“That’s the fucking point!” I screamed, backing away from him toward the nearest car. “HELP!”
His hand clamped over my mouth, the other arm snaking around my waist as he tried to drag me toward a dark sedan parked two spaces over. I bit down hard on his palm, tasting blood as my teeth broke skin. He yelped but didn’t release me.
I threw my weight backward, making us both stagger. We crashed against a parked car, the impact jarring but creating enough distraction for me to slam my elbow into his ribs. His grip loosened just enough for me to wrench free, spinning to face him.
“Stay the fuck away from me,” I warned, brandishing my keys like a weapon.
“You don’t get it,” Trevor growled, holding his bleeding hand against his chest. “He's not what you think he is. He’s using you, Jade.”
I saw my opening, a clear path between cars that would let me circle back toward the elevator. I bolted, making it a few steps before Trevor tackled me from behind, the impact driving us both to the concrete floor. My knees and palms skidded painfully against the rough surface, the keys flying from my grasp and skittering under a nearby car.
“You’re not listening,” he snarled, flipping me onto my back with frightening strength. “You never fucking listen!”
I thrashed beneath him, scratching at his face, bucking my hips to throw him off. My nails caught his cheek, leaving three red furrows that immediately welled with blood. He bellowed in pain and rage, grabbing my wrists and pinning them above my head with one hand.
“I am not going back with you,” I spat, still fighting despite the disadvantage. “I am not yours. I never was.”
Something shifted in his eyes then, a coldness I’d glimpsed only rarely during our relationship, usually just before he destroyed something I loved as “punishment” for some slight.
“You made me do this,” he said, the calm returning to his voice in a way that was more terrifying than his rage. “I was trying to save you from him.”
I saw his hand rise, knew what was coming but couldn’t move fast enough to avoid it. The blow caught me on the temple, pain exploding through my skull like fireworks. My vision blurred, sounds warping around me as he hauled me upright.
I fought through the haze, clawing at him even as my coordination faltered. He dragged me toward his car, swearing as I grabbed onto the door frame of a nearby vehicle, refusing to make this easy for him.
“Let go!” he commanded, prying my fingers loose one by one. “Stop fighting me!”
The thread connecting me to Magnur gave one desperate pulse, stronger than it had been since the wards started failing. Iclung to that sensation, focusing on it as Trevor finally broke my grip on the door frame and shoved me toward his waiting car.
“Magnur,” I whispered, blood from my split lip making the word sticky in my mouth. I reached again for our connection, trying to send one last desperate message through the thread as Trevor forced me into his back seat.
The last thing I saw was his face above mine before another blow sent pain lancing through my head. Then darkness swallowed everything, and I fell into it thinking of red eyes and the promise of safety I’d only just begun to trust.
Chapter twelve
Control
Jade
I tried to open my eyes, but only one cooperated, the other sealed shut with what I suspected was dried blood. My tongue felt swollen, sticking to the roof of my mouth as I tried to swallow. Something was wrong.
The thread.
I reached for it instinctively, searching for that warm pulse that had become as natural as my own heartbeat. Nothing. Just emptiness where our link had been, a hollow space in my chest that ached worse than my throbbing temple or split lip.
“No,” I whispered, my voice a dry rasp in the silence. I closed my functioning eye and concentrated harder, searching the void where our connection should be. It couldn’t just be gone. That wasn’t how fate worked, was it?
But the emptiness remained, a black hole where stars had once burned.
I forced my good eye open again, blinking away the blur until my surroundings gradually came into focus. High ceilings stretched above me, crisscrossed with exposed metal beams and defunct industrial light fixtures. Only a few lights actually worked, casting pools of sickly yellow illumination amid long shadows. A warehouse. I was in a goddamn warehouse like some cliché kidnapping victim in a bad thriller.
Concrete floors stretched in all directions, stained with dark patches I didn't want to identify. The air smelled of dust, mildew, and something chemical that burned my nostrils when I inhaled too deeply. Several yards away, massive sliding doors were chained shut, the padlock gleaming dully in the low light. No windows at ground level, though I could make out some high clerestory openings near the ceiling, too small and too far up to be useful.
Perfect. Abandoned. Isolated. Trevor had clearly been planning this.
I tried to shift my position and discovered what I’d already suspected—I was bound to a chair, my wrists secured behind me, ankles fastened to the legs. The ropes bit into my skin as I tested them, tight enough to prevent escape but not quite cutting off circulation. How considerate of him.
“Fuck,” I muttered, twisting my wrists experimentally. No give at all. The chair itself was solid metal, bolted to the floor. Trevor hadn’t left anything to chance.
