Key to Fear

by Kristin Cast

  He waved his arms, motioning for Sparkman to continue into the tunnel. “They didn’t come for you!” he shouted.

  Sparkman’s chin lifted and her stance widened. “I won’t leave anyone behind.”

  A root snagged the toe of Aiden’s boot and he crashed against the dirt floor.

  Another boom. Another flicker of lights overhead. Another screech of metal. And then something new behind them—marching, voices.

  Elodie crouched next to him. Her red-rimmed and swollen eyes frantically swung from the front door to Aiden before settling on Sparkman.

  “Go!” Aiden shouted, “We need you on the outside, not in handcuffs before the Council.”

  Sparkman nodded stiffly and pressed her fist against her chest. “After the storm comes the dawn!”

  The hatch creaked closed and the velvet drapes fell back into place. Sparkman was gone.

  The front curtains opened and a wave of gun-toting Key Corp red burst through. This was it. He’d known this day would eventually come, but he’d never imagined there’d be anyone by his side when it did. Aiden rose to his feet as the sea parted and a single officer marched forward.

  Elodie shuddered and let out a strangled wheeze as the man removed his helmet and tucked it under his arm.

  “So, I’m sent to find my fiancée in a fucking Eos stronghold.” Rhett eyed Aiden for a moment before puffing up like a toad. “And with Aiden Scott. I’m sure your sister will just love that I found you here.” He turned his attention back to Elodie. “Nice job making new friends, El.” Rhett set his wide jaw and flicked his chin in the air. “Arrest them.”

  The soldiers overtook Aiden and Elodie. With sharp commands and prodding guns, the soldiers forced them to their knees. Aiden’s jaw ticked and his chest tightened as handcuffs were bound around their wrists, complete with one lead rope for each of them. Air fled his lungs as he watched Elodie cower away from each rifle jab. Her hands quaked. Her eyes gleamed with tears. Her lips parted around panicked gasps for breath. He’d led her down this path, led her to a river of truths, but this was too much too fast. This was drowning.

  A soldier jerked her to her feet. She let out a sharp howl of pain, but clamped her mouth closed just as quickly and tripped along the path toward the door.

  Aiden couldn’t watch her anymore, not while he was shackled and pulled from his favorite place on earth. He was useless. Just like he’d been a decade ago . . .

  Rhett’s white blond hair caught his attention and Aiden fixed his gaze, his fears, his rage on the Major. “What does my sister have to do with this?” Aiden grunted as he strained against his handcuffs and the soldier pulling him closer to the exit.

  Rhett’s lips thinned and stretched, wormlike, into a smirk. “You’ll see soon enough.”

  The handcuffs bit into Aiden’s wrists but he held his ground. “Tell me now!”

  A dry laugh burst from Rhett’s throat as he turned his back to Aiden and barked more orders at his sea of red-clad commandos.

  Pain shot through Aiden’s hands and he stumbled forward into black velvet curtains. His eyes burned, but he wouldn’t let himself cry. Tears had never saved him. Another swift jerk of the leash and he was through the soft black. The curtains whooshed closed behind him as he was yanked from Wonderland.

  XLI

  Rhett stood next to the handcuffed traitors he’d forced up against the wall across from Blair’s desk with Aiden between him and his erstwhile fiancée. Rhett, then Aiden, then Elodie. Blair wasn’t sure whether or not he’d meant for them to be in height order, but they were. Like stairsteps, one leading down to the next. All leading to Elodie.

  The girl was pretty. Not beautiful. At least, not as beautiful as she should have been to have gotten Aiden to betray who he was, to join Eos, and to commit the ultimate crime. Intercourse, the way it had been in the past, no longer existed. And in a perfect world, the world the Key was trying to create, a woman could no longer use her beauty as a tool to manipulate. But the world was far from perfect. Blair knew that firsthand. She’d used her beauty many times. It was just one part of her power.

  Elodie fidgeted with the frayed ends of her plain T-shirt, which covered her plain brown skin beneath the lengths of her plain brown hair, which she shook away from her plain brown eyes. The girl might as well have been beige paint. So where was her power?

  Not only had she manipulated Blair’s only brother, she had also wiggled her way into the Fujimoto household and gotten Jasper Fujimoto’s youngest daughter to recant her statement to the Council. Maxine’s eyes on the Council had informed her that Council Leader Darby was certain the retraction couldn’t be trusted. Astrid Fujimoto was, after all, one of Elodie’s friends, and it was clear that Elodie could get anyone to do anything. Taking down Westfall’s top families seemed to be Eos’s goal, and they were using Elodie Benavidez to achieve it.

  Aiden cleared his throat, snagging Blair’s attention. “Blair, is all of this,” he lifted his cuffed hands, “really necessary?”

  Rhett’s boots thumped against the concrete as he came to Blair’s side. “They’re Eos scum.” His gaze hardened on Aiden. “Be thankful restraints are all you’re getting.”

  “Rhett.” Elodie’s voice cracked. “You don’t have to do this. I can explain.”

  Blair perched on the edge of her desk, her sleeveless top and her skirt matching the slick black Onyx. “Oh, please do. I would love to hear what sort of tales you weave.”

  Elodie sniffled, blinked, and sniffled again. “I don’t understand.”

  Blair turned her attention to Aiden. If anyone was going to tell her the truth, it would be her Denny. “Is this how she did it? How she got you to join Eos? By playing the dumb girl.”

  Aiden’s green eyes narrowed. “She didn’t get me to do anything.”

  Blair dug her nails into her new palms. The synthetic gloves dulled the expected bursts of pain. “Don’t defend her, brother!”

  Elodie leapt from the wall. “I don’t need defending!”

  Rhett lumbered forward and forced his trifling fiancée back to her place with the butt of his stock prod. “I know you haven’t been yourself, but please don’t make me do anything I’ll regret.”

  Anything he would regret? How had this dull girl managed to subjugate both of these men? How could they not see her spoiled, volatile nature? Blair tossed up her hands as she slid off her desk. “And just like that, her switch has flipped.”

  Elodie was off the wall again. “Just like that?” she growled between clenched teeth. “I’ve been sentenced to death! My best friend was murdered in front of me! My fiancé put me in handcuffs! And for what? A kiss? At the end of this, the Key will have taken three lives and our kiss will have taken none.”

  “You destroyed my brother!” Blair snarled, spittle flying from her lips.

  Rhett was there again with the safe end of his prod, shoving Elodie against the wall.

  Elodie’s pitiful brown hair swept her shoulders as she shook her head and fell back in line. “You don’t know your brother.”

  Rhett returned the stock prod to its holster. “You couldn’t possibly, Blair. If you did, you’d know this was mostly him.” He crossed his sausage arms across his chest. “El and I had everything worked out. Then your brother comes along and has her acting like a total space cadet.”

  Blair’s lips parted with a grin. “Men like you have been underestimating women for centuries.”

  Rhett’s cheeks reddened. “Your brother did this. He recruited Elodie and filled her head with nonsense. We were meant to be. We were—”

  Blair couldn’t keep from laughing. It was the kind of hollow laughter that lived in her throat and leapt on wounded prey. “You really believe that?”

  “I believe you shouldn’t interrupt me when I’m speaking.” Rhett’s meatball of a hand rested on his stock prod. “Eos and your asshole of a brother broke
my Elodie!”

  Blair felt something deep within her click. Perhaps it was her switch that had been flipped. Her hand itched for the gun Maxine had promised.

  The door hissed open and Blair’s heartbeat quickened. Ask, believe, receive . . . Her hands grew clammy inside the gloves as she waited for the impatient stomps of Maxine’s kitten heels.

  Blair stepped backward, gripping the edge of her stone desk as Cath marched through the doorway. “You shouldn’t be here.” Blair clenched her teeth. “I have this handled.”

  Cath didn’t look at Blair, didn’t even acknowledge her adoptive daughter or that she had entered a private meeting in the office Blair had worked so hard to acquire. Cath only looked at Aiden.

  Blair’s stomach hollowed. No matter what she accomplished, Denny would always be Cath’s favorite.

  Cath brushed something from her cheek as she turned to face Blair. “Let my son go.” The blistering light from the chandelier was somehow softer, more golden when it struck her.

  Blair stiffened. Aiden was Cath’s son. But Blair had always just been Blair. “I have this handled, Cath,” she repeated without washing the coldness from her tone. “We don’t need you.”

  Aiden lifted his wrists and his handcuffs rattled. “Mom, don’t—”

  Blair slapped the edge of her desk. “I said we don’t need you!”

  “Let my son go and take me instead.” Cath pursed her lips and swallowed. “I’m a member of Eos. I’m who you want. Not Aiden, not Elodie—me.”

  Blair let out a throat-burning screech as she cast her gaze to the ceiling. “Don’t lie, Cath. The girl needs to learn a lesson.” She pressed her hands against her hips. “Plus, I can’t let Denny leave. Preston Darby finally has a little bit of power and it’s driving him crazy. He’ll use this to destroy us.”

  Even amidst this circus of finger pointing and blame dodging, Cath’s hands still rested gently clasped below her waist. “I’m afraid the lessons Elodie needs to learn are those you are unequipped to teach her.” She frowned. “And I did caution you about teasing Darby.”

  Blair cocked her chin. “So this is my fault?”

  Rhett ran his hand through his closely cropped hair. “This is getting ridiculous.” He cracked his knuckles. “How about the three of us,” he said, motioning to Cath and Aiden. “Go to my warehouse?” He turned to Blair. “I’ll knock this runt down a few pegs and my guys will get some answers out of your mom. I get what I want and you get to be first in line for Director. Win, win.”

  Blair caught Aiden and Elodie as they stole a glance at each other. Blair’s insides boiled. “You can do whatever you want with that one.” She thrust her finger at Elodie. “She’s the reason all of this has happened. But you won’t harm my family.”

  “Blair! Enough!” Aiden charged forward. Rhett lashed out with the stock prod. Metal spikes jabbed Aiden’s ribs, and he let out a strangled shout as he convulsed and collapsed.

  Blair wobbled and gripped the edge of her desk as her brother’s knees slammed against concrete.

  Cath ran to Aiden’s side and sank to the floor beside him. “This is my doing!” she shouted. “I’m the reason Aiden joined Eos.”

  And now Blair knew. It had been Cath, not Elodie. Cath had taken Denny away just as that monster had taken their real mother and father. The Key had never matched Cath for a reason. The Key knew she shouldn’t have had children. She didn’t know how to care for them. How to nurture them. She hadn’t been the one who stayed up with Aiden all night as he sobbed for the parents who were never coming back. That had been Blair. She had always been there—would always be there. How had this happened? Cath had destroyed Aiden. Blair’s brother. Her Denny. Her love and her life and her reason for being.

  Aiden grunted as he struggled to his knees. “Mom, don’t—”

  Cath leaned into Aiden and kissed the top of his head before rising to her feet. “I’m the one you want, Blair. I’m Echo.”

  Blair felt as if someone had sucked all of the air out of the room. “What?” she wheezed as she pressed herself away from her desk.

  Rhett clapped his hands on top of his head. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” He seemed to harden as his eyes bore into Blair. “Our most wanted person in Westfall is your fucking mother?”

  How could she have missed this? Blair surged toward her imposter of a mother. “How?” She bit off the word so ferociously, spittle flecked Cath’s cheeks.

  Aiden coughed. “Mom, don’t tell her anything.”

  “She is not your mother!” The words burned Blair’s lips as she spewed them at Aiden like acid.

  With a snarl, Rhett stomped forward. The prod’s metal tines crackled and sparked as he stabbed the air in front of Cath and forced her up against the wall next to Elodie. He holstered his weapon and returned to Aiden. His fingers twitched over the shiny black rod as he slammed his boot against Aiden’s chest and shoved him back against the wall.

  The door hissed open, but Blair couldn’t tear her attention away from Rhett looming over her injured brother. “You said you’d do all sorts of unspeakable things to them back at your warehouse. This,” she ground her pointed heel into the rug, “is mine. And I have bots that will cart you away and burn your body before it’s even cold. I said not to touch my family.”

  Maxine glided ghostlike from the door to the corner of Blair’s huge black desk. She didn’t make a sound when she set down the gun.

  Lava flowed within Blair’s chest and heat crept up her neck. She squeezed her fists to keep from erupting. “Do not test me again, Major Owens.”

  Rhett’s grip tightened on the prod as he shifted away from Aiden.

  Blair kneeled in front of her battle-bruised brother. To her, he would never look older than he had that day in the clearing, his round face tipped up toward the moon. “Why won’t you let me save you?” Tears burned her eyes. “I love you, Denny. And the only true love, love that can withstand anything, is that of family.” Blair’s gaze cut to Cath. “Blood family.” Her chin quivered. “I love you, my sweet, sweet boy.”

  Aiden leaned back against the wall and rocked his head from side to side. “Spare me. Your one true love is your job. This office.” He threw his cuffed hands in the air. “The Key. Not me or Cath or anyone else.”

  Blair pushed herself to her feet, shook back her tears, and smoothed out her black skirt. She would fix her brother later. He would see, they would all see, that everything she did, she did for him. But in order to cure Aiden of the poison these women had fed him, Blair needed to erase them from the picture.

  “You started this,” she snarled and stalked over to Cath. “You’re the one who can end it. A recorded confession and answers to some questions will be a good place to start.”

  Cath studied Aiden and then Elodie, who had done a terrific job nearly blending into the wall. “You’ll let them both go?”

  Blair’s gaze swept over the pistol on the corner of the desk and settled back on Cath. “I’ll take you and let them go. I can fix the trouble they’re in with the Council. Especially if I’m trading an Eos leader for two kissing teens.” Blair crossed her arms over her chest. “As Director, I won’t need any leverage. And the Key will appoint me immediately.” She paused and hung a smile on her lips. “After all, this is what happens when citizens don’t have effective leadership.”

  Cath’s foot hung in the air for a moment before she committed to stepping forward.

  Aiden pushed himself to his feet. “Mom! You can’t. They’ll kill you!”

  Blair hiccupped back a sob. Aiden was choosing between them, and he wasn’t choosing wisely.

  Cath’s eyes rested on Aiden as she clenched and unclenched her fists.

  Blair swallowed her despair. “Holly, please record the events in the room.” With Cath out of the way, she could fix all of this. She could fix Denny. “If you want to save your son, it’s
now or never, Mother.”

  With her trademark poise and grace, Cath Scott walked forward to stand between her adoptive daughter and Major Owens. “My name is Cath Scott, although, to many, I am Echo.” With her shoulders pulled back and her chin lifted skyward she continued in the even, slow lilt Blair had once found so comforting. “I’ve been a member of Eos since their inception. I regret nothing. I only wish I could have done more.” Cath took a breath. Her eyes skimmed Blair before settling on Aiden. “I love you both deeply. You were the best decision I have ever made.”

  Cath surged forward at Rhett. She crashed into him. His arms windmilled as he fell into the corner of Blair’s desk. His head hid the stone with a sickening crack as Cath struggled to her knees, spun, and grabbed the silver pistol.

  Blair scrambled backward. She wasn’t Cath’s favorite, but Cath couldn’t end her like this. Cath wouldn’t! A sob flew from Blair’s lips.

  The gun glinted in the harsh light as Cath pressed the barrel under her own chin. “After the storm comes the dawn!” Cath cried, and pulled the trigger.

  XLII

  The gunshot was louder than Aiden expected. The kind of piercing sound that slaughtered all others. He felt it too. Like the sound itself had reached into his chest, grabbed his ribs, and rattled his bones like cage doors.

  Aiden opened his eyes to blood and gore. Red so bright, so alive, that the streaks melting against the walls were like staring into the sun.

  What had happened?

  The smell of copper hit him as soon as he let himself inhale.

  And then came the sound. The deep keening that flayed his skin and left him raw.

  He had only heard it once before.

  The night his parents died.

  Aiden’s fingertips dug into the carpet. His panting breaths blew around the dust bunnies Momma was always asking him to vacuum out from under his bed. Next time, he’d listen. Next time, he’d do anything Momma wanted as long as she and Daddy were okay.

  Sobs tore through the closed door to his bedroom and seemed to scorch the air. “Momma! Daddy!”