Page 116

I nod once.

It’s not victory. It’s not relief. But it’s something. A sliver of control in a world where everything else has been stolen from me.

Because I may not get to choose who stands beside me at that altar. But I’ll be damned if I let Ares believe that any part of me will belong to Nicolai. He needs to know that I will be his...always.

The corridor feels endless. Each step echoes too loudly against the marble, and my heart thrashes harder the closer we get. Two guards flank me, silent, watchful. I keep my chin lifted, but inside I’m crumbling. Every instinct is screaming at me to run. But I can’t, not without seeing him.

We stop outside a heavy oak door. One of the guards unlocks and then opens it.

The door swings open, and for a moment, I just stand in the doorway before stepping inside.

The air is cool, sterile. Dim light leaks through a barred window, casting long shadows across the floor.

Ares is there, seated, his wrists bound to the arms of the chair with thick leather straps, his ankles restrained just as tightly. Bruises blossom across his cheekbone and jaw, a gash along his temple still oozing blood.

His lip is split; dried blood crusted at the corner of his mouth. One eye is swollen, nearly shut, and purple shadows bloom beneath both. He’s shirtless, his body soaked in sweat and streaks of blood, revealing angry welts along his chest and ribs...proof of the merciless beating he’s endured.

Despite it all, his body is coiled with rage, every muscle straining against the restraints. His obsidian eyes remain fixed on the floor, but the fury radiating off him is palpable, lethal .

Given the torture he’s endured, it’s clear he hasn’t broken him.

I can’t contain the gasp that escapes me the moment I see him. My vision blurs, and I fight back the sob that is clawing at my throat.

Ares looks up the second he hears me, and everything in him changes.

“Jordyn.” My name falls from his lips like an oath, like a prayer. His voice is raw, hoarse from hours without use, and I feel my heart snap in two.

It’s all my fault. He’s hurt and it’s because of me.

I want to run to him. Throw my arms around him. Undo everything, but I can’t.

I take a shaky step forward. The guards stay just inside the door.

Ares strains against the restraints, his hands fisting tight. “Are you hurt?” he demands, his one good eye scanning me. “Did he touch you?”

“No. I’m okay,” I whisper. “God, Ares look at what they’ve done to you.” My hands lift to reach for him, but I can feel the guards behind me watching, so I force the down.

“Don’t worry about me.” He breathes hard. “You shouldn’t be here. You need to get out. Listen to me, Dant?—”

“I came to say goodbye,” I say before he can finish. My voice wobbles as I fight my emotions. “Nicolai’s letting you walk out of here and he’s given me his word he won’t come after you. But only if I go through with it.”

Ares goes still.

“No,” he hisses, voice low and lethal. “No, Jordyn, you’re not doing this. You’re not giving yourself to him to save me.”

“If I don’t, he’ll kill you.”

“Let him.” His voice hardens. “I’m not worth this, Jordyn.”

“Yes,” I whisper, “You are. You’re worth it to me.”

His eyes lock on mine, wild and desperate. “No, bambina. You don’t get to save me like this. You don’t get to trade your soul for mine. I won’t let you.”

I step closer, hands trembling at my sides. “It’s the only way I can protect you. You think I don’t feel like I’m dying inside? But he’ll let you walk out of here, and that’s all I care about right now. You living. Us surviving. Even if it is separately.”

His jaw works like he’s biting back everything he wants to scream. “Jordyn?—”

“I have to,” I say, breathless. “But I need you to promise me something.”

He watches me like his world is ending, and the damn within me breaks.

“I need you to stay away,” I whisper. “Don’t come back for me. Don’t come after him. If you do, he’ll kill you. And then this, everything I’m about to do, will have been for nothing.”

Ares shakes his head violently. “No. I won’t let you rot in his cage. The moment he lets me walk I will kill him. I’ll rip this world apart until you’re safe and back where you belong.” And then his eyes lower to my stomach and he adds with a barely audible whisper. “Both of you”

Tears I’ve been holding back spill over and stream down my cheeks. He found the test. He knows I’m pregnant. We share a meaningful look before I speak again. “Then let me say this while I still can.”

I step forward and reach for his bloodied face. One of the guards starts forward, but Ares jerks and growls low in his throat, forcing him back.

I don’t touch him. I just let my eyes drink in his face one more time.

“I love you,” I say, barely able to get the words out. “You are the only thing in this life that ever made me feel whole. And when I stood by you and vowed we’d burn together, I meant it, Ares. If this is what I have to do to keep you breathing, I’ll do it.”

His eyes shimmer with rage and grief.

And for the first time since I’ve known him, I see it, devastation .

“I’ll never stop,” he breathes. “Even if I have to crawl through hell?—”

“You have to let me go.”

He shakes his head again, frantic. “Please don’t do this.”

“You were meant for something great, Ares. You were never meant to follow orders. You were made to be the one they fear .” I shuffle forward and press my hand to his cheek.

“Maybe the only way to end this… is to finish what your father started.” I remind him, and he just stares at me, his jaw clenched so tight it starts to tick furiously.

I know he catches the hidden meaning behind my words because I see the fire flare up in his eyes.

The door opens behind me. Nicolai stands there, leaning casually against the frame, enjoying the scene like it’s theatre.

“Time’s up,” he says.

I look at Ares one last time, and I lean down and press my lips to his one last time.

Our lips tremble against other for the brief moment they touch.

“Io sono tua. Per sempre.” I whisper against his lips.

And just as I feel a hand clamp around my arm like steel, about to drag me away, I hear him whisper back, “Per semre tuo. Aspettami.” Forever yours. Wait for me.

He barely finishes the words before a hand like iron clamps around my arm and rips me backward.

“Ares!” I cry out, trying to reach for him, but I’m already being dragged away. My heels scrape against the floor, the distance between us growing with every desperate heartbeat.

His voice shatters the air. “Don’t fucking touch her! Get your fucking hands off her!”

I twist, struggling against Nicolai’s grip bruising my arm, but I catch a glimpse.

..Ares thrashing in the chair, his body wild with rage, his wrists pulling so hard against the straps that blood spills down his hands.

His eyes...God, his eyes, lock on mine like he can burn the world down from that chair if it means reaching me.

“Jordyn!” he roars, and the sound of my name in his voice rips straight through me.

I try to fight, to claw back to him, but they’re stronger. They always are. I scream his name again, the walls swallowing it whole, and then he’s gone. The door slams shut between us with a finality that makes my knees buckle.

But I can still hear him...his voice echoing like thunder through the walls, and I know he hears my sobs from the other side of the door.

As Nicolai drags me down the corridor, Ares lets out a scream so raw, so soul-shattering, it rattles through the bones of the mansion and lodges itself in my chest.

And I know… he won’t stop until he gets to me.

Nicolai’s iron like grip bruises my arm as he drags me down the corridor, his pace cruelly steady while my legs stumble to keep up. I don’t look back, I can’t. If I do, what little strength I have left inside of me will shatter completely. And I can’t fall apart.... not yet.

“I kept my word,” he says smoothly, like this is simply a transaction instead of torment. “You got to kiss your little monster goodbye. Now it’s your turn to keep yours.”

We reach a door, another gilded prison and he yanks it open, shoving me inside. I whimper as I stumble, catching myself on the edge of a vanity lined with brushes, pins, silk, and lace. The sight of it turns my stomach.

“Make yourself pretty for me, sposa,” he says, his voice like silk hiding steel. “The priest is already here and waiting. Don’t keep him.”

I spin on him, voice shaking. “You said you wouldn’t hurt him!” I retort hotly. “You’ve had him beaten half to death. Let him go, Nicolai. Please. You got what you wanted. I said yes, I agreed. Just let him walk away.”

Nicolai cocks his head, like I’ve said something amusing. “No, dolcezza. You misunderstood. I said I’d let him live , not walk.” He steps closer, and I retreat until my back hits the wall. “He gets to leave… after he watches. After he sees exactly what it means to lose.”

My chest tightens, and tears fall endlessly down my cheeks. “You don’t have to do this.”

“But I do.” His smile is thin and vacant. “Because pain is the only language he understands. And when he sees you in white, wearing my ring, taking my name… it’ll break him in all the right places.”

I shake my head, swallowing against the ever-growing lump in my throat and whisper, “You’re sick.”

He leans in, brushing his fingers over my cheek, and I flinch. “I’m in love,” he murmurs. “And love makes men do terrible things.”

Then he turns, pausing at the doorway. “Forty minutes. Be ready, or I’ll start breaking his bones for every minute you make me wait.”

The door clicks shut behind him.

And I crumble to the floor, gasping for breath, because I know he means it. Ares is still on the other side of this house, broken and bleeding… and about to be forced to watch me marry the man who’s destroying us both.