Chapter Three

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THE HUMAN PSYCHE HAD always intrigued me.

From the dynamics in the school playground to the ethics within work environments, human nature was a fickle beast.

I’d seen the same theme while travelling.

Some people could accept rules with no complaint while others boycotted the mere whisper of boundaries. Those who were used to travel had the inherent ability to adapt to a new situation while those who’d never stepped out of their comfort zone panicked at the slightest unforeseen change.

I liked to think I was skilled at adaptation. I hadn’t always been that way—I’d started off naïve and passive, my life unopen to challenge and change.

But now...I had no such qualms.

I gave up trying to predict or control.

There was no predicting or controlling when you were someone’s prisoner.

Either by a man who bought your life and ended up stealing your heart, or by his brother who threatened your existence and wielded sadism as a personal skill.

I had no say in how I would be treated, no way to stop men from thinking they could own me, and even if I did, Drake wasn’t predictable because he operated outside the usual parameters of human psyche. He had no switch inside to prevent him from doing terrible things, no empathy to stop him from hurting others, and no rationale to reason with.

He was just evil.

Simple and stupidly evil.

I stayed silent as he flew me away from Sully’s archipelago and into the heart of Jakarta. He returned me to a city that’d done its best at blocking me from Sully. He dragged me from one winged machine to another one, stuffing me onboard a private plane where another two mercenaries waited on the tarmac to greet us.

The helicopter pilots didn’t say goodbye, both their faces relieved to no longer be employed by a madman.

The boxes of elixir were stowed in the back of the plane, the engines kicked into life, the new captain and first officer prepared to fly us to who knew where, and Drake sat heavily in the luxurious cream seat across the aisle from me.

His outburst on Monyet and his success at stealing Sully’s elixir had drained him of his reserves, and the moment the plane switched from taxiing to soaring into the star-dusted sky, he pressed a button on his chair, reclined to horizontal, draped a blanket over his body, and growled at his three mercenaries, “She moves, you shoot her.”

The click of three safeties being flicked off echoed even louder than a Boeing engine.

I stiffened in my seat, my heart chugging, my mind skipping between past, present, and future, and Drake completely discounted me.

He fell asleep with a smug grin on his face, revealing yet another side to his nature.

This asshole needed to get his way in all things. He was a vindictive, nasty boy who’d never been disciplined, yet he could let down his guard and sleep beside a girl who couldn’t stop plotting ways to kill him.

Of stabbing him with a fork.

Of strangling him with my seatbelt.

Of kicking him in the balls so hard they ruptured and bled out.

I needed him to die.

It was a visceral longing.

Something I chewed and choked on.

His every breath stole one from Sully. Two brothers genetically linked and bound—a symbolic bind that said one couldn’t survive while the other existed. It was either Drake or Sully.

Yin and yang.

Light and dark.

And if I can just kill this bastard, Sully will be okay.

I still couldn’t sense if Sully was alive or not.

And the farther I travelled from him, the more that panic grew.

Why can’t I feel him?

Had I ever been able to sense him, or had I been romanticizing that in Jakarta when Sully had sent me away?

Sully...you better be okay.

I’m begging you.

My eyelids drooped as time ticked onward, and the monotonous sound of flying deadened the outside world.

I’d somehow stayed awake after suffering elixir through sheer willpower and then necessity. I’d fought my every need and walked beside Sully while he’d carried Jess to Dr Campbell’s.

It’d been the hardest thing.

But I did it because I’d been such a hindrance to Sully when he’d tried to rescue me. I’d been dangerous and reckless, and my insides were still covered in slimy shame for what I’d made him do.

Having sex in front of those men.

Making him share me with strangers and their greedy gazes.

Ugh.

I wished I could delete my actions and get on my knees with atonement.

Walking beside him—staying awake despite elixir’s toll—had been my apology to him. My oath that I would be strong for him after he’d been so damn strong for me.

And I would continue being strong because regardless if Sully was alive or not...I didn’t have any other choice.

I wouldn’t lay down and take this.

I wouldn’t permit a man like Drake to steal my damn life.

It didn’t matter that my heart still skipped unnervingly or sometimes tripped into ribs, keeping it trapped. It didn’t matter that my dealings with Drake kept adrenaline coasting through my veins when I was wrung out, strung out, and afraid I wouldn’t have the capacity to remain brave.

Elixir had left my body a wasteland of bruises and truant heartbeats, but I would never complain of my ills because...Sully.

Before he’d been pushed out of a damn helicopter, he’d already had more cuts, scars, contusions, and stitches than I’d ever endured in my entire life. He’d staggered beneath torture and marched against his enemies without ever bemoaning or giving in.

For all his faults, Sully had been stripped of every mask he’d ever donned and his soul had been revealed. A soul I’d known existed the moment I saw him kiss Pika. A soul that would do absolutely anything to protect those he loved.

If he was alive...I had no doubt he would come for me. I didn’t have to second-guess or pretend our relationship didn’t hold the same value to him. The only problem was...he would come for me no matter the personal cost. It wouldn’t matter if he had one foot in this world and one in a coffin; if he still breathed...he’ll come.

And that terrified me as well as mollified because if he did chase me. If he once again put me over his pain, he might be sentencing me to a future I wouldn’t be able to survive.

Drake’s touch could never break me.

Drake’s rape, Drake’s torment, Drake’s ownership...they were just tremors in my life. Tiny earthquakes that had no strength to topple my inner towers or open giant fissures in my psyche.

But if Sully came...and if Sully lost...that would be an earthquake far too catastrophic to withstand.

But I need him to come.

I have to believe we’ll both be okay.

Ugh, stop!

I rubbed at my stinging eyes.

Focus. Get through this. Worry when it’s tomorrow.

Slouching in my seat, I once again fought the heavy weight on my eyelashes.

Sleep.

No!

Not with him next to me.

You have to sleep...you’ve run out of miracles.

My body knocked impatiently for rest, hammering on the door of my mind and slipping quietly past my worries to drag me closer to unconsciousness.

I wanted to sleep.

I needed to rest so my brain stopped being foggy and my body repaired. Sleep wasn’t just a luxury but a necessity, but how the hell was I supposed to close my eyes in his presence?

The idea of sleeping next to Sully had taken me time to accept...I could never be that vulnerable next to Drake.

Never.

My visions bounced as I struggled to focus. My heart continued to trip and skip. My head ached from being hit, and my limbs weighed five times their usual mass.

Sleep, Ellie.

No!

I gritted my teeth, fighting off the sleepy smog.

I looked out the oval window at the endless carpet of sea, clouds, and stars. The moon turned an otherwise dark vista into a silvery masterpiece, etching clouds, highlighting the world in monochrome.

If I could just focus on that...I can stay awake.

“Would you like something to eat?”

I whipped my head from the outside and blinked at an airhostess. She swayed a little in my sleepy stare.

I blinked again, stifling a yawn.

Where had she come from?

She held a tray with a foil-covered plate and a bottle of apple juice. She passed it to me, pulling a table from my armrest. “Here. You look exhausted.”

Everything was sluggish.

Scents of food wafted from the foil.

My stomach growled.

I might not be able to sleep, but I should nourish my body. I would do whatever it took to survive the turbulence that existed in my future.

I had no idea how long this flight would last or where Drake was taking me. I had some idea of what he’d do to me when we arrived, and I had a lot of fear over what state I’d be in once he’d had his fill, but all I could currently control was keeping my strength up, so I could fight when the time came.

Sully....

My appetite flickered as nausea returned.

The airhostess, with her carefully coiled blonde hair, murmured, “It’s beef ragu, my favourite. Enjoy.”

No...

My shoulders rolled.

I didn’t bother peeling away the foil.

Padding away in high heels so impractical for long hours in the sky, the stewardess deposited food to the mercenaries behind me, filling the cabin with the scent of dinner. The stench of cow flesh and slaughter.

I already battled sickness not knowing Sully’s fate. It increased tenfold as I swallowed, my stomach gurgling with revulsion.

I couldn’t sleep or eat.

What would I give to enjoy a spread of vegetarian fare from Sully’s gardens? What would I trade to sit on Sully’s deck overlooking Nirvana and share a simple, sweet veggie dinner with him?

Skittles would be there.

Pika, too.

Cal and Jealousy, goddesses and guests.

The world I’d tried to change suddenly no longer seemed so horrendous. I’d been so close to granting Sully’s freedom, so close to freeing his goddesses, showing him a happier way of life, and claiming my forever.

The hot afternoons wallowing in the sea were gone. The belly-clenching desire of lust was trivial. The ark of hoofed and winged creatures that Sully conjured whenever he touched me had all died a violent death.

Sully...

Please be alive.

I sighed.

But if you’re hurt...don’t come after me.

Don’t trade your life for mine.

Don’t be a hero.

Please...

With tears distorting the sky, I returned to staring out the window.

* * * * *

I’d fallen asleep.

For all my convictions that I could never let down my guard and be so vulnerable in Drake’s presence, the choice had been taken away from me.

My body didn’t request it.

It just took it.

Knocking me out until I slumped in my chair, leaving me a jumbled doll just waiting to be snatched up and played with again.

I woke with a jolt as the false sense of stability was interrupted as tyres hit tarmac and the plane landed.

The mercenaries shifted behind me as I sat taller in my seat, rubbing away sleep and trying to focus outside. An airport with Arabic script welcomed us, the private plane taxiing to a private hangar away from the main hub.

Dubai.

As the engines cut off, the pilots came over the intercom. “Please stay in your seats. We’re just refuelling and will continue our flight to Geneva.”

Geneva?

What the hell is in Geneva?