But if Sully came...and if Sully lost...that would be an earthquake far too catastrophic to withstand.

But I need him to come.

I have to believe we’ll both be okay.

Ugh, stop!

I rubbed at my stinging eyes.

Focus. Get through this. Worry when it’s tomorrow.

Slouching in my seat, I once again fought the heavy weight on my eyelashes.

Sleep.

No!

Not with him next to me.

You have to sleep...you’ve run out of miracles.

My body knocked impatiently for rest, hammering on the door of my mind and slipping quietly past my worries to drag me closer to unconsciousness.

I wanted to sleep.

I needed to rest so my brain stopped being foggy and my body repaired. Sleep wasn’t just a luxury but a necessity, but how the hell was I supposed to close my eyes in his presence?

The idea of sleeping next to Sully had taken me time to accept...I could never be that vulnerable next to Drake.

Never.

My visions bounced as I struggled to focus. My heart continued to trip and skip. My head ached from being hit, and my limbs weighed five times their usual mass.

Sleep, Ellie.

No!

I gritted my teeth, fighting off the sleepy smog.

I looked out the oval window at the endless carpet of sea, clouds, and stars. The moon turned an otherwise dark vista into a silvery masterpiece, etching clouds, highlighting the world in monochrome.

If I could just focus on that...I can stay awake.

“Would you like something to eat?”

I whipped my head from the outside and blinked at an airhostess. She swayed a little in my sleepy stare.

I blinked again, stifling a yawn.

Where had she come from?

She held a tray with a foil-covered plate and a bottle of apple juice. She passed it to me, pulling a table from my armrest. “Here. You look exhausted.”

Everything was sluggish.

Scents of food wafted from the foil.

My stomach growled.

I might not be able to sleep, but I should nourish my body. I would do whatever it took to survive the turbulence that existed in my future.

I had no idea how long this flight would last or where Drake was taking me. I had some idea of what he’d do to me when we arrived, and I had a lot of fear over what state I’d be in once he’d had his fill, but all I could currently control was keeping my strength up, so I could fight when the time came.

Sully....

My appetite flickered as nausea returned.

The airhostess, with her carefully coiled blonde hair, murmured, “It’s beef ragu, my favourite. Enjoy.”

No...

My shoulders rolled.

I didn’t bother peeling away the foil.

Padding away in high heels so impractical for long hours in the sky, the stewardess deposited food to the mercenaries behind me, filling the cabin with the scent of dinner. The stench of cow flesh and slaughter.

I already battled sickness not knowing Sully’s fate. It increased tenfold as I swallowed, my stomach gurgling with revulsion.

I couldn’t sleep or eat.

What would I give to enjoy a spread of vegetarian fare from Sully’s gardens? What would I trade to sit on Sully’s deck overlooking Nirvana and share a simple, sweet veggie dinner with him?

Skittles would be there.

Pika, too.

Cal and Jealousy, goddesses and guests.

The world I’d tried to change suddenly no longer seemed so horrendous. I’d been so close to granting Sully’s freedom, so close to freeing his goddesses, showing him a happier way of life, and claiming my forever.

The hot afternoons wallowing in the sea were gone. The belly-clenching desire of lust was trivial. The ark of hoofed and winged creatures that Sully conjured whenever he touched me had all died a violent death.

Sully...

Please be alive.

I sighed.

But if you’re hurt...don’t come after me.

Don’t trade your life for mine.

Don’t be a hero.

Please...

With tears distorting the sky, I returned to staring out the window.

* * * * *

I’d fallen asleep.

For all my convictions that I could never let down my guard and be so vulnerable in Drake’s presence, the choice had been taken away from me.

My body didn’t request it.

It just took it.

Knocking me out until I slumped in my chair, leaving me a jumbled doll just waiting to be snatched up and played with again.

I woke with a jolt as the false sense of stability was interrupted as tyres hit tarmac and the plane landed.

The mercenaries shifted behind me as I sat taller in my seat, rubbing away sleep and trying to focus outside. An airport with Arabic script welcomed us, the private plane taxiing to a private hangar away from the main hub.

Dubai.

As the engines cut off, the pilots came over the intercom. “Please stay in your seats. We’re just refuelling and will continue our flight to Geneva.”

Geneva?

What the hell is in Geneva?

Chapter Four

I ROLLED MY WRIST in the new dawn, sunlight streaming in through the airplane windows.

A Hawk diamond sparkled in my cufflink. My charcoal cashmere suit was pressed and perfect. My black shirt deliberately chosen to hide bloodstains.

To the twenty lethal mercenaries behind me, I looked like I always did. A magistrate of my empire, a man no one dared tango with, an untouchable scoundrel who’d left the public eye of pharmaceuticals and cloistered upon a hidden island.

Just as my islands hid what I truly was, my suit hid my wounds.

The skin around my wrist glistened in the sun. Parts of the bloody mess from struggling in Drake’s handcuffs had scabbed and dried, and others continued to crack and ooze platelets. My body, with its myriad of injuries, had focused on different areas to repair.

The only difference was, I felt none of it.

I rolled my wrist again, marvelling at my deadened senses.

One dose of Tritec had helped mute the inconceivable agony of a harpoon hole and acid burns on my chest. It’d allowed my system to accept the never-ending burn in my chemically doused eyes, to hear past the chilli that’d been shoved into my eardrums, to function on a level that’d allowed me to kill men, rescue Jinx, and then fuck her away from deaths’ greedy claws.

I’d thought the injection had been a godsend then.

But now...

After a second dose?

I didn’t know if I’d created a compound even more valuable than elixir...or something a hundred times more devastating. A drug like this could create robots out of men. It could march wounded soldiers back into battle. It could cultivate a taskforce of terrifying, agony-immune individuals.

The second dose hadn’t just numbed my every pain, it’d granted razor-sharp focus, whip-quick conclusions, and the ability to operate at a level most men only dreamed of.

I was in survival mode.

Every part of me that wasn’t essential to survival had shut down. My appetite. My lethargy. My panic over Eleanor’s fate. Those were things that would detract from my single-mindedness. From my triumph.

Eleanor would soon be mine again.

I was only an hour or so behind.

My private plane had taken off with my hired staff whose skills lay in knife play and gunshots, and my pilots had followed the jet stream of my brother.

It also helped I had someone from air traffic control on my payroll. Someone who fed me Drake’s intended location and his flight manifest.