The air reeked of blood and gasoline.
Mariam vomited against the thick stench, her lungs burning as the torches that lined the room flared. Their flames cracked out at the stone walls, twisting the shadows into horrific things. Every breath scraped her throat raw, but worse was the way the silence stuck to her heavy, stifling, animate.
The masked men were statues. Dozens of them, rifle glints catching in the poor light, faces lost in black folds, fingers tightening with supernatural patience on frigid metal. They were rigid, more terrifying than brutality. It was all too practiced, ceremonial, as if all of this had been pre-arranged a long time ago before she walked in.
And Samuel.
He lounged against the iron chair in the middle of the room, his presence a coiled predator, as if he'd waited for centuries to be here now. The chair, though, made Mariam's stomach twist. Her name was written on the steel back, the letters slashed deep, sharp, final. Whoever wrote it hadn't used hands, they used intent.
"Bring her," Samuel growled.
The clamor shredded the air, insistent, unshakable.
Two men moved forward at the same time. Mariam staggered backward, but they had her before she could get her breath. Their arms came over her like manacles forged from bone and metal, hauling her forward until her knees scraped on hard stone. She kicked, her throat raw.
"No!"
Her wrists slammed into the chair's chains. Cold metal bit into her skin, pinching until she cried out. The sound of the locks snapping shut echoed like a final judgment. Panic surged through her veins, her body twisting against the restraints.
"Let me go!"
A roar shattered the silence.
"Touch her again," Adrian's voice thundered from across the chamber, "and I'll paint these walls with you."
Her head snapped toward him.
He was a storm high and rigid, his weapon raised and firm, his eyes drilling holes in Samuel. Standing where he was, unyielding against the guns trained on his heart, put both Mariam's heart in fear and something greater tearing through it.
Samuel did not hesitate.
His grin widened, of a kind not born out of laughter but of confidence. His eyes softly burned, cruel and bestial, as he cocked his head.
"Keep playing the knight, Kane?" Samuel's voice was thick with contempt. "That is not your business."
He nodded toward Mariam in mock respect. "And yet… you cannot stop us."
Adrian moved forward, the gun's muzzle pressed against Samuel's forehead. It was a foolhardy, suicidal gesture but his finger didn't waver.
"Try me."
The click followed one mechanical click, fired thirty times at once.
All of the masked men raised their rifles.
The room lurched, this air electric with impending mortality. Thirty muzzles might against Adrian's chest, all fingers ready to jerk. One yank might tear him asunder before Mariam could make a sound.
Her gut dropped, ice splintering through her bloodstream.
Samuel crept closer, leaning so his lips were inches from hers. His voice dropped to blade-sharp whisper.
"See? That's why you can't trust him, Mariam. He brings war wherever he goes. Blood, fire, bodies behind him. And you" His gaze dropped, and shivers ran down her bones. "You are another chain around his neck."
Her heart pounded.
"But me?" Samuel's smile broadened. "I'd set you free."
Her throat was closing. She spat the words, though her body trembled. "Free me? By binding me to a chair?"
"Chains can be broken." His tone smoothed, almost soft, and it seemed more terrifying than his savagery. "After you remember who you truly are."
She sucked in air. His words stabbed at a buried memory, the clinging grime of his defilement on the stairs. You can't escape what you are.
Adrian's voice pierced the haze.
"Don't listen to him, Mariam. He'll spin you around until you don't know yourself."
Samuel laughed, the sound low and venomous. "Oh, rich coming from the liar."
Mariam's heart squeezed until she could hardly breathe. Her voice trembled, but she forced it out.
"Tell me. Both of you. What truth are you keeping from me?"
The quiet was worse than bullets.
Adrian's jaw clenched. Samuel's smile just grew larger.
And then Samuel said.
"She's not some girl we're fighting over, Kane. She's why this entire war is being fought."
The words sliced through Mariam like a blade.
Her knees buckled under the chair. "What?"
Samuel's eyes met hers, steady. "Did he ever tell you? You are not prey, Mariam. You're the key. And Kane here" he sneered "is keeping you alive because you're convenient. Not because he cares."
Her ribcage broke. She flung her head in Adrian's direction, pleading.
"Make him tell me it's a lie."
He was quiet.
His silence was a knife, more cutting than Samuel's words.
Her eyes clouded over with tears. The earth sloped, her body suspended, as if she was falling from an infinity of height.
Samuel's tone softened again, wrapping around her like corrupted silk. "Come to me, Mariam. I will not entrap you in deceptions. I'll give you the truth Adrian's afraid of."
The rifles held steady. The torches blazed, shadows crawling like grasping hands. Mariam's heart thudded in her ears, struggling between the boy who freed her and the devil who promised liberty.
And for a flash of raw fear, she didn't know which was worse.
The standoff ended.
Adrian moved first.
He fired not at Samuel, but at the chains.
The pistol cracked, sparks blinding her as the bullet struck metal. The restraints burst open. Mariam's arms stretched out, skin aching from the sear of freedom.
She lurched. Adrian caught her before she collapsed. His grip was tight, bracing her even as everything around them came apart.
"Run!" he yelled.
The apartment exploded. Fire was a cacophony, muzzle flashes through the smoke. Shrieks resonated, men falling in turn. Adrian slithered with bestial precision, every shot a death, his body between her and the danger as he dragged her behind him.
Mariam fought, her legs protesting only slightly. The world was a blur of steel and flame, her ears assaulted by the roar of the guns. Smoke filled her throat.
And through it all, Samuel's voice cut above the carnage, ringing like prophecy.
"You'll never get away from me, Mariam. Because you belong to this war!
Adrian shoved her into a side hallway, bullets chattering past her ears. She forced her way on, walls slamming shut behind her like a trap and Samuel's laughter chasing after them as a demon's ghost.
They stumbled out into a tunnel, damp and airless. Adrian slammed the door shut behind them with his shoulder, chest heaving.
Mariam tore her wrist from his grasp, stumbling back, her voice ripped with fury.
"Enough!"
Adrian's eyes sparkled. "What?"
"You should have warned me!" She shoved him, rage trembling her body. "Is it true? Am I the cause of everything?"
His silence was enough.
Her fists pounded against his chest. "You don't get to decide what I can handle! You don't get to drop me!"
He caught her wrists, holding her there. His voice was a growl, but under it was something fraying, desperate.
"If I told you everything, you'd hate me."
There were tears running down her face, burning and acid. "Then let me hate you. At least it would be honest."
For once, his mask slipped. His eyes flashed raw, shattered, afraid.
"I don't want your hate."
The tunnel was filled with silence, broken only by their wheezing breath. His grip was rough, but under it, there was flame, burning, sparking shivers of terror. and longing.
The same flame that demanded she run. and stay.
Her words broke apart. "Then what do you want, Adrian?"
His jaw clenched. His mouth opened, the truth hanging on the edge
But the footsteps echoed behind them.
Adrian's head snapped up. His grip hardened. "We move. Now.".
He drew her deeper into the shadows.
The tunnel opened into a new room.
Candles on the walls, their flames steady despite the wind. Symbols on the floor are ancient, rough, pulsing softly as if throbbing with blood.
And at its core, a red-stained altar.
Her name is carved into stone.
Adrian froze. His face paled, rage distorting his features.
Mariam's breath caught, her legs rooted to the floor. "What is this?".
Adrian's voice was gruff, rough, shaking with something beyond anger.
"This is what they want you for