I gasp awake, my body trembling. Whether it was from the aftermath of the machine or finding out the guys were alive, I can’t tell. But they are alive, and that’s all that matters.
Closing my eyes, I focus on the bond, and a burst of energy spreads through me, making me smile.
I was too lost in my grief and let it eat me alive instead of reaching inside and feeling the bond that was always there.
I hold on to it, gripping it tightly in my mind and heart. I release a harsh breath, letting everything that happened sink in.
The guys are coming for me, but I can’t just rely on them. We don’t know where I am or how long it might take them to find me. No matter how much trust I had in them, I’m not built to lie back and let someone save me. I need to fight for myself too.
It’s time I took my life back from King.
Listening out for anything, I hear nothing but the silence that stretches out around me. Not even Malik is making a sound. Or maybe he isn’t there. Either way, the whole place is dead.
So how do I get myself out of here?
I pull at the wires again, but they barely move. I’m strapped in tight; the metal grip around my waist is solid with no give.
Frustration builds, but I know I can do this. I just need to think… There must be something.
A light flickers above me, fluttering a couple of times before going out.
The darkness.
It came when I thought I had nothing left, but my own fears drove it away. Fears that have been gaining too much power from me.
It was time to feed another kind of emotion, one far more powerful and useful.
Rage.
Leaving my fears behind, I focus on my pain, frustration, anger, and everything I’ve endured. It fuels the growing storm inside me.
I focus on every slap, punch, and whip I’ve taken. Every cut, bruise, and broken bone, I’ve had to heal.
I focus on the pain that nearly took my mates from me and the dread and fear that came with it. I focus on the life that I should have always had, and the person that I once was… and I channel it all back into the energy building inside me.
I take back my power and let it build inside me. It grows and spreads, gaining more strength with each memory, with each part of me that starts to believe in each word I manifest to life.
The energy in the room reaches a peak. Goosebumps crawl across my arms as the temperature starts to drop.
Darkness seeps into the room like a dark fog, knocking out every light one by one. The silence in the darkness becomes deafening, stretching out around me.
I hold my breath and wait as it draws closer. A sliver of cold brushes up against my senses.
I smile as the dark answers me once more.
“Kiiiaarrraaa,” the voice from before calls out, its deep tone an echo around me.
“Freeee.” Again, it asks me to free it, but how? Even with the power thrumming through my veins, I don’t know how.
“Releasee…”
“Release what?” I ask it.
“Reaalleasseee.”
Yes, because dragging out the word makes me understand it better.
Mentally shaking my head at myself, I close my eyes and focus on the power thrumming through my veins. I reach down inside me and drag up the storm, which is waiting to be unleashed.
I call it to me, to my aid, and I pull. The slow building energy spirals, spreading throughout my body.
I gather it up, letting it build and build until it becomes almost painful. Just when I can’t take it anymore, I let it go.
Energy, much stronger than the last time, bursts out, sending a rippling wave around me.
The metal bed beneath me rocks, and the light above me flickers on and off.
I don’t notice anything else, but the energy thrumming through me. I feel strong, invincible, like nothing can touch me.
A spark of a connection flickers in my mind, not like my guys, but a strange connection of likeness, of kin.
“Freee.” The deep voice calls out once more and makes me wonder if there is a link between the two.
I pull on the strange connection, and the spark grows. “Yessss, freee.”
How I had any type of connection to whatever this thing was didn’t make sense. But it was a problem for another day.
I was going to be free of this place, and then I’d figure out how to destroy King and everything he’s built.
I focus on that spark of energy and pull it to me, then push it out into this world.
The lights flicker on and off as a large dark beast emerges, black smoke billowing from its body like armor. Its yellow eyes stare straight at me as it moves closer. Its body is like a cross between a wolf and bear.
The dark beast continues to stare at me as if waiting for something. The connection bubbles up inside me as I narrow my eyes on it.
“Free me,” I order it, my voice deep and commanding with a hint of its own darkness.
The beast moves forward. Grabbing the machine, it slashes its smoky claws through the wires before it focuses on the metal band.
Once its shadows touch it, the metal crumbles, bending in on itself before breaking off. They snap, freeing my arms and legs.
Pushing my body, I pull myself up and slide off the table bed. It takes a minute to shake off the dizziness, but then I head straight for the door.
The guards replaced the bars with new ones after Malik destroyed it. I glance down at the lock and look back at the beast. Instead of talking like when it was in the dark, it gives me a look, one I seem able to understand. It tilts its head as if to say, “You do it.”
Looking back down at the lock, I close my eyes and reach inside me, pulling my power up to the surface. Like a shift, I feel the change come over me. My vision is clearer, and I can clearly see the small dust floating in the air.
Focusing back on the lock, I imagine it breaking in half. Seconds later, dark shadows slide from my hand and wrap around it, doing just that.
I pull open the door, and a shrieking alarm goes off around me.
Damn it. I need to get out of here before the guards find me.
Just as I turn to go left, something makes me stop. Glancing over to my right, I look at the door that must lead to Malik’s room.
He might not even be there and if he is, I’m probably the last person he wants to see, but I can’t just leave without knowing.
Turning back, I move to his room. I see no bars, just a long, thick metal door. His demon side probably needed something a little stronger than a barred one like mine.
With my power still brimming at the surface, I do the same with Malik’s door, but instead, I imagine a hole in the lock’s place.
My shadows whip out and punch a hole through it, completely destroying the lock.
Pushing the broken door open, I step into the dark room, my eyes adjusting quickly. What I see stops me in my tracks.
Malik is chained to the wall with a mouth guard, and his hands are pulled by his side, similar to the way I was left on the table.
He spots me, and his eyes widen at something behind me. I look over my shoulder, finding the beast staring at him.
“It’s with me,” I tell him, but it doesn’t ease the fear in his eyes.
Malik tries to speak but can only grunt and growl with the mouthguard on.
“I’m getting out of here. Whether you come with me or not is up to you.” Stepping closer to him, I raise my hands. “I’m going to release you. That way, you can do whatever the hell you want.”
Malik tries to move but can’t with how tight the chains are. Blood drips from his wrists from where he pulled against them.
Looking over my shoulder, I connect with the beast, telling him what I want him to do.
Once the thought crosses my mind, it turns around to watch for any guards coming.
Pulling my shadows up, I push them forward, imagining them wrapping around the chains and ripping them apart. They clang to the floor as Malik follows them with a grunt, landing on his knees.
Shouts come from outside, telling me our time is up. The guards are coming. Even with the shadow beast on watch, we needed to get out of here.
“Looks like it’s time to go,” I tell Malik.
Malik rips the mouth guard off his face, glaring at me. “You should have left me where I was.”
“Chained up where your free will is taken from you? No. If you want to stay here, fine. But at least now you get to make that choice yourself.” If he stays, that’s on him.
“There’s never been a choice. They took that years ago. I’ve already accepted that I will die here.” The fire in his eyes slowly fades, making something in my chest tighten.
“Maybe, but today that’s a decision you get to make for yourself.” I turn to leave but stop when Malik calls out.
“What the—”
I turn back to him. His wide eyes are on the spot where the beast just disappeared. He opens his mouth and looks at me but stops, taking a step back.
“What are you?” he asks, as if he’s seeing me for the first time.
Something inside me could sense his fear. It leaked off him in waves, heading straight for me.
“Nothing you need to worry about.” The guards were if they caught up to us.
Malik looks at me warily. He opens his mouth to speak but stops when his body tenses up. He grabs his head, crying out in pain as his body folds to the floor.
I go to move toward him when he begins to shake, as if taking some sort of seizure.
“What’s going on?” I move closer but stop when an unlawful, deep growl comes from his lips.
Malik changes before my eyes into the pissed off demon with the purple horn. He flinches a couple of times before going completely still.
“Malik?” Nothing but silence greets me.
I inch forward, making sure he’s still alive when he jumps up and flashes forward.
Before I know it, he has me pinned by my throat up against the wall, all the while snarling in my face.
It takes a moment for the shock to clear before I get pissed. I am not going to let anyone hurt me like this again.
I let the darkness rise up inside me. It comes quicker than last time, pouring out of me and whipping out at Malik, sending him flying toward the wall in front of me.
Dropping to my feet, I raise a hand to my throat, breathing through the sharp burn as my ability heals it.
Glancing at Malik’s demon, I watch as he starts to tremble again. His horn recedes, replaced by hair, his body shrinking as he transforms from demon to man.
Malik pants. Sitting up, he grabs hold of his head. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry.” He releases a harsh breath and lifts a hand from his face, raising it in apology. I’d tell him to go fuck himself, but the complete look of devastation on his face stops me.
I sigh. “I know you can’t… control it.”
Malik shakes his head. “I wasn’t always like this. But it’s why I can’t leave. I’m a danger to anyone who comes near me. My demon can’t tell the difference between who is trying to hurt us. He only sees the threat.”
“And you have no control when you choose to shift?” Did King take that from him too?
“No.” Malik frowns, glancing up at me. “I’ve never shifted back that quick either. Not unless the guards use me as their entertainment to fight those creatures.”
“What—”
Shots and screams sound out in the hall, then it all turns quiet.
Seconds later, the shadow beast stalks in, interrupting the question on my lips, blood dripping from its mouth. It glances at Malik and then at me, as if asking if he also needs to be dealt with.
I shake my head, narrowing my eyes on the second alarm now shrieking around us.
“Let’s go.” I put out my hand for Malik.
He stares at it a moment before grabbing it and pulling himself up, letting go immediately.
We move quickly, making our way out of Malik’s room and into the hall. Red paints the walls with blood, with the bodies of the guards on the floor beside it.
I glance at the beast, but it just narrows its eyes on me as if to say, “You’re welcome.”
Shaking my head, we move through the halls, over the discarded bodies of the guards, and out through the door at the end of the hall.
The door opens out to a plain white hallway that leads in both directions.
“Any ideas?” I ask Malik.
“Usually, when they take me out of my room, they’ve knocked me out or I’m in my demon form. I don’t remember much of either. So, no.”
I go with my gut, taking a right. Malik follows, not questioning my decision, while the beast slides in and out of the shadows along the way.
The hall seems to go on forever. I’m about to turn back and try the other way when I spot a door in the corner.
Heading over to it, I put my ear to it, hearing no sound. Giving the handle a shake, I find it’s not locked.
I glance back at Malik, giving him a look to be quiet. He answers by raising a brow.
Edging the door open, I find a staircase leading upwards.
“You said we were on the bottom level?” I ask Malik. He walks around me, looking up the stairway.
“That’s what I was told, repeatedly. That it would be the grave I would die in.”
I shake my head. The more Malik told me, the more my blood boiled. I seize the fury racing through me and trap it inside me, ready to use when I meet King once again.
We move as quick as we can up the stairway, finding another door at the end. Opening it, we find a hall with wide windows looking out onto a large forest. I squint against the sun, my eyes not used to it after being in the dark for so long.
A spark of hope spears through me as we get one step closer to our freedom.
“Let’s find the nearest exit and get the hell out of here.”
Malik grunts in agreement while keeping his eyes out. We move along the halls as quick as we can. It seems to be more active on this level, with sounds coming from all around us.
I tell the beast to go check it out but stay in the shadows. He disappears just as heavy boots alert us to guards coming our way. Not knowing how many there are, we find an open door and hide in it until they pass.
“Well, what have we got here?”
