I slowly opened my eyes, and a dull pain throbbed in my temples. I lay there for a moment, trying to understand where I was. The room did not look familiar at all. The walls, the patterns, and everything around me felt wrong.
I tried to remember how I had gotten there. The last thing I could recall was running through the dark halls with Mia. I was supposed to get her out. I was supposed to save her.
Now I was alone, and somehow, I had ended up trapped in this place.
Carefully, I tried to sit up, only to be met with unyielding chains.
Metal chains were pulled tight around my wrists and ankles, locking me to the bed beneath me. My heart slammed hard against my chest as I jerked against them. The sharp metal bit into my skin, stinging every time I struggled.
Panic set in quickly.
Where am I? How did this happen?
I forced myself to focus and think. I tried to replay everything in my head. The escape. The run through the halls. I had been so close. I was so close to saving Mia from the castaways who had kept her prisoner.
Then nothing.
Now I was here, alone, chained, exposed, and with no memory of how I had ended up like this.
I was half shirtless, and the cool air raised goosebumps on my arms. My pants were still on, which was a small and absurd mercy. I tested the ankle restraints, twisting my feet, but they were just as secure. My head was pounding in time with my racing heart.
The door creaked open, and my eyes snapped toward the sound. A cold shiver ran down my back as a tall figure walked into the room.
I knew him instantly.
The man I had once taken as my own, the man I had once believed was on my side, stood there looking at me as if I were a game. A slow, playful smirk appeared on his lips.
Li Ming.
He filled the doorway, tall and impeccably dressed.
It was not possible. I had seen him contained. I had seen the safeguards. My mind rejected what I was seeing, even as he stepped inside and the door sighed shut behind him.
"How?" I breathed, the word scraping out of my dry throat.
He moved with a predator's grace and perched on the edge of the bed, so close that I could smell his sandalwood cologne. It was the same scent from his study, from the hours of conversation that now felt like a sick joke.
He leaned in, his dark eyes glinting.
"Really, Yua? You, of all people, should know better."
"Did you think your little cage could hold me?"
I said nothing. What was there to say?
"You thought you could fool me? Hurt me? Keep me bound?" His voice fell to a soft whisper that felt close and terrifying.
I could not look away. The man I had confided in, the brilliant and troubled scholar, was gone. In his place was this sharp-edged creature of vengeance.
"I trusted you. I thought you were different. That was my mistake."
The words landed like a physical blow.
"I'm sorry." The apology died on my lips, worthless.
I had acted for the greater good, to protect the others from his escalating power and his dangerous obsession with the castaways. But looking at him now, all I could see was the betrayal I had committed.
"I never meant for you to suffer," I tried to explain, but my voice was trembling. "You were losing control. I had to protect them."
"Protect them?"
He threw his head back and laughed. It was a sound devoid of all warmth.
"Oh, Yua. Your compassion is your greatest weakness."
He stood abruptly and walked to a panel on the wall. With a flick of his wrist, he illuminated the space, and my heart nearly beat out of my chest at the sight that greeted me.
Mia.
She was tied to a simple chair, her ankles submerged in a large glass bucket of water. A strip of silver tape sealed her lips, and her eyes were wide with terror as they remained fixed on me. A tangle of wires ran from a small, ominous black box on the floor into the water.
"No…"
The word was more of a moan.
"Save your strength," he spat. "As for what I went through before I got free," he paused, "I'll make you experience the exact same thing."
I pulled hard against the chains, letting out a rough, helpless cry.
"Li Ming, please! She has nothing to do with this! Punish me! Do whatever you want to me, but let her go!"
He ignored me. His attention remained on a sleek remote in his hand, which he caressed like a lover.
"The rules are simple, my dear Yua," he purred as he settled back into an upholstered chair facing the bed, as if he was about to watch a play.
"Don't c3m."