Page 75 of Bound By Thorns

Seizing the opportunity to reassure him without raising suspicion, I turned to Leora, raising my voice just enough for Zarek to hear. “Doc, need anything else over here?”

“All good,” she responded but confusion flickered across her face.

My heart pounded as the weight of responsibility settled heavily on my shoulders—I knew Kabir, Leora, and Kaylan’s lives depended on the decisions I made next. With a deliberate calm, I declared, “I’ll head out and secure the perimeters for an exit.” My eyes lingered on Kaylan for a moment longer than necessary. She was engrossed in watching Garret’s life ebb away. Part of me longed to stay by her side, to support her in this visceral moment.

Stay alive, Chaos.

As I reached for the office door knob, a knot of fear tightened in my chest. Opening the door, I stepped out into the corridor, softly closing it behind me, sealing my team away from the chaos that was about to unfold. The corridor’s silence was eerie, a stark contrast to the storm I had just left inside. I knew it was only a matter of time before Garret’s reinforcements would converge on the office.

My steps were silent as I rounded the corner into the main hall. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a swift movement—a shadow darting just a few meters ahead. Clutching my rifle tightly, I followed, using the line of pillars for cover, ready for whatever awaited me around each turn.

Lastly, I left my possibly final message to team 3, “Cipher, Doc, Healer. Exit compromised. Donotleave the office until Ghost says so.”

Kaylan

“You…you’re m-making a mistake,” Garret wheezed, his voice weak, gurgling as blood pooled around his torso. His once-pristine, tailored suit was torn and soaked in crimson, the deepgashes I’d carved into him making his shirt’s original color unrecognizable.

“No,” I said, my voice low, trembling with a mixture of vengeance and something darker—something more hollow. “I’m making an example, darling.”

But the sound that escaped me didn’t feel like my own voice. It was raw and foreign, as though it belonged to someone else entirely. Someone who knew she couldn’t let this man live another second longer but still wanted him tosuffer.

I wanted him to beg, to plead, to feel even a sliver of the helplessness he had inflicted on so many—onme. But he didn’t. He never would. Garret thrived on torture; it was his element, his home. And that made this moment feel devastatingly empty.

Blood dribbled from his lips as he coughed, attempting to give me that smug, insufferable smirk one last time. “You will see, s-soon,” he rasped. “My d-death… would accomplish n-nothing.”

The words slithered into the cracks of my mind, planting the smallest, cruelest seed of doubt. Was he right? Would killing him change anything? Would it ease the crushing weight I carried every single day?

I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and took a steadying breath. No. I couldn’t afford to let those thoughts fester. Not now. My grip tightened around the knife as I scanned the room, desperate for a moment of clarity. That’s when I noticed Logan wasn’t there anymore.

My heart skipped, panic seeping into my veins. Where was he? The room felt unbearably empty without him.

Garret groaned, his voice dragging me back into the present. “Even if I d-die…”

“Booooring,” I cut him off, forcing false levity into my words. I didn’t want to hear his voice anymore.

In one swift motion, I slit his throat, the blade slicing clean from ear to ear.

The sound of his wet, strangled gasp echoed through the room for a moment before silence overtook everything.

Silence.

But was it truly silent? Or were my ears ringing from the finality of what I’d done? The vengeance I had longed for, the blood I’d spilled—it should’ve felt satisfying. It should’ve felt like triumph. But all I felt was an aching, hollow void.

I stared at his lifeless body, blood spreading across the floor in a dark, viscous pool. My breathing slowed, but the heaviness in my chest didn’t ease.

Then, my earpiece crackled to life, and a voice pierced the silence.

“Cipher, Doc, Healer. Exit compromised. Do not leave the office until Ghost says so.”

Logan.

The sound of his voice sent a shiver down my spine, a sharp contrast to the numbness that had gripped me moments ago. The way he spoke—calm, calculated, commanding—it made my stomach twist.

Because he wasn’t here.

I glanced around the room again, as if somehow my gaze would summon him back, would make him reappear like he hadn’t just walked away.

But he was gone.

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