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“Orson, stop!” I commanded, rushing to shield myself behind his desk. “I don’t know anything!”
The lies. So many lies.
“That bastard murdered my men!” Orson rasped, glowering at me. “Elijah Webb! I’ll have his head mounted on my bedroom wall where I can fuck in front of his dead, defeated face!”
I shuddered at the image and inhaled.
“Orson, let’s talk about this,” I implored him. “No one wants a war. It’s not good for anyone.”
He hissed, his eyes growing mossy green, and I realized he was about to shift in his ire.
“That’s not true,” Lora mewled. “He only kept me alive to tell everyone that he’s coming for us. He wanted me to send the message.”
Dammit, Elijah! Again, this would have been useful information to have earlier!
My quest wasn’t going to succeed, not when Elijah had laid the groundwork for vengeance.
“You staged an attack on him,” I told Orson urgently. “He was protecting himself—”
“Are you defending the murderer of your crewmates?” Orson snarled, his face twisting hideously.
Gnarled lumps began to form on his face, and I backtracked my position immediately.
“No! No, of course not. The Verity Gang is my blood, my soul,” I told him. “But don’t forget that Elijah started it.”
Again, the wrong thing to say, and this time, I couldn’t escape when Orson lunged for me. His claws extended to lock around my neck, wings fully extended, the translucent membrane half blocking the view from behind him.
His face gnarled hideously, revealing the pointed, triangle teeth, black eyes sunken and furious in his shifted form.
“After everything I’ve done for you,” he rasped, his fetid breath overtaking me.
My insides began to petrify under his touch, my limbs stiffening.
Oh, gods! He’s turning me to stone!
“NO!” I protested. “I’m loyal t-to you!”
“I don’t believe you,” Orson insisted. “Say it. Say you choose me over Elijah. Say it quickly while you still have a voice.”
I blurted out the words, my insides tensing with each passing second.
“I c-c-choose y-y-you!”
He released me, and I fell into a pile on the floor, gasping and choking, my organs returning to normal as he, too, shifted back into his human form.
It was the first time he had ever shown any aggression toward me, and it was terrifying.
I’d been wrong to refuse Elijah’s protection, but there was nothing I could do about it now. Orson knew the gig now, and if I wasn’t being watched before, I would be carefully monitored going forward.
“If you go to him, if you see him or make contact with him in any way,” Orson told me, his tone conversational now, “I will kill you, Abigail. Make no mistake about it.”
Managing to amble to my feet, I chomped on the insides of my cheeks to keep from screaming.
“Do I make myself clear?” Orson asked me, his eyes emotionless. I nodded, dropping my head. “I won’t stand for treachery in my crew. I would have thought you understood that by now.”
Shakily, I backed away, careful to keep him in my sights until I felt the door handle on my back.
“This is my town,” Orson snarled. “And if your zombie lover wants it, he’s going to have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers.”
