35. Ava

AVA

I woke up groggy, my head swimming, throat dry as if I had swallowed sand.

I blinked, trying to shake the fog clouding my mind, but it only made the pounding in my skull worse.

My arms wouldn’t move. Why wouldn’t they move?

Panic jolted through me as I realized they were tied down.

Fuck. I was tied to a chair, the ropes biting into my wrists and ankles, too tight to wiggle free.

The air was thick, heavy with the musty scent of old leather and something sweeter… lavender.

Dr. Vale’s office reeked of it, a sickly floral smell clinging to the fabric of the curtains, which hung limp and unmoving on either side of a tall, narrow window.

I peeled my eyes open and blinked, looking around. Where was I?

I forced myself to take in the surrounding room, trying to stay calm .

I was in Dr. Vale’s campus office still, but outside was dark now.

It looked just like it always had, but now, there was something sinister in every detail.

The shelves lining the walls were crammed with dusty, forgotten books, their titles obscured by a thick layer of grime. Worn spines crumbled into the room’s oppressive silence.

In the low amber light cast by the old brass desk lamp, I could barely make out the tarnished scalpels, bone saws, and clamps arranged like grotesque museum pieces on one of the shelves. Relics of treatments long abandoned, as twisted as the man who owned them.

I tugged against the ropes again, desperate, but they didn’t give.

I could hear the slow, steady ticking of the clock in the corner. It seemed louder than normal, every swing of the pendulum dragging the seconds out longer, slower. Time felt like it was standing still, suffocating me.

God, what time was it?

It was past eight. I’d only been out for an hour.

I tried to focus, tried to remember how I got here. Chloroform. Dr. Vale.

My pulse hammered. He’d drugged me. Just like he’d done to Liath.

My stomach twisted.

He’d been drugging us—both Liath and me.

He gave us memory suppressants.

He’d kept us in the dark, made us forget… what else have I forgotten?

I had to focus. I couldn’t let him win. I had to get out .

The low shadows shifted slightly, and my breath caught in my throat. Somewhere behind me, I heard the creak of the floorboards. Someone was there. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

“Ah, Ava.” Dr. Vale’s voice was soft, a mockery of warmth that slithered down my spine. “I see you’ve woken up.”

I swallowed hard, my mouth dry, but I forced myself to stay quiet.

“You’ve been so curious,” he continued, circling around to stand in front of me. His eyes gleamed in the low light. “And now I have no choice…”

I could barely breathe.

“Y-you killed Liath, didn’t you? She remembered and you murdered her for it?”

Dr. Vale tsked as he lifted a needle and a small vial between his bony fingers. “Such vile accusations.”

I stared at the needle, at the clear liquid inside the vial, sharp, acrid dread poisoning my veins. Was it lethal? Some sort of poison?

Would it kill me quickly or would it hurt as I died?

I glanced over toward the door to where my bag still lay on the ground where I’d dropped it.

Was my recording still on? Was it still streaming to Scáth through the message I sent him?

If I was going to die, I had to at least get Dr. Vale to confess. This couldn’t all be for nothing. I couldn’t have given up a life with Scáth for nothing.

I glared at Dr. Vale as he inserted the tip of the needle into the vial.

My skin broke out in goosebumps, making my skin crawl as I imagined him stabbing that needle into me .

“At least fucking admit what you did,” I said, trying to keep my voice from warbling. “You’re man enough for that, aren’t you?”

“Why, Ava”—Dr. Vale sucked the liquid into the needle until it was full—“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know you drugged Liath. I know you abused her and suppressed her memories of it. You killed her when that failed, didn’t you?”

“Stupid girl.” Dr. Vale laughed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t have a clue.”

I glanced down at the ropes around my wrists.

It was soft wool rope, the kind of rope that Dr. Vale used for his boundary exercises.

It wasn’t meant to tie a person down. It was meant to be used symbolically. He probably only used it to tie me up because it was all he had on hand.

I could free myself if I fought hard enough.

I struggled against the ropes binding my chest, ankles, and wrists to the chair. “I know the truth! You killed her. You killed Liath just like you’re going to kill me.”

Dr. Vale chuckled as he pressed down the needle depressor until a jet of liquid squirted out onto the oriental rug. “Oh my dear, I’m not going to kill you.”

I stared at the clear liquid in the needle barrel, imagining it swirling into my veins. “Then w-what have you got in there?”

“Why, Ava… don’t you remember ?”

“I…”

“You will soon.” Dr. Vale began to advance upon me, brandishing the needle like a knife, the shadows cast off his face making him look like a demon. “Isn’t that what you wanted, Ava? To remember ?”

A cold sweat broke out along my skin, tiny beads forming at my hairline and down my spine.

Bile rose up in my throat like a sickness as dark flashes slammed across my mind.

The professor leaned over me, his sharp, angular features carved out of cold, pale skin under slicked-back dark hair.

His thin-lipped smile didn’t reach his emotionless dark eyes; it was more of a mask, calculated and cold.

“Sweet, sweet girl.” His sour breath swirled around my cheeks.

Fear closed its bony fingers around my throat, cutting off my oxygen.

His fingers pulled at the little ribbon at my throat. Cold air pressed against my chest, suffocating me, as he unbuttoned the front of my dress and opened it.

I tried to breathe.

I tried to scream.

But I still couldn’t move.

Not even as he began to peel apart my clothes.

Oh God. I slammed back into my body as Dr. Vale’s face replaced the dark faceless figure from my memories.

No. I didn’t want to remember. No, no, no, no.

I screamed, thrashing in the chair so violently that the rope around my right arm snapped. Yes! I was free.

But I’d thrashed too hard. The chair wobbled on two legs before it tipped over. No!

The side of my head smacked against the rug with a wooden sound and a sudden, sharp jolt of pain flared through my brain .

My vision blinked out for a second, the impact reverberating through my body.

The sound of the collision rang in my ears, a dull thud, followed by an intense ringing that drowned out everything else.

I gasped, my free hand instinctively flying to the side of my head as a deep, throbbing ache bloomed.

The room spun, my stomach churning, and for a moment, I couldn’t tell which way was up.

The polished brown leather of Dr. Vale’s shoes stepped into my vision and then his face as he kneeled beside me. “Relax, Ava. What I’m going to do to you is going to feel like child’s play when I hand you over to them.”

I squeezed my eyes shut against the nausea and the wave of fear trying to choke me. I braced myself.

There was a loud bang and the vicious sound of splintering wood.

My eyes flew open in time to see Dr. Vale being torn from me and thrown against the wall.

With a furious roar, Scáth leaped onto him like a vicious animal, his fists flying. “Touch her and die .”

Whatever was left of the leash inside of Scáth seemed to have snapped.

Scáth bashed Dr. Vale’s head against the floor, his skull making a loud crack as it connected, his eyes going wide and bug-like, his lips floundering like a dying fish.

The tight band around my chest loosened, and I could finally breathe again, each inhale coming easier, softer, like I was no longer fighting for air.

Scáth was here.

He’d found me .

I was protected.

I was safe.

Dr. Vale held his arms up over his face, but Scáth’s punches were too strong. They punctured through his feeble defenses with every hit.

Scáth just kept hitting, blood splattering all over the worn book spines and the porcelain phrenology head.

A dark, sick pleasure weaved through me at the sight of Scáth beating that sick fucker to death.

It was over.

We’d found Liath’s killer.

She could rest easy now.

But a realization struck me through the dull throbbing of my head.

Dr. Vale had said they .

“…when I hand you over to them .”

He was working with someone.

With them , whoever they were.

This wasn’t over.