"Don't scream. It only makes the extraction messier."
Augustus didn't just step into the carriage; he owned the air inside it. His hand clamped around my jaw, fingers digging into my skin with a strength that felt less like a man and more like a vice. He shoved my head back against the velvet seat, the impact rattling my teeth.
"Get your hands off her," Cassian’s voice snarled in my head, a jagged vibration that made my vision blur. He was fighting the shackles, his consciousness clawing at the edges of my mind. "I'll rip your eyes from your skull for touching her, you lapdog."
Augustus chuckled, a dry, colorless sound. He didn't even look at me—he was looking *through* me. His eyes glowed with a faint, predatory violet hue. "Still so loud, even in pieces. You’re not a king anymore, Cassian. You’re a parasite. A stray organ hiding in a disgraced girl's chest."
He leaned in closer. I could smell old parchment and something metallic—blood or ozone. His thumb pressed hard into the soft dip beneath my jawline, right where my pulse was hammering like a trapped bird.
"Where are the other shards?" he whispered. "Tell me, and I might let her die quickly. Lie, and I'll peel the soul out of her while she's still awake to watch."
"Go to hell," I spat. I tried to jerk away, but he slammed me back.
"Feisty," Augustus murmured. "I like that. It makes the breaking part so much more satisfying."
Suddenly, a cold spike of pain shot through my sternum. I gasped, my back arching. It felt like someone had shoved a frozen needle directly into my heart.
*Stop fighting him,* Cassian hissed, his voice suddenly urgent, losing its arrogance. *If he hits the resonance point, he’ll shatter the bond. We both die. Just... play dead. Let him think you're broken.*
I gritted my teeth, trying to go limp, but Augustus wasn't looking for a surrender. He shifted his grip, his palm flattening against my chest, right over the spot where Cassian’s essence was fused to my own. The heat from his hand was unnatural, searing through my clothes.
"I can feel it," Augustus whispered, his voice trembling with a hunger that made my skin crawl. "The Abyss King's core. So concentrated. So pure. You've done a marvelous job of preserving it, Sylvia. Truly, the empire's best suture-surgeon, even in the gutters."
He pressed harder. I felt a sickening tug, as if something inside me was being pulled toward the surface. My breath hitched, and for a second, my vision flickered. I wasn't seeing the carriage anymore. I saw a void—black, screaming, and endless—and then I saw Cassian. Not as a voice, but as a silhouette of raw power, chained and bleeding, reaching for me through the dark.
"Stop it!" I shrieked, clawing at Augustus’s wrist.
He didn't budge. "Just a little more," he breathed. "Just one more crack in the seal..."
*Now!* Cassian roared.
I didn't know what he did, but a surge of black lightning erupted from my chest. It wasn't me—it was him. The force slammed Augustus backward, throwing him out of the carriage and onto the cobblestones with a violent crash.
I slumped forward, gasping for air, my heart hammering two different rhythms. One fast and terrified, the other slow, heavy, and murderous.
"You idiot!" I yelled internally. "You just told him exactly where the bond is!"
*Better he knows I'm here than let him treat you like a pincushion,* Cassian retorted, though he sounded winded. *Now move. Get us out of here before he stops laughing."
I didn't need to be told twice. I scrambled for the door, but as I stepped out, the world turned into a wall of steel. Imperial guards had already circled the carriage. Dozens of them. All with their spears leveled at my throat.
Augustus was standing up slowly, dusting off his white inquisitor's coat. He wasn't angry. He looked delighted.
"A surge of Abyss energy," Augustus said, his voice carrying across the square. "My, my. You're more stable than I thought. That makes you far too valuable to kill on the street."
He signaled to the guards. Two of them lunged forward, pinning my arms behind my back. I fought, kicking and snarling, but they were trained killers. One of them slammed a heavy knee into my lower back, forcing me to the ground. My cheek pressed against the cold, wet stone.
"Where are we going?" I managed to choke out.
Augustus stepped over me, his polished boot inches from my face. "The streets are too crowded for a proper dissection, Sylvia. We're going somewhere private. Somewhere where the screams don't bother the neighbors."
He leaned down, his voice a dangerous silk. "The Taboo Lab. I've been dying to see if the old equipment still works on royal blood."
*The Taboo Lab?* Cassian's voice went deathly quiet. *Sylvia, if he takes us there... we aren't just fighting for our lives. He's going to try to merge us permanently. He doesn't want the shards. He wants a puppet king with a surgeon's precision.*
I felt a cold sweat break across my neck. The Taboo Lab wasn't just a prison; it was where the empire's most forbidden experiments were conducted. People went in as citizens and came out as things that couldn't be named.
As they dragged me toward the black iron carriage waiting at the end of the street, I saw a parchment pinned to a nearby wall. A bounty poster.
My face was on it.
*SYLVIA. WANTED FOR HIGH TREASON AND FORBIDDEN SURGERY. DEAD OR ALIVE. REWARD: 50,000 GOLD CROWNS.*
I stared at the number, then at Augustus’s smug profile. I wasn't just a prisoner anymore. I was a product. And the market value of my life had just skyrocketed.
They threw me into the back of the iron carriage. The door slammed shut with a sound like a guillotine. Darkness swallowed us, save for the faint, rhythmic glow of the shackles on my wrists.
"We're dead," I whispered.
*Not yet,* Cassian whispered back, his voice suddenly close, almost touching. *I can feel his hunger, Sylvia. He wants my power. But he doesn't realize that once you open the door to the Abyss... you can't ever close it again.*
The carriage lurched forward, picking up speed. I could hear Augustus talking to the driver, his voice low and calculating.
"Prepare the containment circle," Augustus commanded. "And bring the silver scalpels. I want her conscious for the first incision."
I pressed my forehead against the cold metal wall, my breath fogging the surface. I could feel Cassian’s presence shifting, wrapping around my soul like a protective, suffocating shroud.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
*Making a deal with the dark,* he murmured. *Now, when the door opens, I need you to do one thing."
"What?"
*Bite him."
Before I could ask why, the carriage screeched to a halt. The heavy iron bolts slid back with a deafening clang. The door swung open, revealing the sterile, white-tiled horror of the Taboo Lab's intake ward.
Augustus stood there, silhouetted by the harsh overhead lights, holding a shimmering, curved blade that hummed with a psychic frequency.
"Welcome home, Doctor," he said, stepping inside. "Let's see what's inside you."