“I don’t need a revolution. I need to send a message.” He steps into her space, but Mara doesn’t back down. They’re nose to nose, fire meeting fire, and I watch both of them inch toward a fight they don’t actually want.
I wedge myself between them. “I didn’t claw our girl out of hell just to have you two kill each other. We’re exhausted; we need sleep. And Dredyn needs to not bleed out. So maybe, just maybe, we take one night before we plan the next war...” I trail off, noticing that Jasper is now out of the kitchen. “Oh fuck.”
The three of us bolt toward the basement.
Chase is still tied to the chair bolted to the floor, wrists locked behind him in reinforced zip ties, ankles strapped to the legs. His head’s lolled to the side, blood crusting over his cheekbone. The once-pristine suit is soaked, ruined.
Good.
In front of him, Jasper stands motionless, his eyes pinned to Chase.
“Jas...” Mara murmurs, slipping ahead of me and touching his arm.
Chase lifts his head, blinks, and grins.
“Wow,” he rasps. “My blushing bride is coming to my rescue.”
Mara scoffs, then slaps him across the face. The sound echoes in the concrete room as his head jerks sideways, lip splitting wider.
“Fucking bitch!” he spits toward her.
“Speak again,” Dredyn growls, stepping forward, “and I’ll let her rip your goddamn throat out.”
Mara holds a hand up. “Jasper is trying to speak.”
“Did you kill my sister?” Jasper asks. We all know that hecantalk, but we also know that his choice to not speak is rooted in the loss of his sister.
Because talking then didn’t save her, so why would talking now make a difference?
Chase doesn’t answer him, just smiles.
“Answer the damn question.” I step closer.
Finally, Chase lifts his chin to meet Jasper’s eyes. “She was mine.”
I feel Jasper recoil in disgust at the response.
“She loved me. I loved her. That’s the part none of you understand,” Chase whispers.
“You murdered her.”
“I didn’t have a choice!” Chase snaps. “You think I wanted that? My father... he said if I didn’t take care of it, they’d send someone worse. Someone who’d keep her alive. Use her. Turn her into leverage against me. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“So you killed her yourself?” Dredyn asks. “That’s how you protected her?”
“I made it quick,” Chase says, like it matters. “She didn’t even fight when we went down into the catacombs. She followed me, willingly.”
“That’s a goddamn lie,” I say. “She called us, saying that the Syndicate was after her.”
“They were! You don’t get it. I lov?—”
“No. You don’t get to say that word. That’s not love.”
Jasper’s eyes are locked on Chase. “You two could have ran. You could have told my parents—we would have protected her. You had choices.”
“No one can run from the Syndicate. Not forever. I was showing her mercy.”
Jasper takes one step forward, and another, then kneels beside him. He reaches out, pressing two fingers just under Chase’s chin, forcing him to be inches from Jasper’s face.
