Page 129 of Jagged Souls
I hit the ground, convulsing hard, the damage to my nerves so intense, I can’t remember how to breathe. Dayne squats down beside me as my heart races, and I gasp for air, his fingers resting lightly on my arm.
“The only reason I have spared your life,” he says, “is because I know she loves you. So I will not kill you until she asks me to. But know that I know exactly how many times I can do this –”
My body jerks, spasming on the floor as sheer agony rips through me once more. Every nerve. Every thought. Every bit of my existence has been reduced to a burning agony.
“Without killing you.”
Pain flares. My nerves all scream. He keeps electrocuting me over and over again, but I know I deserve an entire hour of this. An entire day. A week. A fucking lifetime for what I did to her – an act that will stay with her for life. A betrayal by someone she loves.
Eventually, he stops though, and I suck in air through gritted teeth, my jaw feeling like it’s been welded shut, my two rows of teeth seemingly melted into one.
His fingers leave my arm, but his handprint stays burned into my skin. A silent, permanent threat.
“Now,” he says as he stares down at me. “You get thehelup and find another way to save Micha because if we don’t get her back –” His voice cracks over that, the fear that she isn’t coming home. “I’ll rewire your brain so that everything you feel, every bit of heat or cold, every smell and sound, every brush of fabric on your skin will translate into pain. I will make it so you’ll live in hel long after Khalid kills me.”
I sit up, sweat beading across my body. Every muscle feels tight and strained, every nerve dipped in acid and broken glass. I work my throat, but the chords feel fried, over-used, as if I have been screaming non-stop for hours. The words drag along my throat, kicking and screaming and doing their damnedest not to touch the air, to stay down so they don’t scrape against the raw flesh inside, but I push them out.
“Being away from her is hel...” I take a breath, my lungs burning in protest. “So save your threats for Antonio.” His eyes narrow as I lean against the chair, the lingering pain taking the air out of me but not the fire. Never the fire when it comes to her, and now that I know Micha will survive this, that fire roars into an inferno.
She still screams down the bond, begging me to set her free into death’s embrace, that pain more crippling than the attack from Dayne. I don’t ignore it, can’t when I can hear her cries, but I do endure it.
I push to my feet…
Stare him in the eyes.
“Promise me you’ve not made this decision for yourself.”
His jaw tics. “She’ll survive even without you.”
I flinch, recoiling from the pain.
I couldn’t survive without her.
But if that is what she needs to heal from all this, then I’ll set her free. Watch over her only from the shadows.
Turning for the door, I lock down the husband side of me and step back into the role of Boss. Elivici has a wife and three children. It’s time to motivate her to work faster, and if she can’t, I’ll kill them all and get another teleporter in. After all, Eduardo’s only a genius on Earth.
He isn’t shit on the rest of the Seven Planes.
And I don’t care how many people I have to kill.
How many families.
I am bringing my wife home.
Thirty-Seven
HER
I’ve cried myself dry. I’ve screamed myself hoarse. I’ve emptied myself of everything I am until nothing remains but a hollow pain.
A constant ache that burrows into my soul.
This is a wound time will never heal.
A mother should never outlive her child.
I stare into nothingness, feeling like I’m looking inside of me. Rage flickers like a flame, but there’s no oxygen for it to burn. No energy. I just lie here grieving, hating how easily I draw breath.
