Page 99 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

ARA

“ I ’m your captor,” Doran whispered with Rogue’s voice as we pretended not to notice Adonis closing in. “You want freedom. Take it.”

I exhaled a shaky breath, my skin somehow both blistering and frozen. Adonis moved closer, the man who drowned me again and again, who crawled into my head and tortured me with visions worse than hell itself.

“Fuck,” I muttered. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

My hands trembled. My heart crawled into my throat.

This is Rogue. Trade him for my freedom. Hear his plan. Agree and follow.

That was all I had to do: agree and follow.

Agree and follow.

I closed my eyes, choking on panic.

But then, black smoke tickled the feelers of my magic, and everything snapped into place.

I absorbed that smoke before it reached us, and as vile as it was, I channeled it straight into my own well, storing it somewhere he wouldn’t be able to see.

Sucking in a lungful of air, I turned at the same moment he appeared. We stood chest to chest, his unnerving smile wide, eyes feral behind his mask.

I ground my teeth. “We have a deal.”

“A deal?” Doran asked.

Adonis didn’t bother with a glance at him. His gaze roamed over my mask, then my body. Doran planted a hand on my shoulder and tried to pull me behind him, but I yanked free and remained in place.

“What deal, Ara?” Doran asked, and I blinked. He sounded exactly like Rogue. “What deal?”

Black fog rolled in from all sides, but I consumed it.

Adonis tilted his head to the side. “Why are you doing that?”

“I agreed to the deal. I didn’t agree to let you into my head.”

“Not even his?” he asked, a lilt to his lips.

His magic stabbed harder, faster, a weapon made of mist, but I matched it. Barely.

Fuck. “Not even his.”

“You’ve improved.” He narrowed his eyes. “Interesting.”

“He may have held me captive, but he didn’t hold me in chains. He didn’t torture me,” I spat, my heart racing, skin tingling. “Had a lot of extra time on my hands.”

“Is that what I did, little mutt? Torture you?”

He moved to run his fingers along my cheek, but a hand caught his wrist. Doran shoved him back.

Adonis released an amused laugh but kept his eyes locked on mine. “And yet, you’re willing to sacrifice him? Just like that?”

Doran stepped around me, and his eyes?—

Fire licked at his pupils.

My heart stuttered.

Doran. Not Rogue.

I blinked rapidly and speared my glare at Adonis.

“It’s not me who will be sacrificed tonight, Adonis.” Doran unsheathed a dagger, and Adonis didn’t so much as flinch.

My throat dry, I swallowed hard and answered, “Just like that.”

Adonis’s smile widened, revealing too many teeth. He finally looked at Doran while he said to me, “Seems you’ve found a pest you can’t rid yourself of. Don’t mind if I do.”

Doran swung, purposely missing, but a flash of silver in Adonis’s hand caught the blue light. A quick slice, and Doran straightened. He slapped a hand over his ribs.

I jumped between them and glanced around, feigning concern for those around us. “What are you doing?”

He waved his hand in dismissal. “They’re all mindless bodies at this point.”

I scowled, and he laughed again.

“Your disgust wounds me,” he crooned, his sarcasm thick. “Don’t worry. We have better uses for him. For both of you.”

I staggered back a step. “No, not both of us. I’m leaving here free . That was our deal.”

“Now, Ara, we both know that’s not why you’re really here.” He matched the step I’d taken, and real fear crawled up my spine. I backed into Rogue’s—Doran’s front. “Is it?”

I held his gaze, chin high, and swallowed my screaming instincts before closing the final step between us.

Too close. Way too fucking close.

“No,” I said, “it’s not.”

Dipping faintly at the waist, he extended a gloved hand. “Grant me the honors of your first dance.”

My gut roiled. Bile crept up my throat, acid burning the back of my tongue. I didn’t move, but he reached forward anyway.

I recoiled when his fingers touched mine, and he let out a low laugh, then grabbed my hand and yanked me toward him. His other hand pressed firmly on the small of my back.

Despite the panic churning in my chest, I shot a quick look of reassurance toward Doran. He seethed, still as stone, but not enough. He might look like Rogue, but he wasn’t him. If he were, there would already be blood on the floor and smoke in the air.

I scanned the balcony for my Rogue, but he wasn’t there. Eyes darting through the crowd, I searched every unfamiliar face. While I couldn’t spot him, I felt him nearby, watching, waiting.

I zapped Adonis with my energy. He flinched but didn’t let go. I hit him again, stronger, faster, my power surging in small bursts of defiance.

He didn’t stop dancing.

He spun me into the rhythm of a waltz. “The burly man on the balcony, Godrick. Next to him, another human with brown hair and a white flower on his lapel.”

I sucked in a breath, forcing my eyes upward. Their gazes were fixed on us.

A guard moved behind them, hand on the hilt of his sword.

“I can have them dead before your next breath.”

I clenched my jaw, fury and fear tangling inside me. “Why are you doing this—all of this?”

He smiled. “You know why.”

I faltered, heart hammering against my ribs.

“You have your memories, yes?” he crooned. “All of them. All of us. ”

I couldn’t answer—couldn’t breathe.

“Don’t act so surprised.” His gaze bore into mine. “We’ve been linked for over a decade.”

My steps stuttered. My magic crackled to life, unraveling from beneath my skin. Sparks danced up my arms.

He watched them rise, not with fear, but with the unnerving appraisal of a man admiring a finely crafted weapon, or a prized possession—both.

He thought of me as both.

“The coffee,” I whispered. “The disgusting coffee in the war camp. You…you…”

His smile stretched, turning feline. My stomach curdled.

“I…I…” he mocked. “I created a connection between us, a thread, a?—”

“Blood oath.” The words were bitter like poison. I staggered, breaking rhythm, and pressed a hand to my stomach to stop the nausea from spilling out.

“How else would I have stayed ten steps ahead all this time?” he asked. “I had to know what to expect. I had to have a way to read your destiny, too.”

A dull roar started in my ears. Why hadn’t I seen the strand when I held Severance? Why had no one seen it?

“No,” I managed. “No, that’s not true. There’s no thread between us.”

“I didn’t tie a thread to your body, or even your soul.

All I needed was your destiny. If I could see it, then I could change it—and those ties are much harder to detect.

” His hand brushed over my back, and I jerked away from him, but he leaned down to whisper, “I’ve been swimming in your veins much longer than my brother, little mutt. ”

Suddenly, I could hear nothing else, just those vile words. The ballroom faded. The music, the dancers, even my own heartbeat.

“You of all people should know I’m not easily surprised,” he mused, then straightened. “In fact… never. ”

He ripped a small knife from his hip, whirled around, and flung it.

I slapped a hand over my horrified scream.

Rogue dodged and caught the blade between two fingers—the real Rogue.

His lips twitched with a smirk as he tossed it to the floor. Even without his magic, his gaze burned holes through Adonis, and when he stalked forward, Adonis flinched.

With his attention on Rogue, I ripped Severance from my thigh sheath. An intricate web of golden threads spun around me, thousands tangled and swaying.

Several protruded from Adonis. I swung my arm to slice them all, but he caught my wrist in a vise grip, something hard and cold in his hand.

Metal.

A shackle.

A shackle locked into place around my wrist.

Severance clattered to the tile. Louder than the music. Louder than the distant screaming. Louder than my pounding heart.

Adonis looked down at it, then back to Rogue, a gleam in his dead eyes as he said to me, “I knew you’d be a good girl.”

I didn’t scream. I didn’t fight.

My hands shook. My knees, too.

Spikes dug into my wrist. Blood dripped onto the black-and-white tile alongside Severance.

Humans spun all around us, smiles and laughs. Chatter abounded. Music continued, racing to a crescendo.

But I was underground. Cold. Chained. Suffocated by the stench of damp stone, blood, and rust. My heartbeat too loud. Skin cold, wrist burning.

Still holding my wrist, Adonis shifted on his feet and kicked the dagger. It skittered across the tile floor until it hit another shoe.

A roar cut through the fog, distant and familiar. “You’re not there, Ara. You are not there!”

You’re not there.

You’re here.

Safe.

Alive.

Adonis pulled out a larger dagger and spun, twisting my arm at an awkward angle.

A pop sounded from my shoulder with a blinding jolt of pain, followed by a wave of nausea—but I wasn’t underground.

I wasn’t chained.

I wasn’t captured.

Jaw clenched, I summoned every ounce of strength I had and rammed my heeled foot into the side of Adonis’s knee. It caved in, and he released my wrist with a loud bellow.

My arm dropped, useless, as he doubled over to straighten his leg with a crack . Pain speared through my shoulder and seized my lungs, but I didn’t stop.

Before he could stand, I grabbed the back of his head with my good arm and slammed it down on my knee before diving for Severance.

White-hot agony exploded on my right side, my shoulder joint now fully dislocated. A scream ripped from somewhere deep in my throat, black creeping around the edges of my vision as I reached for the dagger.

My fingers met metal.

Thousands of golden threads appeared.

I wrapped my hand around the hilt a second before Adonis fisted his hand in my hair and wrenched me up.

His eyes burned black, his teeth sharp, blood pouring from his crooked nose and busted lips. On a better day, that blood alone would’ve disarmed him.

A tether pulsed between Adonis and me, thin and almost undetectable. Just a faint shimmer in the air.

Disgust roared through me. I had been a child when he came into my life—a fucking kid forced into a war camp, terrified and traumatized.

He took advantage of me.

Tricked me.

Bound me.

I shifted on my tiptoes, one arm hanging limp, but the other?—

The other sliced upward, so close to his chest that the fabric of his extravagant coat fell open.

The blade met no resistance, but sparks flew as if I’d cut through woven lightning, a deafening crack with each thread severed—and I severed every single one.

Two screams followed.

One from Adonis.

One from Calypso, who sprinted through the crowd.

They clutched their chests. Then, Calypso’s eyes darkened into the deepest, angriest seas.

Delphia materialized to my left, slipping an iron bracelet onto her wrist. She unsheathed her sword and stepped between Adonis and me. Thana joined from my right, violet hair braided into a crown, and Vulture slunk between them, a snarling mass of scale and shadow.

Two large hands grabbed my arm, one on my wrist, one above my elbow. I whirled around, teeth bared.

“Do not move,” Drakyth warned.

I blinked up at him, unable to nod or shake my head. I couldn’t react at all. My body trembled. Sweat slid down my spine.

Drakyth slowly bent my arm.

I gritted my teeth. It had to be done.

“Just breathe.” He lifted my arm.

“Oh, fuck,” escaped on a shaky exhale.

It had to be done.

One slow, deliberate pull and another sickening pop, and the world swayed beneath my feet.

He caught me before I hit the ground. “Breathe.”

As the fire in my shoulder subsided, I sucked in a ragged breath and spun to Rogue.

An explosion blew in the wall of windows, and I sprinted forward, ignoring the chaos that erupted as glass rained down to hit tile and flesh—until another hand ripped me to the side.