“Of course I did. You’re like family to me, Lucien. Seeing you hurt so badly makes me ache with sorrow.”
I rolled my eyes, making myself a little dizzy. “Cut the bullshit.”
His face froze into a mask of politeness, sticking to his script of caring guardian. “Would you prefer they operate out here on the driveway, or will you be a good boy and get into the car so I can take you home?”
“There’s that word again.” I balled my hands and fought to stay standing, even as every muscle slipped deeper into rigor mortis. “Cinderkeep isn’t my home.”
“It’s as much as your home as Ashfall Cliff.”
“Fuck you.”
“I didn’t come here to squabble.” Raising his glossy black shoe, he shook his leg a little, scattering raindrops from his laces. “I’m wet and I’m bored. We can talk when we’re back inside and you’re no longer bleeding.” His eyes narrowed with impatience. “Get in the car, Lucien. You too, Rook. Can’t have you catching a chill now you’re pregnant, can we?”
Rook sucked in a breath behind me.
Another layer of pain crippled me, cutting through the foggy numbness of the pills. The mere reminder she was alive and vulnerable—that I held her life in my hands...
It made mefurious.
She was right to call me a fool.
I’d only ever meant to use her to open the lock on my cage, yet...I’d somehow caught the same feelings she had.
That kiss had done something to me.
Every part of me reached for her, wanted her,felther...
“Comehere!” Marcus suddenly shouted, his debonair act cracking. “Stop being a little brat and let’s go home.” He visibly clawed for control again, his smile returning and voice turning sickly sweet as if I was still that helpless child they’d thrown in here two decades ago. “I’m very worried about you, Lucien. You’re bleeding—”
“I am.” I grinned, running a finger through the blood soaking my shirt. “I’ve bled quite a lot, actually. I don’t think I have much left if I’m honest.”
His eyes tightened. “Is that a threat?”
“Just a fact. Pretty sure I won’t live much longer.”
Rook made a soft noise behind me.
I couldn’t see her, but Iheardher. Heard her fear at losing me. Her heart beating frantically for mine...
I shuddered at the strange awareness.
Was this how Whisper viewed the world? Able to hear someone’s heartbeat and taste their true intentions?
Why could I suddenly sense Rook on such an unnatural level?
Marcus stepped forward. “I’m swiftly running out of patience, Lucien. If you don’t get in the car immediately, there are other ways to make you behave.” Tucking one hand into his trouser pocket, he pulled out a tiny remote. A remote linked to the machine twining its wires around my heart. “What’s it going to be?”
I gave him the finger, my arm so fucking heavy.
“Don’t pick a fight with me,” he hissed. “You won’t win. Youknowyou won’t win. Why bother putting yourself through more misery when I only want what’s best for you?”
“What’sbestfor me?” Gathering every shred of strength I had left, I snatched two out of the three guns from my waistband. Swinging both weapons up, I locked them dead centre on Marcus’s chest. “I’m really tired of you thinking you own me. Get out of my way and I won’t kill you today.”
The guards all drew their guns, pointing them directly at my forehead.
Whisper snarled and slashed the air with his claws. Rook stepped closer as if afraid I’d die faster than I already was. And the two doctors shifted in place, looking at each other as if they hadn’t signed up for any of this.
“Don’t shoot!” Marcus ordered, waving at the guards to hold fire. “Don’t hurt him.”
