But then he’s there. Looming. His hand lashes out, shoving her off me, nothing but an obstacle. I feel her swing through the air, but I don’t get to look at her because a gun click is already pressed against me.
A crack splits the room.
Agony explodes in my stomach, knocking the air from my lungs, fire spreading through my veins. I choke, my body jerking back against the cold cement wall, the metal rattling against me.
“Adrian!” she yells.
The sound tears through me worse than the bullets.
My vision blurs. I want to reach for her, but my arms won’t move. I want to tell her I’m sorry, that I should’ve been stronger, that I should’ve protected her from this monster. But all I can taste is blood.
The last thing I see is her shadow, her hands clawing for me, fighting to get to me even as Nikolai holds her back.
The last thing I hear is her screaming for me.
And then everything goes dark.
Chapter 47
Aurelia
“No!”
My scream shreds my throat raw as Adrian’s body slumps against the wall, chains rattling with the dead weight of him. Blood—his blood—splashes across the floor, spreading way too fast.
I drop to my knees, crawling toward him, but Nikolai is still there. Towering over us. The gun still smoking in his hand. His eyes are dark, and of course, he has no remorse for wrenching the one bright spot from this inferno away from me.
I shove past his legs and reach Adrian. My hands press against the hole in his stomach, slick and useless, blood seeping through my fingers no matter how hard I push. His eyes flutter, already fading, and I can feel it—his life slipping through my hands.
“Adrian! No, please, stay with me! You can’t—” The words choke out of me as if they’ll keep him tethered here.
“Are you kidding me, Aurelia?” Nikolai’s voice is like nails seeping into my body. I want nothing but to put a bullet through him. “I told you to stop fucking around.”
Adrian’s chin tips, his lips parting like he wants to say something, but nothing comes. Just a wheeze, then silence.
Tears blur everything, but I can still feel Nikolai watching me. That monster. Standing there like he hasn’t just shot a man.
I look up at him, vision red. “I hate you.” Venom drips from every syllable. “You need to get help, call for Ivan, now.”
I realize I’m giving him orders as if he’d actually respond, but I have to try.
“Submit to me.”
I look up at him. “What?”
“Submit to me, do what I ask of you, and I will call for Ivan. If not, I will gladly shoot Adrian in the head.”
“I will never stop hating you. You hear me? You can torture me, chain me, mess with my head all you want—but I will never care about you.”
His jaw ticks, but he doesn’t say a word.
I spit at his shoes. “Call Ivan, I’ll do what you want.”
* * *
My body moves, but it’s not mine.
My hands are still sticky with Adrian’s blood, my nails caked red, and my chest feels split open—something vital has been scooped out of me.
