Hollisworth lifted his hand, a casual move, almost as if he were brushing a hair from his face, but she felt its significance to her bones.

The drones began to hum.

“You see,” he continued, “my breeder’s technology is not the only one I’ve been improving. I’ve had my scientist working hard on the mining trackers inserted in all inmates.” His voice grew almost wistful. “Someday, I’d like to see them forcibly placed in all non-Council subjects. But in the meantime, I have to get them just right—and you all provide the perfect testing ground.”

Dread prickled up her spine. “You need to go. Now!” She swiveled toward her captor.

But it was too late.

His skin flickered orange. He clutched his chest. Sank to his knees.

All around her, his men fell as well, groaning as they slumped to the ground, their skin glowing the same menacing flame color.

“It’s another new toy of mine.” Hollisworth spoke over her gasp, sick excitement coating every word. “Now, instead of waiting until they fail to meet quota to take out prisoner scum, my droids can send a direct message to the tracker that causes it to overheat upon command.”

“Turn it off.”

Her husband ignored her. “Another nice feature is that I can control whether it happens slow or fast.” Swiveling, he surveyed the crowd of terrified inmates before pointing toward a stick-thin man in a tattered shirt near the fringes of the crowd. “Him.”

“No, please.” The poor man’s eyes bulged with terror, the whites of his eyes stark in his red-dusted face as he pressed his spine deeper into the rocky wall and those around him skittered away, leaving him standing friendless and alone.

The droids whirred and hummed louder.

The man gasped, his skin flickering orange, easily visible beneath the red coating. His body shuddered.

“That Resistance criminal scum and his men will suffer a nice long time for daring to claim what’s mine, but this pathetic inmate…” he laughed, “his end will be fast.”

The man shrieked in agony, collapsing to the ground, his body writhing.

“Stop,” she screamed again.

Still on his knees, Valdus struggled to rise.

Her husband ignored it all, his stare locked on the dying man. “Explosion from the inside out. There’s no evading that.”

“Stop!”

But it was too late. The man’s shout cut off, his skin rippling like a wave, once, twice, and then he shattered, exploding into a thousand pieces, skin and blood and flesh coating the walls and the ground, darkening the crimson to near black.

She gagged, horror slamming through her. The pain of the growing heat nothing compared to the anguish of what she’d just witnessed.

At her feet, Valdus and his crew thrashed in agony—and then stilled, as if the pain had become too much.

Despair wound through her. Not simply for herself, but for her captor and his men. She knew exactly how agonizing it was to come so close to believing you could attain your freedom only to have it snatched away.

“Now you see what happens to those who try to take what’s mine.” Savage triumph thickened her husband’s voice. “Bride, move away from them now. It’s bad enough you’re covered in dirt and dust. I don’t want to have to reacquire my property with bits of flesh and tendon stuck to you as well.”

It dawned on her then that the tether was no longer in her captor’s hands. Instead, the frayed end lay limp in the red dirt, as still as the larger-than-life man who’d once used her as bait and shield.

She was his captive no longer. His hold on her at an end.

She should have felt victorious.

“Breeder, obey me now!” The snap of her husband’s voice made her jump. “Too close and you’ll be one of them.”

“Go.” One hand flinging outward, the man at her feet used the last of his strength to chase her away. “He’s…right. Save yourself. Find…a way out before he arrives.”

That decided it.

“No!” Throwing herself forward, she slammed to her knees, the rocks scrapping her skin as she pressed herself against the man who’d shown her the stars, who’d taught her what it was to want. “Kill him and you kill me, too.”

Beneath her, her captor went stock-still.

“What are you doing?” Disbelief coated Hollisworth’s voice. “Get away from them.”

If she was the same woman she’d once been she might have done nothing. Simply stayed silent and given up, done what was best for her own survival, praying that her actions might be enough to appease her husband when he came for her.

But she wasn’t that woman anymore.

Quick,” she shouted to the other men, “drag yourselves closer. Make sure a part of you is touching me.”

She’d never forgive her captor or his men for what they’d done, but she’d also never forgive herself if she continued to cower while others suffered.

Tilting her chin upward, she met the glacial gray eyes of her husband head-on. “Checkmate.”

It was a risk. He could let the tracker destroy her, too. But she gambled he wouldn’t.

Fury turned his face redder than the Dragath dust covering her own. “You are going to suffer, bride.” The façade was gone. The vicious monster on full display as he stared down at her, chest heaving. “You are going to regret ever thinking you could stand up to me.”

“You want me, come and get me.”

He lurched upright, the slack jaw of shock quickly giving way to sharp fury. “I... You…” he sputtered.

It was pure pleasure to see him be the one out of control this time. To have him experience what it was like to be powerless.

Another dark part of her soul lightened. The growing heat suddenly less painful than it had been a heartbeat before.

“They can’t cling to you forever,” he snapped. “The call to work is coming and the burn of the tracker makes it impossible to resist. You’ll be vulnerable soon enough.”

“The instant we hear your droids coming, I’ll be all over them again.”

“You think by saving them you’ve changed anything?” thundered her husband. “You’ve only prolonged their suffering and yours.”

“You want your chance to punish me?” she snarled. “The only way that happens is to call off your droids and let these men live. Otherwise, all you’ll find of me when you arrive is what’s left on the walls. And you’ll never know if you could have tamed me—or if I would prove the real winner in the end, after all.”

Hollisworth’s hand sliced through the air.

The humming stopped.

Valdus grunted. Muttered a curse. She kept her body right where it was, pressed tight to his.

“You’ll regret baiting me, Aryanna,” her husband’s voice had gone eerily calm. “I promise you that.”

“My name is Ava. And the only thing I regret is not doing it earlier.” She bared her teeth. “I’ve got a promise of my own. These men and I are going to wipe you from the world like the vermin you are.”

Nostrils flaring, her husband’s narrowed gaze lifted to scan the rows of trembling inmates trying to disappear into the rocky walls. “Let it be known that any inmate who can separate this woman from the man at her side long enough for my drones to kill him will receive a full pardon—as long as she is brought to me untouched.” His piercing gaze returned to her. “Enjoy your short-term victory, breeder.” His robe fluttered behind as he threw his arms wide. “Because soon you’ll be mine—and then all you’ll remember is what it’s like to lose.”

He vanished, his image blinking out as fast as it had appeared.

An eerie silence filled the space, the drones blinking silently above, as if waiting for their chance.

Heart pounding, she peeled her cheek from her captor’s chest, the crush of emotions too many to process at once.

She’d done it.

She’d fought back. Made a choice. Taken control.

But at what cost?

Hollisworth was more enraged than ever and coming for them all. She still had both of his horrific toys inside her and no concrete plan to survive what was coming next. The heat was building and would soon be too strong to ignore. And all the while, the target on her back had just gotten bigger.

“You…saved us.” The rough rasp of the man at her side, his voice still thick with the consequences of his recent torture, sent her gaze swinging to his.

The mix of surprise and awe she found there coalesced her fluctuating emotions into one clear point.

Shoving her bound hands hard against his chest, she lurched to standing and hissed. “Use me as bait or shield without my permission again and I’ll find a way to kill you myself.”

His eyes iced over once more.