"What?"
"The prize quarters. We went to bring her like you ordered and she's not there. The bed was made to look like she was sleeping, pillows arranged under the blanket, but when we pulled it back—"
"Find her." Hewes was on his feet now, his face twisting with rage, the careful mask of control shattering. "Search every inch of this compound. Every room, every corridor, every fucking closet. She can't have gone far. A human woman with no weapons, no knowledge of the city layout—she has to be here somewhere."
"We've already started sweeping the residential sections and—"
"Then sweep harder!" Hewes's voice cracked like a whip, echoing off the metal walls. "I want every guard on this. Pull them from the perimeter if you have to. I want her found. Now."
The guards scattered, rushing back through the door to coordinate the search.
Hewes turned his attention back to me, and the rage in his expression shifted to something colder. More calculating. More dangerous.
His eyes were ice.
"Where is she, Ahrick?"
I didn't answer. Just met his gaze with my own, giving nothing away.
"Where. Is. She."
"I don't know what you're talking about." The lie came easily, my voice steady. "She was asleep when I left the room."
"Don't play games with me." Hewes descended from the throne, crossing the distance between us with measured steps, each one deliberate and threatening. "You helped her escape. You had to. She couldn't have done it alone. She doesn't know the compound, doesn't know how to avoid the guards. Someone helped her. And that someone was you."
"Maybe she's smarter than you gave her credit for."
His hand lashed out, striking me across the face.
I didn't flinch. Didn't move. I barely felt the slap—Hewes was weak.
Just stared at him, imagining all the ways I could kill him.
"Tell me where she is," Hewes said, his voice dropping to something dangerous, something that promised violence. "Tell me, and I'll make this quick. Refuse, and when I find her—and I will find her, make no mistake about that—I'll make sure you're alive to see what I do to her. Every scream. Every tear. Every moment of her suffering."
The threat hung in the air between us, thick and poisonous.
And I smiled. Couldn't help it. The expression felt savage on my face, all teeth and dark promise.
"I'd rather die than tell you."
Hewes's expression shifted—surprise flickering across his features, then pure, undiluted fury.
"Then die."
He reached for the blaster at his hip, his hand moving fast.
And I moved faster.
I closed the distance in a heartbeat, my body a weapon honed by years of combat and survival. My hand caught his wrist before his fingers could close around the grip, twisting hard with all my strength. I heard bone crack—a sound like dry wood breaking.
Hewes screamed, high and piercing.
I drove my other fist into his throat, cutting off the sound mid-cry, and then I was on him. Driving him backward with the full force of my body. Slamming him into the floor with enough force to crack the metal plating beneath us, the impact reverberating through the chamber.
His eyes went wide with shock and pain and genuine fear—probably the first time in years he'd felt truly afraid.
Good.
