Page 43 of Nemesis

My stomach cramps.

“Do what you must to retrieve her.”

Definitely not good.

I shake so hard, my arms start rattling at my sides. I stretch out my muscles like I always see Vasiliy do when he’s preparing for the chair. The chair. That’s where they’re taking me, isn’t it?

“Vas, it’s okay,” I whisper. “Don’t get in the way⁠—”

“No!” he shouts, pushing me further back. But more men flood into the room, and I start to get the eerie suspicion that he’d do anything to prevent them from getting to me.

Even if he gets killed in the process.

One guy opens the cage door, and I flinch back, watching Vas throw his first punch. It connects with a punishing thwack, clipping his target’s ear. Unfortunately, more men start slipping through the cage door in an overwhelming attack. Vas takes hits from both directions as he fights, somehow staying on his feet.

A breath catches in my throat.

These assholes may be really fucking scary, but nothing is quite as terrifying as losing Vasiliy. That singular thought plays through my head in a loop as the group trades punches and kicks, just a few feet away.

“Oh, would you hurry up and bring her out already?” The leader calls out from the other side of the bars. One guard swings forward, catching Vas’s jaw. The guard’s fist is yanked forward, sending him pummeling into the far wall at frightening speed.

The offensive move costs him.

I cry out in warning, spotting the man with the bite-sized chunk missing from his neck, winding up his fist.

This is futile.

There are too many of them. Sooner or later, they’ll manage to get me out, even if they have to kill Vas to do so.

I’ll be all alone in the world once more.

My foot slides forward. Vasiliy is so distracted by the attack that he doesn’t even see me sneak up behind him.

I take a bracing breath.

And slam my foot against the back of my cellmate’s knees.

He goes down hard and fast. I flinch at the sound of his kneecaps smacking against the cement.

One of the guards tries to take advantage of his misstep, kicking him while he’s down. I make a sturdy fist and get right in his face before throwing the punch. A sickening crunch rings in my ears like the cymbals of a symphony, and pain rolls up through my knuckles.

Fuck, that hurt.

Fingers thread through my hair and pull, causing me to lurch back and call out in surprise.

The world tilts.

My scalp burns.

“OCTAVIA!” Vasiliy bellows, fighting harder to get to me as I stumble away, but it’s too late.

The cage door clangs shut.

The lock clicks.

And for the first time, I’m the one on the other side.

My breaths speed up, but something manic in my brain dissolves at the sight of Vasiliy, safe and sequestered inside the cage. I meet his tortured, blue gaze, trying to communicate everything left unsaid with a single look.