Page 115 of Pretty When She Breaks

Finch: The plan hasn’t changed. Proceed.

Me: Fuck you.

I threw my phone with a hiss of frustration. It hit the wall by the door with a thud.

Stubborn, idiotic bastard.

I froze as I heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs, panic making my heart flutter.

Who was it?

No one ever camedown here anymore.

I didn’t have the key to the Den, so I couldn’t even escape toward the pens.

There was no way out.

Please be Finch, I prayed as the footsteps got louder and the doorknob twisted.

The door swung open, and Madison stepped into the room.

I let out a silent scream inside my head as every muscle in my body tensed. I could feel the shot of adrenaline my heart was frantically pumping through my veins.

My phone, I thought. I needed to tell Finch. Surely he’d call it off if he knew Madison was down here too. But I’d thrown it across the room.

Madison's eyes locked with mine as he noticed I was here, and surprise flitted across his features for a second before they morphed into delight.

My stomach twisted.

“Duchess,” he said, walking toward me. “What are you doing down here?”

“Watching the fights,” I said, reaching out to try and claim the Duchess persona.

She remained just out of reach; I was too scared to become her right now. “It’s been so long since I’ve had a fight night without hosting the suite and wanted to take the chance to see them from down here.”

The bravado I was forcing sounded weak, even to my ears.

There was a problem with Madison and personal space; namely, he seemed to neither know nor care about it. I was forced to step back against the bars as he stood in front of me.

“You’ve watched them from the Den before?” He reached out and stroked a strand of my hair before I could answer properly.

“I have,” I said, my eyes flicking desperately to my phone, impossibly out of reach.

Finch couldn’t release me from his command without it. I reached out to him in the bond and felt him shift from that stubborn determination to something that felt like concern. Maybe he’d seen Madison come down here, or maybe he could feel me. I saw the phone screen light up with a text, but I couldn’t read it from here.

Fear trickled down my spine, and I found it hard to think. “It’s very… visceral from down here.”

Madison nodded, a smile crossing his face. “I like it better when I can smell the blood,” he said, glancing at the Sink, and then back at me. “When I heard this place existed, I had to come and see.”

“Why don’t I invite the others?” I asked, hating the tremble that had crept into my voice.

I swear, Madison’s pupils dilated slightly when he heard it. “My phone’s just?—”

“I’ll do it,” he said, tugging his phone out of his back pocket and shooting off a message. Fuck. “There. Now we can have a proper party.” His smile darkened as he stepped closer, forcing me back until I was pressed against the cold bars behind me.

I squeezed my hands into fists as my heart rate spiked. His aura rippled through the air, making every hair on my neck stand on end and a metallic tang bloom in my mouth.

Run, every nerve in my body was screaming, even though my legs felt like Jell-O.