“You are both where I need you to be for the moment.”
“What are you talking about?” My throat struggled to get words out.
“Ryker is finally away from you. And all their attention is on him. Not you.”
“This is all because of you?” I rattled against my chains. “You set us up. You led me down that hallway on purpose, didn’t you? Why?”
“Because you have two things I want.” She crossed the room. A knife hung off her belt loop, a guard’s gun tucked in her back belt. Weapons, I realized, that Garrett’s gang never took away from her. This had been all an act, and she went to great lengths to keep Ryker and me believing she remained on our side, even killing one of the nameless guards in the training room.
“And what is that?” It really wasn’t a question. Her desires were transparent.
“Ryker and the stone, of course,” she answered. “And both were always with you.”
“You thought it best to work with the man who tortured Ryker, almost killed you, just so you could get me away from Ryker?”
“I am not really working with Vadik.” Her upper lip hooked up in disgust. “He might think I am, and I allowed him to believe so. I needed to be sure you and Ryker were separated.” Her dark eyes glinted with rage. “Because he never left your side. Ever. It was disgusting.”
“And you’re an idiot,” I stated. “You think Vadik is just going to let you have the stone? Or Ryker?”
“Vadik doesn’t know about the stone’s true whereabouts. I led him to the conclusion it wasn’t with you, and Ryker is the only one who knows where it is. Why do you think Ryker is downstairs and you are here with little security?” She held her arms out in the tiny space. “All in all, this worked better than I imagined. Now you and I can have some quality girl time.”
“You want to braid my hair?” I lifted an eyebrow. “Sure, go for it, but don’t be surprised when it becomes your noose.”
Amara put her hands on her hips, strands of her plum hair hanging down. Even covered in dirt and blood, she looked as if she were posing for a magazine. “Oh, Zoey. Aren’t you just the cutest thing?”
“That’s what I hear.” I shrugged, the manacles jangling. “But let’s get past the bullshit. Get to what you want, Amara.”
“I already told you.”
“Neither one is for me to give, nor are they for the taking.”
“Big words coming from a girl restrained to a wall. Defenseless.”
She did have me there.
“The entire time you were with us, you were scheming to bring us back here?”
“No.” The word burst out of her mouth as she moved closer to me. She stopped, taking a breath. “I hate Vadik, what he’s done to me, but I work with what I am given. Your little human friend locked up here gave me great opportunity.”
“Where is she?”
“That I don’t know. Like you, I thought she was still here. I have no idea what happened to her, nor do I care.”
I jammed my lids together, breathing out. One thing at a time, Zoey. I needed to get out of these chains and this cell before I could help anyone.
“All of this,” I opened my eyes, looking around the space, “is just to get Ryker back? He doesn’t love you, Amara. Let him go.”
Her nostrils flared.
“Was saving me the other night only to gain my trust and his appreciation? Make us less inclined to suspect you?”
“Yes and no. Like I said before, I’ve always been honest with how I feel about you. I don’t like you, but killing you would not benefit me. I understood that when Ryker followed you down into DMG. Helping you is another thing…” She let the sentence drift off. “Arlo was a viral dog who needed to be put down. He presented a great opportunity. I wasn’t going to let him really hurt you. I just needed you to be threatened enough to need me.”
My jaw went slack. How did I not see this coming? “You were working with Arlo?”
“You think he would have found us otherwise?” she exclaimed. “He couldn’t find his ass if he tried.”
I felt so stupid. Amara was a trickster, a deceiver. It was in her DNA; she couldn’t help herself. And we walked right into it. She used Basic Magic 101: create a distraction so they won’t see the trick you pulled right in front of their eyes. Arlo had been the distraction, an unaware pawn. She had set him up as well.
“You are psychotic.”
“No, I’m a survivor.” Amara sauntered up to me, a smugness drawn over her features. “You are so easy to play with, Zoey. You practically walk into traps without my help. Your weakness for people makes you incredibly vulnerable.”
“At least they don’t turn me into a cold-hearted bitch no one cares about. Even the man whom I never thought would stop loving you, no matter what awful things you did, doesn’t care about you anymore.” I leaned forward, the chains only allowing an insignificant amount of leeway. “Even he chose me.”
Low blow.
She snarled. “Croygen is a fool. He always has been.” Her nose twitched. “He never got me. He made it too easy with his love and his willingness to be at my beck and call.”
I tilted my head back, taking her in, understanding twitching my lips. “I get it. Ryker was the unattainable. A game to you. If he ever had turned around and told you he loved you, you probably would have left him too.”
“Shut up,” she snarled, glaring at me.
“But you knew deep down he would never love you. That became the draw. The desire to make him truly and fully want you. But he never did…or would.”
“I said shut up,” she yelled and stepped closer to me.
“It must have killed you to watch him with me.” I grinned, knowing perfectly well I was poking her. “To see him love someone. To know a human got the exact thing you wanted for so long. His heart.”
Her hand clashed against my cheek, which first went numb, then ached. I twisted my head back to her, our faces only inches apart, and I smiled.
“Is that why I’m here, Amara? Because you’re a sore loser?” I tipped my head in closer, keeping my voice low. Seductive.
I had come to terms with the dark, twisted part of me who loved a good fight, the taste of blood, learning how best to get under the skin of your opponent. It made me feel alive, and like a dog in mud, I rolled in it with glee.
Amara was a good opponent. Most people I fought were easy to read. Either I stayed silent, letting them waste their energy with meaningless words, or I found their Achilles heel and clamped down on it until they lost. Amara’s only weakness was Ryker. And sadly it wasn’t even about him.
Fury flamed in her eyes, but then her mouth twisted in a superior grin. “Do you know how many nights he yelled out my name? How many beds we broke? You can pretend all you want, little girl, that he cares about you, but he will grow so unbelievably bored of you. You don’t think I haven’t seen it before? The list of women he has been with is endless, but he always came back to me. And he will again.”
Pretending her words didn’t bother me was difficult, but I kept my face complacent. “You are pathetic, Amara.” I chuckled. “You don’t even see it. The way you treat Croygen? It’s how Ryker treats you. He’s used you because you were there and more than willing. A doormat.”
“Shut up!” She shoved me back against the wall. My laugh echoed off the wall, like a demented witch. “I said shut up!”
I turned off my cackle like a light switch and leered at her. “Come on, Amara. You think having us captured by Vadik is the best way to get Ryker? You just handed him over to be tortured and killed.”
“Vadik won’t kill him. He assured me. No matter what he says, Ryker is his son. But he will kill you. That was part of our deal.” She lifted her hand, brushing my hair back off my face. Icicles rushed down my spine. “Too bad I won’t be around to see it. But to answer your question, my plan does end with Ryker coming for me. He’s forgiven me for a lot worse. And I promise you, he will follow me again.”
Her confidence unset
tled me. Either she was truly nuts or she knew something I didn’t. It wasn’t long till I got her meaning.
Amara dropped to her knees in front of me, reaching for my right boot. Fear struck like a belt to my back, air catching in my throat. Oh shit.
She winked up at me as she undid my laces. I tried to pull back, but there was nowhere I could go. “Amara, don’t.”
Her fingers gripped my heel, pulling on the shoe.
“You don’t know what you are doing.” I thrashed against the chains.
“I know exactly what I am doing.” She slipped the boot off my foot. She was taking the stone from me. Panic struck at my magic, but it was under the weight of the goblin metal still poisoning my system. I sensed it wanting to explode from its hold, but it still couldn’t fully break through.
“No, you don’t.” She had no idea the power the stone retained and unlike others, she didn’t have the strength to fight its call. She would be the stone’s perfect victim, too self-absorbed to see or care about the consequences. “It’s not just its power. There are—” My throat choked over my words, shutting down. Lars’s bond keeping me silent. “Others. Extremely powerful people are after it.”
She tugged a cloth from her back pocket. “That’s why I will be holding it. I’m not going to use it. But the girl with the biggest toy will be in control.” Amara lifted the sole of my boot, my stomach sinking as the smooth gray stone slid into view, as though waiting patiently.
“Please,” I begged. “You have no idea what you are getting yourself into.”
“All this fuss for such a little thing.” She stood, staring down at it with awe. “Why can’t I feel it? Shouldn’t it be emanating magic?”
“Only if it wants to.” I had experienced its temperamental mood. It could go silent, gauging the carrier, or it could grow loud and demanding. The last few days it had been unbelievably silent. “It’s alive, Amara. It will mess with you. Play on your weaknesses.”
“Don’t tell me about a fae relic. You’ve only been one of us for a week. I’ve studied and pursued it most of my life.” She folded it in the cloth and put it in her jacket pocket. She glanced up, catching my eyes and cocked her head, stepping back toward me. She lifted her hand to my face, and I fought back my recoil. Her fingers tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. “Ryker, Croygen, every man you come across is completely taken with you. I don’t get it. What is so special about you?” Her anger dissipated as she studied my face. “Tell me, Zoey. What is it about you that made Ryker love you? Even when you were a weak human, you captivated him.”
“That’s your problem, Amara, you keep thinking there’s something you can do to make people love you. Love doesn’t work like that.” A part of me pitied her. She had probably never known real love. It might have started out with her bad childhood, but now she who would never let herself love. Her trust had been broken a long time ago, the walls built. She didn’t understand relationships without deception, cruelty, and lies.
She stepped back, dropping her arms away from me, then patted her pocket. “Now I will get everything I want.” She walked to the door and turned around. “Because you know Ryker will come for me now. He will spend so much time thinking and obsessing about me. How to find me. When do you think his thoughts of me will destroy whatever you think you have with him? Love and hate walk a fine line. Let’s see what side he falls on in the end.” She winked, slipping out of the cell door. She slid it closed behind her, the clank of the lock turning over. She held up the keys, stuffing them in her pocket.
“Thanks, Zoey.” She winked before disappearing.
“Amara!” I bellowed, thrashing against my chains. My gut wrenched at the thought of the stone leaving me. Angry. Hurt. It had fought to stay with me so many times before, even caused me to attack Ryker. This time it was silent, not calling for me. It was probably happy to go with her. She would give in to its desires. It could control her. My relationship with the stone wasn’t healthy, I was fully aware of that. But I couldn’t stop the longing to feel the pulse under my heel, its power seeping into me.
The hours I hung there didn’t diminish the sense of loss, but the sporadic bellows from below intensified my cries for Ryker. Every time I heard him bellow out in pain, my own followed. I was not one to give up, but I couldn’t stop the reality of our situation from seeping in. All our plans to get Lexie and Croygen, take down DMG, save Annabeth with the help of the Unseelie King were gone.
Lars had not shown up. The stone was gone, along with Amara. Annabeth had vanished and was probably dead. The only good thing we’d done was to get the other girls out. I wanted to believe they would make it to freedom, away from Vadik’s reach.
My shoulders slumped forward, and my lids shut heavily with fatigue and stress. My mind started to drift, trying to find a moment of peace, when I heard a rattling at the door. My head shot up. Was Vadik here to show me a preview of my fate?
My heart thumped so loudly in my ears, I could have sworn I heard Sprig call for me.
“Bhean?” The voice came louder this time.
I froze. Did I actually hear him?
Through the shadows an outline of a creature scampered to the cell, sliding easily through the bars.
“Sprig!” I cried out, then slammed my lips together.
“No.” He scuttled to me. “It’s Supersprite. I know you probably didn’t recognize me without my cape.”
“Yes, my underwear would have given away your identity.”
“I’m undercover.”
“I won’t tell.” I listened keenly for any footsteps or voices heading my way.
“Guards?” I asked.
“Most are still out after the girls. A few are downstairs.”
“Where did you go?”
“Medusa caught me and gave me to that redheaded fart face. He locked me in a box.”
“What? How did you get free?”
“People always underestimate sprites.” He reached my feet and started to climb up my leg. “Like I can’t get out of that poor excuse of a lock. Huh! Showed those banana-nutters. Stupid fruit and stupid men.” He reached my shoulder.
“It is so good to see you.” I blinked back a swell of love for this little bugger. I rubbed my chin against his fur before he darted up my arms, working on those locks that held my arms in the air. Sprig quickly freed me of the cuffs. They were made for human girls, not for fae. The blood rushed into my arm with tiny pricks of pain. I rubbed them. “Thank you.”
“Easy as pie…oh pie. That sounds good right now, doesn’t it? Honey-custard pie, honey-apple pie, honey-blueberry pie, honey—”
“Sprig? Focus.” I waved my fingers in his face.
“Right.” He shook his head. “Pie later. Even though it would be so nice right now…yummmm.”
I proceeded to the cell door. “Do you think you can work your magic on this?”
“Cake.” Sprig swished his hand, crawling down my arm to the lock on the other side of the door. “Oh, cake sounds delicious too.”
“Sprig,” I groaned.
“Sorry.”
In less than thirty seconds, the lock popped on the door. Damn, he was good. I inched it open, a low whine vibrating off the hinges. I gritted my teeth, keeping my arm steady.
A thump downstairs jolted me, my anxiety skyrocketing. Sounds of boots clipping the cement echoed up.
“We’ll give him a moment to consider his options. Have you found any of the girls yet?” Vadik’s voice was low but throbbed off the walls.
“We have located a few,” a familiar Irish accent replied. Garrett. “Maxen and Cadoc are heading back here with them. We will keep searching for the rest, sir.”
“Thank you, Garrett. And when you round them all up, kill them. They were becoming useless anyway. We can easily start over with healthier ones.”
“Consider it done.”
Footsteps. A door slamming. Silence.
My heart lodged in my throat. All those girls I thought I saved were headed to a faster gr
ave.
Think, Zoey. Don’t fall apart now. My mind zoned in on survival.
Number one—get Ryker.
Number two—find weapons.
Number three—
Okay, let’s start with one and two first.
“Okay, Supersprite, let’s go save our Viking.”
“As usual, we have to save the day.” Sprig jumped back onto my shoulder. “This better not be his way of wiggling out of our deal.”
“What deal?” I darted Sprig a look.
His mouth opened, then he shook his head. “Nothing, Bhean.”
Normally I would have pressed it, but right now it was not important. Ryker was. I slunk down, leading us toward the stairs to the pit. I moved blindly, unaware of the dangers that lay ahead. But nothing would keep me from Ryker.
Nothing.
TWENTY-TWO
I felt like a snake as I slithered down each set of stairs. With the girls gone, the hallways all but oozed a heavy silence that chilled me. The place felt as if ghosts of old prisoners continued to walk around.
Sprig scampered ahead of me, my first line of defense, warning me of any unknown guard or trap. I breathed out in relief when my feet finally hit the ground level. My goals were basic: Get out of cell. Check. Get downstairs without being found. Check. Sprint across the large space to get to the room where Ryker was held.
Sprig darted in front of me, beelining for the office. In the dim light you’d mistake him for a rat. I could not pass for the same.
Setting my jaw, I bolted through the area, dashed for the office wall, and crouched beneath the window. Like the ones at DMG, this one was tinted, so those on the inside could look out, but no one could see in. I had no idea if Ryker was alone.
“Damn you, Viking,” I grumbled, slipping over the wall. My heart pounded. At any moment someone could walk in and I’d be done. I reached for the doorknob, twisting it so slowly I hoped no one on the inside would notice. I guess they figured it would be pointless to lock a thin door on the Wanderer. It was like paper to him, but they wouldn’t leave him free to roam around.
From Burning Ashes (Collector Series #4) Page 25
