Chapter 25 The Alpha’s Gamble
Wynn
One of Adelaide's guards throws me in a dark little room at the police station. An interrogation room, I figure. My hands are bound in front of me. I'm too busy testing the enhanced cuffs to pay attention to anything else.
What will I even do if I can get free? Sneak off in a busy police station, fight the officers, pray for a miracle? None of it sounds promising.
Light flickers on before a plan forms. A glass window in front of me illuminates and reveals itself as a two-way mirror. I'm not on the side I expected. I can see through to the room on the other side.
Marlow sits there, shackled at a table. This room is more like what I expected—sterile and intimidating. I don't think he can see me, especially since I'm jolting against my bonds and nearly falling off the seat, snarling and trying to get to him.
"Marlow, Marlow!" I call out, but he doesn't hear me.
Adelaide strolls into the interrogation room, standing in front of the table with her back to me. She's bigger and more intimidating than any detective I've ever seen. And from the tight bunch of her shoulders, she's angry.
She gives no indication I'm here or that I can see everything, though I doubt it's an accident she angled herself to avoid blocking my view of Marlow.
What the hell is going on?
"What are you doing here?" Marlow asks before she's even fully entered the room. "What's going on?"
I can imagine the way her face darkens. "I'm the one asking the questions here."
"Then it's not a question," he fires back without missing a beat. "Tell me why you're here."
She snarls at that. "Demands are even worse."
Marlow looks so wrong like this. He was at home in the dungeon even though he was trapped.
Comfortable in the cabin in the woods even though he was clueless.
Now he looks lost. Chained up and defeated, nothing like the cunning, clever demon who makes my heart beat faster.
Iggy’s capture must really be taking its toll.
Eventually, Marlow gets himself together enough to try reasoning with the wolf across from him. "Look, you may not believe this, but I'm innocent."
"Of course," she sneers. "Innocent people always flee justice. Twice."
"If they're desperate and have no other option? Yeah."
"You're right," she says coldly. "I don't believe you."
He leans forward in his chair, the chains binding him rattle as he moves. "Adelaide, please."
She stiffens at hearing her name on the demon’s lips. "Don't speak to me like we know each other. You tricking my cousin doesn't give us a relationship."
“Why are you here?”
Adelaide towers over him at the table, looming large as she plants her hands flat on the cold steel. "I have good news.”
He musters up a weary chuckle. "If you're going to claw me now and save me the trouble of a trial and incarceration, I'm not sure we have the same definition of good news."
"I have a deal for you," she says calmly.
Does Adelaide see the same thing I do? Can she tell how his eyes sharpen at her words? She got his attention.
"I don’t need a deal,” he says after a long moment. “I didn't do anything wrong."
"Oh, you'll like this deal. It means you go free."
Marlow calls her bluff immediately. "Bullshit."
"Oh good," she says sarcastically. "I'd hate if the man tricking my cousin were a moron. That'd make it more insulting. You're right to question me."
"No way you can let me go free. This is a trick."
"I've never been good at those," Adelaide admits. "Too direct. Too blunt."
Marlow inclines his head beyond her to the two-way glass. He's so close to looking at me but doesn't seem to know it. "Then all the people watching behind that glass told you what to say."
"There's no one there." Liar. "No one knows I'm here to offer you a better deal than you deserve.” The chair before her screeches in protest as she drags it across the floor and then drops down into it.
“You turned into quite a headache for me.
Everyone is scrutinizing me and my leadership. This is a nightmare."
"Yeah, you poor thing,” he deadpans. “I’m real sorry for you. You’ve been through so much."
"I want to be done with you,” she continues sharply.
“For my sake, my pack’s, and my cousin’s.
No one knows I'm in here. If I were to free you from those shackles, leave the door open, and you slipped off into the night... If this is the third cell you escape from, then the condition of the dungeons we held you in becomes even more irrelevant. How were we expected to hold you if two law enforcement factions couldn’t?
If you run somewhere else, you become their problem. "
That makes a sick kind of sense. Does he believe her? Marlow leans back in his chair, evaluating her. His face gives nothing away.
"There's a reason I ran here," he says eventually.
"Well, it doesn't matter right now. This is your chance to be free. I hope you do go free."
"More bullshit," he calls out immediately. "About the only thing I've believed since you walked in here is that you absolutely loathe me."
"You're the worst," she agrees. At least she didn't call him a douchecanoe. "However, your escape works in my favor. If Brighton is too busy tracking you down, they won’t care about us in Concordia."
"I’m still innocent,” he reminds. “There’s a killer hiding in your territory."
She dismisses the idea without a second thought. "Our dungeons may be old, but I would never be so clueless as to allow a murderer to live in my territory under my nose."
"I don’t think you’re clueless," he agrees quietly. "I think you’re helping him."
Dammit, not being able to see her reaction to that accusation sucks.
Adelaide tenses but doesn't address it outright. "You have quite the imagination. But it doesn’t matter what you think. This is your one chance to be free. Isn’t that what you want?"
"I want to clear my name."
"And maybe you’ll have that chance in the future. But for now, saving your skin is the priority."
Does he believe her? No, he can't. I hope not. He's smart enough to realize this is a trap.
This whole thing is a setup for my benefit. Adelaide wants to show me the truth. To prove that the man I risked everything for only cares about himself. That he'll abandon me the second he finds a chance to escape.
But I'm not wrong this time. It may have all blown up in my face when I sussed him out in the dungeons when we first met, but I wasn't wrong.
I know that now. Marlow isn't evil. I believed it then, and I've witnessed the proof countless times since.
He's cunning and stubborn and drives me up the wall sometimes, but he’s not a monster.
There's a big heart inside him that he only shows to Iggy and other creatures, but I caught glimpses of it too.
The Alpha's ploy won't work. Marlow won't fall for it. Even if he is desperate. Even if he has no other options. He won't fall for it. I’m not wrong. I can’t be. I don’t know what I’d do if…
"If you’ve evaded capture this long, you can’t be a total idiot,” Adelaide says. “This is the best chance you’re going to get. You must know that."
Marlow stares at her, stone-faced, for several seconds. Just when I think he’s about to refuse, he looks down at the table and whispers, "…Yeah. I know."
"So you accept?"
"There’s just one thing," he says. "I can’t go alone."
"Of course not." A knock at the door startles Marlow and me, chains rattling in both rooms. Adelaide's the only one expecting the interruption. "There’s my wife now."
Adelaide opens the door, and Cierra steps in long enough to hand her a small birdcage. Inside, the occupant thrashes wildly, a dark blur of motion, but it’s no birdie in there. Iggy! A gargoyle flutters around in distress, and the sharp clang of tiny wings battering against the bars fills the air.
She sets the cage down on the table in front of Marlow.
Iggy lets out a distressed whine as he flies to the side closest to Marlow. His hands reach out past the bars, trying to get as close as possible.
Concern floods Marlow's blue eyes. "Are you okay, bud?"
"Fine, I'm fine." Iggy slams against the cage, growling with frustration.
Marlow struggles to lift his bound hands toward the cage, chains clanking against each other. He stretches as far as the restraints allow, and Iggy scrambles to the nearest bars, tiny claws wrapping around Marlow's fingertips. They hold each other through the cold metal barrier.
Adelaide clears her throat pointedly, breaking the moment. "Here’s the key." She tosses something onto the table with a clink. "You can take him once we’re done here."
Marlow spares a fleeting glance at the key, shaking his head. "There’s no way you just stole him from under the detective’s nose.”
"The detective isn’t as familiar with magic as someone who grew up with a city of witches for neighbors," Adelaide explains, a hint of smugness in her voice.
"He isn't skilled in detecting glamours. As far as he knows, Iggy is still trapped in the captain’s office. But we shouldn’t dawdle forever. Are you ready to be a free man?"
Of course he is. That’s what he’s been after all this time. Even if it's a trick, what other option does he have? He must risk it. Marlow can't go back to Brighton and expect to be treated fairly. This is the only option that might let him be free to fight another day.
"What about Wynn?" Marlow wonders quietly.
"What about him?" Adelaide says like I'm an afterthought. "He’ll stay with his pack where he belongs."
Marlow looks down at Iggy still clinging to him through the cage bars. He thinks it all over, and I hold my breath. An eternity seems to pass before he speaks again.
"No can do," he says. "I can’t leave Wynn behind.”
My mouth drops open. Am I dreaming? Is it just wishful thinking or did that really happen? Did he really choose me, choose us, over his own freedom?
It’s almost like…. like he loves me too.
Adelaide staggers back, not believing what she’s hearing. "After all that escaping, after hiding for so long, you're giving up? Why?"
The demon stares her down calmly. "You know why."
"My cousin is really worth your freedom?"
"I'll figure something else out. Abandoning Wynn isn't an option," he says.
"Maybe you’re an idiot after all,” she mutters coldly. “There's nothing you can do."
He watches Adelaide with a maddening expression—the kind that always makes you wonder if he’s already ten steps ahead or about to leap off a cliff without looking down. His plans always tend to be brilliant or suicidal, maybe a bit of both. "You're wrong about that."
Oh god, what now? I have a hunch Marlow's about to do something incredibly stupid.
Marlow curses under his breath, and it’s almost anticlimactic when he only goes quiet and bows his head. It almost looks like he's resorted to praying for a miracle.
"What are you doing?" Adelaide demands.
"Dammit, come on," he mutters, gritting his teeth as he concentrates harder. “Sorry the key’s gone but desperate times.”
"Stop." Adelaide slams her palms down on the table, loud enough for the sound to echo off the walls, but the demon doesn't even flinch. "Whatever you're trying, it won't work."
"Just let me in, dammit," Marlow growls. “Unlock!”
A purple glow begins to form above the interrogation table. No, he can't be… In the cage, Iggy shrieks and claws at the bars, desperate to get through and stop the stupid demon.
He’s definitely suicidal. What is he thinking opening up a passageway to the underworld? He doesn’t have the tools he needs to travel safely!
"What the—?" Adelaide's question is cut short as the room fills with an otherworldly light.
No. Oh my god. No. His demon form appears, incorporeal and quick, disappearing into the purple light.
What has he done?