“And Icarus?” Bridger leans on his hand pressed against the map.
Nolan shifts in his chair, the first sign of discomfort I’ve seen from him. “I haven’t decided yet.”
The video cuts to black, and a sick feeling coils in my stomach.
I don’t trust Nolan to do good by us in any sense. I thought we were here to shut down the underworld, not tap into it and get our hands even dirtier than they already are. What is he really after in all of this?
A document next to the video has the same date on it. I click on it, and a one-page PDF comes up. My eyes skim through it with little interest before catching Chloe’s name. My jaw flexes, and a knot grows in my throat.
I read it.
My heart starts pumping faster, and I start sweating.
I read it a second time.
Then a third.
“What the fuck.” I stand abruptly, dropping my laptop to the ground and not blinking when it breaks and sends keys across the floor.
My hands are trembling, and my jaw works with horror.
“No.”I shake my head and fist my hands in my hair.“No!”I shout and fall to my knees, pounding my fist against the cement. “Not her.No.Not her. What have I done?”
I don’t stop when my hand starts to bleed, and I don’t fight the wall of emotions that crashes over me like a tidal wave.
Gale bursts through my door, followed by Taylor, Bensen, and John. The four of them have panicked expressions. They’ve never seen me like this before.Fuck, I’ve only seen myself like this one other time, and it was when I killed my friends in the Under Trials.
I force my head up and catch my reflection in the mirror on the wall. My hair is tousled, and blood is smeared over my jaw. I look fucking insane. Tears are in my eyes, and that’s the most shocking part of all.
I bite my lower lip as my tears fall…before I start laughing.
My men stand in the doorway, staring down at me in horror. They’ve never seem me like this before. Fuck,I’venever seen me like this before.
“Lieutenant?… What’s going on?” Bensen asks hesitantly.
Gale is the first to step closer and kneels beside me, setting his hand on my shoulder and furrowing his brow. “Roman,” he says softly. As a friend, not as my subordinate.
I look at him and then behind him at the others. General Nolan is standing with them now too.
I glide my tongue over my teeth and force myself to stand.
Gale follows my death glare and lets his eyes land on Nolan.
“Tell them,” I say with a lethal tone. Blood drips down my knuckles and peppers the ground with red dots.
Nolan takes me in, then looks down at the laptop on the ground with the flash drive in the port.
A weary smile moves across his lips. “Which part?”
Fire burns in my chest, and I feel like I’m going to be sick. “All of it.”
The general lights a cigarette and slowly takes a seat in the chair by my closet, completely unbothered. I’d dare even say he seems a little relieved. “Briar doesn’t have time for me to tell you all of it,” he says smoothly.
“What?” I whisper. It feels like a shot to the heart. “She’s?—”
Nolan grins. “Alive.”
I stumble and brace myself against the wall as I take that in. The overwhelming sense of hope and hurt mix together until I can’t tell which is which. I rush to my bag and start getting my gear on.
