Page 17 of Diary from an Inked Throne

Then he pushed to his feet and turned to Lynx. “I need you.”

Lynx squeezed Nyah’s fingers.

“I need to find my baby. Take me with you,” she whispered to him desperately.

He smiled, his expression tender. “I never got to tell you I love you too, you know?” He laughed a little. “That’s all I could think of, the entire time I was locked up. So I need to say it now, without wasting another second.” He brought his hands to cup her face. “I love you. And loving you means loving your baby. So trust me when I tell you that you don’t need to fight this fight. You aren’t alone anymore. And you’re never going to be alone again. We have this. We’ll find him and bring him home, and then we’re all going to live happily ever after.” He gazed around the cage-filled basement and sniffed. “Maybe not here in this hellhole, but somewhere. Together.” His gaze connected to mine, and then to Luca’s. “Aren’t we?”

Again, it felt like promises we couldn’t actually make, and yet all three of us did, knowing it was the only way we would be able to keep her here.

Her gaze darted nervously between Luca and Lynx. “You’ll come back,” she whispered. “Promise me.”

They both nodded fiercely, and this time, I knew it was a promise they would keep.

“Always,” Luca swore to her.

Which felt as much like an ‘I love you’ as Lynx’s had been.

5

NYAH

Dear Diary,

Today I learned a mother’s heart can keep beating after it’s been stolen.

The doctor fussed over me, and while he was asking me questions, checking the placenta, and inspecting my most intimate parts to see if I needed stitches, I sent Dax to find a way to get Sindy out of her cell.

He came back within moments, holding a pair of bolt cutters.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Couldn’t find the keys?”

His gaze strayed immediately back to me. “Didn’t want to waste the time. I knew where the tool shed was.”

He used the cutters to break open the lock on her cage, and she patted him on the arm appreciatively.

He nodded, his gaze already back on me. “Is she okay?” he asked the doctor.

The doctor confirmed what I already expected. “I need to put in a couple of small stitches, but overall, yes. All her stats are good, and the placenta is whole. She looks to have had a very uncomplicated natural birth.” He smiled at me. “Well done.”

I didn’t smile back. There was nothing about this birth that felt right or uncomplicated. Accepting his praises didn’t feel good when I’d let a man take my child from me.

My face throbbed from where Enzo had punched me so hard he’d almost knocked me out, but I refused to let the doctor inspect it, or give me anything for the pain.

It paled in comparison to the agony of losing my son.

I didn’t want any relief from that. I needed to feel all of it so I stayed angry.

Rage would be what kept me going until I had him back in my arms.

Sindy moved toward the door, but I caught her hand. “I know you want to get out of here—”

“And run far, far away? Yeah, a little bit.” She smiled at me ruefully.

“Thank you.”

She nodded. “I didn’t do much. Just caught him as he came out. The rest was all you. You were a warrior.”

I didn’t feel like one. I felt like a broken shell of a woman who needed this doctor to stitch up every inch of her body, not just the tears made by birth.