His smile widened. “So, we were right. You are more than a debt to be paid.” He gave a nod and a hand, almost as big as my head, wrapped itself deep into my hair, squeezing tight. “That helps. I would have been so embarrassed had you truly been just a good fuck. That’s happened before, you see, us torturing people who ended up being nothing but the whore of our intended target. Mistakes happen though, what can you do?”
The panic that slammed through me was nearly overwhelming. My body instinctively fought against the hand before I forced it to stop, my breathing labored. I could do this. I could control it.
“You have to figure out a way to talk to us,” I heard Malachi say. “Tell us what’s happening.”
“Tell us what we want to know,” Isaak instructed over the top of him. “Because we know a lot of ways to hurt you without killing you, and we will keep doing that for as long as it takes to get the information we want.”
I watched him, my head pounding, my mind racing. I could do that, I was a writer, a master manipulator Steven had called meonce. I could figure this out.
I thought about it for a few seconds before icing over my expression. “What exactly is your goal here?” I asked tightly. “I have nothing to offer you, they didn’t tell me anything, so drowning me isn’t going to be of any use.” I couldn’t even give away that I knew the Delepski’s used to work for them. I couldn’t give away anything. Not his name, not anything at all. Every word I spoke had to be carefully thought out, carefully put. Everything I said and did had to be meticulous. All of it.
Isaak stood before me, looking down on me as if I were worth nothing more than dog shit. Which, I suppose, to him that might be true. “They told you something, and if we have to dig to get it, we will scrape the shovel along the inner edges of your skull until we get what we want.”
The hand in my hair tightened, pulling some strands out, and I prayed toGodsome of those strands clung to his clothes. I prayed that, against all odds, those strands somehow made their way back to Everett. “They told me nothing,” I told him, my heart racing. I didn’t want to drown. “You’ve been watching them for a while, I assume, so you should know of their rules. Rules put in place specifically for situations just like this, so you can’t use us against them. I have the same information you do.” Why didn’t they know anything? Did Malachi truly keep so many secrets from even his allies?
I suppose this proved why that was a good idea, but even still, I felt as if they should know something.
He lifted a brow. “Do you now? And what would that be?”
“The same information the entire world has,” I said through my teeth. “Malachi Adler and his four masked sons run this world. Malachi is bald, his sons are all adopted, nobody knows their faces or their real names, not even me.”
Lillian appeared at my right side. “You’re telling me that you two fucked countless times, and you still don’t know what helooks like?” She laughed. “Yeah right, she’s lying,” she told her father.
Isaak watched her for a moment before nodding towards the man behind me.
The hand pushed my head forward.
“You know what he looks like!” I said in a panic, my nails digging into the arms of the chair. “You know what he looks like, we all do.”
The hand stopped, Isaak’s chin lifting. “What are you talking about?”
“We’ve all seen them,” I said quickly, trying my best not to look at that bowl of water. “All of us, we just don’t know it. How would we? They always wear their masks, but we have. You would know it if you ever looked them in the eyes. Their eyes are so different than ours. Dark and chilling. Like Hell lives within their souls. They see everything all at once, and their power is unmatched.”
“They aren’t gods,” Isaak stated coldly. “Stop worshiping false idols.”
“You only think that because it’s hard for you to believe who you’re really challenging,” I told him threateningly. “They are everywhere. In every corner of every city of every country in this whole fucking world. You can’t escape their reach, and you know—youknowthat once you do this, once you’ve crossed this line, there is no going back. You and your entire goddamn family, every branch on this arrogant family tree, will be eradicated from this world, and that should terrify you. That should scare you absolutely shitless. Once this bell is rung, you will never be able to unring it.”
Isaak stepped up to the bowl, looking down on me ruthlessly. “Good,” he said and gave the nod.
I had less than a second to inhale before my head went under.
Panic filled me, my body fighting against the hand as itslammed me into the bowl, water encasing my head.
“Don’t scream,” I heard a new voice say. This one cold, and chilling, and not one I expected to hear over the earpiece. “You’re going to want to, but you can’t.” He sounded like he was on the radio, whispering and taunting, despite the words he used.
My heart was slamming against my ribs, fear racing through me in waves, my lungs screaming for air.“Help me!” I wanted to scream.“I don’t want to drown. I don’t want to die. Help me!”
“Force your heart to slow and calm your mind, focus,” Azrael went on evenly. “I know your precious Claim taught you that one. It’s time to be the rose that cuts.”
My nails cracked against the arms of the chair, tears burning my eyes. I didn’t want to die. I still had so much to do, so much to experience. I couldn’t die yet. I was just finding myself. Just discovering who I was. I finally escaped my mom, Steven. I was finally going to live.
Not just survive butlive.
I couldn’t die.
I didn’t want to die yet.
Please don’t let me die.
