His confidence in her meant a lot, coming from a soldier like Kade. She only nodded, unable to say anything as she drew in his strength, his composure.
He gave her a quick kiss and said, “Let’s get your ma.”
They plunged into the woods, following the path that led toward the gator house.
When they saw a building up ahead, he whispered, “Is that it?”
“No, that’s the barn where you—” She didn’t want to get into those unfortunate hours he’d spent there. “There’s something I want to get.” She detoured to the wall of shame and stopped short. “The cuffs are gone.”
Kade stared at the weathered boards, and she saw him struggling with his memories. Please don’t go blank on me.
“The cuffs with the Lucifer’s Gold,” he said. “I think it’s my fault that they’re gone. When I was reporting in as Dune, I had to tell Ferro about the cuffs to explain why I wasn’t using my magick to escape. He must have told the Carnelian.”
“I was going to use them on the Carnelian. But she’s … damn it, she beat me to it. She’s obviously using them on my ma to keep her from Catalyzing.” Violet slapped her hand to her chest, which felt like it was caving in. “She’s helpless.”
He took her hand and gave it a squeeze, giving her strength and calm. “We’ll save her. Together we have enough power.” He lifted their joined hands and kissed the back of hers.
She took a deep breath. “Thank you.”
The crack of a tree falling broke through the sound of her heavy breathing. The mob was drawing closer. The Carnelian might kill her mother if she heard others approaching, thinking that it was Violet’s clan. She had to get there first.
In unison, they released their handhold and continued their sprint down the path. Each minute that passed felt like an hour. This trek had never felt so long. So arduous. Her legs ached and her lungs burned. She spotted the gnarled cypress tree that meant they were nearly there and signaled Kade. He pulled the orb around him and disappeared. Violet felt eyes on her as she approached the gator house. Her heart felt as though it weighed a hundred pounds as it thudded heavily in her chest. After unlocking the back door, she walked through the office. She flipped the switch for the speakers just before stepping into the steamy area where the gators lived.
She walked in, breathing shallowly. A long boardwalk split the building in half, with pens on either side filled with gators of varying sizes. It wasn’t their regular feeding time, so they weren’t as active. But if someone fell in, they’d react instantly.
Her heart stopped at the sight of the woman holding her ma with her arm across her throat. A cuff circled one of Ma’s hands, but she was calm and very still, her mouth in a tight line. Stoic as always, but her eyes gave away her terror…especially at seeing Violet. She gave a subtle shake of her head. Go.
Violet shook her head, too. I’m not leaving you, Ma.
She shifted her focus to the woman who was holding her, eager to figure out who this hateful adversary was. But she didn’t look familiar. She remained close to the wall and the switch that would turn on the intercom. Several stations were put in place as a way to alert others if someone was injured or fell into the pens. It was a rule that the speaker system always got turned on when someone was in the gator house. Behind her, Violet’s finger touched the smooth metal lever and tried to push it up. It wasn’t budging.
“Remember me now, Violet?” the woman said. She had a smug smile, beautiful as she was, with dark hair and glittering eyes.
Violet pushed harder, and the lever finally moved with a rusty sound. “No, I don’t.”
The smile vanished. “Pilar Garza. Oh, you probably thought I’d died when your family massacred mine. I was gone that day. Lucky me.” Her smile returned, brittle this time.
Violet’s gaze kept shifting to her mother as she took one step at a time, drawing closer. She thought she saw the outline of Kade’s bubble behind Pilar and her mother. She couldn’t afford to look too hard and draw Pilar’s attention to him. “You seem to forget that someone in your family killed my father. We did not attack you unprovoked. But this isn’t about our families, is it?”
“Of course it is. And how much I hate you. Have always hated you.”
“Because I was better at wrestling than you were when we were, what, fourteen? Because when you tried to distract me, I didn’t get my arm torn off? Because you were shunned and banned due to your bad behavior?”
“Your father killed mine!”
“That was your doing. You pouted and sulked so much that your father challenged mine to the Conference Room. Your father wasn’t supposed to die in there.” Mostly the Conference Room was about brute force, releasing aggression, not duels to the death. “Your father tried to kill mine. He had to protect himself.”
Pilar gave her a cruel smile. “Do you want to know why your father was on our property? I saw him at the edge, calling for one of your pigs. I pretended to be hurt, and he came over to help me. I stabbed him. And while he bled out, I remembered seeing you two at the store laughing together. He put his arm around your shoulders, and you leaned into him. And I thought about how I didn’t have my father anymore, and now you wouldn’t either.”
Her father had been tricked. He’d been trying to help her and was killed for it. Violet saw the shock register on her ma’s face, too. She focused on Pilar. “You caused the deaths of your whole family,” Violet said. “You started a war.”
Pilar pointed, jerking Violet’s ma off balance. “You started it!”
Violet knew there was no point in reasoning with a woman who could only rationalize her own actions. She buried her shock and anger. “Let my mother go. You said we were making a deal. Me for her.”
“Vee, no, damn it!” her ma said. “I’ve lived a long life. You are not giving yours for mine.”
But Violet didn’t intend to give her life. “I’m a big girl, Ma. I make my own decisions. And I already made the deal. You and Daddy taught me to live up to my word, after all.” She focused on Pilar again. “Since you’ve been so forthcoming, I have a revelation for you as well. Ferro’s dead.”
