16. Briar
brIAR
“ I just need the ring I came here with and I can get us there once we’re out of this building.”
I haven’t been able to reach for Kael or Lyra, so there’s likely some block on magic in the building, but if we can get out of the building with their joint knowledge…there’s a chance I can get us to my realm.
All three pairs of eyes settle on me at once, and for a breath, the corridor feels smaller under the weight of them.
Callum’s grip locks tighter around me like he thinks I’ll vanish.
Elias’s stare is calculating and cold, as though he’s already running through the possibilities of my words.
Dante’s gaze is sharp and disbelieving, like I’ve lost my mind entirely.
They’re looking at me as though what I’ve just said is madness. Or as if I’m setting them up for a trap.
The rage that’s been simmering in my chest erupts before I can choke it back.
“My life is hinging on this plan too!” I snap, fury threading through every syllable. “So maybe have a little faith in the magic that your human brains can’t even begin to comprehend.”
The silence grates until Dante cuts through it, his voice rough and pitched low. “I still haven’t agreed to help with your escape.”
Callum’s chest expands with a deep breath, the air shuddering out of him like he’s ready to break apart on the spot, but it’s Elias who responds first. His stormy blue eyes snap to Dante, his tone menacing and like he’s run out of what little patience he’s been able to drum up to this point.
“Then make up your fucking mind, Dante,” he bites out, each word clipped. “Because if you keep standing here wavering, it won’t matter what side you’re on. I’m sure there will be whispers from whoever is in surveillance already, and if there aren’t yet, there will be in minutes.”
There’s so much tension in Dante’s biceps and shoulders, he’s like a wire ready to snap. I just hope for our sake he breaks in our direction.
“You weren’t always like this,” Callum says, his soft words such a harsh change from his brother’s. “I grew up with you. I remember the cousin who laughed with me, who cared when no one else did. The one who wasn’t afraid to be soft, even in this house.”
Dante’s jaw clenches as Callum presses on.
“I’m not saying I know what it cost you to become this version of yourself. I don’t. But I do know that part of you that I knew isn't gone. You can still fight to be the version of you who can stand to look in the mirror and not see a husk staring back.”
For a heartbeat, Dante doesn’t move and part of me wants to snap to make up his fucking mind already.
His gaze holds steady and unyielding, until the smallest fracture cuts through the mask. A flash of an emotion I’ve never seen in his eyes before–hope, tentative and dangerous, like he doesn’t dare let it shine too brightly in case it gets stolen from him again.
He glances back at me, his stare searing through the small space between us. “If I get you that ring,” he says, “and we get above the magnetic field blocking the magic, are you positive you can get us somewhere safe?”
Initially I feel justified in hearing there is some type of block on magic here, but then the weight of his question slams into me, burying everything else.
Our gazes lock, unblinking and searching the opposing force for validation that this is possible.
So much hinges on both of our roles in this…
the two people who truly know what it means to feel Terrance’s wrath.
For the first time, it feels like it isn’t just me desperately trying to claw free of this place–it’s him too. Two survivors cut open by the same man in different ways, looking at each other across the ruin he left.
It doesn’t erase what Dante’s done. It doesn’t wash away the way he stood by and let me be torn apart. But I can see it now, with the clarity of someone who knows suffering down to the marrow: he did what he had to in order to keep breathing and surviving in this place.
My answer comes without hesitation. “I can.”
A tense moment of silence follows, the hum of the lights above filling the space between each beat of our hearts. Dante doesn’t look away from me, his jaw flexing as if he’s fighting something deep inside to come to a decision.
Then, with a low growl edged in venom, he spits the words that shift everything.
“Fuck this place and fuck him. I’m in.”
The air itself seems to lurch from my body in a jagged exhale, and for the first time since I woke in this hell, the possibility of freedom feels real.
Dante doesn’t waste another breath. The flicker of hope is gone, swallowed back into the cold precision I’ve always seen in him.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he says, his tone clipped, already moving into giving these orders like he’s been rehearsing them in his head for years. “She needs to play like the mist is still doing its job. Head down, body limp. Make it convincing.”
Before I can even think, I let my chin drop harder against Callum’s chest, let my limbs hang slack as if the sedatives have gutted me through and through.
“Good.” Dante’s eyes flash over me once, then back to the brothers.
“You’re going to walk with her slowly, up the stairs to the research lab on the next floor.
In the meantime, I’ll head to surveillance and smooth over the shift change.
I’ll tell them I ordered fresh samples from direct blood draws. ”
Elias shifts, his jaw tight. “What about her ring? Where is it?”
Dante exhales sharply through his nose, the faintest flicker of tension in the set of his shoulders. “Last I saw, it was bagged in the lab. Evidence waiting to be tested.”
A low growl rumbles out of Callum, vibrating through his chest into me. “And how the hell are we supposed to get in and search for it without sounding every alarm in this goddamn place?”
Dante doesn’t hesitate. His tone sharpens, cutting clean through Callum’s frustration.
“I know how to bribe the guy in surveillance to buy us time,” he says flatly, as if he’s already weighed every angle.
“I’ll get him out and start a full reboot of the surveillance system.
That takes thirty minutes to complete and every camera will be down during it.
” His jaw ticks, and the weight in his voice drops colder.
“And if I can’t bribe him, then I’ll do what needs to be done. ”
The words land heavily, and for a moment I’m shocked by this version of him. Not at the threat itself, but at how easily it leaves his mouth. No hesitation, no apology.
That’s the moment I know he’s all in.
Elias’s gaze hardens, but it’s Callum who snaps, “That’s great and all, but what if there is someone in the lab?”
Dante shakes his head once, quick, decisive. “There won’t be. They aren’t working nights anymore now that they’ve got what they wanted from her blood. The formula’s done. They’re focused on mass production during the day.”
The silence that follows claws at my skin and makes my body shiver. My blood. The formula.
Callum’s hand on my leg brushes the skin gently, as if he’s trying to comfort me. My ire snaps my eyes to his face, but he pays me no mind.
Elias and him trade a single glance before nodding, silent agreement passing between them.
Dante’s eyes narrow, sharp and certain. “Good. Once the cameras are quiet, I’ll meet you back at the lab. Wait there for me once you have the ring.”
He steps in closer. “If any guard so much as gives you a side eye, you let me handle it. With my father asleep, I’m the authority tonight.”
His gaze sweeps to Elias. “Do you understand me? Do not snap back at them until I’m there.”
The words drop like a guillotine, final and unflinching.
“Understood, Sir.” Elias says, his voice pitched just loud enough to carry, smooth and deferential, like they’re reciting lines for an audience on the cameras.
Callum echoes him a beat later, the same false obedience laced into his tone.
Dante gives the faintest nod, already prowling away down the hall. The brothers turn in the opposite direction, their movements careful and slow. To the cameras, it probably looks routine: two loyal guards escorting their half-conscious prisoner at their cousin’s command.
In Callum’s arms, I force myself to stay limp, head pressed against his chest, even as my pulse kicks harder, betraying me. Eventually we make it to the echoing stairwell as the door thuds shut behind us, one step further from my cell.
Upward, the stairwell winds, narrow and metallic, leading to the cold level of the lab one floor above.
The stairwell door creaks open, and Elias holds it wide, his movements precise and measured, as if every gesture might be under scrutiny.
Callum steps through with me cradled tightly against his chest, and the metallic slam of the door closing echoes down the long corridor ahead of us.
Their bootsteps ring sharp against the tiled floor, each one bouncing back from the walls, a hollow rhythm that tightens the knot in my gut.
Soon enough Elias is at a door, swiping his badge across the scanner.
The lock clicks and a smooth hiss follows, the panel sliding open to allow us inside.
The door seals shut behind us with a final, heavy sound, cutting off the corridor.
Elias’s eyes flick upward, toward the corner-mounted cameras. “Red lights. He got them down. Let’s get to work.”
The words thrum through me, further igniting a spark of hope I can’t smother.
Callum lowers me onto my feet, his hands lingering at my arms like he’s worried I’ll collapse. His crystalline eyes meet mine, and for the first time tonight, his words are pointed at me.
“Briar,” he says quietly, “are you good enough to stand on your own while we search for your ring?”
My knees threaten to wobble beneath me, but I lock them in place, forcing my body upright as I glare at him. “I’m not some fragile thing you have to prop against the wall while you play hero. I’m more than capable of helping you look.”
The words scrape out sharper than I intend, but I don’t take them back. They deserve to feel my wrath. Let them remember I’m not their prisoner at this moment…I’m the reason they even have a chance of true escape.
I drag in a steadying breath, my voice cutting low as I add, “It’s a thin silver band with a large oval ruby.
” My gaze flicks between them, daring either to argue.
“So unless you’d rather waste time dragging me around like baggage, you’ll let me do what I can to help us find it before someone decides to check in down here. ”
Callum’s gaze lingers on me for a beat, bright blue eyes burning as he looks down at me.
Then the corner of his mouth tugs up, like a silent acknowledgement.
He turns without a word and moves to the back wall, pulling open the first of the white-labeled bins and rifling through its sterile contents.
Elias doesn’t move at first, keeping his eyes on me for a beat before his lip curls. “Save your performative bullshit,” he sneers, each word clipped like he’s spitting them out just to cut me down.
The fury that’s been simmering low in my chest lashes out before I can choke it back. “I said I’d get you out of here,” I snap, my words bleeding with venom, “but I didn’t say we’d be friends once that agreement comes to a close. I’ll show you just how real my bite is then.”
The words hang between us, the air thrumming with tension before he huffs out a dismissive laugh and turns to start his search.
Time blurs into a cold stretch of silence broken only by the shuffle of lids sliding back and the rattle of plastic. One bin after another is emptied, rifled through, closed again. Each one coming up hollow.
By the time the last container slams shut, Callum’s patience snaps. He hisses through his teeth, “We’re wasting precious time.”
His hand curls into a fist against the metal top of the counter up front, knuckles whitening.
The sudden click of the door jolts through the room like a gunshot. All three of us freeze, my heart clawing into my throat.
There’s no time to prepare.
When the panel slides open, Dante steps inside and our relieved breaths fall from us in unison.
“It’s time to go,” he says, gesturing with his hand to follow him back out.
Elias exhales, shoulders dropping a fraction, but his voice is still tight when he admits, “We can’t find it. The ring’s not in the evidence bins.”
“Fuck,” Dante snarls, “if it’s not here, then it’s being tested.”
He doesn’t waste another breath. He’s already striding to the far back of the room, fingers flying over the keypad beside a sealed door. He leans in, the scanner whirring, a pale red light sliding over his eye. A sharp beep follows, and the lock disengages with a hiss, causing the door to retract.
“Let’s move,” he snaps, disappearing inside.
The brothers surge forward after him, and I force my legs to follow, shaky but carrying me further than I’ve managed in weeks. The effects of the sedative mist are gone from my mind, fresh air burning sharp in my lungs, but every step feels like my bones are still remembering how to bear weight.
I clear the threshold and stop dead in my tracks.
The room is wide, bright, and merciless with the lines of lights shining down. Rows of stainless-steel counters gleam with organized instruments, screens pulsing with graphs and data I can’t decipher. Beyond them, in the heart of it all, an enormous vat sits, glass sides showing its content.
The liquid inside is darker than human blood, thick and familiar. My blood.
The label stamped across the tank burns into me in bold block letters: CONTROL SAMPLE.
My breath falters, the floor tilting beneath me as the sheer volume of my blood registers.
Gallons upon gallons of crimson gleam under the sterile lights, far more than I could ever give without being bled dry again and again.
Every drop proof of the endless times they’ve carved into me and drained me.
It isn’t just blood in that vat staring back at me, it’s weeks of my screams, my agony, and proof of my body being broken down into a commodity.