47. The Villain
THE VILLAIN
Four weeks and one day. Twenty-nine days since I held my wife in my arms, since I laid eyes on her, since I could fucking breathe. The first thing I felt when I saw her was burning rage, quickly overpowered by relief that she was alive.
But the rage was still there. It took all my self-control to keep from storming out of here and killing every person dumb enough to cross my path.
They fucking tortured her. My beautiful, kind, wonderful Violet. They fucking hurt her.
There was a black and blue bruise on her left cheek, a mostly healed black-and-yellow bruise under her right eye.
I could see jagged scars along her neck, chest, and arms. The one that filled me with the most rage—the reason I had to get her in my arms to stop looking at it—was the O’Neill family crest branded onto her collarbone.
My wife.
My strong and independent Violet.
Branded.
Her body shook as she clung to me, wrapped herself around me like she was worried I’d vanish again. Little did she know, I wasn’t letting her out of my sight for the foreseeable future.
We’re never separating again, her voice came down the bridge as though she’d read my last thought. She may have, but I hadn’t meant for her to hear it.
“Never. Never again,” I whispered into her neck.
Her grip tightened for a second before she let go. You didn’t come alone, did you?
I shook my head. “No. Whisper, Hemlock, Eva, and Weave are here.”
Good.
“Why are you using the bridge?”
As soon as the question left my mouth, I wanted to punch myself in the face for it. The small smile she’d been growing since I pulled her into my arms vanished and her eyes went straight to the ground.
I—I wouldn’t let them hear me scream or cry or beg. I refused to let them hear me. I just—My brain is having a little trouble trying to get back to usual. Bear with me, okay?
I pulled her in closer. “Take as much time as you need.”
I tried to keep my voice steady but it didn’t work. The second I imagined her taking every bruise, every cut, even the brand, without making a sound—
No. She lived it. She survived it. I could keep my shit together.
Can we get out of here now?
“Absolutely.”
Apparently, we had to save a witch before I could get us to the meeting spot. I had to let everyone know we were going to be a bit longer than anticipated and gave Violet an ear piece so she could listen to everyone fussing over her.
“V? Does he really have you? You’re really okay?” Hemlock’s stupid voice was the first one through.
“Yes, I really have her, Dipshit.”
“Well, let her speak for herself.”
Violet frowned—mouth moving a few times but nothing came out. I was going to beat the fucking shit out of that stupid poisonous weasel for the frustrated tears that formed in her eyes.
“She doesn’t want to talk to you, Fuckhead. You can see for yourself in a bit. We just have to rescue a witch.”
Hemlock muttered some dumb shit but Whisp cut in: “We’re glad you’re okay, V. We’ll be waiting for you right outside the mountain, if you decide you do want to talk to us.”
The corner of her mouth twitched.
“Miss Hayes—”
Mrs. Winterhayes! Correct him!
I grinned wide, kissing the top of her head. “Sorry to cut you off, Weave but Violet would like me to inform you that her name is Mrs. Winterhayes now.”
Eva’s squeal made me want to take my ear piece and smash it. Jesus Christ, I didn’t know she could pitch that high.
“Oh my god! Bitch, I’m so fucking mad at you!
My two best friends! Married! Eloped! And I didn’t get an invite!
Blasphemy! I demand that this is rectified as soon as humanly possible.
I’m talking a ceremony, reception, dancing, and alcohol.
The whole shebang. And I swear to god, V, I better be maid of honour for what you put me through. ”
Violet broke into a little smile. Tell her I agree to her terms.
“She says yes. But we kind of have more important things to worry about at this moment.”
“Right, yes. Get out of there in one piece. We’ll talk details after.”
“We’ll be going dark, if you don’t hear from us in half an hour execute plan B.”
“Good luck, Mr. Avalanche, Mrs. Winterhayes,” Weave said. “We’re all really glad to have you back, Violet.”
Her mouth opened and closed again. Before her frown could come back, I grabbed her hand and pressed it to my lips.
“Come on, let’s go free the witch.”
We weaved our way through the halls. Apparently we picked a good night to break in, because the guard rotations were light. I only had to hide us three times on our way deeper into the mountain.
We made it to the witch’s cell in ten minutes. I froze the keypad to her room and pushed the door open to find a light-skinned woman, in her late forties to early fifties, sitting on her bed grinning at the door.
“Avalanche and Nightshade. It truly is a sight, the two of you together. If only Christopher O’Neill knew what he’d gotten himself into.”
I must have looked confused, but she wasn’t looking at me. She was studying Violet.
“Mrs. Winterhayes, you’ve gotten everyone here into quite a fuss. Tell me, have you figured out why you’re so special yet?”
Yes.
My wife’s mouth didn’t move but the witch’s grin grew anyway.
“Smart girl.” The witch paused tilting her head. Her attention snapped to me. “Do you have your mask?”
“Yes, but—”
“Put your mask on.”
I just stared at her.
“Put it on now, boy, or your secret identity will be lost. And get your hair the right colour.”
“How—”
Now, Aus. They’re coming.
My attention went to Violet. “How do you know?”
Hide your shadows. Now.
I did as she asked, hoping I’d get some kind of explanation as to what the fuck was happening.
The witch knew who we were and called Violet Nightshade, like that was her villain name, like she was speaking of our future.
And Violet knew people were coming for us?
Instead of running, she was turning to the open door. Why would she—
“Well, well, well. What do we have here? I knew you were a liar, V.”
I must be hallucinating because there was no way that voice just said those word. Except that I turned to find Amber standing in the door way, ten guards behind her—all guns pointed at Violet.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her behind me. I didn’t have time to think about the promise I made to never stand in front of her. I would beg for her forgiveness later. When we were safe, when she was safe.
“Aw, how adorable. The big, bad ice monster has a heart.” The traitorous bitch grinned at me.
“You know, she insisted she didn’t know you.
Over and over and over. I barely know him, I’ve only seen him a handful of times, I spend more time with Hemlock.
But you killed that guy right outside of Crossroads for her, so I figured she had to be lying.
I saw him drug her drink and thought to myself this will be the best test. Except, I didn’t see the kill, so Chris wanted more.
“It was a shame that I had to screw up that girl’s treatment, but he wanted to see for himself if you were a threat.
He saw your little love confession in V’s office and knew he had to get rid of you.
So he rushed the attack on the judge. I told him it was a bad idea, but he didn’t listen.
Luckily, Eva felt all guilty about your misery, or she would have smelled the trap from a mile away. ”
“You let her be drugged? You nearly killed Scarlett? You used my best friend against me? To see if I was a threat? To what?”
“His idiotic plan to marry her, obviously. Keep up. Are you slow or something?”
“Why pretend to be her friend this whole time?”
Amber tilted her head trying to look at Violet. “You didn’t tell him about my involvement? Even now, you can’t talk? God, so fucking pathetic.”
The walls frosted from my boiling anger as the bitch fucking laughed.
I usually wasn’t one to zone out during an evil tangent—professional curtesy and all that—but I needed to figure out a way out of here.
Now. I was staring down the barrels of fifteen guns, more joining the party every second we were stuck in here.
The witch just sat there, studying me like she was trying to see into my soul.
She wouldn’t be any help. I could turn everyone in my sight into icicles but that would drain me too fast, not like last time in the forest where I had snow to help me.
I could use my shadows to travel, but that would leave all these witnesses. My two-power secret would—
What the fuck did that matter? If it got my wife to safety, I would scream my name from the fucking roof tops. As long as she was—
“I should have killed you ages ago. But Chris wanted you, so I tried pushing you in his direction. I didn’t think it would be so fucking hard. You’d always been a slut, but you won’t open your legs for him? Fucking useless, if you ask—”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Dr. Bitch blinked at me before her face twisted in disgust.
“Don’t—”
I cleared the room in three steps, wrapped my hand around her throat, and lifted her off the ground.
“I said shut the fuck up,” I growled.
“Shoot…him…” she gasped out, clawing at my hand.
Before a single trigger was pulled, the torches on the walls in the hallway flared. The guards closest to the back caught on fire, causing everyone to panic, scrambling to get away.
“Don’t fucking touch my husband.”
I dropped Bitch Face and turned to Violet. She stood behind me, engulfed in flames, eyes blazing orange and locked on her ex-friend.
My Nightshade. Beautiful, dangerous, deadly.
Wildfire.