Of course it was. He needed to see what broke her, what triggered her, and what happened when she ultimately lost control. He wasn't just testing her for curiosity’s sake but searching for the limits she would reach as well as the leverage he could use.
Ryker wiped blood from his nose, the only sign he’d exerted himself against her. Then, much to Audrey’s surprise, he looked at her without the usual contempt. The shift was slight, though unmistakable. “Mihail didn’t save you,” he said. “He preserved you.”
Audrey couldn’t move, shame and regret rooting her in place so firmly she couldn’t summon a snippy response. She’d fallen right into his trap.
“Now I understand why.” He smirked. “If Mihail was right, you might be worse than Sophia.”
A moment elapsed.
“Which makes you far more interesting.”
She didn’t look away despite wanting to melt into the floor, mortification buzzing under her skin.
“You’re not the one they’re afraid of yet,” he continued. “But you will be.”
His fingers touched his mouth while he watched her with the animal recognition of meeting something dangerous enough to match him.
“If your power manifests fully...” His bright smile beamed. “We are going to kill a lot of people together.”
She expected to feel disjointed hearing his plans for her. But instead she felt...seen.
She didn’t just want to survive.
She wanted Cary safe.
She wanted control.
She wanted people afraid enough never to betray her again.
She wanted power.
Not his—her own. But she couldn’t let him know that, and she had one more card to play.
“I would rather die.” She grabbed his shirt tighter and forced her way into his mind. His shields fractured like thin glass.
The way they broke was so fast and so clean, she had to suck in a deep breath to steady herself. This was wrong—impossible, maybe. A mind such as his should not have opened that easily. Something in her had changed or awakened, making her into a form neither of them had expected.
But Audrey wasn’t ordinary, and he had pushed her too far. She entered him fully, unable to hold her power back. Yet rather than fury, the first thing she felt from him was something stranger.
Excitement.
She realized that it had been years since Ryker felt resistance. And never like this.
He gasped, feeling the intrusion. Actually gasped. But he couldn’t hide his emotions from her now—Ryker was surprised.
He smiled.
It was all she needed to keep going.
Being inside his mind should have been alien. Instead, it was frighteningly familiar. Like touching a reflection that could reach back. She’d seen him in pieces already—first in her backyard through memory and nightmare, in the club back in Tolusa, and also the hologram towering above the courtyard. But this was different. Here, there was no projection, no psychic bleed, and no distance to temper him into something unreal.
This was the same face from the fire, the same mouth that had spoken inside her skull, standing close enough now to share breath. His energy folded onto her like hot silk—not resisting her at all. The feeling was as addictive as it was terrifying.
Audrey’s presence in his mind dragged a tremor down Ryker’s spine. As she dug, part of him wanted to push her out.
But another part pulled her inward.
So, she went further, even as his thoughts roared.
