Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

Nothing happened.

Cain roared, Zee let out a battle cry, and I think it was Tom who made all the cars on the bridge come alive with honking and snarling engines, launching them at Cain’s hired lupine shifters.

But as for me and the bead I’d swallowed?

Nothing. Happened.

Had I swapped the wrong bead?

I’d switched my bead for the one Victor had taken from the broken harvester machine, and popped that on the end of Cain’s pendant when I’d clicked my fingers, distracting everyone and providing a decoy so Cain didn’t notice the sleight-of-hand.

I’d definitely swallowed the right one. Maybe. The beads were small, and I’d had to roll it across my palm with the decoy in just a few seconds...

But if I had consumed the right bead, why wasn’t I changing? Why wasn’t I me again?

Lifting my head, I saw Victor wrestling with Cain’s wicked tendrils, each one lashing at him then looping around him, crushing tighter and tighter. Victor’s fangs were out, his face pinched in agony. He could take a few hits, but being crushed?

Zee roared and flew at Cain—sword raised, wings aglow. Lightning snapped from above and stabbed at nearby cars, adding to the chaos. Unnatural thunder shook the air, the bridge, and even my heart in my chest.

Cain simply raised his free hand and flung up some kind of barrier. Zee froze, mid-air, and then with Cain’s sweeping hand gesture, Zee was flung against the bridge’s cables, making them twang and sway. Zee poofed away and reappeared behind Cain, sword raised.

But again Cain grabbed him with some kind of force and flung him away, like a wolf toying with a rabbit before tearing it apart.

He was playing with them both.

I had to stop this. But how? My only plan hadn’t worked. The bead hadn’t suddenly turned me back, although I did feel nauseous and kinda achy... a bit feverish...

A pair of fine, shiny black shoes appeared beside me, and in them stood a pair of legs wearing pressed trouser pants with that neat straight line down the front. And as I looked higher, there was Tom Collins’s less than impressed face. “Are you going to lay there all night while they fight for our freedom?”

“I was just thrown against a car.” I winced. “It hurt.”

“Boo-fucking-hoo. What do you want? A pity party? Get up, get over there, and do what you do best.”

“Which is?” I struggled to sit up and slumped against the dented car door.

“Irritate the fuck out of everyone.”

I spluttered a wheezing breath and fought to my feet. Cain had Victor in the air, and Victor wasn’t moving.

The breeze tossed Cain’s dark laugh around us. The battle was not going well.

Tom was right, I had to do something—anything.

“Hey!” I limped over. “Fine, I’ll do what you want! Put Victor down.”

Cain didn’t even look over. He had the mad expression of someone about to end another life. His twisted, inhuman parody of a face was lit with murderous glee.

“Cain, stop!” Everything ached now—my body, my head, my soul. Something had broken inside, but that was okay. It was all going to be fine.

Cain’s all-black eyes blinked, and as he noticed me his grip on Victor eased.

“I’ll do it. I’ll tell you how to free my power,” I spluttered, and winced at all the aches. “Just put Victor down.”

Zee howled from above, and plummeted—wings back, sword out. Cain flicked a hand, knocking Zee sideways into the bridge suspension cables all over again.

“Zee, hold up...” I told him. “It’s over. We can’t beat Cain. Stop. Indigo. Surrender.”

“Adam... no.” Victor wheezed. “We must not let him win.”

“He’ll destroy us all, I know. But maybe he’ll let us keep the hotel, and we can stay there.” Was it so bad a thing to just survive? “Right, Cain? You’ll leave us alone, let us go, and in exchange, I’ll tell you how to use my power.”

Cain dropped Victor, and shuffled his broad shoulders, realigning all the dark, sweeping tendrils so they writhed in the air behind him, back under control. “It’s a deal. Deals are sacred Mr. Vex. Tread carefully or everyone dies, including you.”

“I know.” I breathed in and winced around sharp, stabbing pains from a few broken ribs. “You’ll let us go?”

“Absolutely.” Jagged teeth shone through a thin, fake smile. “Tell me how I make this mine.” He raised his pendant, and there was the bead inside.

“Swallow it.” I told him.

“Adam...” Victor growled. “Don’t do this. We can still fight.”

“Swallow it?” Gideon repeated. “That’s it? No extraction process?—”

“Just swallow it, and you’ll have it all. All the power you’ve ever wanted.”

Zee fluttered to a landing at my left. “Why are you telling him this, Kitten? We could have beaten him.” Zee believed that, I saw it on his face, in his voice, but he was wrong. This wasn’t a movie, we weren’t the heroes. Or so I had to make him and Victor believe, because if they believed me, then so did Cain.

“Because I love you,” I told them, feeling the words and their weight in my soul. “Both of you. And I’ll do anything to keep you safe. Even if it means Cain wins.”

Zee’s sad eyes almost cleaved my heart in two and Victor had bowed his head, surrendering to my choice.

“I told you,” I said. “I’m not the hero. I just want to live.”

Cain’s big grin grew wider. “Swallow it?” He raised the bead, catching the ambient light in its gel-like structure. The wind howled louder now, and thunder grumbled.

“This is wrong, Kitten,” Zee mumbled.

“No.” I clasped my hands behind my back. “It’s destiny.”

Zee side-eyed me, catching my smile at the exact moment Cain tilted his head back and dropped the wrong bead into his mouth.

I winked.