I tumbled headfirst down the final three steps, coming to a smashed heap at the bottom, unable to breathe, move, or speak.
My lungs stuck together as the force knocked the wind out of me. I blinked back silver stars as a middle-aged Chinmoku with a long goatee plaited with a red ribbon unwound whatever lasso he’d used to ensnare me. His hands on my legs made me shudder.
The moment I was free, he yanked me to my feet and wrapped his hand around my hair.
My list of ailments increased from unable to speak from bruising to unable to breathe from falling. I didn’t care about my voice, but I did care about getting oxygen into my frazzled, frightened body.
A trickle of blood seeped from my hairline—a headache forming from impact.
Without a word, he dragged me through the house, following the labyrinth as if he’d been born here. How he knew where he was going astounded me, but slowly, parts of the house I recognised appeared, and I inhaled my first deep inhale as he prowled across the foyer, dragging me beside him, and handed me to the oldest man of the Chinmoku.
A man reeking of refinement and dripping with cold-heartedness.
A man I knew instantly to be the one in charge and Elder’s greatest foe.
I was traded from one to another as the leader squirrelled me away into the library. There, he relished in the quiet normality as he regaled me with tales of the upcoming auction they’d arranged to replace the destroyed QMB. He laughed low and smooth as gunfire and curse words were fired and cut short.
Sitting down with me trapped on his lap, he stroked my hair as anarchy rained outside and spilled every business proposition he’d been working on.
How his new auction house would never have a name or permanent location so it could never be found. How he was so much smarter in this game than his old competitors.
He kissed my cheek as men thundered past and murmured that whatever price I earned would go into a fund and ensure Elder’s family was all exterminated because this was personal now and above honour.
And when he pulled me close, wrapped his fist in my hair, and wedged the sharpest, tiniest blade hooked on his finger to my throat, I’d wanted to tear his heart from his chest.
Not because I didn’t want to be sold again.
Not because I believed anything this man said would come true.
But because if I’d failed in my quest to bring help to Tess and the others.
I didn’t know where Elder was. I didn’t know if he was alive or dead, but for the first time in my life, I felt whole.
Whole and healed and furious.
I didn’t need Elder to complete me.
I didn’t need time to cure me.
I only needed to trust myself and I’d finally remembered how to do that.
There were no more holes in my heart, no more bruises in my soul, no more breaks in my bones. I was a girl and I was better than all the men who’d dared lay an unwanted finger on me.
I’ll ruin you.
Commotion sounded outside and the Chinmoku holding me smiled a knowing smile. “Ah, it’s time.”
Despite my loathing and newfound commitment to destroy every man, boy, and bastard involved in hurting innocence, I flinched as the leader smiled and brushed back my hair with a condescending look. “Know what time it is, little girl?”
Even if my throat wasn’t closed from his servant trying to kill me, I wouldn’t have spoken to him. I would never stoop so low.
He chuckled as if my angry silence was a well of entertainment. Touching my nose with his tiny blade, he grinned. “It’s time to crush the heart of my pupil.”
Words vanished as knowledge slammed into me.
Elder…
Pushing me from his lap, he manhandled me until he shoved me out of the library, just in time to see Elder.
Elder stumbling over the threshold, bruised and bleeding, worn and weary but still giving everything he had to give.
Elder barely alive and about to die…because of me.
And then, I knew.
I knew I’d singlehandedly caused this. I’d run from the tower when I’d been told to stay. I’d taken the leverage of my existence and used it against the one I loved the most.
I’d stripped him down to nothing.
And it’s all my fault.
I couldn’t stop what was about to happen.
Because there was Elder.
Staring at me.
Loving me.
Forgiving me even as he prepared to die.
He collapsed to his knees with a heavy sigh, bowing his head as if ready for an axe to come swinging from hell to end him. He gave up his life for me because I was once again a stupid, stupid girl and I’d fulfilled my purpose.
While I finally embraced my power, I’d overlooked the one terrible truth.
I might be powerful in my own right but that power also ensured I made him weak.