AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No answer. I should’ve figured as much, but I hoped she would open up with Emily and Cassian gone. Still, I refused to give up so easily.
“Did Samara threaten you? Does she have something she’s holding over you to make you obey her?”
Morgan scoffed, rolling her eyes as she turned away, disgust written all over her face.
“Come on, Morgan. After all we’ve been through together, you’re just going to turn away from me. I’m your friend. If Samara is threatening you, I can help.”
She tilted her head, looking at me with the slightest curve of a smile. “Do you really still believe we are friends?” Her tone was mocking and cruel. But I answered honestly.
“Yes. We can fix this.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “There’s nothing to be fixed.” She whirled around whimsically—and awkwardly. “Well, except for the cursed object awaiting you on the table.” Her tone was light, as if she were a child playing a game.
But I knew better. This was no child’s game. No, this was a deadly version of cat and mouse that I wanted to end now.
“What is that object, Mor? What does it do?”
“I told you,” she sang out, laughing. “It’s a puzzle box. If you don’t solve it, who knows what will happen.” She tsked again, shaking her head. “Poor Griffin. I tried so hard to help you. I really did love you, you know.”
What the hell was going on with her? She was behaving like a lunatic. Talking to no one, laughing when she should be begging, reacting to my questions like an oblivious child.
Though she was anything but oblivious.
“If you loved me like you claim, you’d tell me what the hell is happening. What is the puzzle?”
“How should I know!” she shouted, reaching for the bars. Her face was pressed against the cool metal, her fingers wrapped tightly around the bars.
I was less than a foot from the cage, and her sudden reaction was startling. “Morgan, please tell me what to do.”
She scoffed. “Figure it out yourself, for once.”
My lips were pulled together tight, and I shook my head, utterly discouraged by her behavior. “What happened to you? You’ve changed.”
“No. I’ve realized my potential. She helped me do that, and she can help you, too. Come on, Griffy.” She used the name she used to call me. It was a way to tease me when we first met, and I’d completely forgotten about it until then. “We can run away together, just you and me. Samara will spare you of the curse, I know she will. We’ll be safe when the world burns to ashes, and we can rule in the new world together.”
Hearing those words broke my heart. Calling me Griffy, I thought she was finally coming around, but she wasn’t. She was trying to manipulate me.
“No.”
“Come on, Griffy, please. Think about how amazing it would be to rule over a land of our own.”
“No, Morgan! We can’t do that.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, huffing out a breath. “Look, Samara is bad news. If you can’t see that, I don’t know what else to do for you.”
When I said those words, she did the unexpected. She spat on me and called me a traitor. “Have fun with your curse, Griffy,” she answered with a sneer. “When she’s finished taking out the wolves, Samara’s moving on to the witches next. So, you might want to tell your mate that she won’t have her affinities for much longer.”
She crossed her arms and turned away from me, done with the conversation. Since she refused to speak to me any further, I gave up and left, at a loss for what else I could do. I’d tried. I really tried, but there was no reasoning with her.
She was too far gone.
I stepped outside the warehouse, the fresh air hitting my face and giving me a sense of calm. Cassian and Emily were already outside, and they were hugging. My wolf whined, wanting to join them.
Walking the distance, I caught up to them. Emily wouldn’t look me in the face, but she wasn’t totally avoiding me—just embarrassed. Though she didn’t say it, I could tell from the bond how she was feeling.
“What’d you find out?” she asked, much less annoyed than earlier. But I could still hear the edge in her voice, ready to slice at a moment’s notice.
I shook my head. “Not much. But she did say that Samara wants to burn the world to ashes and start anew. She also said to warn you,” I said, facing Emily, “that she’s coming after the witches’ powers next, after Samara takes out the wolves.”
“Great,” Cassian said, rubbing the back of his head. “So, she wants to turn us feral, take away the witches’ powers, and then burn the world to start over?” He scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Jeez, psychotic much?”
