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It wasn’t just a scream that left my body, it was the sound of my soul breaking, of my heart splitting into jagged pieces. Every beat pumping agony through my veins.

I knew I was screaming, could feel it in the tearing of my vocal cords, but the world was silent.

Deafening and painful silence.

Chapter forty-two

ATALIIA

Agroanslippedfrommy lips as I pushed my eyelids open against the searing pain beating through my head. A dank smell filled the air as I squinted into the dark, trying to piece together what had happened—where I was.

The last thing I remembered was falling from the sky.

My throat pulsed, slowly squeezing shut, suffocating me as the weight of manacles around my limbs finally registered. My body went wholly still for one moment.

No.

I couldn’t fucking do this again.

I couldn’t be a prisoner. I couldn’t be here.

Static began to fill my head as I yanked my hands, pulling on the chains as my breathing became erratic. Memories flooded behind my eyes, hovering at the edge of my vision—my fingers clawing at the cuffs around my ankles and wrists as audible sobs burst from my throat between the panting.

I couldn’t fucking do this again.

“Breathe, Ataliia. Breathe.” Dukovich’s voice sounded from somewhere behind me and I snapped my head around in the dark.

“Where are you?” I asked, my voice a stifled whimper as I searched the shadows for him.

Chains rattled a few feet from me, the sound screeching through my mind as his silhouette moved across the space. He hissed, groaning as if he were in pain. “Here,” he said, his breath thin as a wet cough fell from his lips.

I pressed my palms to the damp stone floor, slowly feeling my way across the cell toward his voice, my restraints heavy and loud as they dragged behind me, scraping and grating. My knees slid against the cold ground, pain flaring there with every movement as I shuffled toward the sound of his voice. My fingers stretched out in front of me, the outline of them disappearing into the dark as they pushed through the air, feeling the rough texture of the cell walls before finally hitting the cool, hard metal bars that separated us.

“Duckovich . . .” I whispered, my voice cracking as I wrapped my fingers around the bars, the cold iron biting into my skin as I pressed my face against them. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

He let out a weak chuckle that morphed into another cough. “I have been better,” he managed, his words strained. “But I will live.”

I nodded into the dark, closing my eyes to try and stay off the panic that was surging through my body.

“What about you? Did they hurt you?” he asked, his pained groans blending with the loud clank of his chains as he dragged himself across the floor toward me. I shook my head, my heart pounding between my ears. I knew he couldn’t see me, but my lips wouldn’t form the words, wouldn’t move.

A sudden scream pierced the air, echoing off the stone walls. My entire body went rigid as a sob broke from the depths of mychest. Dukovich’s hand found mine through the bars, his fingers rough and calloused as they squeezed mine. My nails dug into his skin.

That sound.

I knew that sound too well. It was the scream of being ripped apart, piece by agonizing piece.

Dukovich’s grip tightened on mine, his other hand slipping through the bars and wrapping around the back of my neck as he pressed his forehead to mine. “Don’t listen to it,” he commanded with a fierce whisper. “Just focus on my voice, love.”

I could already feel myself fracturing, the cracks spider-webbing out from my center. I squeezed my eyes shut, hot tears leaking from beneath my lids.

I couldn’t fucking do this again. Not again.

Please, not again.

“I’m scared,” I whispered, my voice breaking and catching in my throat. “I . . . I can’t live through this again.”

His hands flexed across my body at the pain spilling from my words and he pressed his head harder against mine. “I know. I am scared too.”