Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
MAYA
T he further away I get from the ballroom, the more my panic subsides. By the time the noise has faded to a dull roar, it actually feels like I might not suffocate on my own heartbeat.
The doctor is here.
Sionis Thane.
Knowing the devil’s name doesn’t make eternal damnation any easier.
He is here at the palace, compromising the only place of safety I have left.
I never should have come here.
My vision remains blurred with unshed tears, but I refuse to let any more of them fall. Despite a few brief flashes of humanity, Logan has made no secret of who he is. Tonight is no exception.
He won’t ever truly be my mate. Fine.
He doesn’t respect me. Fine.
But if he can’t, or won’t, protect me…then what the hell am I still doing here ?
I catch myself with one hand on the textured wallpaper and take a gasping breath. Dread yawns inside of me, a black hole of despair that will swallow me up.
I think I always knew the doctor would come for me. He had made a single mistake one day, failing to secure one of my restraints before administering my daily dose of sedative. I had attacked him with the assumption that his response would be to finally kill me. I hadn’t expected to take him so much by surprise, staring down in shock at his prone form after I knocked him out with one blow from the metal tray that was the only available weapon at hand.
Even then, I knew I should have finished the job. I should have canted the end of that tray against his neck and smashed it down as hard as I could, as many times as it took to fracture his spine. Instead, I stole every credit chit on him I could find and fled into the night.
I didn’t have the stomach for murder then. Now, I’m about to pay for that weakness.
My only hope is if Thane didn’t recognize me. He couldn’t possibly have expected me to be here, wouldn’t think to look for me in a sea of unfamiliar people.
But it’s still only a matter of time before he discovers me. He has somehow become the High Inquisitor, able to question anyone and go anywhere in the palace with impunity. It would be too easy for him to access me.
Take me back.
Finish what he started.
Which is why another quick escape is my only option.
Empty corridors stretch ahead of me, entirely deserted and eerily quiet. I haven’t passed a single guard in my stumbling flight back to the harem. While Logan and the others are still distracted at dinner, I’ll grab whatever I can carry of value from the apartment and then figure out a way out of the palace.
I’ll just have to leave my next step open-ended for now. The alternative would have me curled up into a ball on the floor because there are just no good options. There are no options for me at all.
Breaking my mating contract with Logan will make me a true fugitive. The financial and criminal penalties will strip me of what little freedom I have left if I’m caught. Fertile Omegas are rarely forced into work camps, but something tells me an exception might be made for me if both a High Inquisitor and a prince want to see me suffer.
For a breathless moment, I consider going to Logan with all of it. Throwing myself at his mercy and pledging my loyalty if he’ll protect me, regardless of his lies of omission.
But that claiming mark speaks volumes about his character. His reaction to my obvious fear at dinner is just more evidence of who he really is. And how little I can trust him.
The irony of it all burns at me. I came to the palace seeking safety, only to find myself trapped between a possessive Alpha who sees me as property and the monster who once carved me open for his experiments.
No. Leaving is my only option.
I come across the same portrait of Queen Midale three times before I realize that my ruminating has me going around in circles. I’ve never walked from the ballroom back to the harem on my own and I realize with a sinking sensation that I have no idea where I’m going .
When the first boom shakes the corridor, I mistake it for the frantic racing of my own heart.
The second explosion hits closer, the force sending me stumbling into the wall. The third follows immediately after, and the floor beneath my feet bucks like a living thing.
Dust rains from the ceiling. The walls shudder and groan. Paintings crash to the floor, their frames splintering. The electric lights flicker once, twice, then die completely.
My knees give out. I slide down the wall, arms wrapped around my head as chunks of plaster hit the floor around me. The thundering chaos drowns out my own panicked breathing.
A tight beam of light cuts through the darkness. A guard sprints past, flashlight bouncing wildly. His mouth moves, shouting something at me, but my ears are ringing too badly to make out the words. Before I can call out to him, he disappears around the corner.
I force myself back to my feet, using the wall for support. Emergency lights flicker to life, casting everything in an eerie red glow. I pick a direction at random and start moving.
Left, right, straight ahead? None of the corridors look familiar in the crimson emergency lighting. My bare feet crunch over broken glass and debris. The air grows thick with dust, making my eyes water and throat burn.
I round another corner and stop dead. The entire hallway ahead has collapsed. Broken beams jut from a mountain of rubble that reaches to the ceiling. The entrance hall for the harem is now a dead-end.
The floor trembles again. Another explosion, but further away this time. Small avalanches of debris cascade down the blocked corridor. I back away, heart hammering. I need to find another way out before the entire palace comes down around me.
I squint through the dusty red haze, spotting a silhouette at the far end of the corridor. Relief floods through me.
“Hello?” My voice comes out hoarse from the debris-filled air. “Please, I need help finding?—”
The figure takes a step forward, body language relaxed. Something about the movement sends ice water trickling down my spine. Wrong. Everything about it is wrong.
Another step. The emergency lights paint crimson shadows across the face that haunts my nightmares. The same clinical curiosity exists in those dead eyes. I remember that same slight tilt of his head, like I’m a fascinating specimen pinned to his examination table.
“This diversion worked even better than I could have expected. I never guessed I could stumble upon you so easily.” Thane’s voice carries the same detached interest it did during those endless hours of torture. As if my suffering was merely an inconvenient necessity for his research. “It’s time to come home, dearest.”
My legs won’t move. My lungs won’t draw breath. I’m frozen in place as surely as if he’d already strapped me down.
The floor trembles with aftershocks from the most recent explosion, but the halls have gone quiet. I hear distant shouts, but nowhere near close enough to hear me call for help. Thane takes another measured step forward, and my paralysis finally breaks.
“I’m willing to forgive these theatrics if you do not make me chase you. You have no idea how pleased I am that you’ve made this so easy for me, how happy it made me to see your name printed in the society pages. Happy enough to forgive you for that unpleasantness between us from before.”
I should have known when a call never went out for my arrest that he planned to find me. Why alert the Guardians that a crime has been committed, that I assaulted and robbed him, when he planned to do so much worse to me.
I spin and flee back the way I came, nearly tripping on the debris-strewn floor. I hear his footsteps behind me, unhurried. Confident.
He must know something that I don’t. That there isn’t anywhere left to run.
I sprint through the maze of deserted corridors, my lungs burning from the dust and smoke. Every shadow makes me flinch, every echo of falling debris sounds like his footsteps. The emergency lights paint everything in a hellish red glow that distorts my surroundings into unrecognizable shapes.
His footsteps approach at that same unhurried pace as his voice drifts through the darkness. “You’re only making this harder on yourself. The palace is in chaos. No one will notice one missing Omega in all this confusion.”
Tears stream down my face as memories of cold metal tables and sharp scalpels flood back.
“I’ve made such fascinating progress since you left, though never as much as I did with you.” His voice moves closer. “The transplant rejection issues have been mostly solved. Though I still need to run more trials to be certain. ”
There is a dead-end ahead of me, this hallway abruptly ending in a bare wall. I try every door as I race past, each of them locked. Finally, a handle turns. I slip inside a dark room and lock the door behind me.
It’s too dark to see well, but I think I’m in a storage closet. The space is only a few feet deep and my groping hands meet metal shelving lined with bottles and what feels like folded rags.
The handle jiggles. I press deeper into the corner, willing myself to disappear into the wall.
I feel around for something blunt or heavy, but don’t come up with anything better than what I’m pretty sure is a mop handle.
With a loud bang, the door swings open. Red emergency light spills in, silhouetting Thane’s tall, thin frame in the doorway. His eyes find mine immediately, clinical and cold as ever.
“There you are.” He reaches for me with those precise surgeon’s hands. “Now, come with me so we can continue our work.”
I grab the nearest object, a bottle of cleaning solution, and hurl it at him. The plastic bottle bounces harmlessly off his chest, but caustic liquid splashes into his eyes.
Thane staggers back with a shocked cry of pain, hands flying to his face. I dive past him through the doorway, not waiting to see if I’ve bought myself more than a few seconds of time to escape.
Behind me, his enraged roar echoes off the walls: “You’ll pay for that, you little bitch!”
I run faster, dodging around a corner. I have to find Logan or the others. Have to find someone, anyone, before Thane catches me again.
I would rather die than go back with him.