Goddammit, how dare she make me this privileged, this wretched, this powerless.

My head ached as my eyes did their best to focus past the cloying haze. “Just let her go, Drake. You win, alright? Let both girls go and I’ll sign whatever deeds you want. I’ll give you the schematics for Euphoria, the codes, the programming, the sensors. I’ll give you the recipe for elixir. You can have all of it...just let them fucking go.”

He didn’t reply, leaving me floundering in the light crackled dark.

Eleanor gasped, her body rustling with fight. “Don’t!”

My heart pounded with panic, amplifying the Tritec in my blood, granting me a surge of strength that would demand the worst kind of payment at the end. “Don’t touch her!”

“You’re no longer in the position of command, Sully.” He kicked my cage, making me jolt. I hadn’t felt him come near. My instincts were scrambled by Eleanor. Every cell homed in on her. Every scrap of awareness and survival had locked firmly onto our electric connection. “I’ll take you up on that generous offer. However, I have to sample the merchandise, don’t I? Oh, and FYI, your resident squirrels are delicious. They taste like nutty chicken.”

“I’ll kill you, you—”

“What am I holding up, Eleanor?” Drake projected his voice a bit louder, cutting me off and waiting for a reply.

Eleanor took her time, either refusing to obey or debating other choices. Finally, she clipped, “You’re holding up a vial of elixir.”

Ah, fuck.

He’d raided my office then.

He’d found the last three vials on this island.

“Know what that means, baby brother of mine?” Drake snickered. “It means I hope you two had a good sleep because tonight, I get to sample what you’ve been having. I get to fuck a goddess. And you’re going to watch...everything.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

WE MADE A SAD procession.

Two goddesses, one god, one devil, and four hobgoblins.

Drake led the way, his boots kicking up sand while Jealousy padded in front of me, barefoot in just a black bikini. Swimming here hadn’t exactly equipped her with a wardrobe fit to hide her curves from evil men.

My palms clasped together, my wrists once again bound; faint bruises from the last imprisonment ached beneath the new. At least this time, my hands were in front of me, instead of behind. Jealousy’s too and Sully’s.

All trussed up like cattle with guns aimed at our heads, marched from our cages and down sandy laneways to our demise. Stars peeked between stencils of palm leaves. A flash of emerald hinted Pika chased us from afar, and the chorus of cicadas, frogs, and bats did its best to still masquerade as a paradise but failed.

Thanks to Drake, he’d infected this Eden with his monstrosity. He was Lucifer himself, undoing all the good in the world.

Sully’s harsh breath tickled my nape. His rage was a thick vapour, seething with condemnation, sharp as a scalpel and searching for the tiniest opportunity to murder his brother.

Glancing over my shoulder, I flinched as I looked into his red-rimmed eyes. I wished he hadn’t taken the cotton off yet, but I understood why. He’d wanted to see.

But...he can’t.

My heart bled when Sully kept his fractured stare directly ahead, not noticing I studied him. His back remained rigid, his hands clasped with white knuckles and rope chewing into newly knitted skin. Clad only in black boxer-briefs, the damage done to him remained on display like a dreadful tapestry. However, even with the bandage around his thigh and the terrifying blankness of his defective stare, he was still a thousand times the man the guards and his brother were.

He moved with an untouchable fortitude, a brooding vigour that guaranteed vicious violence the moment my life wasn’t in the crosshairs.

I bit my lip as he stumbled, a slight limp from his leg as he followed in my footsteps, blindingly linked to me through our heart-knotted strings.

Jealousy grunted with anger as we travelled around the bend and Euphoria appeared.

My heart kicked up sick speed.

Drake had found Sully’s elixir.

He’d traded a doctor for my body and because I loved Sully with all my loyal soul, I’d entered into a covenant that would ruin me.

Sully growled as our feet connected with the decked steps, climbing the short distance to the large cathedral-inspired doors. His shoulders bunched, and his temper was no longer a vapour but a polluted nebula gnashing its jaws to get free.

God...think.

Hurry.

If we entered this place—if Sully was made to listen while his heinous brother raped me...he’d die. He wouldn’t permit it. He’d do whatever it took to protect me...even if it meant being shot.

I needed to talk to him.

To tell him in explicit terms that I didn’t return to watch him be killed. Whatever was about to happen would happen with him staying alive. He owed me that. He’d already gambled with his longevity by taking a drug that may or may not take his life in payment.

“Sully...don’t be stupid,” I whispered as we entered the foyer of the high swept, roof thatched church of Euphoria.

He grunted a savage response, sending goosebumps beneath my rain-crinkled dress.

Drake didn’t stop our little train until we entered the playroom where a harness hung from the ceiling, cupboards with fantasy props ringed the bare space, and a glass-frosted door led to a bathroom where Sully had kissed me for the first time.

My lips tingled in memory as Drake spread his legs and snapped his fingers. The guards with their guns came to a stop, forcing us to halt. Sully’s temper grew until it touched the vaulted ceilings and slithered across the tiles.

I trembled in worry.

Please, Sully...

If Drake gave me elixir, that was protection in itself. If there was no way out of this nightmare, at least elixir would shield my mind and leave my body a nymphomaniac shell. Sully, on the other hand...he’d suffer my every moan; my every beg would break his heart.

I flinched, brushing my shoulder with his.

He stiffened, his jaw clenching as a spark crackled from him to me. A promise that I was still his, and he was mine...throughout sickness, death, and Drake. His face turned to mine, his eyes narrowed and a painful red. However, amongst the sore seeking, he managed to catch my gaze and hold it.

My knees threatened to buckle. Tears sprang in relief.

You can see...

He nodded slightly as if he’d heard my question, as if our connection allowed telepathic communication.

“Right.” Drake clapped his hands, ripping our moment apart. “It’s playtime, ladies and gents, and this is how it’s gonna go.” Pointing at the guards all aiming guns at us, he muttered, “If the girls run, shoot them. If my brother does anything idiotic, shoot him but don’t kill him. I need what’s in that brain of his before he’s allowed to die.” He chuckled coldly. “He also has a show to watch. I’ll give him some pointers on how to fuck a woman.”

Sully bristled beside me, a vibrating snarl in his chest. “You planning on fucking in front of your men, Drake? Euphoria works on corrupting the mind. You won’t be here, but your body will. They’ll see every shudder of your flabby ass.”

Drake gritted his teeth in a tight grin. “We all like pornography, baby brother. They can watch to ensure you behave.” His puddle blue eyes met mine, and his lips twisted into a smirk. “Now, Eleanor Grace...come here.”