Page 82

"Maybe not. Maybe they just prepared her?"

Valentina suddenly grabs a portion of Sabina's gown and, before I can stop her, she cuts through the fabric with her knife to expose part of Sabina's abdomen.

"Val!" My heart sinks. A fresh incision is neatly stitched up across her abdomen. With the couple of days we had to wait for the gala, there was always a chance that Leo and Boris would rush the surgery, but I clung to hope that they wouldn't do something like that without being in a hospital.

Seems they don't care.

"Ruslan?" Valentina touches her ear. "We can't move Sabina. She's had the surgery and half of these machines aren't even working correctly, so I've no idea her condition. We have to go with plan B."

"On it," comes Ruslan's reply.

"Stay with her." I briefly clutch Valentina's arm. "I have to find Illyana."

"I'll protect her," Valentina assures me. "Be careful!"

Her smile is the last thing I see before I sprint from the room and out into the hall. This place is huge and there's no telling where Illyana could be, if she's even here at all, but the fact that half this place is still locked down for construction does work in my favor. Half the rooms are much easier to search.

"Raven? Have you got anything on Illyana?"

"Not currently," comes her crackling reply. "Although there is a larger guard presence on your floor. Take the hallway you're on, then turn right at the bottom. Take your second left and you should see them. Maybe that's where she is? Just be careful, this entire wing is marked for construction."

"Thanks, Raven. I owe you."

"You owe me more than this," she replies sharply. "I keep track."

"Of course you do." I grin as I break into a sprint. "Just let me—” As abruptly as I start running, I skid to a halt and nearly topple over as something catches my eye, a glint in my peripheral from the door two down from Sabina's room. It's open just a crack and has the same blueish light that warms Sabina's room.

That light came from a medical monitor.

Approaching the door, I cautiously nudge it open with my foot.

It's her. Illyana. She's as pale and as quiet as Sabina is, but a shadow lies over her. A shadow belonging to a man with slick hair and a white beard that barely hides the graceless way age pulls at his features.

Leo.

He stands over her with a gun in hand and one hand clutching several of the wires and tubes that feed into Sabina's body. A few hazard and warning symbols flash up on one of the monitors, and Leo sighs deeply.

"Oi," I snap quietly. "The fuck do you think you're doing?"

Leo's head snaps up and he tightens his grip on his gun. "You."

"Yeah. Me. The fuck are you doing?"

"What I should have done long ago when Sabina showed me that she wouldn't just stop fighting me."

"You need her," I remind him. "Isn’t she integral to your deal with Boris? How is he going to trust you after this?"

Leo's lips curl into a cold smile. "I have other children. She was just the oldest and made things simple. But she's outlived her worth."

"You just hunted her mother across the entire world in order to get her a kidney and now you're just going to kill her because you have other children?" My pounding heart suddenly slows and a cold realization trickles through me. I step forward. "You don't have other kids."

"What the fuck do you know?" Leo snarls.

"You're killing her… and you're going to blame us, aren't you? Boris is already at odds with us and you want to fuel the fire while securing your deal, don't you? He’ll still deal because he’ll think you’re both fueled by the same fucking thing."

Leo's lips twitch. "I know you made it into the Suit for a reason, but I fucking hate you cunts." He lifts his gun and takes aim at Illyana's sleeping form in the bed.

I act with little thought. The nearest thing to me is a jug of water on the side table so I snatch it up and launch it full force at Leo across the room. As it flies, I sprint after him and he cries out in alarm, then ducks to avoid the jug. As it flies past his shoulder and clatters against the wall in an explosion of water, I throw myself over Illyana's bed and slam my fist hard into the side of Leo's head.