Page 43 of Requiem
“Again.”
Jude’s head lifts, barely enough to speak. “Please…” he whispers, his voice wrecked, unrecognizable. “I’ll do anything…please don’t—”
The next shock hits before he can finish. I flinch so hard my phone almost slips out of my hand again.
“Stop,” he chokes, the word breaking apart as his body convulses again. “Fuck—”
The video cuts, and silence slams into me. My reflection stares back at me in the dark screen.
My face.
The same one they used. The same one that made him scream. Made himhurt.
My hand flies to my sternum as something between a whimper and a gasp leave my lips. “Oh, my god…”
My vision blurs instantly. They turned me into the thing that broke him. I exit the video, my hands shaking. The screen flickers once before returning to the main interface, and that’s when I see the timer still counting down. My pulse roars in my ears as the realization truly settles in.
“Is that a timer?” Micah asks, his voice pitching higher.
I nod, tears slipping silently down my cheeks, my gaze locked on the numbers as they continue to fall. “It’s a c—countdown,” I whisper, my voice barely there. “He’s going to release something.”
“How long?” Nico asks sharply.
“Less than two hours now,” Rafe answers, his eyes scanning the screen.
I don’t respond. Ican’t.Because beneath the timer…there’s a message. My stomach drops as I read it, my lips parting.
“Emma,” Rafe says, quieter now. “What does it say?”
I swallow hard, my voice trembling as I force the words out.“‘You want to see more?’”
The room goes still.
My chest tightens as my eyes flick over the rest of it.“‘Return him to me before the clock runs out…’”My voice cracks, but I keep going, because I have to.“‘…or you can watch the rest with everyone else.’”
Heather inhales sharply.
“Fucking motherfucker,” Micah swears, flipping a chair. Heather flinches when it crashes back to the ground.
Nico leans closer to the screen, his expression darkening. “He’s not bluffing.”
“No,” Rafe says quietly. “He’s escalating.”
I can’t stop staring at the timer. At the seconds bleeding out and the threat hanging over us. I’m not just afraid for Jude, I’m afraid of what the world is about to see. “What do we do? There has to besomething,”I press, my voice tightening. “We can’t just sit here and let him—”
No one isanswering me.
Rafe stands a few feet away, completely still, his gaze fixed on Adela’s screen. There’s something different about him now.
“Rafe.”
He exhales slowly, dragging a hand over his mouth before finally looking at me. “We don’t have anything,” he says. “We haven’t cracked anything yet. Not enough to use. Not enough to scare him.”
The room tilts.
“He knows that,” he adds quietly. “Or at least…he suspects it. It seems that he’s calling our bluff.”
The words are a slap in the face.
