"I have no idea what you are talking about," Renwick said, the cold indifference in his tone making my blood pressure spike.
"At the club. The one you made us all go to. When I begged him not to, and he dragged me up on that stage, strapped me to that wooden thing, stripped me, and beat me until I bled. You let that happen."
"I didn't let that happen," Renwick said, voice a whip cracking in the quiet room.
"You were there," I shrieked, indignation coursing through my system.
"I was in the bathroom fucking Alice," Renwick said, making me stiffen.
Was he?
I couldn't remember seeing him.
I just assumed he was there.
But I'd been so focused on trying to convince Davor not to bring me to the stage that I couldn't be sure.
"But..."
"But nothing," Renwick snapped. "I hadn't seen it. I wouldn't have allowed it. And again, you should have trusted me."
"Well, now that we have all those misunderstandings out of the way," Aram said, seeming to sense that Renwick and I could go around on the same topic for another hour if we didn't get interrupted. "You see that Nova was correct about you being misinformed concerning her leaving you."
"She couldn't leave me," Renwick said, shaking his head. "I would like to know how she managed it."
My gaze flicked to Arick who gave me a shrug.
"You told her?" Renwick asked.
"I recounted an old, unreliable source to Drex when he came to me and asked. Though, in retrospect, it proved quite accurate."
"What did?"
"That if you get a thrall away from her master as far and as fast as you can, while somehow keeping her safe from insanity, you can snap the enthrallment," he explained.
The information was clearly new to Renwick who must have believed that nothing could break the enthrallment. That was what he'd told me, what he'd told all of us when we were choosing to become a part of his life.
Renwick's gaze slid back to me. "The drugs. He wasn't lying about the drugs."
"No," I agreed. "There had been drugs. But fewer and fewer as we got further and further away. Until I felt the enthrallment snap."
"You felt it?" Renwick asked, brows lowering.
"You didn't?" I asked, having figured he must have felt something. Not the same as I felt. Not relief. But maybe a loss of some sort.
"Even if I had, I wouldn't have recognized it for what it was. We have believed since the beginning of time that it was impossible to break the connection, that it lasted until the death of either party."
"It happened, though," I said, letting my voice dip a bit lower, dropping any anger or bitterness. Because I had no reason not to believe him. That he hadn't known or seen Davor's abuse, that he would have stepped in if he had. Really, he wasn't to blame that I had been young and naive and desperate for an escape. Or that I'd changed my mind. That I'd decided I wanted other things for my future. "And now you see that Drex wasn't to blame for forcibly taking me from you. He was saving me from what he saw as an abusive situation."
"And he wasn't wrong," Renwick mumbled under his breath. "I wish you'd left him alive," he added. "So I could have ended him more slowly."
"Does that mean you're going to let Drex go?" I asked, something dangerously close to hope swelling up inside.
"Go save your filthy demon," Renwick said, waving a hand. "I have some things to discuss with the others."
Maybe I should have demanded to know what he wanted to talk to them about, what kind of wicked deals they could be making, ones that potentially involved me. But I couldn't bring myself to care.
All I could think about was getting to Drex, letting him know he was free.
So when Renwick produced the key, I flew at it, grabbing it, then running out of the room, through the house, into the garage, then down the stairs.
I'd meant to approach him with some semblance of decorum.
But in the end, I couldn't find any.
I just flew down the stairs then flung myself at Drex's chained form.
"Fuck," Drex hissed, his whole body jerking with the impact.
His chains rattled as he tried to yank against them, tried to free his arms to put them around me.
"You're free," I told him, giving him a tight squeeze. "You're free," I added, pulling back far enough to look at his bruised face.
"Why are you here?" he asked, voice tight.
"Freeing you, obviously," I told him, feeling almost giddy with my victory.
"For what? What did you have to offer those fuckers?"
"Nothing."
"No one gets something for nothing," Drex, a clear pessimist, grumbled.
"Just be happy," I demanded, shaking my head at him. "We can walk out of here. We're free."
"You don't know that."
"I just talked to Renwick. He said I could free you."