Chapter 87
Sebastian
The smoke cleared slowly, revealing carnage. Bodies littered the bridge—Lucas's operatives, my own men. Marcus was pulling himself upright, blood streaming from his head.
But Lirael was gone.
"Sir!" Marcus stumbled toward me. "Are you—"
"Where is she?" My voice didn't sound like my own—too rough, too close to the beast. The wolf was so close to the surface I could feel my bones starting to shift. "Where the fuck is she, Marcus?"
He looked around, horror dawning on his face. "I don't—the blast—Miss Lirael, she's not—"
I was already moving, searching the bridge deck with desperation bordering on madness. My senses were still recovering, everything too bright, too loud, but I pushed through. I could smell her—moonlight and growing things, that scent that had haunted me since the cliff.
The trail led to the railing, then stopped. As if she'd vanished.
"Maybe she—" Marcus hesitated, clearly dreading my reaction. "Maybe she used the chaos to escape. She could have—"
I rounded on him so fast he took a step back, hand dropping to his weapon. "She didn't run." The certainty in my voice surprised even me. "She had a dozen chances tonight. She could have jumped when I told her to. Could have let me die fighting Lucas. But she didn't. She stood with me. She chose to stay."
"Then where—"
"Lucas took her." The words tasted like ash, like failure. "That bastard took her while I was blind and useless."
I wanted to kill something. Wanted to tear this entire bridge apart with my bare hands, wanted to paint the snow red. But rage wouldn't help Lirael. Control would.
I forced myself to breathe, to think past the animal howling in my chest. My eyes scanned the ground where her scent ended. And there, half-buried in snow, I found it.
A moonstone. Small, carved with elvish runes that glowed faintly. I'd seen it before—a protective charm, the kind elves gave their children.
She'd left it deliberately. A breadcrumb for me to follow.
I closed my fist around the stone, feeling its warmth against my palm. The rage was still there, still burning, but now it had direction. Purpose.
"Marcus." My voice was eerily calm now, the calm of a predator locked onto prey. "Get backup here. Mobilize every operative. Scour every inch of this city. Lucas couldn't have gotten far."
"Yes, sir." Marcus was already on his comm.
I turned the moonstone over, studying the runes. She'd left this for me. Had trusted, even in her terror, that I would find it, that I would come.
"And Marcus?" I looked up, meeting his eyes with an expression that made him pale. "Send Lucas a message. If she has so much as a scratch when I find them, I'll make what I did to my brother look merciful. I'll keep him alive and suffering for weeks."
Marcus went gray. He'd been there that night on the cliff, had seen what I'd done. "Sir, perhaps—"
"Do it." I pocketed the stone, feeling its weight against my heart. "And prepare the hunting packs. We're going to need them."
As Marcus hurried to comply, I stood alone on that frozen bridge surrounded by the dead, and made a promise to the woman who had chosen to fight beside me instead of fleeing.
I'm coming, Lirael. I don't care if I have to burn this entire city to the ground. I'm coming for you, and heaven help anyone who stands between us.
---
Lirael
Heat. Oppressive, suffocating heat that made sweat bead on my skin and my lungs labor. That was the first thing I became aware of as consciousness returned, dragging me up from chemical darkness into something that felt almost worse. I tried to move, found my wrists bound to a wooden chair, rope biting into skin. My ankles were similarly secured. The air was thick with steam, eucalyptus and something sharper, chemical, making my throat close.
A sauna. I was in a goddamn sauna.
"Ah, you're awake." Male voice, amused, with an edge of something predatory. "I was beginning to worry I'd miscalculated the dosage. Moon elves have such interesting metabolisms."
I forced my eyes open, fighting through the haze. Wooden walls dark with moisture, heated stones glowing red, steam rising in coils. And sitting across from me, lounging like he owned the world, was Lucas Blackwood.
He'd removed his tactical gear, revealing a lean torso. A woman in a bikini was dabbing his face with a towel, her expression carefully blank.
"Fuck you," I said, my voice hoarse but steady enough.
"You wake faster than expected," Lucas said, waving the woman away. She fled with obvious relief. "Then again, you're full of surprises. Somehow you've wrapped my cousin around your finger. I'm impressed."
"If you're trying to make me feel special, you're failing spectacularly." I tested the ropes, felt them hold firm. "What do you want, you piece of shit?"
Lucas's smile widened at the insult. "Want? I want what Sebastian has. The Alpha position, the family's resources, the power. And you're the key. You're his weakness."
"I'm nobody's key. Sebastian and I are nothing. Just captor and captive. You're wasting your time."
"I don't think so." Lucas stood, moving toward me with predatory grace that made my stomach turn. "I've been watching my cousin for years. Sebastian doesn't care about anyone. He uses people, discards them. But you?" He crouched in front of me, close enough that I could smell his cologne mixed with sweat. "He looks at you like you're the only thing that matters. And that makes you perfect leverage."
"You're fucking insane." I jerked my head away from his reaching hand.
"Maybe." His fingers ghosted along my jaw anyway, and I had to swallow bile. "But I'm curious. What makes you so special? The elf blood? The way you smell? Or something else?"
"Don't touch me, asshole."
"Don't touch what Sebastian considers his?" His smile turned cruel. "But that's the point. I want to know what all the fuss is about. Want to see if you're really worth all the trouble."
He moved to a table I hadn't noticed, returning with a syringe filled with glowing pink liquid that looked wrong in a way that made every instinct scream.
My heart rate spiked, pulse hammering in my throat. "What the fuck is that?"
"Insurance." Lucas approached slowly, savoring my fear. "Something the Genesis Foundation develops for their more... reluctant specimens. This particular compound amplifies certain desires, lowers inhibitions. You'll be begging for release within the hour."
"You sick fuck." I thrashed against the ropes, felt them cut into my skin, warm blood trickling down my wrists. "Sebastian will kill you for this. He'll tear you apart, and I'll fucking watch and enjoy every second."
"Sebastian will be too late." Lucas grabbed my jaw with bruising force, positioning the needle against my neck. "And by the time he arrives, you'll have proven you're not as special as he thinks. Just another warm body. It'll destroy him."
The needle pierced my skin. I felt the drug enter my bloodstream—hot, invasive, wrong, spreading like liquid fire through my veins. Lucas stepped back, watching with clinical interest as I gasped, as my body temperature spiked.
"The effects should begin shortly," he said, already moving toward the door. "Try to enjoy yourself. I know I will when I come back."
"Fuck you—" But he was gone, the lock engaging with a solid thunk.
The heat was getting worse, or maybe that was the drug. I could feel it working, my temperature rising further, skin becoming so sensitive even the rope felt like fire. My mind was starting to fog, thoughts becoming harder to grasp.
No. Fuck no. I will not let this happen. I will not let him win.
I bit down on my tongue hard enough to draw blood, the copper taste filling my mouth. The pain was sharp, clarifying, cutting through the drug's haze. I used it to focus, to think.
The ropes. I needed to get free. But Lucas had tied them well, and my coordination was already failing, fingers clumsy when I tried to work at the knots. I couldn't use my magic—not with the dampening field active.
But I could still use my brain. I could still fight.
"You know," I called out, pitching my voice to carry, "for someone who claims to be smarter than Sebastian, you're making a lot of stupid fucking mistakes."