Page 80 of Map of Pain

“We need professional help,”Marcus said, pulling out his phone.“I’m calling Matoskah.”

Luka stayed frozen beside Nick, his beast howling with frustrated rage, watching as the man hewasfalling in love with came apart in front of him.

I’m supposed to protect him. I’m supposed to keep him safe. And I can’t even reach him.

The failure burned in his chest like acid. He couldn’t punch trauma in the face or sign it into submission. He could only kneel and watch as Nick relived the worst moments of his life in front of people who cared about him but couldn’t help.

“P-please,” Luka whispered. “C-come back.”

Therewasnothing any of them could do but watch and wait for help to arrive, hoping that when it came, there would still be enough of Nick left to save.

Chapter thirty-one

Something hungry and terrible...

Nick

Jingle.

The sound of metal on metal, and everything blurred.

Hewasin Gianmarco’s penthouse, but somethingwaswrong. Gianmarco stood over him, straight razor gleaming in the lamplight, but his beautiful facewastwistedwith something that looked like anguish and fear.

“I’m sorry, kitten,”Gianmarco said, his voice hollow in a way Nickhadnever heard before.“I have to do this. He’s making me. I can’t fight him anymore.”

The wordsweredifferent now. Not the casual cruelty Nick remembered from two years of systematic torture, not the twisted love thatshapedevery broken piece of him.

“No, please,”Nick heard himself begging from where he knelt on the marble floor.“I’ll be better, I promise. I love you, I’ll do anything—”

Gianmarco’s hand trembled as he raised the razor, his eyes filling with something that looked like genuine terror.“I’m sorry, kitten. I can’t fight his voice in my head. He’s too strong.”

Tears streamed down Gianmarco’s face—tears Nick had never seen before.

“But I love you,”Nick sobbed, and the words felt true, felt real, felt like the only truth in a world thathadgonesuddenly mad.

“I love you too,”Gianmarco whispered, and then the razor bit deep.

Blood. Choking. The box closing over him as darkness rushed in from all sides.

Jingle.

Blur.

Light. Harsh fluorescent light burning his eyes as the box opened. A woman with brown hair looking down at him in shock, her face pale with disbelief.

“He’s alive,”Owen said from somewhere above, his voice carrying pity but no surprise. No fanfare. Just a statement of fact.

They knew. They knew we might survive.

Jingle.

Blur.

White walls. A hospital bed. The smell of iodine and the sound of machines beeping. Shaw entering the room like he owned it, like he owned everything.

“Welcome to the Daylight Society, Nicholas,”Shaw said, settling into the chair beside the bed with the casual authority of someone who never doubted his welcome.“We’re going to help you become something better than what that monster made you.”

But Nick could hear other voices, whispered conversations when they thought hewasasleep or too medicated to understand.