Page 101 of The Library

I will find her. Even if it means tearing the world apart piece by piece, I’ll bring her back. I’ll burn the entire fucking earth to the ground if that’s what it takes.

I’ll destroy everything. Even myself if it comes to that.

And the bastards who took her? They’ll beg for mercy by the time I’m done, but I won’t give it. Not this time.

Not after what they’ve taken from me.

We traced every connection we had, but nothing stuck. Five days, and each day I felt more of myself slipping away. I couldn’t think, couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. All I could do was imagine her—my Lilith—hurt, scared, calling for me, and I wasn’t there.

And then we found him.

Viktor Sokolov.

His name tasted like bile in my mouth. Viktor. He had orchestrated this entire thing, pulling strings from the shadows like a goddamn puppet master. His father had been part of the Society once, years ago—a powerful man in his own right, until he crossed a line no one could come back from. My father had made an example of him, but it wasn’t just Viktor’s father who paid the ultimate price.

It was also Viktor’s oldest brother, Nikolai.

Nikolai had been the heir to the family legacy, the golden child, groomed to take over their empire. But he was reckless, dangerous, and when he tried to seize power beyond his reach, my father ordered his execution. It had been swift and brutal, a message to everyone in the Society about what happens when you betray your own. Viktor’s family had been banished, their name erased from the Society’s history.

But Viktor never forgot. He waited, planned, and now, years later, he was back. For revenge.

All of this—taking Lilith, trying to rip apart everything I hold dear—it was his twisted way of settling a score that wasn’t even his to begin with.

Viktor wanted to hurt my father, but more than that, he wanted to hurt me. His other brother, Sergei, had been the man Ty and I killed on one of our jobs. But this last job had been a setup, a way to lure us away from Lilith, to leave her vulnerable.

I would kill him for this. I would kill every fucking last man who had anything to do with her abduction.

The final lead came in, and I didn’t hesitate. I gathered every man I had—Ty, our fathers, the whole damn army we’ve built—and we stormed the building where they were keeping her.

Nothing else mattered.

The gunshots, the screams, the bodies—none of it registered. It was all background noise, a dull hum beneath the rage that consumed me. I was numb, the world around me fading to static as I searched, frantic, for her. Lilith. My beautiful Lilith.

My heart pounded in my chest, my breath coming in shallow gasps as I moved through the building, cutting down every man who stood in my way. But I didn’t just kill them—I fucking slaughtered them. There was no mercy, no hesitation. Every single person who played a role in taking her from me, in treating her like some fucking pawn to be toyed with, they all died screaming.

I made sure of it.

I shot the first man in the head, his body crumpling to the ground like the trash he was. The next tried to run, but I caught him, dragging him back and slicing his throat open with a violent precision that would’ve made my father proud. The blood sprayed across my face, warm and thick, but it only fueled the fire inside me.

They took her from me. They dared to fucking touch what’s mine. And now, they’re going to pay for it.

One by one, they fell, their screams echoing through the halls as I cut them down. Some begged for their lives, pleaded with me to spare them, but it only made me laugh. Weak, pathetic men who thought they could cross me and walk away unscathed.

I was a storm tearing through them, and no one—not even Ty—could stop me.

Every face blurred into one—an endless sea of targets, and I didn’t stop until I saw her. Until I knew she was safe. Until every single fucking person responsible for this nightmare was dead at my feet.

By the time I reached the door at the end of the hall, I had already lost count of how many bodies I’d left in my wake. But I wasn’t done. Not yet.

I kicked the door open, and there she was.

I saw her.

She was chained to the fucking wall, her body cut and bruised, her face pale, her eyes barely open. My heart stopped.

I ran to her, dropping to my knees, my hands trembling as I gathered her into my arms.Lilith. She was alive, but just barely. Her skin was cold, her body limp, but she was here. She was with me.

“Lilith,” I whisper, my voice betraying me, cracking in a way it never has before. Vulnerability, a foreign sensation, burns in my throat. “Fuck, darling, I thought—”

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