Page 100 of Queen of Diamonds

I didn’t know.

But I was here. I would die before leaving without her. My gun was still trained on my brother as he spoke, but I dared not pull the trigger. Not until I could be sure she wouldn’t pay.

“…Instead, she’d say the same three words, over and over and over…” Ace’s voice dropped to something cold. “…until I got sick of them.”

He shifted his foot, catching the edge of the chains, dragging them toward him sharply enough that Glade was ripped toward him.

I finally understood.

The scars on her back were three carved words, and reading them made the earth come to a standstill.

They were our names, etched into her flesh.

Kyan.

Knight.

Zed.

34

GLADE

“Consider this your last chance, Brother.” Ace’s voice was victorious. “Walk away and everything goes back to the way it was before.”

The world was ending. It had to be.

Crying out was useless. With every terrified sound I made, Zed took another step. He hadn’t taken his eyes from us, gun pointed at Ace, finger tense on a trigger he knew he couldn’t pull.

“You have me,” Zed snarled. “This is between us.”

“Is it?” Ace laughed, but I couldn’t hear what he said next. Not when every slow step carried Zed closer to that wire.

I couldn’t watch this.

I wasn’t strong enough, not after everything.

I loved him. I’d loved him more fiercely than even the day I’d met him. The Alpha the universe had chosen. A match of politics I’d always been afraid of. But he had become so much more than that—had given me a choice when I’d had none, and I’d fallen for him anyway.

I wouldn’t watch him die.

The cuffs… they were made for Alphas, enough to capture my wrists, but they were loose. Agony seared my hands as I threw my weight against the chains with more desperation than I ever had before.

No…

Something hot and wet made the fight easier. I almost lost myself at the flash of pain in my thumb, but with a growl, I wrenched at it and I was free.

I couldn’t wait—couldn’t risk Ace stopping me as I threw myself across the stage, my desperate cry stifled behind my gag as I saw Zed take another step.

Too close.

The tripwire.

I almost lost my balance as I tumbled from the stage. I barely stifled my scream of pain as my broken hands caught my fall, but I was already shoving myself up.

My bare feet burned on rough carpet as I sprinted, heart in my throat. Ace hadn’t stopped me. I didn’t care what guns were pointed my way. Zed was only steps from death, eyes wide, taking them faster now I made for him.

“Glade!”

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