’s fucking dogs march toward my cell. I see them before the lock turns. I’m already grinning.
“Hope you assholes have strong fucking holds.” I lift my head to meet their eyes. “Because the second these cuffs come off, I’m ripping off every one of your fucking limbs.”
They yank me up, slam me against the wall, cinch my arms tight in the restraints like it’s gonna do a damn thing. I buck hard—on purpose. Can’t break free, but the flinch in one of their eyes? That shit’s mine. The stumble in his step as he clamps my ankles, mine too.
I lean forward, smiling. “You look scared.”
