Page 121 of Requiem
Nico mutters something vicious under his breath while loading fresh magazines at the counter. Nobody argues, because we all want the same thing now.
War.
My phone vibrates suddenly in my pocket, and when I pull it out, every muscle in my body locks. The second I open the message, my entire world narrows. It’s a photo of Emma, Heather, Adela, and Adriana all chained against the concrete wall of that basement.
Thatfuckingbasement. Chained where I was once chained.
The thought nearly sends me through the goddamn wall.
Emma’s face is pale beneath the harsh overhead light, her wrists restrained above her head exactly where mine used to be. Heather looks terrified. Adela looks furious. Adriana is withdrawn again.
Jesus Christ.
My vision blurs. Below the photo is a single message.
One final surrender, little rockstar. Or Vlad takes ownership.
Something inside me snaps so completely that I don’t even realize I’ve crushed the phone in my hand until blood drips across my knuckles from the case breaking. “No,” I say immediately.
Rafe looks up. “What is it?”
I throw the damaged phone across the table hard enough that it skids through blood and gauze before stopping beside Micah. Rafe grabs it first, and the moment he sees the image, his entire expression darkens.
“Oh, I’m going to fucking kill him,” he says quietly.
Micah goes pale.
But I can’t stop seeing Emma’s face. She’s trying so hard not to look afraid, and that’s what fucking destroys me. “I’ll do it,” I say.
The room stills.
Rafe’s gaze narrows on me. “No.”
I turn toward him so fast my chair nearly tips backward. “If I surrender myself, he lets them go.”
“He willnotlet them go.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I absolutely fucking know that.”
My chest heaves as rage crashes through me again. “Then what’s your plan, Rafe?” I snap. “Because right now they’re chained in that basement waiting for Vlad to fucking buy them while we sit here!”
Micah flinches at the wordbuy.
Rafe doesn’t.
He steps toward me slowly, calm in a way that somehow feels more dangerous than screaming. “Listen to me carefully,” he says. “The moment you surrender yourself willingly, this ends. Not for Alexei. Foryou.”
“I don’t care about me.”
“That,” he says coldly, “is exactly why you are currently incapable of making this decision. I did not stay up countless nights working with you on your fucking trigger words for nothing. I trust you remember what can snap you the fuck out of it?”
I stare at him, then offer a nod. For a second, nobody speaks.
Then Micah’s voice cuts through quietly from the table. “She needs you alive, Jude.”
My fists clench.
