Page 161 of Taken By the Fae

My lips peel back in a snarl. “Get the fuck out of my way, or so help me, I will kill you with my bare hands.” I offer an icy smile. “I’ll enjoy it, too.”

He frowns. “You’re not listening to me.”

“You think?” I shoot back. “Now move.”

“I can’t do that.”

I shrug, grabbing a scalpel off an upright table. “Hard way it is.”

Carter arches a brow. “We’re going to do this again?”

“It’ll go a little differently this time.” My tone is snarky and cold.

Max coughs, sputtering more blood onto his shirt, and my face blanches. I have to help him. I have to get him out of those cables and out of this place so he can feed and heal.

Carter advances, and I pedal back, whipping my gaze to him. Max is going to have to hold on long enough for me to deal with Carter.

“We don’t need to fight, Aurora.”

I scowl. “Are you kidding? You’ve been torturing my friend and you think I’m going to let you walk away from that?”

He blinks. “Your friend?”

I pause, looking toward Max. He might not have started out that way. In fact, I hated him, but things are different now. He’s part of my life—my family. Even though we bicker most of the time; no family is perfect.

“Blondie,” Max says in a cracked voice, nodding toward Carter as his eyelids droop.

Shit. I have to do something. Now.

“You won’t win this fight, Aurora,” Carter says matter-of-factly. It makes the urge to punch him in the face much stronger.

“Why have you made thisyourfight?” I taunt. “Do you actuallywantto be human?”

He crosses his arms. “We’ve been over this. The Experiment saved me.”

“Bullshit. They didn’t give you a choice.”

Offering a shrug that suggests he’s indifferent to that fact, he says, “In the end, it was for the best.”

It’s useless. They’ve brainwashed him into believing this life is what he wants. That was clear from the start, but I was hoping now, faced with danger and the chance to make a choice for himself, he would choose differently.

I inch closer to him. “You don’t miss being fae? The power, the possibilities?”

His facade cracks. “What you’re doing won’t work. I know where I belong. You won’t convince me otherwise.”

Max nods toward him again, and I incline my head so he knows I understand what he wants me to do.

“Fine,” I say. With one more step forward, I’m close enough to touch him. Instead, I shove him toward Max. He stumbles back and whirls around to face Max.

The corner of Max’s mouth curls, and then he head butts Carter, sending him to the floor in an unconscious heap.

Max gives his head a bit of a shake, blinking a few times before looking at me. “Chop, chop. We don’t have all damn day, blondie.”

I choke on a laugh and snatch the black gloves from Carter’s hands, tugging them on as I hurry toward Max, reaching for the chains secured around his wrists.

It’s ironic—I’m fighting to break the chains off the same guy who tied me up months ago. It takes several minutes—and techniques—before I loosen the restraints enough for Max to break the rest of the way out of them.

He rubs his wrists where they’re swollen and bruised.

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