Chapter Twenty-Four
“ I … You can’t…”
Mason doesn’t shake his head. He doesn’t drop my gaze. His eyes widen a little as though there’s something about this that he, too, can’t believe, but maybe it’s simply that I really had no idea at all.
“He is ,” Dane says. “And I’m going to take him back to the Citadel and claim my reward.”
“You can’t kill all three of us,” I say. I raise my bat, resting it against my shoulder. “You know that.”
Dane tilts his head to one side. “I don’t know that at all, Isaac. Besides, I don’t really want to kill you.”
“What?”
He shrugs. The small movement jostles his arm, pressing the knife against Mason’s skin a little harder. Mason is still looking at me, but I can’t meet his gaze anymore.
He did lie to me. Or no, Nia and the others did, but he never told the truth . He wanted me to stay here, wanted me to stay with him, and he never…
“Come back with me.”
I rear back in surprise. “You just said—”
“I’ll tell them you helped me,” Dane says, tone wheedling. His other hand digs into Mason’s shoulder. I’ve no idea how to get him out of this—I’m going to kill Dane, I’m certain about that, but I don’t know how to keep Mason safe while I do.
Although…
Dane can’t kill him, can he?
“Helped you?” I take another step forward. He’s not supposed to kill him, but with that wild glint in his eye, I don’t know that Dane won’t make that mistake all the same. We won’t be able to go back, then. We certainly won’t be able to stay here.
Well, I might. He won’t.
“I’ll tell them we worked together on this. That you saw a weakness and seduced him, made him weak for me.”
“I-I didn’t…”
“Of course you did. What, do you think that horde of zombies the first night we got here was a welcoming party? Wake up , Isaac. He meant to kill us, too.”
There’s a lump in my throat. I get it, of course I do, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. Fuck.
“I didn’t help you,” I say.
“That’s not what I’ll tell them,” Dane replies. “And you’ll agree. Because what the fuck else are you going to do, Isaac? Stay here? They’ll kill you. They won’t want you. But I do. What did he offer? That he’d keep you safe?”
I don’t say anything. Mason’s shoulders tense. I can’t grapple with all the consequences of knowing he’s the necromancer, not right now, not here. But my stomach is churning all the same, a strange pressure building behind my eyes.
“Dane—”
“I can keep you safe. I can make sure no one ever bothers you again. All you have to do is give yourself to me. Surely it won’t be that much of a hardship—you spread your legs for this piece of shit, after all. I don’t mind fucking a slut, as long as you know you belong to me.”
Mason finally makes an outraged sound behind the gag. Dane laughs and lets go of his shoulder, knife never moving as he unfastens the piece of cloth and drags it from Mason’s mouth.
“Yes, let’s hear it! What have you got left to offer him now?”
“I’ll kill you before you ever lay a finger on him,” Mason growls. He doesn’t look away from my face. “He’s not yours to touch.”
Fuck, it shouldn’t, but the words calm me. Mason is here. He’s here and he’s alive, and he can’t be as helpless as all that, can he?
Autumn is quietly crying next to him, leaning her body as far away from Dane as she can without leaving the chair. I can’t get between her and Dane, much as I want to.
Dane sneers. “I guess you had your mouth too full when you were alone to tell him just what you’d done, huh?” He shakes Mason’s shoulder. “Now’s your chance. Tell him.”
“It’s true?” I ask. I don’t know why I’m asking. I already know it is.
“Yes,” Mason says, eyes hard. “I was the first one here to have any power. I was the one to raise the dead. And then I—”
“You lost control,” I say.
“Yes.”
“And he’s never got it back,” Dane says, smiling at me again. “Look at him. He’s not even in charge of this fucking place!”
“Nia is more than capable,” Mason says, and Dane snorts.
“That bitch? She didn’t have a clue what I was up to, and neither did you.”
Mason’s jaw clenches. “No, I did not.”
Dane laughs again. He looks away when he does, and I take another step closer. Still not close enough. Not when Mason can’t get out of the way.
“You caused all this,” I murmur. “You didn’t… You said you wouldn’t lie to me.”
“I didn’t. You never asked who the necromancer was.”
“You said they were long gone.”
“The boy I was—the boy who caused all this—is gone.”
“The zombies?” I ask. I shake my head. It doesn’t need to be a question. “That’s why you were there the first night. You were going to kill us.”
For the first time, Mason looks away. “Yes.”
“And why didn’t you?” Dane says. “Why did you let us go?”
Mason is silent. Dane’s fingers tighten on his shoulder, and he presses the knife harder against his throat.
“Why?!”
“Because of you,” Mason says, looking at me. “I couldn’t kill you.”
Dane shakes his head. “You—”
“None of you worked it out. We knew you wouldn’t. You couldn’t find the zombies, no matter where you looked because we call them only when we need them.”
I rock back on my heels. “You called them every time?”
“Yes.”
“I—” I shake my head because that’s how we nearly died, that’s how Otto got bitten, that’s how Dane was almost attacked—And I pause. I killed one last night. I killed one not far from here at all.
I killed one trying to get here .
When I look at Mason again, he gives me the faintest of nods. I don’t think Dane even notices it.
“What about the rest of them?” I ask. “They know about you.”
“We don’t speak of it, but yes, I assume they all do. Nia does. The rest like the power the curse gave them, even if they would rather it all had never happened. It’s what has helped them survive after the Citadel abandoned us.”
“Abandoned?” Dane sputters. “They didn’t—”
“They did,” Mason says, words fierce. “They have. They always will. All they want is control, and they could not control what happened and they never have—and never will—control me.”
My heart hammers against my ribs. I believe him; of course I do. Even if Dane gets him out of here, even if he gets him on that train and behind those impenetrable walls, Mason will never be controlled.
“You can be controlled,” Dane says, and when he looks at me now, his eyes are cruel. “You both can be controlled. Very easily.”
“No,” Mason says, but it’s not a protest. The horror in his voice is thinly veiled and my stomach drops.
I look between Mason and Autumn and Dane. I don’t know what to do. We still have an hour or so before the train comes. Even if Rae has found Blake’s body by now, I don’t know that she’ll find us—and if she’s not prepared, Dane will kill her.
That doesn’t matter anyway. He has hostages. He has some way of controlling Mason, or at least his magic, and me—I can’t attack Dane, knowing Mason might die for it.
“You can’t kill all of us. Rae’s going to be at the station.” My eyes flick to Autumn. “Let her go. They can stay here together.”
Dane stares at me again. He does it for too long, and a chill runs up my spine when he doesn’t blink.
“Let’s solve that problem, then,” he says, and before I can move, the blade flashes and slides across Autumn’s throat.
She hardly even has time to look shocked. Blood spills from the wound, soaking her shirt, and she topples off the chair and onto the ground.
“No! Dane, you fuck—I’ll fucking kill you!”
“You won’t,” Dane growls. The blade is back at Mason’s throat. I haven’t even reached them.
He hauls Mason back, jostling him, and I want to throw up. My head is spinning, but there’s nothing I can do for Autumn now that the terrible choking sound is over.
“Come along, Isaac. It’s time for us to leave.”