Page 36 of Vows of Ruin

The bruises on her neck aren’t just from the crash. They’re handprints.

Her wrists are raw with rope burns, skin split in some places. There are more bruises down her arm, along her legs. Her ribs are swollen, one side already turning a sick purple beneath the skin.

“Jesus Christ,” I whisper, my hand trembling as I brush her hair from her face. “Wren…”

She doesn’t look at me. Not really.

Her eyes are open, but they’re far away, focused on something none of us can see. Then she blinks, slow and deliberate, and her voice is hoarse when she speaks.

“I need everyone here before I talk,” she says. “Because I’m only saying it once.”

I nod, heart cracking down the middle.

I press a kiss to her forehead, then her mouth, soft and reverent. “Okay, little warrior, I’ll get them.”

Doc continues wrapping her ribs with practiced hands. “Both of them need to stay awake for the next few hours,” she says, not even looking at us. “If they get worse, dizzy, slurred speech, out of it, take them to the hospital. No arguments.”

Max and Elias nod wordlessly, both of them pale and furious.

Just then, Wrecker pushes through the door, Riot trailing behind him. Riot makes a beeline for Margot, dropping beside her without a word. Wrecker stops just inside, eyes scanning the room until they land on me.

He doesn’t say anything. Just gives a slow shake of his head. My lungs seize. Donnie’s still missing. I close my eyes for a beat, forcing the grief down into the pit of my stomach. Later. We will deal with that later.

Wrenley’s eyes are on me when I turn back, wide and wet but focused. The surface is all pain, but underneath it's all fire and steel.

“Okay,” I say quietly, stepping close enough to take her hand. “We’re all here. It’s time.”

She closes her eyes, just for a second, her chest rising in a shallow, stilted breath, ribs clearly making it hell to breathe. She opens them again looking right at me when she begins to speak.

Wrenley’s voice is a thin thread of sound, but it cuts through the room like a scream. “The crash… it wasn’t an accident.”

Everyone goes still.

She’s lying propped up on Doc’s exam table, Max on one side of her, me on the other. Her face is pale, lips split, bruises spreading like ink beneath her skin. Her eyes are still fire. Still unbreakable.

“I remember the car hitting us. Then, waking up in the woods, tied between two trees. Arms stretched out like I was some kind of sacrifice.” Her voice cracks, and Max reaches for her hand, but she doesn’t flinch; she doesn’t move at all.

“Sebastian?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.

She nods once, the movement stiff. “He was waiting for me in the shadows. Said this was what he really wanted. Not to kill me, not yet, but to peel my world apart.”

The fury coils in my gut, burning hot.

She shifts her gaze to me, and the hollowness there guts me. “He said he wants me. And more than that, he wants you to know that you can’t save me.”

My hands curl into fists. Max looks like he’s about to put a hole in the wall.

Then Margot speaks, her voice still hazy from the concussion, but clear enough. “Before I blacked out… he told me he was going to kill us all. So he could have Wrenley all to himself.” She shudders. “He meant it.”

Wrenley’s head snaps toward her, disbelief and horror written across her bruised features.

I can’t take this shit anymore. I turn to Doc. “I want you to get a tracker.”

She blinks. “Excuse me?”

“You’re family. That makes you a target. You don’t get to argue this.”

Before she can answer, Torque steps up from his place near the back of the room, voice calm and unshakable. “She already has one.”