Page 68 of Creeping Lily

TITAN

I stalk the length of the cabin like a caged predator, boots hammering the warped floorboards, each thud a countdown to someone’s death.

My fists are locked so tight my knuckles ache, bones grinding against bone, blood flooding my temples until my vision pulses red.

The walls feel too close, the air too thin.

Every nerve in my body is screaming for me to break something—splinter wood, crush bone, spill blood.

The pain in my side bites deep, a white-hot pull that claws at my breath, forcing me to stop for half a second. But the rage… the rage doesn’t stop. It swells in my gut, filling every hollow space until there’s nothing left of me but fire and teeth and the need to kill.

She’s gone.

Taken.

Bentley has Lily.

And I will rip him apart for it.

A sound tears out of me—low, feral, not meant for human ears—and I drive my fist into the table. Wood groans and the whole cabin rattles. The noise echoes off the walls, not just a sound but a promise .

“I’ll kill him.” My voice is a rasp, thick with fury, shaking with the weight of it. “I’ll kill them both.”

Justin shifts at the door, his hands raised like he’s edging up to a wild animal that might bolt—or bite. “Easy, man. You’re bleeding through your bandages. Sit down before you tear yourself apart.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” I snarl, but my legs betray me anyway, shoving me back into the chair like they know I need to conserve the energy for the slaughter to come. My breathing is jagged, chest heaving.

My mask lies across the room where I threw it, a black husk on the floorboards. I don’t know if I’ll ever put it back on. What’s the point? Justin’s already seen what’s underneath. The truth doesn’t hide behind silicone anymore—it’s written on my skin.

The scar along the side of my face burns, an ugly, twisted canyon carved there by fire and betrayal.

My own personal brand, proof of the hell I’ve lived through.

I see Justin’s eyes flick to it, quick but not quick enough, like he’s trying to work out how deep the damage goes—not just in my flesh, but in the destruction underneath it.

He doesn’t comment; his silence is louder than anything he could say.

Instead, he moves in, grabbing a clean bandage from the kit.

His hands are steady, almost clinical, but there’s a weight behind them, like he knows this isn’t just about patching up skin.

“You need to stay alive if you’re going to bring her back,” he says, voice low, careful, like he’s speaking to something that might explode if pushed too far.

Alive.

I will stay alive. But only so I can end him.

My hands lock so tight around the armrests that the wood groans. My pulse thunders, a war drum in my ears, and it’s costing me everything not to explode. Finally, I speak—low, hoarse, cracked like it’s dragging itself out of my chest.

“Ask me,” I say.

Justin blinks, confused. “Ask you what?”

“What you want to know.” My voice is a rasp, a dare. I want him to spit it out, to drag the truth into the open and choke on it with me.

He lets out a scoff. “Do you have all day?”

“What do you want to know?” I push, my gaze fixed on him.

His hands stop moving. He lifts his eyes to mine, watching me like he’s not sure I can take the hit. “What is she to you?”

It’s not the question I expected. It’s worse.

There’s no word for what Lily is to me—no language that can hold it without breaking apart.

She’s bone and breath. Hunger and water.

My past, my only present, my only future.

She’s the tether keeping me from dissolving into nothing.

She’s the knife that cuts me open and the hand that stitches me back together.

So I give him the only truth I have.

“She’s my umbilical cord,” I say. My voice is wreckage. “She’s the one who transcends time and place and trauma.”

He doesn’t speak after that, just nods like maybe now he understands the lengths I’ll go to.

By the time we leave the cabin, Justin’s jaw is set in stone.

Even after I’ve ripped away any fantasy he had of ending up with Lily, he’s resolved—unyielding.

He’ll help me find her. Protect her. Save her.

Even if she’ll never be his. That kind of loyalty is rare. Dangerous. And I’ll owe him for it.

“Titan,” I tell him as I climb into the passenger seat of his SUV .

“Finally,” he mutters. “I thought I’d never get a name or a face. That your real name?”

He drives us out of the forest, away from the last place I saw her.

Lily probably thinks I’m dead. Maybe she’s praying I am.

I don’t want to think about what she’s enduring in the hands of that monster—what he might be doing.

If he’s marked even a single hair on her head, I’ll dismantle him piece by piece, the way I’ve done to others who deserved worse.

“No,” I say. “My real name is Lincoln Walker.”

Justin goes still for a second before glancing at me. “I’m guessing you’re related to Bentley Walker.”

“So-called brother,” I spit.

He exhales hard, the sound edged with understanding. “This sounds more complicated than just a family feud. What are we dealing with?”

“Monsters,” I growl. The word is iron and blood on my tongue. “I should have killed them a long time ago. I knew what they were. What they’d do. And I let them live.”

Regret tastes metallic, like biting down on a bullet.

Justin studies me, unblinking. “We can sit here all night pointing fingers, or we can figure out how to get Lily back.”

I don’t argue. I motion for his phone. He passes it over and I connect it to the SUV’s Bluetooth. The dashboard screen lights up, the map glowing like a beacon in the dark.

“I put a tracker on my father’s phone,” I tell him. “It’s crude, but it works. He’s at the hunting lodge.”

Justin leans closer, scanning the display. “Middle of nowhere. You’re sure?”

“Yes.” My voice is steady but cold enough to burn. “It’s the only place he’d take her. The place where they’ve always hidden their filth and secrets. Where they—” My jaw locks. “Doesn’t matter. That’s where she is. ”

He stares at the map a moment longer. “You think Bentley and your father are working alone?”

“In this? Yes. No one else wants to drag their hands through more blood. But bigger picture?” I shake my head. “There are plenty of powerful people who’ll kill to keep their secrets. You don’t know what someone’s capable of until they’re cornered like an animal.”

“You’re going to need help,” Justin says. “You’re barely standing. You can’t do this alone.”

“I don’t care if I bleed out on their doorstep.” Pain knifes up my side as I straighten in my seat. I hiss, but I don’t stop. “I’m going. With or without you.”

He stares at me for a long beat, then sighs. “You’re insane. But you’re not going alone. Let’s make sure you don’t die before we get there.”

The weight of it settles heavy in my chest. I slump back into the seat, my body wrecked but my mind locked on fire. I can’t wait for Goliath. No one knows Tom and Bentley Walker like I do.

Justin feeds the coordinates into the GPS. For a while, the only sound in the car is the click of the blinker and my sharp inhales when pain spikes through my ribs.

Then, quietly, Justin says, “This isn’t just about Lily, is it?”

I cut my gaze to him—cold, flat, lethal. “This is about Lily. Don’t make it about anything else.”

He doesn’t push. Just nods. “Then let’s focus on getting her back. Do you have a plan?”

The fire in my veins says yes. The ache in my ribs says I’ll need those painkillers after all. My eyes lock on the map glowing in the dark.

I’ve already lost her once.

I will burn the world to ash before I lose her again.