Page 81 of While He Breathes

“Lucas,” I snap into the phone, my tone flat and bored.

“Is that any way to treat the man who holds your life in his hands?”

“I don’t know how that’s possible when I’m tucked up at home.” I know exactly what he means, and he does. Ember is the only thing that matters to me. She’s my reason for breathing, the heart that beats outside my body, the soul I thought was long gone. But I play dumb, because that’s the safest option for her.

He chuckles, the sound grating on my nerves. My jaw clenches as I force a calming breath into my lungs.

Don’t bite.

“I thought you would like to know how your little flame is doing.”

“Let me talk to her,” I demand, but don’t allow any emotion to bleed into my voice.

“Hmm, let me think about that.” He pauses for a moment before continuing, “No.”

“How do I know she’s alive if you won’t let me talk to her? I’m assuming that’s why you’re calling. To taunt me.”

“So perceptive,” he mocks. There’s a rustling on the other end of the line, and I use the few seconds to meet Killian’s eyes.

“Keep him on the line,”he mouths.

A startled scream fills the line, and I grasp the arm of the chair, the sound filled with so much terror I can barely breathe.

“Tell your boyfriend that you’re alive and well, Ember,” Lucas commands.

“Orion?” Her sweet voice fills the line, and my heart shatters. I hate how defeated she sounds. None of her usual sass. None of the life I’ve grown accustomed to hearing when she opens her mouth. She sounds scared, terrified even.

“Yeah, sweetheart. It’s me. Are you okay?”

“They drugged me,” she tells me. “It’s fucked my body up, and I’ve been feeling really unwell.”

I suck in a breath. The idea that she’s sick, and I’m not there to take care of her, makes me clench my jaw so hard it pops.

“But I’m not hurt.”

The admission allows some of the tension to bleed from my body.

“You hold on for me, Little Flame,” I say, forcing as much calm into the words as I can manage, but there’s a fire raging inside of me that I’m struggling to contain.

The phone rustles again, and I’m met with Lucas’s voice once more. “Happy? You have proof of life. Now, I want something from you.”

I growl. “What do you want, Lucas?”

“I want the whole world to know who the Hunter is.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

EMBER

Lucas stormed out of the room when he dropped that bomb, and he hasn’t been back since.

He wants Orion to unmask himself, something I’m not sure he’ll do, no matter how badly he wants to get me back.

I wanted to scream at him not to do it, that it was a trap, that Lucas would never let me go. Instead, I found a gag shoved into my mouth by Cain, and even when my body thrummed with the need to fight, I logically knew it was the wrong move.

If I fight them, it gives them reason to hurt me, and I can’t escape if I’m injured.

My head drops back against the concrete wall with an audible thump, but there’s no pain that follows.