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Shouting came from above, with the sound of ammunition being fired. I flinched and Bash glanced up, smiling. “Seems to me that someone cannot let you go.” The gleam in his eyes was mocking.
I squinted upward to the open door. I hadn’t noticed until that moment that it was still open. If someone were battling Bash’s ship, perhaps he would be distracted enough where I could break free and make it to Killian. I was certain it was his ship. It had to be.
With my hands bound, however, it would be difficult. But Bash leaned backward, looking me over as he continued his speech, clearly unfazed by the battle beginning to rage above deck.
“Anyway, with you here, I can now lure Hattie back to me. Use the threat of taking your life to ensure she does what is asked. And the final opportunity for any resistance and uprising of casters will be quelled. All because you so graciously and willingly, I might add, walked aboard my ship.”
I shook my head hard. My stupidity knew no ends, especially if Bash could now somehow bring my mother to me.
“Uprising of what?” I questioned as my eyes quickly darted back toward the door. He turned again, continuing his pacing and I bolted, making a run for the stairs.
His cackle sounded quickly at my shoulders, and suddenly, his tight grip was upon me, throwing me backward to the unforgiving floor.
“Agh,” I shouted as I fell hard onto the bottom of the ship.
“Tell me, Ainsley. Where would you go? Your rescuer won’t get close enough to save you. No one can.” He chuckled again. “It’s nearly as pathetic as the duke’s efforts to thwart my system.”
I froze on the spot, my heart racing at what he had just implied. “What on earth are you talking about?”
Bash let his head fall back as he laughed deeply, wiping a pretend tear from his eye, which made my blood boil more than it already had been. “Well, the duke was getting far too forward with implications against people I had placed in Rookhallow Proper. Acting as though he would restore justice, peace.” Bash waved his hands in the air as if that were a ridiculous notion. “And I knew he’d reached out to friends in an effort to find my sweet Hattie. He thought they were secret channels, but there are no secrets from me. Not anywhere.” His glee turned into a snarl as he spoke. This man was completely unhinged. “Such a blatant stand against me was a threat.”
A loud boom sounded, and a cannon burst through the side of the room where we were. Had I not already been on the ground, it would have slammed me to my feet. As it were, it knocked Bash to his knees, but it did not stop him.
I watched in horror as the man just continued on, unfazed by the danger surrounding him. His eyes narrowed on me. “And any threat against me must be eliminated.”
“So you had him killed?” I shouted angrily. Tears pricked my eyes as Bash’s smile grew larger, and he nodded my way.
I cried out, screaming as a burst of energy erupted from my core and raced down my arms. The bindings sizzled at my wrists, and I ripped them from behind my back, allowing the burning ropes to fall to my feet.
Holding my hands out toward Bash, I searched for something, anything to help me. He deserved death. Regardless of how the rational part of my mind screamed that my actions would turn me into a man like him, the anger quelled those thoughts immediately.
I no longer cared.
Something inside of me was dying, breaking. And I could not take the pain a moment longer. Someone would suffer my wrath. And Sebastian James was the perfect choice. I lifted my hands toward the monster before me, allowing my own monster, one I had never known existed inside of me, take over.
Raising my crackling hands toward Bash, I pooled the energy within me.
It was now or never, consequences be damned.
