Page 62 of Sadist

“Of all the fucking knives aimed at my back I have dodged,” the icy voice murmured down the line. “I never thought yours would be one of them, Theodora.”

“Erryn?” I breathed, panic overriding every sense I had. “Where is she?”

There was a soft huff on the other end of the phone. “I never thought of myself as a vindictive person,” she said. “But I must say, I’m going to really fucking enjoy putting a bullet in this one.”

The line went dead, and so did my heart.

No.

The word detonated through me. I stared at the screen, at the ghost-flight that had taken off without her, and felt something deep inside me fracture.

Erryn had her.

I moved before I knew what I was doing. The phone clattered to the floor. My laptop slammed shut. The bag zipped with a vicious pull. I was already out the door and into the crisp air, breath fogging in a haze of adrenaline as I raced toward my car.

The Triarchy’s headquarters was an unassuming fortress, and there was only one way I was getting in there now. I would have to force my way in.

And when I kicked in that door—god help anyone standing between me and Octavia.

I think I’d played out every possible scenario of what would be waiting for me as I drove. I don’t know how I didn’t get in a wreck. Every second they kept her under that roof, pieces of the humanity that Octavia had coaxed out of me peeled away until there was only the darkest part of me stripped bare.

The first guard didn’t even see me coming. His body dropped with a softthud, and I dragged him into the shadows. Two more followed the same way. People I had known. Stood in briefing rooms with. Worked alongside. And I didn’t care. Alarms tripped behind me, but I was already through the main building and heading for the upper levels. I had minutes. Maybe seconds.

Erryn fucking had her.

Gunfire tore down the corridor behind me. I rolled between cover, returned fire, and didn’t stop moving as I left a massacre in my wake. Shooting out the lock, I kicked through the reinforced doors of the command floor, steel squealing under the impact. The hallway beyond was chaos—scattered guards, someone screaming orders, red emergency lights pulsing like a heartbeat.

Erryn’s office sat at the end of the corridor, and I swore to every god that had ever been …If she wasn’t in there.

If I was too late…

Two more bodies fell as I streaked down the corridor toward the door, my last two bullets embedded between their eyes. A third man flinched as I trained my gun on him and pulled the trigger, a brief look of relief flashing across his face at the dull click of the empty magazine before I pulled my blade and slashed it across his throat. Warm blood splattered across my skin, but I was already turning, the red haze of rage overtaking me as I dispatched every person who put themselves between me and that fucking door.

My breath rasped in my chest as I skidded to a stop, punching in the access pin like I had a hundred times before, memories rising and cutting tiny wounds in my soul.

Erryn pressed against this door as I had whispered in her ear. Her hands on my skin, my lips at her neck as our entwined bodies burst inside and sprawled onto the desk beyond…

The door swung open to silence. My thundering heart was all I could hear as I stepped inside, drawing my blade.

Octavia sat at a terminal, her hands moving over a familiar interface, eyes locked on the code unraveling in front of her. And across from her?—

Erryn.

Gun aimed at Octavia.

Scared, hazel eyes met mine, and relief slammed into me so hard I barely held back the sob that caught in my throat.

She was alive.

I still had her.

Two steps had me across the room, relying on the familiarity between Erryn and I to stay her hand as I swung my blade to her throat, and I didn’t miss the brief look of shocked pain that passed across her face before the cold mask reclaimed it. My blade rested against flesh I had kissed a thousand times, the muzzle of her gun shaking slightly as she pointed it at Octavia’s temple.

“You wouldn’t,” Erryn scoffed.

“You hurt her, and I will fucking end you,” I warned, and meant every damn word. “Lower your weapon, Erryn.”

She cocked her head to the side, sliding her gaze from me, to Octavia, and back.

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