I squeezed harder, lifting her an inch off the floor.
“I need the truth,” I said softly. “Or I will remove your head from your shoulders. Choose.”
She clawed at my wrist—not to escape, but in a pathetic attempt at flirtation.
“You won’t kill me,” she choked out. “You never?—”
“Try me.”
Her expression shifted—finally—toward something resembling fear.
“Fine,” she rasped. I released her and she staggered back, rubbing at her neck. “Ask.”
“The bond,” I said. “What do you know?”
She rolled her eyes dramatically. “You’re still on that? So much fuss over one mortal. Humans are too fragile for stasis awakenings. The bond pulls too greedily. They wither. I don’t like wasting food.”
Behind me, Ezra whispered, “Oh my god.”
My fists curled.
“How do you break it?” I demanded.
She blinked innocently. “Break it? Darling, why would I know?—”
I moved faster this time, my fingers curling around her throat again.
She gasped. “I don’t know! I swear it! But—” She lifted a trembling finger. “Give me time. Hammond knows something. He always keeps the best secrets. I’ll coax it out of him.”
Snarling, I released her.
“Coax,” Ezra muttered. “That’s one word for it.”
Ambrosia ignored him. She circled me slowly, eyes trailing over every line of my body with a hunger that might have once flattered me.
“And what,” she whispered, reaching for me again, “doIget in return…?”
I caught her wrist mid-air. “To live.”
Her smile faltered.
“You have twenty-four hours,” I said. “If I must return here, I will kill every living creature in this house.”
Her pupils dilated, and the scent of her fear sharpened.
“Cristian,” she breathed, half-terrified, half-aroused. “You are magnificent when you’re cruel.”
I dropped her wrist. “Twenty-four hours.”
Then I turned to Ezra. “We are done here.”
He nodded vigorously. “Yes—God, yes—we are done. Let’s go before she starts monologuing.”
We left through the ruined door, into the cold night air.
For a moment, I pretended the bond inside my chest was merely loud with fury, not pulsing weaker, not fraying, not tugging with the unmistakable echo of Nadia’s dwindling strength.
The night air was thick with moisture. Ezra kept pace beside me, his laptop hugged to his chest like a shield. The farther we walked from the Sovereign Court’s gaudy estate, the more the bond inside my chest thrummed—frantic, uneven. Desperate for my proximity.
