Justin – POV
The cave felt colder than it had ever been.
My breath fogged in the air, chest still heaving, knuckles raw and split. The taste of blood coated my tongue, metallic and bitter. Sweat dripped into my eyes, but I barely blinked.
They had her.
And I was out of time.
I rose from the floor, staggering for a second like a drunk, before my spine locked itself back into steel. Rage still roared under my skin, but the strategist in me clawed for air, fighting for control.
I couldn't walk blindly into their trap.
But I couldn't do nothing, either.
The thought of her — strapped to a table, eyes wide with terror, those bastards calling her Number Twelve again — it nearly broke me. Nearly. But not completely.
Because she needed me whole.
"Think, you fucking idiot." The voice in my head wasn't the monster this time. It was the cold, ruthless part of me that had kept us all alive back then. The part June had hated — until she realized it had saved her.
