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To kill us.
My jaw clenches at the thought of any harm befalling our bird, but my stomach twists knowing that I didn’t start this thinking I’d come out the other side alive.
“My parents were very outspoken, liberals in my country, alongside several others that wanted to move away from the old ways and embrace the modern age,” I tell her, her beautiful, blue eyes laser-focused on me as I bring up the plan that I haven’t even told the guys. I wanted to do this alone, the risk to anyone else was too great. “Then one day, men burst into our house and killed them all, brutally and without mercy. I was out playing with my friends when I heard the screams, but by the time I rushed back it was too fucking late,Eshgham. They were all gone, their blood sparkling all over the walls as though someone had taken a can of paint and thrown it at them. I remember sinking to my knees, then jumping out of my skin when a broken voice called my name.” I have to close my eyes and swallow hard at the next part, the memory of my mother’s voice, so shattered and filled with agony making fire burn in my veins. “It was my mother, barely alive, her torso ripped open, and I knew, even in my child’s brain, that she wasn’t long for this world. She told me to run, to hide far away, and to never return.”
“Oh, Tarl.”
I open my eyes and find her own full of tears, tears that I don’t fucking deserve. I watch as one spills down her cheek, and I want to roar at the fact that I can’t go to her and wipe it away.
“We have more in common than you knew,Eshgham, for I, too, held my mother as she died in my arms, vowing as her soul left her I would one day come back, find the men who killed my family, and make them beg for death.” The rage that flows through me is like a welcome friend, and I bask in its glow for a moment before remembering that she’s here too. And it’s like a bucket of ice water has been thrown over me, and for perhaps one of the first times in my life, panic tries to claw at me.
“So, you set this whole thing up? To avenge them?” she questions, and I expect to see disgust or condemnation in her eyes, but all I see is the softness of her face as she uses a gentle tone. “Tarl, I’ve heard about these groups. T–They do terrible things to people. They kill them, just like your family…” Her eyes widen and she tries to lean towards me, but her own cuffs prevent it. “You knew you wouldn’t come back from this, didn’t you?” Her cheeks are flushed, and her nostrils flare as she takes me in, my jaw grinding once more as I refuse to lie to her but can’t quite bring myself to say the words. “You didn’t tell the guys, did you? Knowing that this was basically signing your own death warrant. Fucking answer me!” The tears stream down her face, and my heart squeezes painfully in my chest.
“There’s a debt of blood to be paid,Aziz-e delam. A death vow to be fulfilled.” My voice isn’t hard like I want it to be, an edge of pleading softening my words, but they land like blows anyway, and she flinches back in her seat. My soul bleeds at the hurt and betrayal on her face.
“A–And us? What happens now?” she asks, and bile rises in my throat at what we are facing. “Where are they taking us, Tarl?” Her eyes are panicked, her entire body trembling, and fuck, I know that it’s not just my death warrant that I’ve signed.
“They’re taking us back to Iran,” I state, watching as her breath hitches, and then her chest rises and falls with shallow breaths.
“A–And then?” I can see the knowledge settle into those blue eyes, and I deserve to die for killing the light that usually makes them sparkle. Her hands grip the armrests and it’s like she has a vise over my heart, the organ barely able to beat when I think about what I’m forcing her to face.
It’s the only way.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I vow, my voice low and gruff. It’s possibly the first and only time I’ve ever lied to her. The way her shoulders slump tells me she knows it for the untruth that it is too.
“You won’t be able to stop them, will you.” It’s not a question, and I see her swallow right before her face drops, going completely blank, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that I’ve done what we set out to do all those months ago.
I’ve broken our beautiful bird.
* * *
We spend the rest of the plane ride in silence, my gaze never leaving hers even though through most of it, her eyes are blank. A part of me is glad that she’s been able to retreat into a place that feels safe. Another part of me fills with such self-loathing that I want to take a cheese grater to my skin at the thought that I’ve done this to her, the lost part of my soul.
I will get us out of this, or at least her. She’s been through too much to die in some dungeon on foreign soil. I just need her to hold out until I can get to him, the one I know who killed my family.
What I didn’t tell her was the years that I’ve been researching, even as a child I asked around, I always was observant. I discovered my family’s killer before Adam picked me up, knowing that one day I would be strong enough to take him down and make him pay. It was part of the reason I was willing to go with a complete stranger to a new land. I knew that the great Adam Taylor would help me become the man I needed to be in order to avenge them.
The line of new stitches along my forearm twinges, but I can’t scratch it even if I wanted to. There’ll be time later, all is going to plan so far. Well, except for them taking my beautiful bird. I watch as Lark whimpers in her sleep; she closed her eyes some time ago, her body twitching as her nightmares tighten their grip on her, and my jaw clenches so tightly that I think I might end up cracking a tooth.
I take a deep inhale, counting to seven, then exhale for the same amount of time, trying to calm and center myself, my mind whirling. How the fuck am I going to stop them from hurting her? I can’t act too soon, or all these years of planning will go to waste, and we may end up dead regardless. The chances of us escaping are slim to none as it is, but there must be a way.
Lark jerks awake as we touch down, a gasp falling from her beautiful lips as her frantic eyes search the surrounding area.
“We’re just touching down,Aziz-e delam,” I whisper, and her gaze snaps to mine, fire in the blue depths that I welcome with open arms. I deserve her rage. Crave it.
“Never thought I’d get to ride in a plane, so I suppose there’s that shitshow of a silver lining,” she says, and my brows drop as I realize I’ve stolen a first for her. She should have been bouncing with excitement as we whisked her off to faraway lands, not secured to the chair, about to be tortured for the third time in her life.Fuck!
We jerk as the plane judders, and I stare as her hands, once again, clasp the armrests tightly.
“I will get us out of this,Eshgham. I swear it, just trust me,” I plead in a low hiss, begging her with my soul to believe me. Her brows dip, and her hesitation isn’t a surprise, given all that she’s been through in her brief life, but it carves me like a knife to the stomach anyway.
“O–okay,” she stutters back, her mask of numbness gone as terror bleeds into her eyes.
“You need to go back to the cold place,Eshgham. Don’t let them get to you.” Tears fill her gaze, making the blue sparkle as her entire body trembles. “You just have to hold on, you are so fucking strong, so brave,Koshgelam, I know you can do it.” My heart is beating so hard I think it’s going to burst from my chest, but they’ll likely separate us soon, and I need to help her to just hold on until I can get us out of here.
“I–I’m scared,” she admits, and the small broken tone she uses sinks that knife in my gut deeper. Even though my mind knows it is futile, I find myself straining against my bonds to get to her. “I–I don’t think I can survive more,JigarTalâ,” she confesses, barely above a whisper.
“You must,Azizam,” I tell her, the need to rage and carve my way off this plane with her slung over my shoulder like King Kong making my blood boil and my fists clench. “You must do what you have to in order to survive. Find that numbness I saw when you were in the cage with Dean.”
