Chapter 39
Alistair Bennett Hertley.
My eyes don’t move from the name. It’s like something inside me physically refuses to look past it.
Of course.
Of course it’s him.
Of course, he wouldn’t just be… a professor.
Neural mapping… emotional response… The Forge… head of the R&D Nocturis Vincit… Experimenting with human lives—volatile criminals, sure, but still human. Still breathing. Still feeling. Still… alive.
My gaze drags lower, slower now, forcing myself through it.
Delilah Crosswave. I frown slightly. His wife.
“She’s not human,” I mumble, more to myself than to Adrian. My voice sounds distant, like it’s coming from somewhere outside my body. “And he married her.”
My lips part slightly.
I feel my empty stomach churning horribly. This time, it’s not from dread but from pure disgust and disbelief.
“Excuse me—” the words barely make it out before I’m pushing off the seat, moving too fast, too abruptly.
My body reacts before my mind can catch up as I dash to the bathroom. One hand clutching on the tablet, the other pressed tightly over my mouth.
I don’t lock the bathroom door as I drop to my knees. Bracing myself against the toilet, I dry-heave relentlessly, dragging everything up with it. Acid burns my throat, my mouth turning bitter with bile and half-digested coffee.
He’s been fucking a half-human.
My stomach lurches again, another wave forcing its way up, harsher this time.
How is that even possible? How can he even do it?
Calling that thing human is distorted. Like forcing a lie into a shape that almost seems too real to be an illusion, but doesn’t satisfy any logic to justify it.
“You okay?”
I don’t even hear him come in. I’m surprised Adrian left his precious desktop to come check up on me.
He stands just inside the doorway—closer than I expected.
“I don’t know,” I manage to speak, feeling my throat burn.
I reach blindly, fingers fumbling until I hit the flush and let myself slide down the cold tile. The chill seeps through instantly. It’s grounding yet unwelcoming.
I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, dragging a shaky breath that doesn’t quite steady me.
And still I pick the tablet back up as if something is pulling me back in. It’s in that moment that I realize I can never hate Alistair for anything.
My eyes drop to the screen again, locking onto the line in bold red. Was he recruited… or created?
I swipe for the next page, almost getting a glimpse of Alistair’s mugshot with this detailed profile, but the screen goes black.
A low hum begins in my palm almost immediately. Subtle at first, then gradually intensifying, making it vibrate through my fingers, crawling up my wrist.
My heart thumps harder.
A mechanical feminine voice starts counting from three.
“Adrian—” I call, my voice laced with genuine fear I don’t bother hiding anymore.
“Throw it away!” he’s already inside before I can finish whatever I was about to say.
His hand strikes mine, knocking the tablet clean out of my grip. It clatters against the tile just as his other hand closes around my arm, hauling me up in one smooth motion.
He pulls me out of the bathroom, putting distance between me and the device.
As soon as he does, the countdown stops, followed by a thin thread of smoke curling out of the tablet.
My eyes widen, locking onto it with newfound horror. “What does… what just happened?”
Adrian doesn’t look at me when he speaks—too busy watching it turn to ashes. “Self-destruction.”