Chapter 7
I’m ripped out of sleep, my head snapping back as a jolt of energy tears through my spine. Fire blooms in the center of my chest, and I choke on a sharp intake of air.
I blink, trying to focus on the concrete wall in front of me. “What the fuck…”
Shifting onto one foot, I push myself up from the kneeling position I’d drifted into. My temple rests against the cold wall I’m chained to, the chill grounding me. I’m surprised they even gave me enough slack to kneel after what they thought I’d done earlier.
I wasn’t reaching for Vendra’s power. I’ve been without our connection for so long, I couldn’t summon it even if I tried. If they’d let me explain, I would’ve told them I only wanted to hear her voice. To get confirmation she hasn’t forgotten me.
Not to beg for help. Just to be remembered.
But this feeling—this sharp, electric flame through my body—it’s familiar. Almost like when I used to channel. That can’t be right. I shouldn’t be able to. Nothing about my predicament has changed…
So why does it feel like something inside me has woken up?
Rolling my forehead along the stone, I lift my hands above my head and cross my wrists before turning back around. Leaning until the wall supports my back, I let my knees sink into the cold floor again. My body goes slack, breath shallow, eyes fixed on the door.
“Vendra?” I whisper.
Moments pass, and as it has for the last however many years, silence greets me.
Closing my eyes, I bite down on the inside of my cheek that split open earlier. The sting sends a wave of tears up behind my lids.
“I wonder if you regret not letting me die that day…” My voice cracks, rough and uneven. “You still lost me in the end.” A shudder leaves my chest. “Just don’t forget about me, no matter how long I’m here. I promise I’m worth not forgetting.”
My head feels light and hollow. The edges of my vision fade as I drift into the dark patches that bloom behind my eyelids.
“Just remember I’m still here…”
A loud bang startles me back awake. It caused me to jerk so hard my shoulders popped. It feels like I’d just drifted off before being violently woken again.
Light floods the room, forcing my eyes shut quickly. This is more activity than I’ve had in years, and all I want is for them to leave me the Beyond alone.
Heavy footsteps echo across the floor and I hold my breath. Those steps don’t belong to any of the officers. I’ve only heard them once before, but I’d never mistake them. His left foot drags just enough to sound uneven.
Before I can even try to move, a hand seizes my chin.
I’m slammed back against the wall. My chained wrists above my head rattle as I try to jerk free from them.
“Open your eyes.” Butcher’s voice is different this time—darker, sharper. “Open your fucking eyes, Witch.”
I shake my head weakly. “I don’t need to see—”
“It isn’t a request,” he growls. “Do it, or I’ll cut your lids off.”
Fucking Vayl above.
I knit my brows together, hesitating only a heartbeat before I obey. Slowly, I force my eyes open.
He’s so close that all I can see are his eyes—wide, burning crimson. The light from the doorway is swallowed by his frame, leaving the rest of him a shadow.
He exhales sharply, dropping his hand from my jaw as he leans back. I struggle to keep myself upright on my knees, wobbling, but refusing to fall.
As my eyes adjust, I finally see him.
Vendra help me—why is he covered in blood?
I swallow hard and follow the trail from his eyes to his nose, down to the mouth framed by a neatly-trimmed beard splattered with crimson. My gaze drifts lower, over his chest and torso, where every inch bears evidence of carnage.
Is he here to try and kill me?
His eyes flick down to my lips, which have parted, ready to beg him to try.
“Why can’t I say your name to anyone?” His voice is calm now, but the hate in it still cuts deep.
“Why are you trying to tell someone my name!? It was for you only!”
He narrows his eyes. “If it’s mine, I should be able to do what I want with it. Why can’t I?” “I swear to the Gods, if she’s—”
Wait. His mouth stopped moving…
Oh, fuck.
He groans, irritation bleeding through. “Why can I only say your name when no one can hear it? Or see it?”
My heart lurches. I shake my head, voice unsteady. “Oh no.”
“What?” He quite literally growls out the word.
That feeling earlier— “Was my name smudged with blood?”
When he drops his head, pinching his fingers over the bridge of his nose before rubbing his eyes, I fear the worst.
Please say no. Please, please say no.
“Well, I’ve got bad news for you—it was. Why?”
My whole body ignites with panic. How could I have been so reckless? I knew better. I swore I’d written it with my uninjured hand. My dominant one. But my sliced fingers… Was that the hand I used to move the page?
Was that why he sounded frustrated when I finished?
Oh, Vendra, no. This can’t be happening. I can’t be bonded to this man.
My gaze flickers up to meet his. “I’m not sure I can undo it.”
He stiffens. “Undo… what?”
“You have to believe me when I say I didn’t do it on purpose.”
His damn nose twitches, and I clear my throat.
Alright, note to self: don’t be ambiguous.
“Never mind.”
Fuck it. It’s not like I’m getting out of here to be bonded to my actual mate. This means nothing.
“I give you permission to share it with whoever you need. Now get out of my cell!”
At this point, I don’t care. He can shout my name to the entire fucking world if it means he leaves me here and never comes back.
“Bullshit. Fucking bullshit.” I try to tune him out, but his thoughts bleed through—angry, sharp, impossible to ignore. “I didn’t just kill everyone to leave you here, stupid girl.”
Oh… fuck.
“Listen to me.” His tone hardens. “I’m going to break your chains—”
“What?!”
“—and you’re going to walk out of here. I’ve carried you once, and that’s it. You’ll help me get what I want, and then you can either crawl back here or disappear.”
He’s lost his godsdamn mind. Shaking my head, I can barely form words.
He has no idea what this means. What it’ll cost. I’ll be vulnerable, easily accessible to what I truly fear. I have to convince him to see better reason.
“You know what I’ve done. I-I’m a murd—”
“I know exactly who and what you are, slayer.” He steps closer, his growl low and dangerous. Even at a distance his presence swallows the room, and up close—by my God—he could smother me without a thought. “Don’t mistake this for mercy. I’m doing it for me. Now get up.”
“No.” I shove myself harder against the wall, digging my nails into the floor.
“I’m taking you whether you like it or not.”
“Then I’ll fight you every second of it.”
A feral sound rips from his chest. “Freedom doesn’t entice you? I saw what being outside did to you. I felt it.”
I don’t answer, instead, just shake my head and curl into myself, pressing my forehead to my knees.
His voice drops, low and cautious. “What will entice you?”
My heart stutters.
“You have to want something.”
Just one thing.
“Name it,” he says. I need to be careful; it seems his link to me is just as strong. “Within reason. I won’t be killing fucking kids for you.”
My throat tightens and I squeeze my eyes shut.
“I don’t trust you,” I murmur. “So, you’ll have to make it a blood bind.”
“You and this shit—” He pushes to his feet, the sudden motion startling. Then comes the crack of breaking metal. I flinch and look up.
He’s crushed the first chain, then moves to the other, snapping it just as easily.
“Whatever. You’ll also tell me about this… shit with your name.”
I stare at him then at the ruined chains on the floor. I don’t want to leave. Even after everything—after the pain I’ve been put through here, and the humiliation, I’d rather stay here where I’m untouchable by true evil.
“Get up.”
I slide up the wall slowly, arms trembling as I lift my hands. The metal cuffs still bite into my wrists, but the chains drag uselessly along the floor.
Then I see it. The open door behind him. It’s a natural feeling to want to be free, even if my brain tells me no.
“Let’s go.” He steps aside.
I hesitate for a mere heartbeat before moving past him.
Jozier’s body is the first thing I see outside the cell. He’s sprawled backward over the railing that overlooks the prison’s lower floors, his back broken, neck twisted, spine jutting out where his Adam’s apple is.
“Is… everyone dead?” I whisper, glancing back at Butcher as he brushes past me.
“Yes.”
“Even the cook?”
That stops him. He turns his head slowly, eyes narrowing.
“Everyone.”
I take a deep breath and nod. My body screams to stop, to rest, but I force my legs to move—one in front of the other—following him down the hall.
We reach the first floor. Blood and bodies cover everything.
I wonder if he killed the other prisoners, too.
“Gods, no. I didn’t kill them.”
I’m grateful he isn’t looking at me when that slips out. I’ll close the link between us once I can channel again. Right now, I’m too drained to separate my thoughts from his.
“The authorities will be alerted to the attack in twenty-four hours.”
“They’ll know I’m missing,” I say dryly.
He stops dead in his tracks. I’m too close to react, slamming right into his back.
A soft oof escapes me as I stumble backward, my bare feet skidding on the blood-slick floor. Before I can fall, his arm shoots out and his hand clamps around my wrist right over the cuff.
“I know,” he grits out.
He wraps the chain around his fist and yanks me up beside him. With his other hand, he pulls out a phone, dials a number, and presses it to his ear.
“I’m done. Going dark. I’ll contact you in a few days.”
Then, without warning, he crushes the device in his hand. Metal and plexiglass rain to the floor as he shakes the shards from his palm.
He tugs the chain roughly again, as if impatient with me, and drags me toward the exit.
The moment the doors open, cold air rushes in. I want to breathe it in, to feel the moonlight on my face and the salt of the sea against my skin. But Butcher yanks me in front of him before I can even lift my head.
“Do the damn promise thing,” he growls. “Or whatever.”
Now that we’re outside, in the moonlight, I can finally see him. Beyond the blood and carnage. The scowl cutting across his mouth. The furrow between his brows. The dark hair—just as I imagined, a deep chocolate brown.
And his eyes, even full of hate, look almost… kind.
Swallowing hard, I lower my gaze to my hand and turn it palm up.
Vendra… “Through this oath, I bind myself to help you…”
“Find someone.” He adds in the detail.
“…find someone,” I echo softly, “in exchange for a death.”
Gripping the cuff on my other wrist, I drag its sharp edge across my palm. The metal splits skin easily, and blood wells up, hot and bright.
“It’s not a child,” I add, glancing up at him through my lashes. He’s watching my hand, transfixed by the blood. “Cut your hand and place it in mine.”
“Yeah, sort of figured that.”
He raises his hand to his mouth and bites down. His fang pierces skin, and a line of crimson trails down his tattooed forearm—a sight that’s equal parts brutal and beautiful.
“Who am I killing?” he asks.
“Who am I finding?” I counter.
His eyes narrow, but he doesn’t answer. Instead, he presses his palm against mine. His skin is searing, and the moment our blood mingles, the signature of the binding hums between us.
I close my eyes. “Locked by fate, bound by our oath.”
When I let go, he yanks his hand away. “Is it done?”
I nod once and take a slow breath, ready—finally—to feel the cool night air on my fevered skin.
It lasts all of two seconds.
He’s gone before I can blink, and then—
A crushing pain explodes at the back of my neck. Blackness blooms at the edges of my vision, spreading fast. The last thing I see is the ground rushing up to meet me.