Chapter 33 · The Final Session

"Sit down, Doctor. Or should I say... my little pet project?"

The Overlord didn't even look at me. He was staring into a pool of swirling obsidian liquid in the center of the hall, his voice vibrating through the floorboards.

I didn't sit. I couldn't. My knees were shaking, and the dampener collar around my neck felt like it was shrinking, choking me every time I tried to take a full breath.

"I'm not a pet," I spat. It came out as a wheeze. "And this isn't a session. This is a kidnapping."

He turned.

It was too fast—a blur. One second he was ten feet away; the next, his hand clamped around my throat, pinning me against the freezing black stone wall. He didn't squeeze enough to kill, but just enough to show me how easy it would be. His eyes weren't eyes anymore. They were supernova collapses, sucking the light out of the room.

"You're the only thing in this gods-forsaken city that doesn't lie to me," he whispered. His breath smelled like ozone and old blood. "Everyone else screams. They beg. But you? You try to diagnose me. You try to find the crack in the wall."