Chapter 61
River
“River, there you are,” Avery said, sounding relieved. He took a better look at me, narrowing his eyes slightly. “You look like shit,” he said.
“Allergies,” I said, the back of my neck sweating.
Avery stared at me, his face blank, then he shook his head. “Whatever. Where were you? I need to question Earl’s daughter.”
My heart stuttered. “Dana?” I croaked.
“Dani,” he corrected. “I need to figure out why the ice affinate isn’t cooperating. Supposedly, they used to have a relationship.”
“Oh?” I furrowed my brow. “I thought…”
“Yes,” Avery said as we stepped inside his office. “It seems you weren’t the only one hiding a relationship around here.” Then he winced. “I’m…still sorry about my Iron Maiden.”
Dani was standing by the window, her bloodshot eyes darting back and forth between me and Avery.
“What about the Iron Maiden?” she whispered.
I swallowed uneasily.
“River here had a thing for her,” Avery said with a sigh, then he snorted. “She wasn’t much to look at. I’m confused how the both of you managed to be so taken with her.”
Dani’s gaze snapped to mine, and I froze.
Don’t, I thought. Do not. Please.
Dani’s jaw wobbled, but she looked away sharply, allowing a few tears to fall.
“So,” Avery said nonchalantly, plopping into his plush desk chair. “Jones is taking the ice affinate down to the bunker, and she sees this one,” He pointed to Dani. “And the ice affinate tried to attack her. Called her a traitor and a liar.”
I glanced at Dani.
She continued staring out the window.
“I thought, my, that’s odd,” Avery said, leaning back and making his chair creak. “Because all relationships have to be reported to me. And this one wasn’t.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, since that was my usual reaction to Avery’s monologuing. “So…”
“So,” he said sharply, making both me and Dani stand a little straighter. “That’s strike one. And it seems strike two is her inability to make this former relationship cooperate.”
“She just wants to leave,” Dani said miserably. “She doesn’t trust me anymore. I don’t know what else to do. She’s refusing food, refusing water.”
My heart pounded, but Avery only shook his head before rubbing his eyes.
“So it’s true, then. You’ve lied to me. Twice.”
“No,” Dani choked out. “No. I just…I can’t get her to trust me anymore. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It works on everyone!”
Avery scoffed. “Did it work on the Maelstrom?”
No.
Dani’s lip wobbled.
“Hmm,” Avery hummed. “Maybe it worked on me. Maybe that’s why I’ve given you so many chances.”
“It worked on the Phantom.”
Avery froze, his hand in his hair. His freakishly pale eyes widened as he stared her down.
“Come again?” he said softly, his entire demeanor changing.
Dani, I hissed, knowing she didn’t realize how much danger we were in. Don’t.
“It worked on the Phantom,” Dani repeated desperately, taking a few steps forward. “I felt her affinity during first term and told her to come to me if she needed anything. And she did. I…”
Dani! I practically screamed.
“Tell me,” Avery ordered.
Dani gritted her teeth, then blurted, “I healed Lucille Brandt’s son. She tried to kill him with a drug overdose, but the Phantom saved him.”
Avery blanched.
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Did you know about Lucille?” Avery asked.
My heart stopped.
I glanced back at him while trying to take in a stuttering breath, but his expression wasn’t what I expected.
Wait.
He didn’t mean…
He didn’t know Lucille was dead yet.
“No,” I lied.
Avery sighed, rubbing his eyes.
“The Phantom trusts me,” Dani went on. “I can get her here. I’ll tell her that her friend is here, and…it’ll work. I swear.”
Avery actually looked like he was considering it for a second, and that terrified me, but then he shook his head.
“No,” he said. “That’s not my plan for her.”
“What?” Dani snapped. “Then what’s your plan for me?!”
Avery rubbed his eyes, looking much older than usual. “You’ve overstayed your welcome.”
“No,” Dani cried. “I can get her here, just–”
“Trust you?” Avery cut in. “No. I don’t. And I don’t trust your father anymore, either.”
“You leave him alone,” Dani snarled, moving toward us quickly, then freezing as Avery grabbed her. She could still move slightly, and she laughed suddenly, loud and mocking. “How’s that affinity working for you? Feels a little…weak to me.”
Avery’s hands twitched, then gripped the edge of his desk, squeezing so hard his knuckles turned white.
He and Dani stared each other down, a battle of wills as much as a battle of the affinities, and unfortunately…Dani won.
She broke his hold, gasping as she took a few staggering steps toward the door.
“Stop,” Avery snapped.
Dani froze for real this time, chest heaving as she panted angrily.
“On your knees,” he said.
Dani ground her teeth so hard, I could hear it as she slowly sank to the ground, glaring up at Avery so hard I was surprised he didn’t ignite.
He walked around the edge of his desk, not caring in the slightest that she was vibrating with rage.
I took a step back.
If she attacked him…I wasn’t going to save him.
“He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Dani spat, jerking her head toward me. “He’ll stab you the moment you turn your back. Maybe he already has.”
I stared at her, my eyes wide in disbelief. Why the hell was she trying to take me down with her? What had I done to her to warrant that?
“Stupid girl,” Avery sneered. “I never turn my back.”
“Carla was mine!” She shrieked.
Oh.
I cringed.
I’d forgotten about Carla.
“She was mine!” She cried again. “She was mine and you let him–”
I looked away before a sickening crack rang through the room. Dani’s body thudded to the ground a moment later, making me wince. I carefully glanced toward where she’d been kneeling, seeing only her braids. The rest of her body was obscured by the armchair.
“Why did you do that?” I whispered.
Avery was already walking away from me, not even bothering to glance at the woman he’d just murdered. The Seer had been right. His temper was going to be his ruin.
“Hey!” I called out, storming after him. He’d just made it outside when I caught up, shoving him from behind. “You can’t just fucking kill everyone you disagree with. This is getting fucking stupid, even for you.” I snarled. “What did she even do?”
Avery whirled on me, and every nerve in my body screamed for me to turn away, to flinch in preparation for the blow. But a blow never came. Avery breathed deeply for a moment, trying to calm himself before speaking to me.
“She was wrong,” Avery growled, his tone dark. “You are not a wolf in sheep’s clothing. You are, and always have been, an outright wolf. I know exactly how dangerous you are, and I know exactly how much danger I’m in when you’re beside me.”
I looked away sharply, keeping him in my peripheral vision. That statement made me feel…embarrassed. What did he have to fear from me?
He clenched his jaw. “Your loyalty to me is not unappreciated, River.”
I scoffed, backing up a step. Avery stepped forward, trying to close the gap again.
Loyalty.
He considered forcing my mind to twist to his reality loyalty.
“I can’t change the past. But I’ve done everything I can to make sure you have the future you want.”
“Except for the fact that I never wanted to be here to begin with?” Avery winced slightly at my raised voice, and an odd thrill filled me at that. He rarely responded to my outbursts. The smallest reactions were like a drug to me.
“Is that why you freed the ice affinate?” Avery asked.
I stilled, clearing my mind as quickly as possible. He couldn’t find out where I’d taken her. I wouldn’t let him. He’d have to kill me.
“She’s friends with her, isn’t she? My Phantom.” Avery’s icy gaze darted across my face, searching, and for the first time…I knew what he was thinking.
The small bit of Skye’s affinity I’d borrowed was…life-changing.
If I focused, I could almost feel every one of Avery’s emotions, watching his thoughts flit from idea to idea. His mind raced with ways to placate me, but underneath it all, he was trying to figure me out. He was pleading internally as he searched for a reason to explain why I would betray him.
And then, the reason crossed his mind, followed by a memory of my fateful mistake. When I’d called Skye gorgeous.
This was it. This was the hill I was going to die on.
I wasn’t mad about it.
He froze, his mind seeming to blank out before it raced again. Now, he wanted to kill me. He was envisioning all the ways he could hurt me. He was working up the courage to ask me if it was true, if I’d fucked his daughter, but he couldn’t bring himself to imagine her in that way.
I briefly wondered if I should tell him things between us ran much deeper than that.
He considered it, considered for just a moment if Skye and I were in love. What would I do to protect her? He froze once again, now wondering, what would she do to protect me?
Ah, fuck.
He was gonna hurt me.
And he did. Pain exploded across my cheek.
He’d caught me off guard while I was busy reading his every thought, and I stumbled back several steps, almost falling down the stairs. Searing pain heated my cheek as I wiped at my face with my arm, and when I glanced down to see blood on my hoodie sleeve, something inside me just…cracked.
I’d had enough.
Avery regretted it. He didn’t know I’d seen his train of thought, and now he was backtracking, trying to come up with a way to explain the blow, explain why he’d attacked me. He wanted to placate me so he could trap me.
“River,” Avery started, and I threw out my hand, silencing him. A wall of snow shot up from beneath our feet, almost throwing me off balance. I wasn’t used to this ice affinity. I hadn’t practiced enough. Avery tumbled into the snow with a yelp, and a moment later, pain split behind my eyes.
I gasped as I fell to my knees, pressing my hands to my temples. I could feel my heartbeat in my skull, the pounding so loud I was sure my head would split.
Avery was imagining my head splitting open, but then he grew angry when that didn’t happen. Whatever was left of his telekinesis either wasn’t strong enough, or it didn’t feel like complying.
I needed to think more about that when I wasn’t experiencing a brain bleed.
Skye’s telepathy flared inside me, curling around my mind but still unable to fully fight him off. It was frantic, moving more intuitively than I was used to, which was a good thing since I was incapable of thinking quickly enough to defend myself.
White-hot pain poured through my veins, the sensation of burning so strong I felt myself roll through the snow.
A broken cry rang out in the silence, and I realized a moment later that it was me. I hadn’t sounded like this in a long time, and a stifling realization hit me as the pressure in my skull increased.
He really was going to kill me.
Not going to, actually. Was. He was killing me. After all these years, it was finally time. He was going to kill me, and Gina wasn’t here to intervene. He’d considered keeping me as bait to attract Skye, but changed his mind. I was a lost cause. I was dying.
It made my next decision almost too easy. I’d wanted to leave from the moment I’d woken up all those years ago. I’d wanted somewhere to go, somewhere with people who cared about me. Somewhere with people who would protect me.
Through the pain in my head, pins and needles prickled through my arms, and I gasped.
My salvation clawed at me like an angry kitten, reminding me it was still here. I wasn’t truly alone. I had somewhere to go.
I did the only thing I could do to escape.
I teleported.