With the panther glued to his side, Lucien seethed. “You expect me to go back into that cage, even though I’ve given him what he wanted?” He laughed manically, flinging out his arms, silver cuffs glinting on his wrists. “If I go back in there, he’ll kill me one bloodletting at a time. He’ll leave me to rot and crush whatever strength I have left. Fuck that. I’m done. I’m fucking done, do you hear me? So fuck you and your fucking nap. I’m walking out of that fucking gate and—”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the redhead interrupted, calmly, coolly—a heartless jailer in the face of his breaking prisoner. “But you’ll never walk outside these walls in this lifetime. Those are Mr. Ward’s orders. Not mine. You can give him ten children, a hundred children, and his answer will be the same.”

The words hit Lucien like a physical blow.

A sound tore out of his chest—something raw and primal that drove an arrow right through my soul. “I can’t...I can’t stand another day of this bullshit.”

Spinning to find me behind him, he pounced on me. Dragging me into him, he pressed his lips to my ear and hissed, “Do it. Stab me.” Droplets leaked off the ends of his glossy black hair as he quaked. “I’ve said such vile things so you have a logical reason to attack me. If you truly were pregnant, how could you ever let me get away with trading our child’s life for mine?”

His voice turned breathless as if he truly was losing his sanity. “They won’t risk taking me out unless I’m dying. I’m worth too much to risk. You heard him. They have no intention of ever letting me go. They’ll never allow me to walk out of those doors unless I’m clinging to the last dregs of life. So do it. They won’t kill you. Not now. As long as they think you’re pregnant, you’re safe.”

His fingers wrapped around my nape, threatening to break every bone in my spine if I didn’t obey. “I’m not asking this time, Rook. If you don’t stab me...all of this was for nothing. You’ll never get out. I’ll die in here. And...” His lips seared my hairline as he kissed me ever so softly. “I’ll never get the chance to know what it would feel like to fall for you. Never allow myself to drop my guard and be with you in any other way than hate.”

He swallowed a groan. “Every day I’ve spent with you, you’ve made me hungry. And now, I’m fucking starving to know what it would be like to trust you. To taste you, fuck you...be with you, but...I refuse to eat until I’m free. So...kill me. Do it. Fucking kill me, Rook. Please. Before it’s too late.”

Chapter Four

HIS CONFESSION HIT ME LIKE A DRUG I hadn’t consented to take.

Heat flooded my body, my breath caught, and an unbearable ache coiled low and hot between my legs.

“You’ve made me fucking starving but...I refuse to eat until I’m free.”

His voice echoed over and over in my mind.

I shuddered on the spot as my migraine brought nausea out to play.

I hated him for a split second.

Hated how easily he manipulated me.

Any second now, I would throw up.

It was too much.

Too much.

But then my gaze fell to his throat.

Memories of him teaching me the most vulnerable spots on a person. Of him angling the blade tip over his neck and tracing it down his chest—

I cringed away. “I-I want to help you. God, I want it more than anything, but...” I flicked a look at the guard before stepping into him and whispering, “How I’ve not passed out yet is a miracle. You can’t ask me for two.”

“Fine.” Lucien nodded, his eyes wild and borderline insane. “I’ll do it myself. Like I’ve always done.”

A wave of vertigo struck—

I staggered as the world turned to a pinprick.

“Oh no, you don’t get to pass out. Not yet.” His hate sounded so real, so vicious. He hated me. He’d asked for my help and...I’d let him down. Just like everyone else.

A rush of sickness made me violently ill.

“You don’t get to blackout and miss this.” Keeping his back to the guards, he tore the knife out of my hand and went to plunge it into his chest.

I choked—

He groaned as his hand stopped mid-strike. The soft beep and flash of red from the metal disc above his heart smashed into him, preventing him from self-harming.

Pain erupted in his eyes. His shoulders rolled in defeat. And his perpetually raging fire guttered with despair.

For the first time since I’d met him, the rage that kept him breathing, kept him fighting, didn’t roar but...snuffed out.

He staggered, barely holding onto consciousness.

One of the guards noticed I wasn’t holding the knife anymore. “Grab the girl. We’re leaving. Mr. Ward is running behind and I’m sick of standing in the rain.”

Three men headed toward me.

And Lucien didn’t move.

The fact that he didn’t move.

That he couldn’t move.

That he fought his buckling knees and clung to that knife with everything he had left.

I saw every implosion of his heart. Every destruction of his soul. He looked devastated and desperate—shaking, burning, denied air and sun and life—and...I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t be the reason he failed.

Stepping into him, I pulled the dagger from his shaking fingers.

Our eyes locked.

I drowned in his breaking and didn’t stand a chance.

My soul latched onto his.

And something happened.

A rush of ice.

A blast of cold.

Refreshing and healing and powerful.

So, so powerful.

Powerful enough to keep me awake, to numb my pain, to do this one last thing for him.

Rain pelted us harder.

Whisper snapped his jaws.

And I committed to him, not just for this lifetime but for all of them.

Lucien’s gaze dove into mine as I drew back the knife...and killed him.

Chapter Five

I’D BEEN POISONED, BLED, AND REGULARLY knocked unconscious but nothing prepared me for the sensation of icy steel sinking into my chest.

Hitting bone.

Reverberating through both of us.

I couldn’t look away as our eyes locked and life as I knew it ended.

I died on that very spot—drenched by the storm and so fucking close to losing it—all because she’d helped me.

But then agony etched her beautiful black eyes as she whimpered and glanced down—to her delicate hand wrapped around the hilt. To the dagger embedded deep in my body, directly opposite my heart.

A sob escaped her as my blood started to seep...

“Huh.” I shuddered as the surrealism of the moment made everything dreamlike. My fingers strayed to where the weapon punctured me, my fingertips coming away bright red. “So that’s what it feels like.”

She wrenched backward, almost falling over Whisper as the panther circled me, hissing, growling, losing his ever-loving mind.

She glanced at her hands speckled with my blood.

The guards went berserk, bellowing into their walkie-talkies for help, but they weren’t important.

The only thing that was important was her.

She’d set me free.

She’d helped me when no one else ever had and...fuck.

I staggered as my body finally caught the memo that it’d been stabbed.

The odd numbness vanished and...PAIN.

Ridiculous, breath-stealing pain.

The agony was obscene. Unique and deep and hot but...I laughed.

I laughed like a madman as I looked down at the dagger embedded inside me—the key to my freedom. The key I hadn’t been able to turn on my own. “You know—” I jerked as the vitalsync core reacted to my skipping, tripping pulse, dosing my system with fresh fire. “I’ve tried to do that for two decades.”

I looked up, caught her eyes, and bowed my head in utmost gratitude. “Thank you.”