The pieces fall into place. She killed Alex—her own brother—after she realized he had stabbed Aurora. The Viridian girl’s prophecy echoes in my mind. “Betrayal will come from within.” Alex, our living truth, the only one we couldn’t question because truth was his power to wield.
I need to know why. I need to summon him now and Aurora back from whatever realm she’s crossed into. I need to see her again, to speak to her, to hear her voice one more time before I shatter beyond all repair.
“I can fix this. It’s my pain to bear,” Nasha says, moving next to me.
Malachi responds, but I can’t process what he’s saying. I’m drowning in the sight of Aurora’s lifeless body, my mind rejecting what my eyes are showing me.
Then Nasha’s warm hand touches my arm, and slowly—impossibly—my chest begins to release its crushing grip. My breathing evens out, becoming less erratic.
I turn to face her, and her eyes swim with tears that threaten to spill over. She nods at me with solemn understanding.
“I will take your pain for now,” she whispers. “We need to finish the mission.”
She’s using her gift to absorb my sorrow, taking it into herself so I can keep moving forward. The most selfless act imaginable in our darkest hour.
Malachi takes my elbow with gentle firmness as I rise to my feet, every movement feeling foreign and mechanical. My gaze sweeps over Alex’s lifeless body before settling on Aurora one final time. Cade pulls off his jacket, draping it over her upper body and face, the only dignity we can offer her in this hellish place.
I look past Malachi toward the imposing double doors that loom like the gates of damnation themselves. The lab. Our destination. My destination.
Nasha may have stolen my crushing grief, but she didn’t touch the pure, molten rage that’s building inside me like a volcano ready to erupt. It courses through my veins like liquid fire, threatening to consume everything in its path.
It’s time everyone down here dies.
“What the fuck happened?” Dante shouts as he bursts through the door behind me, his blue eyes wide, taking in the carnage with growing horror.
He pulls Nasha to her feet and into his arms, stroking her back with protective tenderness while he and Malachi exchange hushed words that sound like static in my ears. Their conversation feels distant, unimportant, background noise to the symphony of vengeance building in my chest.
Cade rises from Aurora’s side and walks over to where Bash and I stand beside the double doors. His movements are calm, but I can see the barely contained violence beneath his skin.
“Are you good?” Bash asks, his voice rougher than usual.
Cade nods curtly, dragging the back of his hand across his face to wipe away any lingering evidence of tears.
We’ve been reduced from eight to six. Two friends lost to betrayal and sacrifice in the span of minutes. But I’m not thinking about our numbers anymore.
I’m thinking about revenge.
I’m ready to find my goddamn reckoning.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
LOG TWENTY-NINE – ETHICAL COLLAPSE: ONE OF MY COLLEAGUES CALLED HER A MIRACLE. ANOTHER CALLED HER A GODDESS. I CALL THEM FOOLS, BUT THEIR AWE IS SPREADING.
I kickthe double doors open, the sound reverberating through the corridors. We’re immediately blasted with a controlled mist that hisses from hidden vents—some kind of decontamination protocol that feels like ice against my burning skin.
The clinical sterility of it makes my rage spike higher. They sanitize everything down here while they butcher people.
Malachi quickly moves to my side, his presence solid and reassuring, but I don’t bother looking over at him. I can’t risk letting him see the unhinged wildness I know is blazing in my eyes right now, the kind of look that promises death and destruction to anyone who gets in my way.
I don’t wait for the mist to stop its mechanical cleansing ritual. I push forward through the suffocating chemical fog, my boots echoing against the sterile floor as I barrel toward the next set of doors. These are different—thick, heavy, reinforced like a vault. The kind of barriers designed to keep secrets in and intruders out.
Too bad for them I’m not an intruder anymore.
I’m vengeance incarnate.
The doors yield to my fury, and we finally cross the threshold into the belly of the beast.
We’ve reached the lab.
