Just animal panic burning in his eyes as reality settled in.
Dmitri lowered the gun and turned it in his hand, offering it to me—grip first.
I stared at it.
Then at the man—bleeding, shaking, ruined.
My stomach twisted. My fingers refused to close around the weapon.
I couldn’t do it.
My hand trembled as I let the gun pass me by and reached again for the baton instead. The weight of it grounded me—familiar now, terrible and real.
I turned away.
And then I saw him.
The overseer. The master of our cell.
Tall. Thick-necked. Broad shoulders hunched now, but unmistakable. The man who’d patrolled our cell like a king inspecting cattle. Who’d smiled when women begged. Who’d singled Bianca out again and again—offering her first, making her suffer publicly while the rest of us watched, powerless.
He had laughed when she cried.
I walked toward him.
At first, he tried to meet my eyes—defiance flickering there, stubborn pride clinging to him like a bad habit. Then my shadow fell across his face, and something broke. His gaze darted away. His breathing quickened.
I swung the baton upward.
Hard.
It caught him under the jaw with a crack that turned my stomach. His head snapped back violently, teeth shattering.Blood sprayed in a dark fan across the floor. I saw fragments of bone glitter briefly before disappearing into the mess.
He collapsed sideways, jaw hanging at a grotesque angle, mouth gaping uselessly behind the tape.
Still—still—he tried to rise.
Stubborn. Stupid. Unrepentant to the end.
I stepped closer and brought the baton down again.
Between his legs.
The sound was wet. Crunching. Final.
His eyes bulged so far I thought they might burst. His body folded in half as far as the chains allowed, a muffled howl of agony ripping through the tape. His breath came in choking gasps, high and panicked.
Something surged up in me then—too much. The past clawed at the edges of my vision. The room blurred. The smell, the sounds, the memories pressing in from every side.
I was drowning.
Dmitri was there instantly.
He stepped forward, raised the pistol, and fired once—straight into the man’s groin.
The overseer convulsed violently, screaming behind the gag, body slamming helplessly against the restraints.
Then Dmitri turned and pulled me into him.