Page 139 of Vows of Ruin

His jaw ticks, control slipping, and he drives the blunt rod into the side of my ribs. White fire detonates across my chest. My vision pulses black at the edges. But I don’t scream. I laugh again, panting through it.

“Pathetic,” I spit. “I’ve had corpsmen do worse trying to pop a dislocated shoulder back in.”

The next strike comes faster. My body jerks, muscles spasming, nerves firing like live wires through old scars from places I don’t talk about. A flash, not of pain, but of a memory. A tent, a field hospital, screaming, sand, a medic’s voice shouting at me not to pass out.

Then, another hallucination. Wrenley’s face, her hands on my jaw. Max behind her, shouting my name, Torque dragging a man out of my way. Hugo barreling forward. For one wild heartbeat, I think they found me.

“LIAM!” His voice rings like salvation—

The world snaps back. Sebastian stands where she was. His smile is too wide. Too bright. “Oh,” he purrs. “That was fascinating.”

I choke out. “What… Did I say, this time?”

He strokes a finger down my cheek with casual cruelty. “You asked me not to hurt them.” A pause. “You begged me, Liam.”

I snarl. “You’re lying.”

“Am I?” His eyes glitter. “You said they’re family. That you’d rather die than see her walk into this place.”

My heart stutters like it’s trying to claw out of my chest. Sebastian steps back, grabbing a small tablet and flicking it on. Lights hum to life. Cameras activate. Screens blink awake. My blood turns to ice. “What the hell is that?”

“Cameras,” he says cheerfully. “Placed all throughout my maze.”

I pull at the restraints so hard the wood groans. “Don’t send them this—”

“Oh, I’m not sending them anything,” he purrs, “I’m patching them in, they get to watch it live.”

My stomach drops.

“You didn’t want them coming for you,” he says. “Which is precisely why I want them here.”

His grin widens into something monstrous. “I want them to watch what I make of you. I want her to see it. I want them to see it. I want them all to see what happens when someone tries to take my legacy.”

He lifts the bludgeoning probe again. “And I’m going to keep you alive long enough for their rescue attempt.” He leans in. “So, you can watch them fail.”

The next blow lands so hard my vision bursts into static, and for a moment I think I scream her name. The world slips sideways. Pain comes in pulses, flash, blur, dark, light, like my body is fluttering in and out of existence.

I hear buzzing. Or maybe it’s my pulse. Or the cameras turning on. When I force my eyes open, the room tilts like the floor is moving. Sebastian is humming. Actually humming. Something upbeat. Something wrong.

Then he speaks, not to me. To them. “Well,” he says brightly. “Look who made it to the party.”

My heart slams against my ribs. No. No, no, no—

He taps the control panel, and a tiny crackle fills the space. Voices. The faint murmur of comms. Wrenley’s voice. “Liam? Liam—talk to me. We’re close.”

I jerk against the restraints so violent the wood groans. Sebastian’s smile widens. “Ah. She can see you now.”

My head tilts to the side, barely an inch, but enough to catch the flicker of a monitor he’s turned to face me. And on it, her face. Wrenley, Max, Torque, Wrecker, Margot, Elias, storming through an intersection, weapons drawn, eyes blazing with fury. They’re outside. They’re coming. A strangled sound drags from my throat. Relief. Terror. All at once.

“Liam!” Wrenley’s voice cracks through the speakers. “Hold on—we’re coming for you. Hold on.”

My vision blurs.

Sebastain laughs softly. “Oh, baby sister, you should hurry. He won’t hold on much longer.”

He turns the camera mounted in the corner, angling it back to me, and I see what they see. My body strapped to a cross. Blood streaks across my ribs, some drying, some fresh. Purple bruises blooming along my jaw, shoulder, abdomen. My wrists are raw. My breathing ragged. I barely look human.

I hear Max swear in horror. Torque’s roar. Wrecker mutters a promise of murder. Margot goes silent, the worst response of all. And Wrenley, “Liam,” she whispers, voice breaking on my name. “Baby we’re coming. I swear it. Just—just stay with me.”