"No," Darius said flatly, his refusal as immovable as stone.
The lights flickered ominously, and for a moment Liora thought she saw shadows moving across the walls with predatory intent. Shapes that looked disturbingly like wolves, circling their prey, waiting for the moment of greatest weakness to strike. She squeezed her eyes shut instinctively, then immediately forced them open again with conscious effort. Closing her eyes made everything worse, made the hallucinations more vivid and terrifying, gave them substance and weight they shouldn't possess.
"Stay awake," she told herself in a desperate whisper. "Stay awake. Stay....."
A new sound cut through the relentless music, footsteps, heavy and purposeful, approaching with the inevitability of fate itself. The music suddenly cut off, leaving a ringing silence that was somehow worse than the noise had been, an absence that pressed against her eardrums with painful intensity. The lights dimmed to a more tolerable level, though Liora's eyes still ached from the previous hours of brilliance.
Liora's head snapped up despite her exhaustion, her heart racing with renewed fear and adrenaline. Thessian Nightfang stepped off the elevator with the controlled grace of an apex predator. He looked exactly as terrifying as he had before, perhaps even more so, because now Liora was seeing him through the distorting filter of twenty-five hours without sleep, and her compromised perception made him seem larger somehow, more threatening, his presence filling the space with barely contained violence. His amber eyes glowed in the dim light like burning coals, and she found herself unable to look away from their hypnotic intensity.
He was wearing different clothes from his previous visit, dark jeans and a black t-shirt that revealed the intricate tattoos covering his muscular arms. Pack symbols, Liora realized through the fog of her exhaustion. Werewolf runes that probably meant something significant to those who could read them, marking him as what he was, an Alpha, a leader, a king among wolves.
Darius and Kira immediately bowed their heads in submission. "Alpha."
Thessian didn't acknowledge their greeting or even glance in their direction. He walked straight to the cage with single-minded focus, his eyes fixed on Liora with an intensity that made her want to disappear, to become as invisible as her family had always treated her.
Liora forced herself to her feet through sheer stubborn will. It took three attempts, her legs kept giving out beneath her, muscles trembling with exhaustion, but she managed to stand upright, swaying slightly but vertical. She wouldn't meet him on her knees like a supplicant or a condemned prisoner. She wouldn't give him that particular satisfaction, no matter how much her body screamed for rest.
They stared at each other through the golden bars separating them, the silence stretching taut as a wire pulled to its breaking point, heavy with unspoken accusations and denials.
Finally, Thessian spoke with deceptive mildness. "How are you enjoying your accommodations, Princess? How do you find it? Do we need to increase it?" His voice was cold and detached, as if he were asking about the weather rather than her systematic torture.
"Go to hell," Liora said, surprised by the venom that emerged from her throat despite her exhaustion.
Something flickered in his eyes, surprise, perhaps, or respect for her defiance. Whatever it was vanished quickly, replaced by that same cold emptiness. "I've been there," Thessian said softly, his voice dropping to something more dangerous than any shout. "Three months ago, when I watched my mate die in my arms. When I held her while her life drained out of her body. When I felt our bond sever like a rope snapping and knew I'd never see her again, never hear her voice, never feel her touch." He moved closer to the bars, his presence overwhelming. "So I'm already in hell, Princess. I'm just making sure you join me there."
"I didn't kill her," Liora said, forcing the words through her exhaustion with every ounce of conviction she possessed. "I know you don't believe me. I know the evidence says otherwise. But I didn't do it. I've never hurt anyone in my entire life."
"Then explain the footage," Thessian demanded, his voice hardening into something sharp and cutting. "Explain the DNA evidence. Explain the eyewitnesses who identified you. Explain how your own father provided the evidence against you if you're so innocent."
"I don't know!" Liora's voice broke with frustration and fear. "I don't know how someone looked like me or why my father threw me away like garbage or any of it! But I know I didn't do it! I was in Valeria that night! I....."