Chapter 130
Lirael
The car's locks engaged with a finality that made my stomach drop. Sebastian settled beside me, one arm draped along the back of the seat, boxing me in without actually touching me. I pressed myself against the door as Marcus pulled away from the Neptune Hotel, my heart hammering so hard I thought everyone in the vehicle must be able to hear it.
"You can't just kidnap me from a public event," I said, forcing steel into my voice even as my hands trembled.
"Kidnap?" Sebastian's tone was almost amused. "I'm simply taking what's mine back to where it belongs."
The possessive certainty in his voice made my blood run cold. I turned my face away, focusing on the city lights streaming past, anything to avoid those amber eyes that seemed to see straight through every defense I'd built over the past two months.
When the car finally pulled through the estate gates, my chest tightened with memories I'd tried so hard to suppress. The last time I'd been here, I'd been his prisoner. I'd sworn I would never come back.
Sebastian climbed out first, then reached in for me. When I didn't move, he simply grabbed my wrist and pulled me from the car.
"Let go of me!"
"No." He threw me over his shoulder in one fluid motion, and I immediately started pounding my fists against his back. "I've let you go too many times already. I'm done with that."
The house staff scattered as we passed. Sebastian carried me through the foyer, up the staircase, down the hallway, and finally into his bedroom.
He kicked the door shut and deposited me on the bed. I scrambled backward immediately, but before I could get far, I heard a mechanical whir. Silver chains shot out from hidden mechanisms in the headboard, wrapping around my wrists and yanking them above my head.
"What the—" I jerked against the restraints, panic flooding through me. "Sebastian!"
He stood at the foot of the bed, watching me with dark satisfaction, and pulled something from his pocket—a syringe filled with clear liquid.
My blood turned to ice. "What is that?"
"Insurance." He moved closer, sitting on the edge of the bed. "The bed has an integrated AI security system now. Learned my lesson after you escaped last time." His smile was cold. "Upgraded it specifically for you. From now on, as long as you're on my bed, you're not going anywhere unless I say so."
I pulled against the chains again, harder this time, ignoring the pain. "You can't do this. You promised—"
"I promised I'd let you go if you wanted to leave," he interrupted. "But I never promised I wouldn't try to change your mind." He held up the syringe. "I'm tired of you running, Lirael. Tired of watching you pretend to be happy with Damian when I can feel through our bond that you're miserable. Tired of being patient."
"So your solution is to drug me?" Anger cut through the fear. "To chain me up like some kind of—"
"To make you stay long enough to listen," he said, and there was something almost desperate beneath the control in his voice. "To make you understand that you belong here. With me." He leaned closer, his free hand coming to rest on my ankle. "I'll give you everything you want, Lirael. Freedom to move around the estate. Access to your technology. Whatever resources you need for your revenge plots against the Hartfields." His hand slid higher. "All you have to do is stay. Be with me."
"Are you threatening me?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
"You can understand it that way if you want." His hand moved to my throat, fingers settling over the mark he'd left there months ago. "I prefer to think of it as negotiating terms."
I stared at him, trying to read the intent behind those amber eyes. The syringe gleamed in his hand, a promise and a threat all at once. What was in it? Sedative? Poison? Something worse?
"Okay," I said finally, forcing the word out.
His eyes narrowed slightly, as if he sensed the lie, but before he could respond, I lunged forward as far as the chains would allow, grabbing his wrist. He jerked back instinctively, but I held on with desperate strength, twisting his arm and slamming his hand down toward my own neck, driving the needle toward my throat.
"Lirael!" He wrenched his arm away, and the needle plunged into his forearm instead, the plunger depressing as clear liquid emptied into his bloodstream.
We both froze, staring at the syringe embedded in his flesh. Then, to my shock, Sebastian laughed—a harsh, bitter sound that held no humor.
"Well played." He pulled the needle out slowly, examining the empty barrel before tossing it aside. "Though unnecessary. It was just glucose." He met my eyes, and there was something raw in his expression. "Did you really think I'd poison you? After everything?"
I sagged back against the pillows, adrenaline making my hands shake. "I don't know what you'd do anymore. You kidnapped me. You chained me to your bed. What was I supposed to think?"
"That I love you, you stubborn, infuriating woman." The words came out rough, almost angry. "That I've spent two months watching you build a life without me and it's been driving me slowly insane. That seeing you laugh at Damian's jokes and let him touch you makes me want to burn down half the city."
"That's not love," I said quietly. "That's obsession."
"Maybe." He reached up and pressed something on his watch, and the chains released my wrists with a soft click. "But it's all I have to offer."
I pulled my hands down slowly, rubbing feeling back into my wrists while watching him warily. This had to be another trap. Sebastian didn't just give up.
"You're letting me go?"
"You'd rather let yourself be injected with poison than be with me?" His voice was flat, emotionless in a way that was somehow worse than anger. "I believe you. When you grabbed that syringe, you proved you meant it." He stood, moving toward the door. "So go. The chains are off. The door's unlocked. Go back to Damian, to your corporate job, to your carefully constructed new life."
I sat there, stunned. This couldn't be real.
"Just like that? You're letting me walk away?"
He stopped with his hand on the doorknob, his back to me. "You want to hear me beg? Fine." His voice was low, strained. "Please stay, Lirael. Please give me a chance to be more than the monster who took you from that island. Please let me try to earn even a fraction of the compassion you showed me at the lighthouse." He was silent for a moment. "But if you can't, if the cost is too high, then yes. Go."
The vulnerability in his voice was more effective than any chain. It rooted me to the spot, made my chest ache, and I found myself staring at his back, wondering when exactly everything had become so complicated.
He pressed the button on his watch again, and I heard the chains fully retract. "You can go."