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That’s when I finally start to feel the pain.
“You stay here. I’ll go after her,” Castor says. But he’s just as hurt as I am, and even with my bleeding leg, I quickly pass the limping giant as we both race around the twisted shipping container.
“Sophia!” I shout when I reach the other side. But she’s not there.
Instead, I’m greeted by a mountain of corpses… and a wall of fire.
The sight nearly floors me.
No. No. No.
She can’t be dead. I’ve already gone through that nightmare once tonight. It was enough.
“Holy fuck…” Castor mumbles at my back when he finally arrives behind me. “Please don’t tell me…”
Suddenly, a single scream rises up from the other side of the flames.
Sophia.
She’s not dead… but she is being taken.
Rushing forward, I desperately try to spot a path through the fire, but the wall of flames is thick and blazing hot.
Fuck it. I’ve been through hell before, how badly could a little fire hurt?
I’m just about ready to jump through and go after my princess when I feel a strong hand wrap around my collar and pull me back.
“No. We need you at full strength, boy,” Castor growls. The conflict in his voice is clear. But I’m not ready to accept defeat so easily.
“You’re just giving up?!”
The fury raging behind my chest is almost as hot as the fire burning in front of me.
It’s hard to tell which hurts more.
I can’t fail. I won’t fail.
“No. We won’t ever give up. But we need to regroup. Retsos has won this battle. That doesn’t mean he’s won the war.”
“I don’t lose battles,” I shout. “They took Sophia!”
“Do you want to get her back?” Castor growls, stepping right up to me.
I meet him there, ready to fight.
“I’m willing to kill anyone who gets in my way.”
“Let’s make sure we kill the right people, then,” Castor says, staring me down. “And work with the right people.”
“I can get her back on my own,” I spit, turning back around to the fire.
But Castor grabs my arms, and a new wave of pain shoots up from the wound on my shoulder.
“Don’t be an idiot, son. I know how you feel about her, and I know she feels the same way about you. Hell, she’s the one who brought us here to save your ass. She risked her life and her empire for you. But if you go after her alone, it will all be for nothing. Clearly, you’ve underestimated Retsos. I won’t let you do that again.”
Fuck. I know he’s right. But the shame and the rage of letting Sophia get away again is so overwhelming that I want to singe it away, even if that means jumping into a fire just for the chance that I might be able to pull her out of it.
“So, we just let them take her?”
