Chapter Twenty-Two

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I NEVER TOOK MY eyes off Dr Campbell as he pulled the buds from Sully’s ears and threw them away in disgust. “Chilli in someone’s ears? He’s a madman.”

Sully winced. “I told you I was the sane one.”

My trust was a shattered thing by my feet.

Was Dr Campbell part of this war or had he been caught in the middle of it?

Who was our enemy, and who was loyal?

“Is Cal still alive?” Sully murmured, keeping his voice too low for the guards to hear.

The doctor nodded. “He’s made it through the past few days. He’s getting stronger but still hasn’t woken.”

Cal?

What happened to Cal?

Sully nodded, flinching as Dr Campbell cleaned his face, throat, arms, and hands with antiseptic wipes, smearing away as much blood and sweat as he could. “The massacred guards? Are they rotting on my beach?”

The doctor blanched. “No, he dragged them out to sea. There’s no evidence of what happened.”

Sully sat unmoving, callous. “And Skittles?”

Skittles?

My heart fisted. “What about Skittles?”

Sully’s shoulders tensed. He didn’t reply, allowing the doctor to speak. “She’s recovering too. Her wing will mend.”

“Her wing?” I blurted.

“She broke it,” Sully muttered. “Trying to defend me.” His jaw clenched; the cords of sinew visible in his neck as he struggled with the truth. “I’m sorry, Jinx.”

“Sorry?” I struggled against the rope trapping my hands. I needed to touch him again. It was the only thing that made sense. The only thing that calmed my heart even though it existed in a hopscotching, hiccupping mess. “Don’t apologise. She loves you. She—”

“I put her in danger. Just like I put you in—” He hissed between his teeth as the doctor stabbed the back of Sully’s hand, inserting a new needle and bag of antibiotics.

“This is concentrated. I don’t like your fever, Sinclair. We need to lower your temperature if you’re to stay conscious.”

I bit my lip, forcing myself not to ask questions about Skittles and the drugs that Sully had agreed to take. What sort of side effects? How deadly could this be?

For the next fifteen minutes, I stayed silent while the doctor did his best to put Sully back together again. I watched as he smeared black cream over the bloody abrasions around his wrists and ankles.

I flinched as he patted the raw flesh of Sully’s chest with a green goo that made his back bow with an influx of agony.

Two colours that I’d never associated with healing before. Black and green. Poison. Dangerous. Wrong.

“Take these.” Dr Campbell took Sully’s hand, popping four pills into his palm. He waited for Sully to place them on his tongue before passing him a bottle of water from his bag.

Sully downed the entire thing.

“Shit, I should’ve remembered sooner.” Pulling free two tin-foiled wrapped sandwiches, the doctor passed one to Sully and placed one on my lap through the bars. “It’s simple salad and egg. The only ingredients I could find in the kitchens with the staff evacuated.”

Sully ripped at the foil, wolfing the food down. “Seems you’ve thought of everything. Guilt’s a bitch, huh?”

The doctor scowled. “I told you it wasn’t my intention to cause more pain. I just wanted to protect the goddesses.”

Sully snorted, wiping crumbs away from his chin.

I eyed mine.

With my hands tied, I had no way of eating. Not that I had an appetite. My nose reeked of antiseptic and Sully’s blood. But I was sensible enough to know I’d need the energy later—if I could figure out how to eat it.

My mind dared skip into the future, to fixate on the deal I’d made with Drake.

Sully was being cared for...but I would pay the price of that luxury.

When Drake returned, I’d be forced to drink elixir for the fourth time and lose myself in the haze of desire. I would have to give myself to another man...all to save the one I loved.

Tears prickled. Fear rose.

Don’t.

Just don’t.

Sniffing back helplessness, I kicked the sandwich off my lap and swallowed down my nausea. I almost threw up as Dr Campbell turned his attention to Sully’s leg.

Sully stiffened as he unwrapped the bandage, snarling under his breath as the sodden material pulled at the wound.

Light-headedness hit me as the full carnage of his thigh appeared.

Oh. My. God.

What had Drake done to him? Shot him with a fucking arrow?

Tears spilled, despite my commands not to. I sniffed and trembled as the doctor inspected the stitches holding Sully’s leg together and poked around as if it was a chewed-up piece of meat that had no feeling.

Sully swayed as the doctor grabbed a huge, wicked syringe from his bag.

He looked up, searching Sully’s face, unable to catch his blind eyes. “You might want to lie down for this.”

Sully swallowed hard. “What are you going to do?”

“Your stitches have pulled away in some areas. There’s puss which indicates the antibiotics aren’t working as quickly as I’d like. You’ve agreed to the less mainstream methods. I intend to administer them.”

“Ah, fuck.” Sully gingerly lay down on metal wire, his eyes closed and face tight with pain. His hands balled as Dr Campbell repositioned himself between Sully’s spread legs and inserted the nasty looking needle directly into the wound.

Sully bellowed. His body spasmed.

He fell lax into unconsciousness.

The doctor looked up, waiting to see if he’d wake. When he didn’t, he muttered, “That’s for the best. I can work quicker with him no longer aware.” Injecting him again, he continued inserting and depressing the plunger until the silver liquid had evacuated the syringe and vanished into Sully’s flesh.

Next, he pulled out a needle and surgical twine, embroidering new stitches on the areas that’d pulled out of his skin. Finally, he squirted a skin adhesive, gluing Sully’s leg as well as stitching it. “That should hold...as long as he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

My sandwich lay forgotten on the floor.

I clamped my lips together, fighting the urge to vomit.

Tears cascaded faster as I studied the mangled man in the cage.

I didn’t care about my own predicament. I didn’t fret over my payment with Drake.

All that mattered was Sully.

He was still the majestic magistrate of this paradise, but he’d paid for that title with every drop of blood he had. Every molecule of pain. Every shred of sanity.

“The harpoon really mangled his thigh,” the doctor muttered, wrapping a fresh bandage around Sully’s leg.

Harpoon?

My heart cracked; I slouched in my rope.

I’m too late.

If only I’d arrived sooner. Found him quicker.

Dr Campbell looked up. “I know he’s going to attempt to walk on this. I know he doesn’t really have a choice...but I can’t guarantee he won’t have a permanent limp if he does, even with the nanobots knitting him together.”

I bit my bottom lip and didn’t speak, too green and terrified to reply.

He returned to work. Once he’d secured the bandage, he crawled toward Sully’s face and peeled open his eyes.

He winced. “He’s right. I am guilty of this. What a fucking bastard to do this to his own kin—to anyone.”

Swallowing hard, clammy with sickness and full of pain for what Sully endured, I stuttered, “What...what did he do to him? Is he blind?”

“Whatever he did, the sclera is irritated, and his cornea is black. His pupils don’t dilate with light. I’ve never seen anything like...wait.” He narrowed his gaze, leaning forward. His hand trembled as he pulled Sully’s eyelid higher and touched his pupil.

A black contact lens stuck to his finger, pulling away and revealing an angry purple-blue iris.

“It’s just a blockage.” He smiled weakly, hope flaring over his face. “A simple barrier...a curtain if you will.” Peering at the lens on his finger, he added, “A lens that blinds instead of enhances.”

I couldn’t speak.

I could barely contain the rage toward Drake and the relief for Sully.

The doctor gave me another half-smile before returning to his task. Removing the other lens, he applied three drops of something into each eye before sticking thick cotton pads over Sully’s eyelids. “If he wakes, tell him to keep the padding on for as long as he can. The more time those drops have to work, the better his chances at seeing.”

I forced myself to ask, “Will he have his full sight again?”

He shrugged, pulling out another syringe, this one full of golden contents. “Time will tell. He’ll be hazy for a few days. There are scratches and traumatised blood vessels, but I am hopeful it’s not a permanent disability.” Inserting the needle into Sully’s bicep, he plunged the golden liquid deep and wiped at the bead of blood left behind.

“What did you just give him?”

He sighed. “Something that would never pass clinical trials but has proven to be miraculous for those on death’s door.”

Goosebumps spread over me, prickling my skin. “What do you mean?”

“I mean...whatever you two face tonight...that should grant him the power he needs to endure it.”

“Will...will he be okay?”

He nodded. “He’ll stay alive...until Drake decides otherwise.”

Alive.

He’ll stay alive.

It was a magical incantation to incapacitate me.

I’d fought for so long.

I’d searched and called; I’d bribed and threatened.

I’d spent almost four days ignoring sleep and sustenance so I could get back to Sully and hear those very words.

He’s alive.

He’s okay.

I couldn’t fight it anymore.

He’s okay...

I bowed my head as exhaustion crept over me.

The guards had drifted toward the exit, three of them sprawled in chairs and gossiping like old women.

The immediate danger had been removed...for now.

Sully had been treated.

He was asleep and doing exactly what his body needed to heal.

He’s alive...

My eyelids fluttered downward, feeling heavy and determined to rest.

He’s okay...

I folded forward, held by a rope, dragged into the darkness, out cold before the doctor had finished.

* * * * *

“Eleanor...”

Sully.

My eyes shot wide. My heart kicked awake. I moaned as aches and stiffness shot down my back—my spine did not appreciate my slouched imprisonment.

“Are you okay?”

I laughed sadly. “You’re asking me if I’m okay?” I watched Sully’s every move as he struggled to sit upright, wincing and hissing. His body was no longer the sleek, invincible man I’d been sold to but a pieced together king who’d been overthrown. “What about you?”

“What about me?” His lips thinned as he swayed, his forehead furrowed as he fought the residual unconsciousness and pulled out the drip from the back of his hand. His fingers strayed to the cotton over his eyes. “What the—”

“Leave them on. Let your eyes heal.”

He stiffened. “Did Campbell figure out what Drake did to me?”

“He removed the lenses blinding you. He believes they were tampered with to ensure no vision was possible.”

His chest rose with harsh hope. “I’ll be able to see again?”

I truly, truly hope so.

“If you leave the drops in for as long as you can...he believes you should, yes.”

“Thank fuck for that.” He bowed his head, dipping his fingers through his bronze-decorated hair. The tips of each pad held a small scab where they’d healed from the pins driven into his flesh. The skin under his nose still gleamed red and sore; the insides of his ears had streaks of blood from the earbuds and the rest of him...

Don’t look.

My heart couldn’t handle the pandemonium his body had become.

Focus on his face. His lovely, lovely face.

That’s enough...for now.

Sully shifted again, the metal cage creaking in protest. “Is it dark?”

I licked my lips, looking out the window high above the stack of dog, cat, and mice cages. “Dusk is falling.”

“Shit, how long have I been out?”

I shrugged, activating more aches. “Seven hours or so? I’m not sure. I slept too.”

“Goddammit!”

“Don’t yell...save your strength.” Tiredness and tragedy wobbled my voice. “It’s fine. Drake hasn’t returned, and the guards are outside having a smoke. It’s just us...”

His fists curled, his nostrils flared, his rage was palpable, leaking through the bars. I understood his anger, but it cost so much energy to be mad. Energy he didn’t have.

“Sully...please, relax.”

“Relax?” He bared his teeth. “How can I relax knowing you’re here? How the hell did I sleep seven fucking hours when your life is in my hands?”

“My life is in my hands. I came back of my own accord—”

“You came back when I told you to stay as far away as possible.”

“You didn’t. You agreed to temporary all while you lied to my face,” I snapped, skating my gaze to the exit and the locked door between us and the mercenaries. I didn’t know when they’d left, but I supposed they figured two unconscious people who were tied and caged weren’t going anywhere fast enough to warrant sitting inside all day.

“I’m not debating this with you,” he growled. “You never should have come back.”

“Never?” I struggled to suck in a breath. “You could have survived never seeing me again?”

“Of course not. It felt like I died the moment you took off.”

“Well then, you’re welcome.”

“Christ, you test me. You’re not getting it. I love you. Do you understand that? I fucking love you more than anything and anyone, but having you here? You’ve ruined me because how the hell can I protect you? How can I stop him from touching you, fucking you, hurting you? How the goddamn fuck am I supposed to protect you when I’m shackled, wounded, and blind?”

“I’m not asking you to—”

“Just as I didn’t ask you to throw your life away for mine!”

I struggled to get my temper under control. This wasn’t how our reunion was supposed to go. We shouldn’t be fighting when he’d just woken up from being pushed to the brink, while he lay upon the stains of shed blood, while we honestly didn’t know how long our lives would last. “Sully...I had to come. I didn’t have a choice.”

“You did. You did have a choice. You could’ve chosen to obey me. At least you were out of his reach.”

“He would’ve found me if he wanted to. He knows my name. I would never have been safe.”

“Goddammit, why do you have to be so smart?” He threw his head back, his throat working as he swallowed. “Why can’t I win with you? All I wanted was to keep you safe. You are my top priority. My only priority. Yes, he could have found you if I failed to kill him, but you would’ve been surrounded by society and other people. You would’ve been a hell of a lot safer than here!”

“Hush.” I attempted to give each other sweetness and forget the sour. “It’s not worth arguing about. I’m here. We’re together. We can—”

“Damn you, woman.” His voice filled with a painful huskiness. “You’ve betrayed me in the worst possible way.”

“Betrayed you?” I sucked in another thin breath, my temper heating with injustice. I’d known he was stubborn. I knew we had similar fiery responses, but I didn’t think he’d be stupid enough to burn through whatever energy sleep had given him with accusations and slurs. “It’s not betrayal...it’s loyalty.”

“It’s insanity.”

“It’s necessity!” I twisted to face him as much as my binds would allow, glaring at the cotton over his eyes and the bruises shadowing his tanned skin. Just looking at him and imagining the torture he’d endured drowned my heart and made tears spring.

He was angry with me because he was afraid for me.

And I was angry with him because I hated that he was hurt.

Our rage wasn’t meant for each other, but that bastard who’d done this to us.

Damn you, too, Sully.

I didn’t ask for this.

I didn’t ask to fall so stupidly hard that I’ll literally do anything to keep you safe.

I sniffed back my sadness, forcing myself to remain as silent as I could. He couldn’t know I was crying, couldn’t know I churned with compassion, pity, and a decent dose of regret.

I should’ve come here with an armada.

Instead, I’d come alone and failed spectacularly.

Stop crying!

But he heard me.

Of course, he heard me.

“God, please don’t cry,” Sully whispered brokenly. “I’ll lose it if you cry.”

I laughed weakly as I rubbed tickling droplets from my jaw with my shoulder. “You can hear me?”

He shrugged helplessly, his lungs exhaling our fight and making him soft, gentle...kind. “I’ve always been aware of you. Now that I can’t see...I’m hyper attuned to your every breath.”

I wanted to say something.

Something profound and promising. Something that would give him back his pride, his power, his hope.

But...I had nothing.

All I wanted to do was crawl into his arms and kiss him until we both either died or help arrived.

Help.

“Sully...” I glanced at the exit, my tears drying. Still no guards. Still alone. I lowered my voice for good measure. “I told the captain who dropped me off to call for help. His granddaughter works on Lebah. I think he accepted Drake’s bribe to bring me here but regrets it. He might call on our behalf...I hope anyway. I also installed a tracker app on a burner phone and told my dad to call the police, the consulate—anyone in a position to help us with the coordinates. I don’t know if I have reception out here...but I tried.”

He froze.

I added quickly, “I told him your name. I...I hope you don’t mind.”

I was almost grateful he couldn’t see me just yet. I didn’t have to hide my worry or pretend to be stronger than I was. I’d done my best...but it might not be good enough.

Silence fell for a second before he chuckled darkly. “You told your father about me?”

“I told him you needed help.”

“Did you also tell him I bought you? That I paid money for your body and ended up stealing your heart?”

I shook my head, my hair catching on the bars behind me. “No...but he’ll hear in my voice that you’re special to me. That you’re...the one.”

He groaned. His body stiffened and face twisted. He sniffed as if he couldn’t believe what I’d told him before clearing his throat and murmuring, “If we survive this, Eleanor Grace...I’m going to fucking marry you.”

Goosebumps shot over every inch of me. I shivered. I smiled. “Is that a proposal?”

“It’s a vow. You’ve somehow claimed my entire useless heart. I let you go, Jinx. I watched you fly away like so many of my rescues...but you came back. You came back despite impossible odds...therefore, I’m keeping you. You don’t get a choice anymore.”

Overwhelming heat and need licked through my veins as he lugged himself into a better position and reached through the bars for me. The cotton on his eyes hid his penetrating stare. His lips were cracked from lack of hydration and abuse, and his five o’clock shadow bordered a beard. He looked as wild as the animals that would’ve inhabited the cage before him.

His fingers moved hesitantly as if afraid to hurt me in his quest to find me.

I moaned as he cupped my cheek.

He let out a heavy sigh, caressing me with a shaking touch. “It’s killing me that I can’t see you.” His forehead pressed against the bars. “I’m sorry I’m the cause of so much misery.” Curling his fingers against my jaw, he pulled me toward him, kissing me through the metal, running away from our entrapment and the colossal unknown in our future.

His tongue licked my bottom lip.

I parted for him.

He dipped inside my mouth, his breath hitching as I welcomed.

We gave each other the sweetest kiss we’d ever shared. A kiss of hellos and goodbyes, apologies and arguments. We kissed like lovers, all while we were lab rats trapped at the mercy of a mad scientist.

How long until the police arrived?

Would they come by boat or helicopter?

Will they get here before it’s too late?

Pulling away, Sully’s touch dropped to the rope looping around the bars and tethering me tight. “Are we still alone?”

I licked his taste from my lips, nodding. “Yes.”

“Can you see anything we can use as a weapon?”

I scanned the villa, empty apart from towers of cages and horrible history. “No.”

His fingers worked the rope, tugging on different areas, attempting to free me. He was just as capable missing a sense as he was at full power. He’d endured so, so much, yet he wasn’t complaining or giving up. In fact, his skin flushed with a healthy colour beneath his bruises, the swelling in his leg looked less angry, and the rawness of his skin around his wrists, ankles, and chest were all—

“Oh, my God.” I gawked closer. “Your injuries...they’re—”

“Better?” His lips twitched. “Yeah, they’re not hurting nearly as much either.”

“How...how is that possible?”

His forehead furrowed as he continued to fumble with my rope. Up close, I noticed the skin around his wrists still oozed, but the flesh was a healthy pink. Tissue had already begun covering with new cells and blood supply.

He cursed under his breath, tugging the twine harder. “A hazard of my line of work.” Bending in half, he attempted to gnaw at the cord around my hands. “We stumble upon miracles as well as disasters.”

“And you happen to create a cream that heals in a few hours?”

“A few days for full granulation, but yes, substantially faster than anything else on the market.” He cursed again, his fingers brushing my hands as he continued to work the rope. “I’m assuming Jim gave me Tritec-87 while I was out. Did he inject me with something?”

“Yeah, a few jabs in your leg and one giant syringe of golden liquid in your arm.”

“The ones in my leg will help stitch my inner muscles together. The golden one we cooked completely by accident...well, not entirely by accident.” He sniffed with satisfaction as my left hand slipped free.

“What does it do?”

“We found a substitute for morphine from a rare plant in Borneo. We blended it with adrenaline and low-level opiates. The results are muted pain, improved stamina, and strength to survive if you’d say...fallen down a cliff or gotten hurt on a trail.”

I stretched my arm, wincing against the tightness in my shoulders. “And you didn’t sell it? Sounds wonderful. A second lease on life when you’re so close to death.”

He sucked in a breath, his voice switching from informative to cagey. “It never got approved...for legitimate reasons.”

“What reasons?” My right hand fell from the rope as he freed me. I twisted to face him fully. My heart bucked as he bowed his head, his jaw working. “What reasons, Sully?”

He swallowed. “The side effects were...complicated.”

I grabbed the bars, wrapping my hands so tight my knuckles went white. “What side effects?” An awful forewarning clouded over me. I wanted to reverse time and snatch the injection right from the doctor’s hands.

“Heart failure in some. Stroke in others. Coma for a few days in the majority.”

“Holy God.” I leaped to my feet, stumbling as blood shot down my legs, granting pins and needles. “How long? How long until that might happen to you?”

He spread his hands and his eyebrows tugged so low the tape over the cotton stuck outward. “A typical dose lasts about forty-eight to seventy-two hours before the host’s system overloads.”

“So...you’re telling me he injected you with a super drug that allows you to ignore everything you’ve already gone through? That it tricks your mind into believing you’re not hurt and drives you closer to a grave with every passing moment?” I grabbed the locked padlock to his cage, yanking it with terror. “My God, Sully. What the hell were you thinking?”

He shrugged. “I don’t care what happens to me at this point. I needed to be strong to protect you. With every hour that passes, I’ll increase in energy. It’s a stacking effect. By the time I’ve burned through everything I have left...Drake will be dead and—” His lips snapped shut, and his face shot to the side.

He bared his teeth and snarled, “Run, Jinx. Someone is in here with us. Go!”