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There was no point in hiding anymore so I stood and ran to the barn door, flinging it open and walking inside. I heard Ryan behind me but my focus was on my father. A white cloth was wrapped around his thigh where he had been shot and it was already crimson with blood, but he seemed unaffected by it. I heard a gurgling sound and my attention was jerked to Simon. Philip was torturing him again by pulling the rope taut.
“Make him stop,” I said, trying to sound firm but I was unable to suppress the quaver in my voice.
“I thought you’d never get here,” my father said smoothly, ignoring my entreaty. “I wondered how long you’d stay crouched outside that window before coming in.”
Philip loosened the rope again and Simon scrambled to find the stool with his feet and rest his weight on it.
“I’ll take you up on your earlier offer,” I said. “Release Simon and my mother and I’ll go willingly with you.”
My father would never stop until he got what he wanted. And what he wanted was to use my powers. I desperately wanted to use my energy to destroy him but I was afraid that he would be able to shoot both my mother and Simon before I was able to gather my powers. And I had no idea at this point whether the palladium and iridium disk burning a hole in my pocket would help me or hinder me. Once the others were safe, I would find a way to defeat him. But with Simon and my mother’s life in danger, I felt immobilized by my desperation to keep them alive.
“No.” Simon’s voice sounded broken and was barely audible but I saw the intensity of his eyes, begging me not to do it. I remembered the first time I had seen those startling blue eyes when he had come over for dinner; the slight smile as he introduced himself and my surprise when I felt myself being drawn to him despite having seen him in a vision. I wondered if I would ever see him smile at me again. His face was contorted in an expression of pain right now, but I didn’t know whether it was from the torture he was enduring or his fear of what I was about to do.
My father smiled widely. “Wise decision.”
“You need to get rid of the vardoger inside my mother first. And get Simon down from there.”
“Put your gun on the floor and kick it towards me,” my father commanded. “Then we’ll continue.”
I followed his order and then waited for him to release my mother and Simon. I knew I was taking a huge risk in making a deal with my father. I had no illusions about his trustworthiness but at this point I had no other options.
My father pulled something out of his pocket and threw it towards me. The piece of palladium on a chain landed at my feet and I stared at it.
“Take your iridium off and put on the palladium,” my father ordered. I hesitated. Putting on the piece of palladium would make me powerless and completely vulnerable to my father.
“Don’t do it!” Simon’s voice was hoarse but fierce and I looked up at him. I silently pleaded with my eyes for him to understand. I had no other choice because there was no way I could watch him and my mother die.
My father nodded to Philip, who pulled on the rope again, making it impossible for Simon to say anything else. His gaze returned to me. “Until you put it on, he’s going to suffer.”
I quickly took off my iridium necklace and threw it on the ground. I reached down and picked up the palladium. I was about to put it around my neck when Ryan grabbed my hand.
“Don’t do it,” he said urgently. “It’s your death sentence.”
“I don’t have a choice.” I shook his hand off and put on the necklace. I turned to my father. “Is it too much to expect you to keep your end of the bargain?”
He shrugged. “Why not.” He turned to speak to Philip as he lowered the gun from my mother’s temple. “Get rid of her vardoger.”
My mother had been silent the whole time but she had been glaring at me, letting me know who was in control of her body. But at my father’s words, she started screaming and fighting against his grip.
“No!” she screeched. “This is my body, not hers! You’re not getting rid of me!”
Philip tied the end of the rope to a beam of wood on the side of the barn so that Simon couldn’t escape and walked over to my mother. Simon was barely conscious enough to keep his balance on the stool and I prayed that he wouldn’t black out and end up hanging himself.
My mother continued to scream and yell obscenities but my father ignored her as he restrained her. Philip stopped a few feet in front of her and clutched his palladium necklace, closing his eyes and tensing his face in concentration. His power was almost palpable. I could feel it filling the room and then it shot out of him like a dagger of lightning, striking my mother in the chest. She collapsed onto the floor, her body writhing until a darkness exploded out of her and dissipated into the air.
I had never seen anything like it, had never seen such a showing of raw power that was so visible. It was then that I realized what I was up against. My hand went up to my chest instinctively and I was about to pull off the palladium necklace when my father trained his gun on my mother again.
“Backing out of the agreement so soon?” he asked with a raised brow. I shook my head and lowered my hand, trying to take in deep breaths to calm my racing pulse. My mother’s eyes fluttered open and her gaze focused on me. She looked confused and scared and I wondered if she would ever fully regain her senses.
“Now release Simon,” I said.
My father raised his eyebrows at my autocrati
c tone. “Getting awfully bossy, aren’t you. Do you really think you have the upper hand?”
I shook my head, my fear increasing rapidly even though he lowered the gun. “No, I just want you to keep your part of the deal.”
He laughed like I had said something hilarious and shook his head. “I’ll never understand humans. So many messy emotions that get in the way of clear thinking.” His smile was inhuman. “Maybe I just wanted the satisfaction of you seeing me kill your mother for real this time. I want you to see her suffer, not her vardoger. She’ll experience every part of the agony of death. There’ll be no vardoger to take any of the pain.”
