Chapter 28
Her heart thundered, but her face stayed blank. “Just like you said, I’m useless.” She shrugged. “I can read minds. That’s it.”
“Wrong.” Ryker pointed his cigarette at her. “You’re an empath, too. Stop lying, Audrey, or I’ll rip it out of you. Mihail thought you had more. Prove it.”
He’d tracked her for months and still hadn’t learned the truth. That was the only leverage she held. If he revealed her real abilities, he could rip away her only protection, use her, or destroy her, threatening Cary even more. Guarding her secret was the last shield between them and annihilation.
“What else can you do?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Stop lying.” He dropped his gaze, hesitated, then hurled a broken tablet past her shoulder.
She covered her face but still saw the device splinter against the wall, fragments floating in the air a few seconds before falling.
Ryker cocked his head.
Red clouded her vision as she stalked forward and pushed her hands against his chest. He didn’t budge. “Don’t ever try that again,” she growled.
“I’ll do whatever I want.” He leaned in. “And I can’t wait to see you on your knees when I crack your pretty head open.”
“You’ll be waiting a long time.” She shoved her aura into his, forcing him back. He didn’t move far, but it was enough to prove she could.
Something flashed in his eyes—interest. “Then get on your knees.”
“Go to hell.”
“You’re just a liability with a talent for self-destruction.” He took a drag, exhaling smoke into the room. “Mihail thought you might replace Sophia.” He tsked. “I’m beginning to wonder why.”
Before she could reply, he bent in. She felt his heat. “Tell me, how much did that idiot pay you for that pathetic fuck I saw? Bet he overpaid.”
His lips brushed her ear. It wasn't a kiss—it was a threat. “Such a shame I'll have to go after your sister when I'm done with you. Cary—”
The name alone made the blood drain from Audrey’s face. Cary was the only person left who mattered, the one thing Audrey would burn worlds to protect. Ryker knew it, and that was what made his threat hurt greater than any physical wound.
“Don’t say her name.”
Then, the lid over her power came loose, a crack in her blank mask exposing a flash of terror and rage. Gold fire gushed from her hands. It didn’t merely stutter into existence—the power burst out of her. Flame moved along her arm, licking across her skin without burning, until it hit him.
The heat tore through his shirt in a clean line of destruction. He stared first at the damage, then at the gold twisting around her hand. Surprise lit up his eyes, followed by something much more threatening.
There you are. His mind went quiet with focus after that thought.
She forged on. “My pussy costs more than you could afford,” she said sweetly. Another flame burst at him, faster.
This time, he blocked it—barely. It still slammed into him, splintering outward like light hitting glass as he absorbed the blow and the fire. A snarl ripped from his throat.
He was a siphon, like her mother. Someone who could drain power from others and use it as his own—a rare and dangerous ability, Mihail had said.
Ryker was more impressive, though, because he wasn’t just draining it. He was reading it as it moved through him, learning its structure, mapping the shape of her power while he took it.
“Careful,” he taunted. “It’s treason to threaten the king’s life—”
“That’s hilarious.” Gold flared on her hand. “Think about my sister again, and I’ll remove your head, Your Majesty.”
He moved without warning or buildup. One moment later, and his hand was around her throat. While his grip was firm, it wasn’t crushing. His intention was easy to read. He wanted to stop her, and he did, interrupting her momentum mid-strike.
But his eyes changed, and he didn’t seem human anymore. Not that he ever was one, but now he looked less like a man and more like a thing wearing one—too unmoving and too certain.
Killing her would be easy.
He wasn’t even trying to keep the thought away from her.
Of course, it would be easy. They both knew it.
But would he do it?
His eyelids blinked slowly, and Audrey had her answer.
The truth was, Ryker didn’t want to kill her. He wasn’t being gentle or kind by sparing her, though—he was curious.
Clenching her shirt, he pulled her closer. “That’s the last time you interrupt me.”
“Yeah?” she breathed. “Teach me a lesson.”
His fingers caressed her mouth in a slow, deliberate motion.
Desire unfurled low in her belly despite the threat, and Audrey instantly hated the confusing rush.
The sensation was as much fear as it was attraction, tangled together so tightly she couldn’t separate them.
It wasn’t even an attraction…it was more a gut punch of panic and expectation.
Like the sick, electric recognition of two weapons built to wound in similar ways.
A feeling inside her recoiled at those thoughts, shame and want twisting together.
Was she really this person, meeting violence and vulnerability with something raw and hungry?
She wished the answer was no. But in the silent dark places of her mind, Audrey recognized the shape of this longing, and she could not deny the disturbing pull.
I want to see what you become when someone breaks you.
She wanted him dead.
And, far more dangerously, wanted him closer.
Her power lashed out in an uncontrolled wave.
He snapped his hands out, countering, barely. Which shocked him.
Their power locked together. Her gold aura engulfed his own. His power split against it, continuing to force her back.
But on the fourth strike, he let it hit, took it, absorbed it, and hurled it back into her. She fell into the wall. It knocked the wind from her lungs. Heat tore across her flesh as if she’d been flayed open.
No one moved as her breath returned in a ragged pull, disappointment and humiliation warring on her face. This wasn’t over. She straightened, slow and unsteady at first, but managed to eventually pull herself upright, determination flaring anew.
“Fascinating,” he rasped.
“Unbelievable, someone so capable can be so incompetent,” she said, hoarse.
“You want the hard way? Then get on your knees—or prove you shouldn’t be.”
His own gold aura—a mirror of hers—flew forward. Agony lanced through her skull, instant and absolute. She fell to the floor. Her knees hit the ground in a bruising drop.
And still, his consciousness kept crashing into hers. He didn’t knock or even test. Ryker just entered, total in his dominion over her mind.
“That’s better,” he purred.
His presence broke down her barriers with a violence that allowed no space to hide. Nothing she’d seen in Taryn’s memories, or any others, could have prepared her for the scale of it. This man didn’t dismantle someone’s mind; he consumed it.
“You’re an asshole,” she gasped.
“I am.”
He crouched, watching her earnestly as he sifted through her mind. She felt him linger on her moments of shame, on dark memories and places she tried not to look too hard at.
“You hide behind anger,” he said. “And still come back for more.”
Her body shook from the raw exposure and embarrassment.
“You want me to stop?” he asked softly. “Then make me.”
His words made her powers come raging through her limbs. This wasn’t the same break she’d felt when he threatened Cary. It was deeper and louder. Almost unavoidable—just pure force. An unrestrained, undirected detonation.
She screamed as a gold shockwave flared outward. Completely out of control.
Still on her knees, she threw it at him.
Ryker stumbled. Shock—real and unfiltered—flashed across his face.
“Do that to anyone else,” she growled, “but not me. Those memories are mine—and you’ll pay for each one you saw.”
A few seconds passed while Ryker stared like she was something new. Something worth fearing. Then, his mask returned.
“Get up,” he said, voice lethal.
When she refused to move, he grabbed her by the arm and lifted her upright.
A low sound rumbled in his throat as he dragged a fingertip along her neck. Her skin welled where his touch burned. The mark alone made her furious.
“You’re even more of a bastard than they say,” she whispered.
“I know.” He moved away from her again. “This was a test.”
Audrey wanted to cry, her frustration nearly boiling over. After all her planning, he’d still managed to test her like everyone else here. Home Field processed people—and she’d been no different.
She forced aside defeat. “Breaking into my head was a test?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Angering you was.”
Of course it was. He needed to see what broke her, what triggered her, and what happened when she ultimately lost control. He wasn't just testing her for curiosity’s sake but searching for the limits she would reach as well as the leverage he could use.
Ryker wiped blood from his nose, the only sign he’d exerted himself against her. Then, much to Audrey’s surprise, he looked at her without the usual contempt. The shift was slight, though unmistakable. “Mihail didn’t save you,” he said. “He preserved you.”
Audrey couldn’t move, shame and regret rooting her in place so firmly she couldn’t summon a snippy response. She’d fallen right into his trap.
“Now I understand why.” He smirked. “If Mihail was right, you might be worse than Sophia.”
A moment elapsed.
“Which makes you far more interesting.”
She didn’t look away despite wanting to melt into the floor, mortification buzzing under her skin.
“You’re not the one they’re afraid of yet,” he continued. “But you will be.”
His fingers touched his mouth while he watched her with the animal recognition of meeting something dangerous enough to match him.
“If your power manifests fully...” His bright smile beamed. “We are going to kill a lot of people together.”
She expected to feel disjointed hearing his plans for her. But instead she felt...seen.
She didn’t just want to survive.
She wanted Cary safe.
She wanted control.
She wanted people afraid enough never to betray her again.
She wanted power.
Not his—her own. But she couldn’t let him know that, and she had one more card to play.
“I would rather die.” She grabbed his shirt tighter and forced her way into his mind. His shields fractured like thin glass.
The way they broke was so fast and so clean, she had to suck in a deep breath to steady herself. This was wrong—impossible, maybe. A mind such as his should not have opened that easily. Something in her had changed or awakened, making her into a form neither of them had expected.
But Audrey wasn’t ordinary, and he had pushed her too far. She entered him fully, unable to hold her power back. Yet rather than fury, the first thing she felt from him was something stranger.
Excitement.
She realized that it had been years since Ryker felt resistance. And never like this.
He gasped, feeling the intrusion. Actually gasped. But he couldn’t hide his emotions from her now—Ryker was surprised.
He smiled.
It was all she needed to keep going.
Being inside his mind should have been alien.
Instead, it was frighteningly familiar. Like touching a reflection that could reach back.
She’d seen him in pieces already—first in her backyard through memory and nightmare, in the club back in Tolusa, and also the hologram towering above the courtyard.
But this was different. Here, there was no projection, no psychic bleed, and no distance to temper him into something unreal.
This was the same face from the fire, the same mouth that had spoken inside her skull, standing close enough now to share breath. His energy folded onto her like hot silk—not resisting her at all. The feeling was as addictive as it was terrifying.
Audrey’s presence in his mind dragged a tremor down Ryker’s spine. As she dug, part of him wanted to push her out.
But another part pulled her inward.
So, she went further, even as his thoughts roared.
Power twisted under her hold, and beneath all his disorder, a memory emerged. A recent one. He hadn’t just replayed it—he’d turned it over repeatedly like a fracture he kept circling because he still hadn’t found where it began. She latched onto it.
He tried to stop her, but Audrey felt it.
This was the moment everything went wrong for Ryker.