He was enjoying this. Every word. Every moment of my helplessness.
I wanted to kill him so badly my hands shook with it.
"We're done here," Hewes said, dismissing me with a wave. "The fight is tomorrow night. Don't disappoint me, Ahrick. Merrilee's life depends on it."
I turned and walked out before I did something that would get her killed.
The door sealed behind me with a soft hiss that sounded too final. Too absolute.
The corridor was empty. Silent except for the distant hum of life support systems and the harsh rasp of my own breathing echoing off the walls. Dim emergency lighting cast everything in shades of rust and shadow, making the passage feel like a tomb.
My hands were shaking.
Not the controlled tremor of adrenaline preparing for violence. This was different. Deeper. The kind of shaking thatcame from muscles locked too tight for too long, from a body that had prepared to kill and been forced to abort mid-strike.
I'd been seconds away from crushing Hewes's windpipe. Seconds away from feeling his pulse stop beneath my grip, from watching the light fade from his eyes, from ending the monster who'd kidnapped Merrilee's siblings and was trying to trade her life like currency.
And I'd stopped.
The weight of that choice settled into my chest like a stone. Heavy. Suffocating. Wrong in a way that made my entire body rebel against it.
Every instinct I had screamed that I'd made a mistake. That I should go back in there, finish what I'd started, damn the consequences.
But I couldn't move.
Because she was still out there. Still vulnerable. Still alive only because I'd surrendered.
I pushed off the wall and forced myself to keep walking. One step. Then another.
The knowledge sat in my gut like poison. I'd agreed to lose the fight. Agreed to hand her over to Korroth—a Draxian. A species that had a reputation for brutality that made even hardened fighters nervous.
I'd agreed to let him take her.
The corridor stretched ahead of me, empty and silent, and I wanted to put my fist through the wall. Wanted to tear something apart with my bare hands just to release the pressure building in my chest.
But I kept walking.
Because losing control now wouldn't help her.
I'd told Hewes yes.
I lied.
I would never let Korroth touch her.
My mind started racing, sorting through possibilities, discarding them just as quickly. There had to be something. Some angle I wasn't seeing. Some weakness in that I could exploit.
I just had to figure it out before I stepped into that ring.
I would find a way. I had to
She was already written into my heartbeat, whether I'd completed the bond or not.
And I would burn this entire city to ash before I let anyone take that away from me.
Chapter 13
Merrilee
