by Willa Hart
Titus sighed wistfully, totally at odds with the current tone of the conversation. He was trying to throw me off balance, but I had news for him. The moment I saw Zoe’s phone, the world had flipped on its axis and I was so far off balance I had no clue which end was up.
“Dis human ees very soft, but she not zee von vee need. I vish to trade her.”
My blood ran cold in my veins. I knew who they wanted, but I still had to hear it for myself.
“W-who do you want?”
“Favor Fisssske,” he said, holding the S too long and clicking hard on the K for emphasis.
I stared at an errant cockroach scuttling up the wall of the kitchen, mesmerized by it as his words sank into my psyche. I’d been right, in a way. They must have already had Zoe in this house when I’d spirited myself inside, but I hadn’t sensed her. Maybe because I hadn’t really been there, or maybe because she was a human. Either way, I’d failed her.
“Do you accept?” Titus growled into my ear.
I glanced up at Kellum, hesitating. I’d do anything for Zoe, but if I gave myself up, Titus would simply use me to get to Uncle Max, for whom I’d also do anything. It was an impossible choice. Except, in the end, it really wasn’t that impossible.
Before I had time to think through all the implications, an ear-splitting, high-pitched scream of agony and pure terror burst through the phone. My heart cracked right down the middle.
“Zoe!” I screeched, but her scream was quickly replaced with Titus.
“Do you accept?”
“Yes! I accept! But only if you don’t hurt her!”
Anymore, I thought.
The guys stared at me, alarm flaring in their eyes. Danic’s face turned ashen with rage and he made a swipe at the phone, but I ducked away, shaking my head. I looked at him fiercely and told him in my head, No, this is my battle.
I turned my back on them and listened carefully to Titus’s instructions, then ended the call with a shaky tap on the screen. Then it was time to face them again.
“Well? What did he want?” Kellum asked, furious worry written all over his face.
“More to the point, what did you accept?” added Ryen.
They stared at me, waiting for my answer, but it took a minute for me to formulate the words. I knew what their reactions would be, and I didn’t have the energy to fight them. But I wouldn’t lie to them either.
“I’m trading myself for Zoe,” I said simply.
“Like hell you are!” Danic exploded, his face darkening to an alarming shade of purple.
“If I don’t, he’ll hurt Zoe,” I said calmly.
Too calmly. A sense of purpose shimmied across my spirit, settling my nerves down to a dull roar. I knew what I had to do, and no one was going to stop me.
“Yeah, no,” Ryen said, his tone tense and unamused. “Not doing that.”
“We can figure something out,” added Hale. “Maybe negotiate—”
“We don’t negotiate with jadokari,” Kellum snarled, anger flickering in his normally controlled eyes.
“It’s probably a trap anyway,” Ash said. “Most likely, he won’t let her go once he has you.” He paused a beat to let that sink in before adding, “Or worse.”
“Listen,” I said, pushing through the circle they’d formed around me, “Titus has Zoe, my best friend in the entire universe.”
“That doesn’t mean we’re going to let you walk straight into his arms,” said Danic, lurching a step closer to me, his fists clenched tight.
“Maybe you don’t understand. Zoe saved my life by simply being my friend. By loving me. If not for her, I guarantee I would not be here today, with all of you. I would do anything for her. Anything.”
I met the gaze of each before pounding the nail into the coffin.
“I would gladly give up my life for Zoe.”
I felt their disbelief flash in my head, turning into frustration and anger and grief and a hundred other emotions. I glanced over at Lazlo and Rufus, to see what their take on the situation might be. Lazlo remained stoic, never giving away his deepest thoughts, while tears streamed down the ruddy cheeks of sweet, sweet Rufus.
“Okay,” Kellum said, his tone clearly indicating he’d developed a plan of action, “here’s what we do. Favor follows the instructions, and we tail her at a distance. When she gets to their hideout, we strike.”
The others nodded as I shook my head. “I have to go alone.”
“You will be alone,” insisted Kellum. “We’ll be flying overhead.”
They only wanted to protect me, but all this arguing was wasting time. “You don’t get it. They’ll know, Kellum. They’ll see you or sense you or whatever, but they’ll know. And they’ll kill her. He told me as much.”
Ash stepped toward me, joining Danic. “Not an option. You’re not going anywhere without us.”
“Yeah,” Ryen growled, “I’d rather jump in front of a moving train than let you leave here on your own.”
I poured every ounce of my determination into my glare. “And I’m not going to let those assholes hurt my friend.”
Stalemate.
Kellum joined the others and patted the air with his hands. “Let’s all take a deep breath, okay? This is exactly what they want. Panic and argument and fear. We can’t afford to make mistakes here.”
“So what’s the plan?” Hale asked, eyes blazing, ready for battle.
Kellum ran his hand through his dark hair as he thought. “We call in backup and form a battalion. I know ten dragons off the top of my head who will answer the call without hesitation. They can be here in twenty minutes, maybe less. In the meantime, we’ll draw up a plan of action.”
They became so engrossed in planning an attack on Titus they barely knew I was there. Of course, when I took a step away from them, Danic’s eyes flew up to meet mine. I held up my hands and nodded toward the hallway.
“I need to use the bathroom,” I said grimly, not bothering to pretend I was happy about any of this. “Pretty sure I don’t need — or want — someone watching me while I pee. We haven’t reached that stage of our relationship yet.”
Amusement flashed in his eyes and he went back to paying attention to Kellum’s detailed plan of attack. Without looking back, I headed down the hall and opened doors until I found the bathroom. Might as well grab a pee break while I could. Who knew when I’d have another chance at some semblance of dignity?
As I sat on the toilet, I kept my focus solely on Zoe. If I thought too hard about what I was about to do, they’d know — at least Kellum and Danic would — and I couldn’t risk that happening. I resisted the habit to flush and slipped out of the bathroom, but instead of returning to the living room, I hurried down the hall to the back door.
Zoe singing in the school play. Zoe dragging me to her house for dinner every night for a year. Zoe crying in my arms after she’d been roofied.
I continued recalling different events in my life where Zoe had played a key role, desperate to keep them in the dark about my true intentions, as I snuck outside and sprinted for Ryen’s SUV.
Zoe giving me her hand-me-downs. Zoe visiting me in the dorm at a group home. Zoe and I playing with her pet lizard, Shakira.
As I knew I would, I found the keys still dangling from the ignition. My hands trembled as I turned the key and the engine roared to life. Without even looking for traffic, I tore out of the parking space and raced back the way we’d come. They had to have heard the sound, so I didn’t bother masking my thoughts anymore.
My foot pressed hard into the floor, tearing down the street as fast as possible. As I turned onto the main road, I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw seven figures the size of ants running out into the road, waving their arms at me. Physical pain ripped through me at leaving them behind, but that was nothing compared to how I’d feel if anything happened to Zoe.
Zoe’s phone buzzed on the seat next to me. When someone’s life was at stake, obeying a no texting law ranked low on my list of priorities. The mes
sage contained a shared map location, nothing more.
Beaumont was a short drive down the 10 from my current location, so I jumped onto the highway and kept checking the sky for pursuing dragons. One after the other, the boys tried to reach into my brain — Danic and Kellum’s bursts being the strongest — but I ignored them. I had a mission, and I couldn’t waste time or energy trying to argue with them.
Then my phone went off like fireworks. I powered it down and kept Zoe’s phone in my lap, following the GPS’s directions until I pulled up in front of the address the phone listed. An empty lot.
“Dammit!”
Did I go to the wrong place? I panicked at the thought of Zoe being punished for my negligence. Then her phone buzzed again. Another map location. I tapped the link and my GPS showed the next destination, not too far away. I blasted to the address, only to find myself in the parking lot of a supermarket.
What the ever-living fuck!
The phone buzzed. Another location. Another dead end. And so it went for the next hour, give or take. Every time I pulled up to the next address, another would flash on the phone.
As I chased the wild goose around San Bernardino County, I couldn’t help wonder if this was the end for me. The thought should have frightened me, but I couldn’t have cared less, as long as Zoe survived.
The last address took me way out of town, all the way to the edge of the desert where no other buildings were visible. If the house I’d visited in my vision had been ramshackle, the one I parked in front of was simply a shack. Maybe at one time it might have been solid middle-class, but the wreck looked to have been abandoned long ago. And for good reason.
Scorch marks had singed the beige stucco around all the boarded-up windows and the roof sagged heavily in the middle. The damage looked relatively recent, suggesting someone had set up a meth lab inside the abandoned house. Or maybe a camp fire had grown out of control. Either way, the house looked to be uninhabitable.
Yet I knew in my bones I wouldn’t receive another text with another address. This was the place. Its isolation and desolation made it the perfect hideout. I wasn’t the least bit surprised when Zoe’s phone buzzed again, and the message simply read Come in.
I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly parched and dry. My stomach roiled as fear trickled through my veins like poison. It dawned on me fully exactly how helpless and fragile I was, not to mention how completely unprepared I was to take on a lair of vicious, murderous dragons. Titus had already tried to kill me more than once, perhaps this was his long-awaited chance to finally get the job done right.
The moment the car door opened to the hot, arid desert air, a wave of sensory information slammed into me. Zoe was inside, alive. Terrified, but unharmed. Relief nearly choked me as I made my way around the front of the SUV, holding onto it for support.
Five dragons also lurked inside, waiting for me. The very same ones who attacked us at Enoch Trinkas’s hidey hole. The ones who killed Enoch and tried to kill me. Maybe this time they would succeed.
The path to the door was choked with dead weeds as I walked to my doom. No plan my boys could have concocted would have resulted in saving both Zoe and me, which was, of course, Titus’s intention the whole time. My life for hers. It was a trade I was willing to make.
Of course, the irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me. I loved Max as much as Zoe, and here I was willingly offering myself as bait to reel him into the clutches of the enemy. But Zoe was an innocent. Max would understand, probably even approve. Besides, as a powerful leader of a powerful weir, he had a much better chance of surviving against five malevolent dragons than Zoe.
I carefully picked my way up the handful of rotting steps to the front porch. When I lifted my hand to knock on the faded and cracked front door, I was vaguely surprised to see my fingers no longer trembled. I’d made peace with my decision.
Almost as soon as I knocked, the door creaked open on its rusting hinges to reveal Titus staring down at me, wearing the same evil grin he first gave me moments before brutally murdering my parents and changing my life forever.
Chapter Eighteen
“Where’s Zoe?” I demanded, pushing past the snarling dragon shifter without a second glance.
I probably should have been afraid of him, but my anger ate up any fear lingering inside. No one messed with the people I cared about!
The interior of the house Titus had led me on a goose chase to find had definitely suffered from some kind of fire. Most likely not dragon fire or very little of the structure would have survived. Judging by the scorching along the walls and windows, the blaze had started in the now-gutted kitchen and moved outward before dying, presumably through fire department intervention. The living room also had major damage, though at least the floors and walls remained intact.
The four other guys I’d seen in my vision sat in a small circle on cinder blocks playing some kind of dice game. They all looked up when I stormed in the room, amusement lighting their eyes. That only pissed me off even more.
“Where is she, you fuckwads!” I shouted.
To show them I meant business, I stomped up to the guy holding the dice and slapped them out of his hand. The way his eyes flashed neon blue, I wondered if that would be my last act, but when Titus started laughing, the rest joined in.
“Silly human,” another one said as he chuckled.
“Asshole,” I snapped back, then turned toward the charred hallway. “Zoe! Zoe, where are you?”
I threw open the first door off the destroyed kitchen only to find quite possibly the most disgusting bathroom in the known universe. I had a feeling my nightmares about Titus might be replaced with nightmares about this bathroom. Slamming the door shut, I barged into the next room. It was a bedroom, or used to be. Unfortunately, no Zoe.
“Gettink vormer,” Titus said behind me.
It was already hot enough in the decrepit house to roast a turkey, I didn’t need more warmth, I needed Zoe. Titus stood at the entrance to the hallway, leaning against the soot-stained wall and looking a little too amused for my taste. I wanted to slap the smirk right off his face, but my need to find Zoe was stronger.
“Zoe!” I screamed, throwing open the next door, which turned out to be a closet. “Shit.”
Titus chuckled as I reached the last door and took a breath. I glared at him, which — shocker — had no effect on him. Gently opening this door, I peeked my head in. Zoe had to be in there and I didn’t want to frighten her by storming in like a madwoman, even though that’s how I felt.
Very little light penetrated the boarded-up window of the room, but the light from the hallway illuminated the space enough for me to see only a very nasty, very stained twin mattress tucked into the corner. A small, dark figure sat huddled on the disgusting mattress, hands tied behind her back, ankles bound with rope. She winced and ducked her head the moment the door opened, her hair covering her face completely.
“Zoe!” I cried, relief flooding me that she was alive and looked unharmed. Then the fear finally set in.
I rushed to her, brushing the hair from her eyes. “Zoe, it’s me. It’s Favor.”
Only then did she look up at me, as if she couldn’t believe it. Tears sprang to her eyes as I pulled a wad of dirty fabric from her mouth.
“F-Favor?” she sputtered through dry, gluey lips.
I held her sweaty face in my hands, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Yes, it’s me, Zoe. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
Her body started shaking, slowly at first but quickly growing in intensity until her body was wracked with sobs. I quickly went to work untying her bindings, though it was tough to keep my trembling fingers from fumbling with the knots. I’d almost made it through her wrist bindings when her body tensed, and she gasped. Glancing over my shoulder, I found Titus grinning in the doorway, taking up the entire space. Without a word, he closed the door on us.
Uh oh.
Pushing the uncomfortable feeling I’d just walked into a trap out of my mind, I
focused on Zoe. The moment the ropes fell away from her hands, she threw her arms around me and hung on like a drowning person. Sweat had soaked through her clothes, which wasn’t a surprise considering the air in the room was so hot and thick I could barely breathe.
“Oh my god, Favor,” she sobbed into my shoulder as I held her tight. “I never thought I’d see you again!”
“Shh, I’m here now,” I cooed, choking back my own tears as I stroked her hair. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
Callous laughter broke out in the living room, no doubt after Titus told the others of the touching scene he’d witnessed. Assholes.
Pulling away, I scanned her face for any sign of bruises. Only tears cut a path of cleanliness through the dirt smudges on her cheeks.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head and hiccupped a couple times. “No. Just fucking freaked is all.”
“I’m sorry, Zoe,” I said, trying to decide how much to tell her. She’d deluded herself so efficiently about dragons, I didn’t want to traumatize her any more than she already had been. “I don’t have time to explain everything, but those guys out there? They’re really bad dudes.”
She clutched my hands and shook her head frantically. “No, I’m sorry, Favor. I didn’t believe you. Couldn’t believe you. But I do now. I know what they are.”
The truth shimmered in her teary eyes. She didn’t want to believe dragons existed, but something had happened to make her no longer able to deny it.
“Oh, Zoe,” I sighed, squeezing her hand. “Tell me what happened.”
I untied the ropes around her ankles, then settled in next to her, pulling her close to me as she related how Titus and his team had kidnapped her outside of her tiny apartment early that morning. She hadn’t even known they were lurking until it was too late.
“Did they hurt you?” I asked through clenched teeth.
