“Shutup, you stupid beast,” Lucien commanded. “I can see them. I know we’ve run out of time. I know it’s all my fucking fault.”
As the doors opened and black-suited guards climbed out, spots dotted over my vision.
But then, Marcus appeared.
And it got a whole lot worse.
Opening a huge grey umbrella, he looked like a judge and executioner holding his favourite murder weapon.
God, it’s no use.
We’re going to die here.
He’s going to take us back and—
“Hey.” Lucien’s hand landed on my wrist, snapping me out of my freefall. “You’re okay.”
Tearing my gaze from Marcus, I locked stares with the very man he’d come for. The man who was worth so much more to them alive.
I swallowed hard, fighting tears.
The thought of him spending the rest of his life being drained and tortured. Of enduring the agony from that awful metal disc and the loneliness of being imprisoned...
“This ends today.” His eyes tore like daggers into my soul. “I’mnevergoing back in there and I won’t let them take you either, alright?”
“But—”
“I’m not done with you yet,” he whispered coldly. “And because I’m not done with you, nothing will happen to you. As long as I want you to stay alive...you’ll stay alive.”
His promise echoed again and again as my fingers gripped the wet machine.
“As long as I want you to stay alive...you’ll stay alive.”
My heart latched onto it.
I pulled with everything I had, lifting the bike just a little. Just enough.
Lucien launched backward, dragging his crushed leg before collapsing to his elbows.
The bike crunched back down like a guillotine.
I didn’t know if his leg was broken but nothing else mattered as Marcus hooked the umbrella over his shoulder and clapped. “Congratulations, you got him free.” His lips twisted into a smarmy, sinister smile. “Just in time to go home.”
Chapter Nine
I TRIED TO FOCUS ON A million things at once.
Whisper was losing his goddamn mind, Rook was borderline catatonic, and Marcus? He was unbearably smug.
But the only thing my heart focused on was agony.
The Cryolyt pill hadn’t worked nearly as well as I’d hoped. I could still feel pain, even if it wasn’t all-consuming. Could still tell my body was dying, even as it clung to life. Every injury and agony screamed behind a numbing wall of ice, buying me time but not enough.
I was losing control, mentally, physically, emotionally.
Why else had I kissed her?
Why else had I used such valuable time by doing something so stupid?
