Page 107 of Monsters Carve Thrones

And I meant it with everything I had left.

The vodka burned going down, but not nearly enough.

“Jesus Christ,” Nico muttered, blood slicking his gloves as he dug into my shoulder with the tweezers.

I gritted my teeth so hard I thought they might crack. The pain was blinding, white-hot, like someone was pouring fire into the wound. I didn’t make a sound.

Kieran winced beside me, arms crossed tightly, trying to stay calm, but his face was pale. Laura sat on the edge of the table, staring hard at the floor, refusing to look at the mess of flesh and metal being carved out of my body.

“Almost there,” Nico said under his breath, sweat dotting his brow. “Fucker’s deep.”

“I can take it,” I rasped, my good hand tightening around the vodka bottle. I took another long swig. It wasn’t helping.

“Do we have oxy?” I asked, barely moving my jaw.

Laura looked up sharply. “Youjust–” Then she saw my face. Whatever she saw there made her mouth snap shut.

Kieran exhaled slowly. “Rafe. You just detoxed. You go down that road again, and you might not come back.”

I said nothing for a long beat, just breathing through the pain, eyes locked on the ceiling. My whole arm was shaking,blood running down my chest and ribs in warm rivulets. “I won’t take it,” I said finally. “Just needed to ask.”

“Good,” Kieran murmured. “Just drink. It’ll hurt like hell, but you’ll survive.”

“Yeah,” I muttered, voice hoarse. “I’m used to it.”

Nico finally let out a breath. “Got it.” He dropped the bloodied slug into a tray and started patching me up while I sat there, silent, breathing hard. The alcohol buzz was finally kicking in, enough to dull the edge but not enough to erase the fact that there was a hole in my goddamn shoulder.

Adela was still in the shower.

The sound of the water drifted faintly from the bedroom. I turned my head slightly toward the closed door. She hadn’t made a sound since she went in.

I wanted to kick the door down and hold her.

Instead, I let Nico tape me up while the others started to clean and settle in. We were all wrecked, bloodied, bruised, and scraped to the bone. But they were alive, and that was all that mattered. Laura went into the second bedroom to shower herself. Kieran offered to make rounds, just to be sure the hotel floor was secure. Nico left to get rid of the bullet and clean up the med kit.

And I… I stood, my limbs aching, and wandered back into the room where she was. I sat at the edge of the bed. Shirtless. Bandaged. Buzzed. The sound of the shower still ran steady behind the bathroom door. My fingers dug into my thighs, grounding myself in the moment. She was behind that door.

I had her again.

The shower had stopped running, but the door hadn’t opened. I waited, the pain in my shoulder now a dull throb beneath the weight of everything else. But she was crashing. I could feel it through the walls. That freefall after survivingsomething no one should’ve had to. Her body had moved on instinct for weeks, stuck in survival mode. And now… now it was over.

Now, she was falling apart.

The door creaked open at last, and there she was, wrapped in a towel. Her hair was wet, clinging to her face, and her skin was pink from the heat. I stood slowly, afraid any sudden movement would shatter the delicate quiet between us.

She walked toward me, still somewhere between here and the hell she’d just escaped from.

“Clothes are here,” I said softly, handing her the clothes Laura had left.

She didn’t speak, but she nodded, and I turned my back, letting her change. When I turned around again, she was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring out the window.

I approached her carefully, hating how small she looked. She was one of the strongest women I knew. The woman sitting before me now... I hardly recognized. And it broke my fucking heart.

Then she looked up at me.

Her eyes landed on mine with startling focus, and I swore I forgot how to breathe.

“Rafe,” she whispered. Just my name. Just that. But it cracked something open in my chest.