Chapter 18 - Lorelei

I screamed, letting all the pent-up frustration and fear and rage that had been building inside me out with the sound. I pummeled the locked door, kicking it, shoving my shoulder into it, anything I could think of, even though I knew it was useless.

After a minute of hearing nothing from the other side, I stopped, giving the door one last kick in anger.

How the hell could Mark do this to me? I thought the controlling shit was over when he let me keep working with Declan. But the instant he decided something was a bad idea, here I was, locked up again.

He couldn’t even let me make my own decisions, just forced his own on me because he thought they were right. But they were nothing but selfish and short-sighted. He was condemning all those women to death.

All that bullshit about changing—he hadn’t changed in the slightest. He was selfish and controlling. He was going to let a dozen people he knew and supposedly cared about die on the off-chance I would be spared.

Except I knew Inara far better than he did. If this didn’t work, she would try something else. Eventually, she would get her hands on me. The only question was how many people would die before that happened.

I thought back to all the women. They had accepted me when they could have just written me off as a weird loner. They had made me feel like I belonged for the first time in my life. There were other people in the community who cared about them as well, who would be hurt if they died. I held their lives in my hands. I decided if they lived or died. That was my choice. Not Mark’s.

I wasn’t going to let them die, not as long as I had anything to say about it.

I went to grab something from the nightstand drawer and slipped it into my waistband. Then, I walked over to one of the windows in the bedroom. I had found out after Mark had stopped holding me captive that if you did it just right, you could climb down the storm drain right outside. I hadn’t thought I would need to use it, so I hadn’t thought much of it since then. Now, however, it would likely save several lives.

Night air brushed against my skin as I opened the window. Clambering out, I reached toward the storm drain. The handcuffs gave me just enough mobility to grasp either side. My heart pounded as I glanced down. It wasn’t as far as I had thought, but my heart still thudded in my throat as I began to slide down.

My feet touched the ground. Taking a deep breath, I tried to get my bearings. I didn’t know Brixton that well, but I was fairly certain the meeting point was north of here. I trudged in that direction, looking upward at the rising moon, wondering just how much time I had.

My heart pounded. I knew what I was doing was risky, but if this was the only way to save my friends, that was what I was going to do. I wouldn’t let them die because of me.

Eventually, I reached the clearing. Looking up, I saw the moon almost directly overhead. My stomach twisted itself into a knot. I waited, my hands still cuffed in front of me as my eyes swept across the clearing. The only sound was that of rustling leaves.

For a moment, panic took over. Had I been wrong about the meeting place? Or maybe I had missed the deadline, and all of this was for nothing.

I closed my eyes, trying not to scream in frustration, my anger at Mark bubbling over again. How the hell could he have done this to me?

A branch crunched behind me, breaking me out of my anger. I spun around, expecting to see Mark or Jameson or Declan. Instead, the spindly figure of Orin stepped into the moonlight. He studied me up and down, his eyes lingering on my wrists.

“Are you alone?” he asked.

I nodded.

Either he didn’t take my word for it or wanted extra precaution. Either way, he uttered an incantation. I felt the magic crackling around us as a barrier encircled us, blocking us from the outside world. No one else would be able to get in.

Or, most everyone.

A portal appeared in the middle of the clearing. Inara stepped through, looking as though she had just won the grand prize. She eyed me hungrily, avarice glinting in her eyes.

“So good of you to come,” she purred. “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t come to your senses.” Her eyes went to my wrists, and she giggled. “I see someone wasn’t too keen on the idea of you coming here, were they? That shifter of yours a little too protective?”

“Let the others go,” I said, ignoring her. “You’ve got what you want.”

“I do,” agreed Inara. “Or almost. But I can’t just let go of my biggest bargaining chip. For all I know, this is a ploy to get my guard down. No, I’ll let the shifters go once you’ve opened The Trove for me, and not a second sooner.”

I folded my arms. “No dice.”

Her eyes flashed dangerously. “I would suggest you cooperate, Lorelei,” she warned. “Unless you want to meet a rather unpleasant end. You’re already here, after all, and I’m betting that none of your little shifter friends know you’re here. You’re alone.”

I rolled my eyes. “Please stop with the threats. You’re not going to kill me.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And what makes you say that, dear? Maybe I don’t have any interest in The Trove anymore. Which means all your leverage is gone.”

“You’re still interested. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have shown,” I pointed out. “Even if you did somehow find a way to get in, I have something else you want. We both know that.”

She tilted her head, a slow smile crawling over her lips. “I suppose I did play my hand a little too openly when we last spoke,” she mused, then shrugged. “But the point stands that I have no intention of letting any of my captives go.”

“If you don’t let them go, I’m not going to help,” I said. “Let them go now. I’ll open the portal, and you’ll still have me and the baby as leverage.”

“Leverage over the shifters, certainly. But not over you.” She grinned. “Isn’t that what you said was my biggest problem last time? There wasn’t anyone you cared enough about for me to hold over your head and convince you to help me? Based on the fact that you’re here, I can only assume that’s changed. Am I right?”

I didn’t say anything. My mouth had gone dry.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

“You’re changing the terms of the deal,” I accused.

She gasped in mock surprise. “I suppose I am. You really should have expected as much.”

Fear started seeping into me, starting at my feet and rising, chilling me as it moved. I’d miscalculated. I tried to keep my expression neutral. If I held firm, maybe I could still get them out of this, even as I saw my chances of that dwindling.

“Let them go,” I said.

“I told you. After you’ve opened The Trove.”

“Then no dice. The deal’s off.” I spun on my heels and started marching through the clearing. I barely got five feet away when I heard Inara utter an incantation behind me. Too late, I realized just how big of a mistake I had made. My feet froze, refusing to move and locking me in place.

“You can’t have truly expected me to let you go after you came here so willingly,” Inara laughed. She came around to stand in front of me, her fingers gripping my chin and forcing it upward. “Sweetheart, let me make this perfectly clear, because I don’t think you fully understand. I hold all the cards now. You’re not going anywhere. So you can either cooperate, or you can watch your friends die one by one.”

My stomach sank, and I realized just how much I had been played. I should have known she wouldn’t let the captives go. I’d walked right into her hands for nothing.

“Fine,” I relented.

“Good girl.” She released my jaw. “I knew you’d see sense eventually. Now, come along. We’re wasting time. Where is the door?”

“It’s near my house,” I said. “I can conjure up a portal.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Do you know how to create a portal?” she asked, with more than a little derision in her tone.

I nodded.

She considered me, her head tilting. Then her smile grew sly.

“Even if you do, I’m not sure I trust you enough to let you,” she said. “For all I know, you could be planning to open a portal into a trap where all your wolfy friends are waiting. Not to worry, though. I’m sure Orin remembers your house well enough to conjure up another portal there. Don’t you, Orin?”

She glanced at him, and he nodded. “Easy enough,” he grunted.

“Brilliant,” she purred. “In that case, no sense waiting around, now is there?”

Orin nodded, stepping forward and waving his hand. A shimmer rippled through the air, and, like someone had just dragged a knife through fabric, a gash materialized before us. It widened into a large doorway, and familiar trees from a forest I never thought I would see again came into view on the other side, along with an old, recognizable house in the corner. My cottage.

“Orin first, then you, dear,” Inara commanded. She uttered another incantation, and my feet could finally move again. “And don’t worry. I’ll be right behind you.”

The threat in the words couldn’t have been more plain had she written them in blood. I was stuck. I’d walked right into a trap I should have seen, but in my panic and guilt, I had looked right past it. There was nothing I could do about it now, though. My only chance of getting myself and the other girls out of this alive was to keep going forward.

With a deep breath, I followed Orin and put my foot through the portal.