“Don’t make me tell you again. Drop. It.”

My fist tightens around the picture, which only seems to piss him off more when I feel the bite of the knife between my shoulder blades.

“Last chance.”

His breaths are ragged, short puffs that brush against my neck that only worsen that feeling that makes me want to run. His voice is a harsh timbre, high-pitched like a psychotic hiss. He’s not measured like Castor. He’s unhinged—insanity vibrating like a man high on drugs…like he’s savoring the thought of running me through.

I drop the picture onto the ground.

“Turn around,” he says louder this time. “Slowly.”

I comply easily—too easily. Maybe it’s muscle memory ingrained from years in the military, maybe it’s fear, but the second I meet his eyes, every muscle in my body freezes like ice.

He grins at me, baring his teeth like an animal to its prey before ripping out its throat.

The man’s eyes are ice—a cold blue, calculating, and burning bloodlust, maybe. The knife in his hand is curved, gleaming white like bone with a razor-sharp silver glazed along the edges, glinting in the light like a scythe.

Baron.

Baron presses the blade against my throat.

“Keep. Your mouth. Shut.” He gives me one last hard stare before calling over his shoulder. “Castor!”

Heavy footsteps bound throughout the halls until I find myself face to face with the man who ambushed me in the woods.

His jaw tenses, eyes narrowing with recognition and disgust, like he didn’t think I’d be able to track them. He tugs at the scarf wrapped around his neck, revealing his indifferent scowl that matches his dead eyes, but even then, he doesn’t speak to me. He simply leans against the doorframe, wedging his large frame into the space, and sealing my only way out.

I tighten my fists to a painful degree, fighting for any kind of restraint I have. I have no weapons, but I’m standing inches away from them, this close to wiping their existence off the planet, and I can’t .

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Baron hisses.

I flash him a mocking smile. “Then you should’ve locked the door.”

My comment is met with a bite into my skin as the silver edge of his knife drags across my neck. My lip curls from the pain, but I don’t speak again. Not to someone who is shaking from the adrenaline.

His hands flex around the knife, but when Castor shuffles behind him, he reluctantly draws it back, sheathing it into the hidden holster on his thigh.

Castor crosses his arms, eyeing me carefully before he brushes the dirt off his shoulders. They flex taut underneath his jacket, a response that matches the smallest twitch in his eyes like the sight of the dirt and rock is repulsive.

He peels himself away from the doorframe, and as Baron lurks in front with a mad gleam in his eyes, he looks like a ghost compared to Castor. An apparition guarding Castor with a knife that blinds me every time it reflects off the bright lights.

“I don’t like repeating myself,” Baron snaps. “You’re enough of a problem without running your mouth.”

My eyes fall on the rifle slung over Castor’s shoulder. I need a weapon.

Seconds of silence pass until Castor moves again, whispering into Baron’s ear. Annoyance flashes across Baron’s face but with a heavy sigh, he relents and draws his knife.

“I don’t have time for this.” He grabs my arm, wrenching me forward. “Let’s go.”

The second Baron’s knife slips off my neck, I shoulder Baron against the metal frame and rear my fist back and throw it into Castor’s face.

Castor doesn’t even flinch despite the throb in my hand, but his eyes snap over to Baron as he stumbles back, hissing in pain. Castor jerks, catching Baron just before he falls and the rifle slips.

I lunge for it and just as my hand wraps around the cool metal, Castor catches my wrist, a dark glare in his eyes.

“I don’t think so,” he warns.

I tug at the rifle once and when his grip threatens to break my wrist, I let go, and take off down the hallway.

My head pounds as I weave through the dark tunnels, panic rushing into my throat that I can’t scream even without the suffocating smell. They’re quick behind me and I’m running after me in a labyrinth that I can’t navigate.

Fuck the mission. I need a plan first. Escape first, kill them later.

I reach into my pocket, cracking my last glowstick just in time to see the dead end.

My head cracks against the hard stone, silencing any sound around me while I crumple to the floor in a daze. Darkness spits at my vision, flashes of the firepit at home. My dad waves me over, embers floating from the flames and glowing around the first deer I ever killed.

Get up, Hels. You’re not done yet.

I force myself up, gasping for air, as sound returns to my ears, along with the panic clawing at my throat. My hands find a shard of rock and I brace myself against the wall until I’m sure the blackness in my vision is just the darkness of the tunnel.

Then the darkness moves, morphing into two shadows charging at me. Castor slams into me, knocking back against the wall until he forces me back, swinging a leg over until he’s straddling me and a hand collects my wrists over my head.

Baron plucks the shard from my hand.

“Not bad. You managed to give yourself a concussion without our help.”

“Get off me!” I manage to free a hand, and I dig my nails into his cheek, desperately scratching at Castor before he smacks my hand away.

“Enough!” Castor wraps his hands around my throat. Instantly, my vision begins to blacken. My lips open, but nothing comes out, opening and closing like a gasping fish as I try to force words out. My hands move to his, clawing at his grip for a tiny fraction of air but my limbs are becoming heavy and the clear image of Castor’s expressionless face bathed in the red light is darkening.

I’m dying.

My eyes start to roll and with what I think may be my last breath, I mutter his name in a soft voiceless plea that even I couldn’t hear.

He stops. The darkness recedes, replaced by blinding pain and a ringing in my ears.

I can’t move. My body is limp as I’m lifted from the ground, Castor’s voice the last thing I hear before everything fades.

“Sleep, baby. It’ll be the last you get for a while.”