Page 16 of Entangled

Madison has a compelling face, bold and uncompromising, almost handsome rather than beautiful. But there’s so much thrumming energy in her, even tied to a tree, that she’s hard to face down. Especially while she’s glaring like that.

But Jayk had a ferocious glare on him too, and I always did better with him when I fought back.

“Good for her if she can. We all do what we have to for survival. She’s being smart,” I snap. “Akira isn’t hurt or tied up. She’s eating well and seems happy enough. Her strategy seems to be working better than yours.”

Better than lying here in the dirt, drowning in grief, waiting to be carted off to a terrible fate.

Not to mention, Akira gave me a packet of tampons that the hunters actually let me use. As if getting my period isn’t just adding insult to injury at this point. She didn’t have to do that.

Akira is not my enemy, no matter who she’s sleeping with.

“How many are there?” I ask.

I feel her eyes burning the side of my face. “Sixteen. Sam and Owen have seven, andhehas nine. Ten if you count Akira—but no one does.”

Hemust be Alastair. In all her ranting, Madison has always refused to say his name.

Sixteen men. Sixteen men alive when my five are dead. Sixteen reasons why I’m alone in the world again, after finally,finallyfinding a home.

That tally is... unacceptable.

“Why?” Madison asks.

“I’m working out how many I need to kill,” I whisper, and the words shiver through me. They taste like a promise.

An oath.

I don’t know how many lives it will take to make up for my five.

But sixteen feels like a good start.

When I killed the man in the woods, I hadn’t thought there was anything that could bring me to take another life. But maybe I’m more built for it than I thought.

The demon in me purrs at the thought—almost frightening in its intensity—and I turn to meet Madison’s eyes. And I see it in her too. Only Madison’s demon is bigger and angrier than mine. She’s been feeding it her rage and grief for a long time, I think.

Through the horrible, beautiful pain and anger, a sliver of my suffocating loneliness shifts back. I’m notcompletelyalone. Not like Madison must have been before my sorry self was dumped beside her.

Madison’s glare burns hotter, darker, her mouth twisting. Then she breaks, laughing softly.

I stare at her in consternation.

Madison smirks through bloodied lips. “It’s good to know you’re not completely without a spine.” She considers me. “What did you say your name was?”

“Eden. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I say automatically, and she snorts a laugh at the ridiculous pleasantry.

“Eden, huh? You are in thewronggarden, my girl.” When I shoot her an irritated look, she grins. There’s dried blood caked between her teeth. “Such a pleasure, Eden.”

A blush stings my cheeks at the gentle teasing, and she laughs softly before she grows serious. “Just don’t do anything stupid, okay? Having women at their base is a draw for their recruiters. Sam pushes the whole happy family, new society bullshit wherever he can, but I can read between the lines enough to know the women get passed around as a reward for whoever’s made Sam the most happy. His version of a new society means a real old one.” Madison shakes her head and looks at me seriously. “And even with all that, he won’t hesitate to kill you.”

“Won’t they?” I muse. My ropes are painfully tight—there’s no way I’m getting free of those without help. “They haven’t killed you yet.”

That seems to pull her up short. She looks away, and there’s a grim cast to her profile. “I had information they needed... and more they might make use of.”

I nod and, not wanting to think about what they might have done to get that information, I go back to taking in the camp, forcing my fizzy thoughts to take note of where they’re finally stirring for the day, who leaves, who lingers, the direction one of the cooks disappears to when he mutters about using a latrine. I see a fight break out between two men that Sam breaks up quickly. Mateo watches it, tense, a short distance away.

I can’t go back to Cyanide City with these men. Madison is right.

Weneedto escape.

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