Page 164 of Unhinged Omega

His fellow guard turns at the gurgling sound, eyes widening in recognition and terror when he sees me. "You?—"

My blade silences him mid-sentence. More bodies join the others littering the courtyard. More white uniforms bloom crimson like desert roses after a long rain.

I'm not surprised by my brother's betrayal. After all, I betrayed him first.

Blood demands blood.

It is one of the goddess's most sacred tenets.

But that simple truth will offer him no absolution. No salvation.

The holding cells are eerily quiet when I reach them. My boots echo off the polished floors as I move from cell to cell, tearing doors open with increasing violence.

Empty.

All of them empty.

My rage builds with each door until I'm practically tearing the doors from their hinges. The metal screams in protest, but I barely notice the strain in my muscles. The pain is nothing compared to the burning bloodlust coursing through my veins.

A drunk cowers in one of the cells, scrambling away from me in terror. His ragged clothes mark him as an outsider. Probably caught scrounging around by the walls. I barely spare him a glance as I continue my search.

Then I catch it.

The faintest trace of her scent.

Moonlight.

I feel as if I'm in a dream as I follow that scent to an empty cell, lifting a discarded blanket from the narrow bed. I'm already inhaling deeply as I bring it to my face. The scent of her fills my lungs, makes my heart stutter in my chest.

She was here.

But not recently.

Not for a long time.

The blanket tears in my grip as fresh rage flares up in my chest. How dare they move her? How dare they take what is mine?

"I will find you," I promise, my voice raw and rough with emotions I haven't allowed myself to feel in years. The words echo off the empty cells, a vow and a threat wrapped into one.

Because it's not just her I'll find.

I'll find my brother, too.

Plague.

And he will pay the price in blood.

I let the shredded blanket fall from my hands. It drifts to the floor like snow, like the ash that covered the Capital after I burned it to the damn ground.

For her.

Chapter

Forty-One

NIKOLAI

My boots are wearing a path in the expensive carpet as I pace back and forth across Geo's living room. My mind races, replaying Cosima's words over and over.

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