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“Trust me, it wasnota part of my cunning plan,” he drawled through the darkness.

“You’re not the most successful of rescue parties, I’ll admit,” I laughed, surprised I still could. “Did you unlock my chains?” I asked, flexing my wrists to test their movement.

“I picked the lock, yes. It was simpler than I’d expected, what with my improved sense of hearing in this dank, isolated little hole.” He sounded at ease, though I knew he couldn’t be.

“Thanks,” I sighed. “I think the sensation is coming back to my arms.” I paused, rotating my stiff shoulders. I didn’t dare try to sit up yet. “What happened?”

“Where to begin?” I could almost sense him raising an eyebrow at me in the dark. “You disappeared, Erin. It was only ever a matter of time before we came for you – Nick would have it no other way. Tom, too. You know this.”

“Did you work out it was Alistair, or—” I started.

“This past day or so, I have learned a great deal about Nick’s history. I confess, much of it I wish I had not had to hear – or wheedle out of him.” His usual light drawl had vanished. “Alistair was a part of that, yes.”

The darkness between us felt heavier. For Adam to speak about Alistair’s part in Nicholas’s life like that… There must have been some truth in the picture Alistair had painted. I pressed my palm flat against the cold concrete floor, anchoring myself.

“How did you figure out it was him?” I demanded, some strength returning to my voice. “Tell me everything, from the start.”

Adam took a deep breath and began to weave Nicholas’s story. I shifted, trying to find a position that didn’t pull at my wounds as he spoke of fortune-tellers and young vampires at theturn of the century… Of prisoners and the horrors of war – some of which I already knew. But the torture and the fear, I hadn’t been expecting.

He didn’t go into detail about the experiments Nicholas and Alistair had been subjected to, and I imagined Nicholas had been reluctant to share much. I struggled to comprehend what he’d endured, the determination it must have taken to survive. But Adam’s words had the ring of truth to them – his story made sense of the things I knew of Alistair so far, and I believed Nicholas’s conviction that his friend had been dead.

I took a moment to let everything he’d said sink in. “How did you end up in here with me?”

Adam shifted in the darkness. “Tom worked out they must be holding you here, and the others and I agreed we should investigate. Of course, I had not intended to storm to your rescue and find myself, well, captured.”

Relief flooded through me like adrenaline, and I tensed at the pain it caused my injured body. “So, the others are here?”

“Yes. I spoke to Tom minutes before they caught me – but don’t excite yourself, I seem to have lost my phone since then,” Adam said shortly. “How areyou, Erin? I cannot tell how badly you’re hurt in this blasted darkness, but I felt your wrists as I picked the cuffs. Is that the extent of it?”

“So bad you can tell in the dark, huh?” I coughed, my throat raw and dry. “Émilie prefers shallow cuts and…” I searched for the word. “I think the term is flaying?”

There was a sharp intake of breath.

“The woman is a monster.” He made a sound of disgust. “Though perhaps we should be grateful she hasn’t indulged her inclination toward poison. I shall be very interested to see what Nicholas does to the vampire upstart when he sees what she has done to you.”

“Is he coming?” I asked, trying not to let hope seep into my tone.

Adam chuckled. “If Nicholas were the one here, captured, wouldn’tyoube on your way?”

I flushed in the dark.

“The sun was close to rising when they caught me, so it might be something of a wait, but he’ll be here. I have faith that between him and Isabel, we will make it out alive.”

“How long have I been gone?” I choked out.

“Not quite two days now.”

I nodded, though he couldn’t see me.

“How is he?” I knew Adam would answer me honestly.

“Both furious and utterly lost,” Adam answered. “When we found the empty house, I believe something broke in him. One might have thought half his soul had been ripped away.”

I nodded again to myself. I’d had so much time to think about him while I’d been here, my perspective had shifted entirely. I wanted to ask more, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud. Somehow, I knew he was doing about as well with my absence as I was with his. Adam said nothing more on the subject, and I left it at that.

“How much can you move?” I asked after a moment’s pause.

“I am quite unrestrained, though this shelter remains my prison.”