Chapter 28 · Trapped Beast

Caspian's voice is still bouncing around the elevator shaft when the doors slide shut.

You think he's saving you? He got that one off right before the steel cut him in half. He's just keeping you in a gilded cage until the bloodline is born!

Twenty-two floors of quiet after that. Just me, my reflection in the brushed steel, and my palm pressed flat under my belly like I'm checking for a pulse that isn't mine.

Seven months. The kid stopped kicking like a secret a while ago. Now it kicks like an opinion.

The doors open on P3. Wet concrete. Cold air that smells like a hose and old exhaust. My heels make that sound heels make in an empty garage, and I hate it, because it tells everyone exactly where I am and how fast I'm coming.

Marcus is already there. Sleeves rolled to the elbow, tie gone, phone at his ear, one hand flat on the hood of the Maybach like it's an animal he's about to put down.

He ends the call when he sees me. Doesn't say hello.

"Get in."

"No."

"Helena."

I keep walking.