Page 201 of The Darkest Chase

If they’re going to ignore me, maybe I can use this precious time to tear the cord apart.

Still counting under my breath, I work frantically, fuzzy threads brushing against my wrists and tickling the sides of my palms.

Slowly, one fiber at a time, I tease one bit free.

Then another, making a mess of the weave.

I don’t think I’ll be able to fully unravel the cord, but I don’t need to.

I just need to unravel it so the knots aren’t so tight, and I can work them loose.

I work at it for what feels like an eternity.

Until my fingers are nothing but pain.

Until my fingertips burn and I can feel the blisters forming.

Until my arms and wrists are so sore I could sob, but I won’t.

Until I sink my teeth into my bottom lip to bite back the pain, knowing if they hear me, it’s over.

Bit by bit, I rip that cord apart until my fingernails are ragged, and then I use that to snag even more of the nylon weave and pull a few more threads free.

Pain is nothing.

I’ve known it my entire life.

Just like I knew the pain of Micah’s touch, teaching me that sometimes pain can be a beautiful thing.

And sometimes pain has purpose.

Pain gets my adrenaline going, makes me breathe, pushes me to try harder, fight on. And just as I test the knots and think maybe I’ve found a little slack, there’s a ker-CHUNK of the trunk popping open.

I’m paralyzed.

I almost yell out No! I was so close—so close, if I’d just had my hands free I could’ve—

It doesn’t matter.

The trunk swings open.

After a breathless moment of pure terror, I’m blinded by dim starlight and a few distant red and orange running lights.

There’s no mistaking Xavier Arrendell, looking down at me with cold contempt, the faint ocean-scented breeze ruffling his hair in blond arcs.

“You really are a clueless bitch,” he says flatly.

Then he grabs me by the arm, hauling me up with a brute strength that nearly dislocates my arm.

I refuse to scream.

And as he drags me up to kneel on the edge of the trunk with the metal biting into my calves?

I draw back and spit right in his face.

He remains unmoved.

Glacial stone.

---