58
EMERSYN
Griffin’s words had triggered me. He’d sounded so much like Riggs in that moment—controlling, dominating, and leaving nothing up for discussion.
I’d told myself I was never going to let someone treat me like that again.
But then, Griffin apologized. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.
I wanted to think that Griffin was just like Riggs because then it made him easier to hate—and I wanted to hate him so badly.
Instead, something far less safe pounded away at my chest demanding to be let in, and that was terrifying.
It was almost like Griffin and Seven trusted me.
My throat closed at the thought that these two men I barely knew trusted me to lead, to make decisions, to go after what I wanted—no, needed—to accomplish. I didn’t know what to do with that. I’d never had that.
“Comms check,” Seven said.
His voice whispered in my ear, and it was like my entire nervous system relaxed. I’d missed having someone in my ear. It made me feel less alone.
“Loud and clear,” I answered.
The cold grip of the steel in my hand helped steady me further. I slipped the knife into the pocket of the sweatshirt and took a deep breath. There was a knock on the door.
“Open up, Griffin!”
It was Brooks.
“We’re a comms call away,” Seven said quietly.
I nodded, and Griffin stared until Brooks called again. His jaw tightened and he went and yanked open the door. Brooks’ fist was raised, about to pound on the wood again. His face broke into a sneer.
“Hope I wasn’t interrupting something,” he said. “Actually, that’s not true, I hope I was.”
“Fuck off, Brooks,” Griffin snarled.
“Let’s go, Hurricane,” Brooks ordered.
I strode past Griffin and out into the hall.
If I looked at either of them again, I’d have issues going with Brooks.
As it was, it was incredibly hard to walk across the threshold of a room that had held nothing but safety for the last twelve hours.
I kept my back to the door, but as Brooks grabbed my arm, I could have sworn I heard a growl.
I didn’t dare look. Brooks pulled me down the hallway until we rounded the corner, and I heard the door slam shut.
“Good thing we’re in your ear, eh gorgeous?” Seven’s voice over comms startled me so badly I tripped over my own feet, and nearly ate shit, as Brooks pulled me down a small flight of stairs.
“Walk, Hurricane, fuck,” Brooks grumbled.
“Although, I’ve disabled G’s and told him he’s not allowed to speak until he calms down,” Seven continued dryly. “You should hear some of the shit coming out of his mouth, over.”
I fought the smile that threatened.
“So, where is that big oaf taking you?” Seven asked.
“Where are we going?” I asked Brooks.
“Mahoney’s personal quarters.”
The silence over comms seemed deafening until finally Seven came back online.
“Maybe comms wasn’t such a good idea,” Seven sighed. “I just had to stop G from storming after you.”
“I’ll be fine,” I muttered.
“Emersyn!” I winced at the volume.
“Fuck—” Seven said.
I heard the sounds of a scuffle.
“If he touches you, I swear to all that’s fucking holy, I will—”
The comms cut out and this time I failed to stop the half-smile that bloomed across my face. I could just picture Griffin freaking out and wrestling Seven for control over the communications. The fact that I could envision their reactions wiped the smile from my face as quickly as it came.
Was I really going to trust them?
Even though all of their actions pointed to them telling the truth, trust was still hard. But, despite my misgivings that probably stemmed from years of trauma anyway, I was going to try.
Brooks led me through the estate until we stopped outside of a door that was slightly ajar.
He pushed it open and shoved me across the threshold before he followed with the other two guards.
Mahoney stood near his bar cart, a glass in hand as he stared out the window.
I was tempted to take out my knife and go to town, but I knew I had to pick my battles.
I wanted Octavius more than I wanted any of these people, even Mahoney, although his time would come, and so would Brooks’.
Mahoney turned as we entered, but he was all business. “There’s a dress on the couch. Get her changed into it and deliver her to the ballroom. Guests start arriving in an hour, and I want her in the cages with the others.”
His attention shifted to me. He didn’t like the sweatshirt, that much was obvious when his jaw tightened. He set his glass down and walked closer.
“At least she’s clean,” he muttered. “Sedate her, but don’t make her a zombie. Octavius likes a little edge.”
Seven scoffed in my ear. I was once again reminded that they were along for the ride.
“I wish we had more time together, my dear,” Mahoney said with a thin smile. “But, alas, I have bigger aspirations than just harassing your father. You, and by extension him, are simply a means to an end.”
He gave me one more once over before he headed to the door.
“Call me with any issues, Brooks.”
Once he was gone, Brooks shoved me toward the couch.
“You heard him,” he barked. “Dress on.”
Fucking caveman.
I stared down at the dress on the couch. To call it a dress was being generous. It was really nothing more than a piece of slinky, blood red fabric. Where the fuck was I going to hide the knife? I sighed heavily.
“That bad huh?” Seven said in my ear.
He had no idea. Conscious of Brooks and the other guards leering at my back, I pulled the sweatshirt over my head.
I dropped the knife between the cushions, I’d have to think of something else.
There was no way I could conceal a knife with this dress.
I pulled it on and sure enough, it left nothing to the imagination—honestly, I might as well have been naked.
The dress was low cut in the front, and dropped even lower in the back where it rested just above my ass.
The fabric whispered on the ground around my bare feet, and there was a slit that ran up my right thigh.
“Had to abort the knife,” I whispered.
“Damn,” Seven muttered. “Okay, we’ll figure it out.”
I turned to see hungry stares that slid over my body. I ignored them as best I could. Brooks walked over with a syringe in hand. He wrapped his fingers around my neck and it took everything to not retrieve the knife and gut him. But, I could be patient. I was hunting, and he was not my prey.
“I’m going to be sad to see you go, Hurricane,” he sneered. “You’ve been a nice change from all Mahoney’s usual zombies.”
He injected the sedative, but his hand lingered on my neck.
I could tell he wanted to squeeze harder, but with all this skin showing, I’m sure he knew Mahoney would be pissed if he left a mark.
With one last frustrated growl, he released me and jerked his head at the two other guards who grabbed my arms and escorted me out.
The drug flowed through my bloodstream. It made me sluggish, like how I’d felt in the maze. Movement dragged and glitched, like my brain and body functions weren’t syncing. Everything was too loud and too bright. But, unlike those times before, I knew I wasn’t alone.
Brooks led the way to the Great Hall which had been transformed overnight into a glimmering landscape of gold and black decor.
Staff raced around the room as they put last minute touches on everything.
Along the edges of the hall, giant birdcages were suspended in the air.
Each one contained a woman slouched against the bars.
They were all in various shades of red dresses, with silver masquerade masks over their eyes.
My cage was set over what was obviously designated as the gift table.
There was also a giant, gold bow on the top of mine.
While Brooks lowered it to the ground, a guard settled a gold mask over my eyes to complete my look.
Once I was settled in the cage, Brooks hoisted it back into the air.
At least the view was expansive. I pretended I had my rifle with me, but the drugs flowed so strongly through my blood, even I knew I’d be a shit shot in my current state.
“If you’re a bird, I’m a bird,” I muttered sarcastically.
“Where’d you end up, gorgeous?” Seven asked.
I sighed. “Great Hall. You can’t miss me.”
“Alright, well, Mahoney has us on shift as far from there as he could put us,” Seven said. “But, once it’s time to move, we’ll be there.”
“Have you heard from Rune?” I asked.
Silence.
“No.”
“Guess I’ll have to learn how to fly then,” I said dryly.
Seven chuckled. “Drugs feeling good, babe?”
“I hate this,” I admitted.
“I know. It’s almost over.”
The next few hours passed , and I sulked in my cage.
I slowly waded through a plan for once I made contact with Octavius, but thinking was difficult, and I felt like I went in circles more than linearly.
It wasn’t until the party was in full swing, the band going strong, and the guests revelry filled the room, that I finally began to feel the drugs begin to ebb.
I hadn’t heard much from Seven and Griffin.
Seven would check in occasionally, but Griffin had remained a silent presence I knew was on the other end, but besides the occasional word or two, he never spoke.
I’d just started running through my plan again, when I saw a group of people enter through the large double doors. My heart stopped.
“He’s here.”
Everything else fell away, including whatever Seven or Griffin said in response. The last time I’d seen Octavius was on a screen in Lev’s office—but it wasn’t those memories that surfaced. It was from the times before. The memories that were unreliable, shadowed, ugly—
I knew something had happened with Octavius, and sometimes I thought I knew, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to remember so I never tried very hard.
I knew he’d assaulted me when I was a child, and that it had gone on for months in that house in the woods.
I knew Vetticus let it happen, and I knew a man in a black wolf mask had stopped it.
Those were the facts, and it was more than enough for me to want him dead.
Mahoney shadowed Octavius through the party where they mingled and chatted with guests.
I never once took my eyes off them. This went on for about an hour before Mahoney led Octavius to my cage.
Octavius looked up while sipping a glass of champagne, and Mahoney whispered in his ear.
I was too high to hear anything, but Octavius nodded once to whatever Mahoney said, and the two of them left.
Guards came and lowered my cage. It was showtime.
“I’m being taken to Octavius,” I muttered. “Somewhere off the hall.”
“We’re on our way,” Griffin said.