“How many babies are we talking about, Ciana?”

“Papa, please. We can talk about this later. I hurt all over. Please, can we go?”

I heard him pick her up, the rustle of something being draped over her, their voices as he carried her out of the basement with several of the men following. And the entire time, my eyes were still on the pieces of what everyone kept saying was left of Nova.

Sheena O’Brion did this. She took away the best thing to ever come into my life. She stole my heart away, then chopped her into unrecognizable pieces. Leaving me with nothing. If she’d wanted to punish me for being the reason her favorite granddaughter was no longer among the living, then she’d succeeded beautifully.

But she’d made one fatal mistake.

She hadn’t killed me.

Wherever she was, I would find her. And turn the streets red with her blood.

39

Nova

My head felt as if it were going to explode. The pressure at my temples made it seem as if my eyes were going to pop out of my skull if I opened them. But that was nothing compared to the pain in the rest of my body, especially my shoulder.

Pitiful whimpering drew my attention, and I struggled to focus as I cracked one eye open. The room was dim, only a single bare bulb hanging from the middle of the room to see by. I shifted and had to bite my lip to keep from crying out as my shoulder protested the move. Tilting my head back, I looked up at where my hands were cuffed to chains that hung from a rafter. The bottom half of my body was free and hanging like a wet noodle, my knees barely supporting me.

That sad, pained noise came again, and I drunkenly shifted my head to find Cali directly across from me. Like me, her arms were chained above her head, her legs unrestrained. Her head fell forward, her hair falling on either side of her head like a curtain, shielding her face from me.

Slowly, the fog began to dissipate from my brain, letting me think a little clearer, and instincts that had been drilled into me by Anya began to take over. Quickly, I assessed the room, looking for every danger and exit simultaneously. Other than the whimpering girl across from me, I was alone in the room that only had a single door. No windows, no skylights, not even a vent that I could see.

I tested my restraints, hurting my shoulder yet again in the process, but I fought through the pain as I determined if I could use the chains as a weapon should I need to.

The rattling of my chains drew Cali’s attention. She lifted her head, causing her hair to fall away from her face. I gasped at the sight she unveiled. The swollen eyes and obvious broken nose, the bruises along each cheek, the mouth that was split in several places that were openly bleeding down her chin and neck. She had bruises along her arms, slash marks over her legs as if someone had whipped her until she bled.