“What—” The word slurs before it’s fully formed, my tongue already heavy in my mouth.
Adrenaline scorches through me. I swing wildly, my fist connecting with her shoulder hard enough that she grunts and stumbles back a step. But my arm feels wrong—heavy, disconnected, like it belongs to someone else. The world tilts, edges blurring.
“Hannah,” I rasp, fury and disbelief tangling in my chest, choking me. “What did you?—”
A rustle from the back seat. Someone sitting up—someone I didn’t see before. The rear door creaks open behind me.
Run, Sera. Fight. Get away.
Rough hands grab my arms from behind, yanking me backward. I drive my heel into their shin on instinct, but there’s little strength behind it. I hear a curse hissed next to my ear. Satisfaction flares briefly—good, I hurt them.
My legs buckle, knees turning to jelly as the drug races through my system.
Helpless rage burns hot enough to cut through the fog for one last desperate moment. My lips move by sheer will. “You don’t have to do this.”
They shove me into the back seat, my body crumpling awkwardly against the leather. Hannah’s familiar face swims in front of me, her lips pulling up into a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “I know.”
Sound dulls, like I’ve sunk underwater, the world muffled and distant. My breathing feels thick, labored, as I battle to stay conscious, to claw my way back to the surface.
And then a voice—the one I only hear in my nightmares now—cuts through the haze.
Low, mocking, dripping with satisfaction. “Hey, babe.”
Ice floods my veins, freezing me from the inside out.
No. No. No.
It’s not possible.
“Miss me?”
40
LIEV
I lean back in the leather chair across from Alex’s desk.
“It’s a good move for you,” Alex says. “Mikhail obviously trusts you, and it puts you in a much more powerful position. And with Sera in the picture now...” He trails off, a knowing smirk tugging at his mouth. “You don’t have to do all the dirty work anymore. Not if you don’t want to.”
I rise, grabbing my jacket from the back of the chair, when my phone vibrates in the pocket. I frown at the unknown number.
“Liev? It’s Finn.”
Instantly, my gut tightens. “What’s going on?”
“Have you talked to Sera? Like, recently?”
My heart drops into my stomach. “I thought she was with you?”
Alex comes to his feet, suddenly alert.
“She never showed.”
Every muscle in my body locks up. “What do you mean?” Foreboding crawls up my spine, cold and insidious, and wraps around my throat.
Alex’s brows furrow. “Liev?”
I hold up a hand, silencing him, my focus lasered on the phone, fear gnawing at my insides.
