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“I didn’t want to stay with Bane long enough to facilitate Willow’s rising,” Kelley says. “But sometimes we’re called to do hard things for the greater good.” A shadow passes behind her eyes, and she hesitates for a moment before she adds, “Not everything about this is going to be easy, Diana. This kind of power, what we’re gaining for Willow, it doesn’t come without sacrifice. We’re all going to have to make sacrifices to ensure the safety of our people and our world and some of them are going to be really, really hard. But this is the only way. Much better minds than mine have looked at this from every angle, examined every option, and this is our best shot to do the most good. Just…try to remember that, okay?”
Before I can reply, her cell rings, but not the one she keeps in her dress pocket—the one I’ve had fantasies about stealing and using to call Maxim and beg for help. This new cell is tucked into her fluffy suede boot and is so tiny it fits easily between two fingers as she pulls it out.
She glances down at the screen, her expression growing guarded once more. “Sorry, I have to take this. I’m going to step outside for a moment, okay? Deal us another hand. We’ll start fresh when I get back.”
“Okay,” I say, reaching for the cards and beginning to shuffle.
But I only stay seated long enough for Kelley to step outside before I’m on my feet, dashing after her.
I press my ear to the back door in time to hear her answer the call, but she’s still walking away, and I can’t make out her exact words. Chewing on my bottom lip, I do my best to remember what kind of cover I might find outside. There isn’t much—just a few trees and an old watering trough that hasn’t been used in ages—but it’s worth the risk.
What’s the worst that happens if I’m caught? Kelley tells me to get my ass inside and refuses to play cards with me anymore?
That would be fine with me.
I’m tired of games—nearly as tired as I am of being kept in the dark.
Moving slowly, I push down the handle and open the door just far enough to sneak a peek outside. The day is still bright and sunny, making Kelley easy to spot. The sun picks up the red streaks in her dark hair, making her head shine like a beacon as she paces back and forth not far from the old trough.
Her back is turned to me and there’s no one else around so I make a break for it, dashing on silent bare feet to the trough and dropping down behind it. I squat low, hugging my knees to my chest and ducking my head as I strain to hear what’s being said.
After a moment of silence, where I assume the person on the other line is speaking, I do.
I hear Kelley talking to someone about not wanting to drug Willow until tomorrow night and then, after a little persuading, agreeing to go ahead and drug her today. To drug her and then to bring her to a cell where she and this other person are holding a man prisoner.
She doesn’t say the man’s name, but even hearing just one side of the conversation, it’s pretty easy to connect the dots. Willow’s only got one fated mate, after all—my brother.
The man is Maxim, I’d bet my hands on it, and it sounds like they’re planning to force her to get pregnant by him today and complete the ritual with the sword tomorrow. But he isn’t going to be part of Willow’s rise. He’s going to be kept in that cell for the foreseeable future. Maybe even…forever.
Which means my brother won’t be swooping in to save us.
Willow and I will have to save ourselves.
Her words from earlier, encouraging me to run if I have the chance, even if I have to leave her behind, drift through my head, making my heart race.
I could run now, sneak around Kelley, get to the woods behind the port-a-johns and keep going until I find that cliff Willow was talking about. I might even run into her on the way and be able to take her with me. Yes, it would be better to sneak away at night, when we’ll probably be able to get more of a head start before anyone notices we’re gone, but sometimes you have to take what opportunities you’re given and make the most of them.
Better to go while I have the chance than wait around to see which bad guy is going to tighten their grip on me first.
I’m about to dash toward a sagging shed and animal pen about fifty feet away when a deep voice calls Kelley’s name from nearby, scaring the hell out of me.
I flinch but manage to swallow the startled sound rising in my throat and talk my heart back into beating at a reasonable pace.
Once I’ve regained control, I peek over the trough, watching Kelley spin to greet Bane with a smile as she calmly slides the phone into her cardigan pocket. “Hey there, I didn’t think you’d have any more time for us this morning.”
“Clearly,” he says, making me shiver.
But it isn’t his tone that makes my skin go cold. His aura is a churning mass of nightmares swirling around his head and shoulders that makes me want to shout for Kelley to run.
I don’t like or trust Kelley, but no one deserves to be treated the way Bane treats her, and his colors weren’t nearly this bad before. In fact, his aura this morning, when he slammed his wife’s head into a hunk of wood, was positively cheery in comparison to this shit show.
I have no idea what he’ll do to her in his present state, but I know it won’t be good and I really, really don’t want to watch it go down. Abandoning her is cowardly, maybe, but it’s also the only shot either of us has at making it out this camp alive. If I can get back to my people, warn them about what’s happening, and gather my own forces, I’ll at least have a chance of freeing Maxim, Willow, and Kelley.
And once she’s in custody in a North Star cell, we can take our time figuring out what she was planning out here and how much trouble she should be in for it. At least then she’ll get a trial by a jury of her peers.
Here, there’s only one judge, jury, and executioner, and he clearly isn’t a fan of hers right now.
“You really thought I didn’t know about your ‘spare’ phone?” Bane says softly. “And that I didn’t have it tapped? And that I didn’t know all about your plans?”
