"There's no freedom for you," I say quietly. "Not from me. Not anymore. The sooner you accept that, the better this will be for both of us."
"Then kill me." Her voice breaks. "Because I'll keep running. I'll run every chance I get. I'll never stop trying to escape you."
"Yes, you will."
I pull out the satellite phone and call Callum.
He answers immediately. "Sir?"
"I have her," I say. "Four point two miles northwest. Old hunting cottage at coordinates—" I read them off my GPS. "Send the extraction team. And tell them to bring medical supplies. She's hypothermic."
"On our way, sir. ETA twenty-two minutes."
I hang up.
Eden has stopped fighting.
Just shivering in my arms now, the fight draining out of her along with her body heat and her hope.
"Why?" she asks quietly, her voice so small I almost don't hear it. "Why did you lie to me?"
"I didn't lie."
"You said—you said it was about my choice. My pleasure. My healing. But it was always about that showcase, wasn't it? About training me to perform like a good little acquisition."
I could lie now.
Could tell her she's wrong, that she misunderstood, that the invitation doesn't mean what she thinks it means.
But what's the point?
She knows the truth now.
"Both things can be true," I say instead.
"No, they can't."
"They can. And they are. Everything I showed you—that was real, Eden. Your pleasure was real. Your choice was real. The fact that it also serves my purposes doesn't make those things less real."
"That's twisted."
"Maybe. But it's true."
She laughs. It's a broken, horrible sound. "Ialmostbelieved you. Almost thought you were different. Almost thought you actually cared about me instead of just seeing me as property to train."
"I do care about you."
"No, you don't. You're just like Elder Jacob. Just like my father. Just like every man who's ever tried to own me. You're just better at pretending. Better at making the cage feel like freedom."
The words hit harder than her fists did.
Harder than anything she could have said.
Because maybe she's right.
Maybe I am just like them.
Maybe the patience and the careful manipulation and the illusion of choice don't make me better than Elder Jacob or her father.
