Page 144 of Warlord's Plaything

A goddamn signature of betrayal.

I turn toward the door.

Toward the burning territory.

Toward the tunnels where she waits, still believing she has a choice.

She doesn’t.

Not anymore.

I’m going to show her what she’s really agreeing to.

I’m going to make her see.

I will not let them take her.

Because she is mine.

And if they want her?—

They’re going to have to fucking bleed for it.

46

HIRA

The air is suffocating.

The walls press too close, the flickering torchlight makes the shadows seem longer, stretching over me like claws.

I can't think.

Not when my decision is set, not when every second that passes drives the final nail into the coffin of what little freedom I have left.

I tell myself it’s the right thing.

That it has to be.

That I have no other choice.

Then the door slams open.

And I already know.

I already know who it is.

I already know what this is going to be.

"Are you fucking insane?"

Xyron’s voice slice the tension-filled room like steel meeting steel.

Raw. Unrelenting.

His boots crack against the stone, his presence swallowing the space between us in a single breath.

I don’t move.

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