Page 70 of Pyre

Jonah shook his head. “Ruby, you didn’t—”

“Do you know what the TCA does to thermophiles, Jonah?” She spat the words. “They don’t just ‘put them down.’ They burn them. Sedatives barely work through the pain—they’re awake the whole time. And they scream. The. Whole. Time.”

A horrible silence followed as Jonah took in her words, as the truth settled between them, heavy and irreversible.

“She would have screamed the whole time,” Ruby deadpanned.. “And I never thought about her again. She didn’t exist to me anymore. Once the TCA had her, I erased her from my mind.”

The silence stretched, suffocating. She wished, fleetingly, that he would scream, fight, rage. Anything to make it easier for her to let him go. But he remained silent, staring, shattered.

She turned and walked away, each step peeling away a piece of her until she reached the edge of his drive. The cool night air filled her lungs.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

RUBY WANTED EDWARDAlden to burn.

She had never handed over a thermophile with the explicit intention of their death. The thought had always lingered, a shadow in the recesses of her mind, but it had never been her goal. She hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone—not really. She just didn’t know another way.

But Edward was different.

With him, her mission was clear. She wanted to watch him die, slowly, burning like his victims while she stood witness. It wasn’t justice she craved; it was vengeance.

The next morning, she strode into Lucas’s office.

“I won’t find another thermophile until Edward is dead.”

Lucas, caught mid-sip of his coffee, paused as the steam fogged his glasses. He set the mug down and gestured toward the chair across from him. “Sit.”

She complied, folding her arms and glaring at the wall behind his head. Her body taut, every nerve buzzed. She could still feel the ghost of her anger from the night before, raw and consuming.

Lucas clucked his tongue, dragging her attention back to him.

“With all due respect,” he began, narrowing his eyes, “the last time you two met, he used your finger as a tortilla chip. I will never look at nacho cheese the same way, by the way. So, what’s changed in the last twelve hours?”

The night replayed in her mind. The fight with Jonah, the hollow ache it left. Driving back to the hotel only to park in the garage and sit, hands constricting around the wheel. A few moments of silence bled into a blind rage that left her truck without a steering wheel. Her phone didn’t survive the night either; it had gone sailing into the hotel fountain in a fit of frustration. With no way to call for an Uber, she’d walked. Hours later, she arrived at the TCA—determined, unrelenting, and ready to put an end to this madness.

“This.” She pulled a sticky note from her purse and slapped it onto Lucas’s desk.

He picked it up, his eyes scanning the contents. His brow furrowed, and for a moment, his composure slipped.

“Ruby…”

“I’m not doing it again,” she interrupted, trembling with restrained fury. “If I lose someone else to this asshole…” She bit down hard, her jaw tight, refusing to let the rest of the sentence escape. A crack ran down the wall behind Lucas’s desk. She glared at it.

When she finally spoke again, the weight of her words crushed her throat. “Jonah needs to be pulled from the case. Put him in protective custody.”

Lucas leaned back in his chair, one eyebrow lifting.

“He’s not going to like that.”

“He doesn’t have a choice,” she snapped. Her arms folded across her chest, a shield against the oncoming argument. “I want him and his family safe. I want him nowhere near any thermophile. And I want clearance to focus solely on Edward. Otherwise…” She leaned forward and threatened. “The TCA can find someone else to do their dirty work. Which may be hard, given you murder all the potential candidates.”

Lucas sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He looked older than she’d ever seen him. The deep shadows under his eyeshinted at sleepless nights, and gray streaked his stubble. How much of his life had he given to the TCA? How many horrors had he witnessed? She wondered how much longer she’d have him, or Jonah, or even Kavya—the only people who truly knew her. At some point, she’d lose them all. But not like this. Never like this. Not to Edward.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” He leaned forward.

Ruby raised her chin. “I’m sure.”

ACCORDING TO LUCAS, Jonah did not take being taken into custody well.

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