Page 107 of Iron Roses

The guards tighten their grip. My arms are wrenched back, and I’m dragged forward.

My feet scrape stone, leaving dark patches where the skin tears again.

Guillermo growls behind me, still clutching his face.

They haul me past the entrance. The doors open into a long corridor. Marble floors. Dust layered along the baseboards.

They pull me left.

Up a short staircase, then through a hallway with peeling wallpaper. One of them kicks open a door.

They shove me inside.

I hit the floor.

Hands land first. Palms split open again. The impact sends a jolt up through my spine.

I lie still for a moment.

Blood runs from my nose where Guillermo’s jaw caught the bridge. My shoulders twitch once, then stop. I reach into the folds of my clothes and I pull out a phone.

The phone feels foreign in my hands.

I had slipped it from Allegra’s pocket when she hugged me. I unlock it. The screen stares back—contacts.

Lorenzo. Cassian.

I stop, hovering over their names.

I can feel the message I could send. The message that could break this moment, this silence.

I type.

“Help.”

Then I stop.

Why would they want to save me?

I’m not the one they loved.

It was her.

Giovanna.

The name presses into my chest. My fingers hover over the keyboard for a long time.

Why would they want to save me?

I delete the message and slide the phone back into the folds of my clothes, my hand heavy against my side.

I sink back onto the cold floor.

I close my eyes, my breath shallow, but it feels too loud in the quiet.

The air next to me thins. She's here.

She’s almost transparent, except for the warmth that radiates from her—like a fire that’s been dimmed but hasn’t gone cold.

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