AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m the one that warned your parents of what was to come. I helped prepare them, mentally and physically. I told them the prophecies. Explained your destinies.”
“You let them die horrible deaths even though you had the means to prevent it?” Dessin’s eyes flare with cold rage.
“Their deaths are not in vain. They knew what they were perishing for.”
Dessin scoffs in his face, rising to his feet abruptly. “You’re fucking useless. We sought you out, hoping you could help keep Demechnef from controlling us long enough to end this war. But you’re just a brainwashed cult member.”
I stand with Dessin.
“Where can we find Marilynn? Maybe I can use her as leverage to get Aurick to let us call the shots.”
Judas shakes his head. “She won’t come out of hiding. I don’t even know her latest location. After the abuse she suffered from Aurick’s father, she’ll never return to his son. Not ever.”
I throw my arms in the air with a dramatic sigh. “Great. That’s great. What does your precious prophecy say about this, then? How are we supposed to go about this without the government abducting our friends and using their lives against us? How are we supposed to survive this without being pawns in the game?”
“It’s you, Miss Ambrose. You are the one that will turn the tides for Demechnef. It’s predicted that you will use your broken mind to change the son of the tyrant.”
I stare into his eyes, cold and aged with wisdom. I’m not sure what he expects me to do with that, yet that beast inside of me that set fire to the asylum perks her head up at his words. She seems to know exactly what to do.
37. The Pain of His Victims
The city isn’t the quiet, glamorous nook it was when I left it. It comes to life with screams, women running from house to house in their evening gowns, and children crying.
It’s as if that makeup covering the massive bruise that is the ugliness of this city has been wiped clean. The women run their hands through their perfect hair, sweat and tears drip from their cheeks, and something is very, very wrong here.
I even start to wonder if this was because of me. Are they really that upset over the destruction of the asylum? Maybe the patients have done something horrible.
Aurick meets us outside of the mountain, staring at Dessin in wide-eyed disbelief.
“You are a goddamned con artist,” he grits out.
“Thank you.” Dessin smiles proudly.
“How’d you do it? Huh? Was it fake blood? Did you have mirrors set up for the illusion? Were we all on drugs that gave us gory hallucinations?” It’s hard to tell if he’s angry or just overwhelmed.
“Did you cry in my absence, Aurick?”
“I should have known. You’re this unkillablecockroach. Of course you’d find a way to escape death.”
“You should feel lucky we’ve come back,” I say through the confines of my bared teeth.
Aurick’s icy gaze slides to me slowly, losing all signs of humor and taunting. His eyes flutter in acknowledgment, and the space between his eyebrows creases.
“More than you can imagine.” He glances at the group. “The Vexamen Breed finally infiltrated the city. They’ve abducted several children under the age of two, some of the same they stole last time. Some different. One fell swoop at midnight, and every mother woke up this morning screaming their heads off.”
Dread thickens in my stomach, rising up my throat like bile.
“Have you sent your army to get them back?” I ask, unable to hide the impending doom straining my voice.
“I have. But they’ve already boarded their ship.”
“What do they want babies for?” Ruth twists her hands nervously.
“That’s how they’ve built the greatest army in the world. They remove them from their mother’s breast, raise them without empathy or compassion, train them to kill without remorse, turn them into obedient, emotionless assassins.”
A shiver races down my back. Babies. Without their parents to teach them how to decide right from wrong, how to feel empathy, and how to respect life—humans would be monsters. Trained, highly skilled monsters.
“What’s your plan? How’re we getting them back?” I force myself to stand up straighter.
