Chapter 29
Ibraced my shoulders for whoever was about to enter.
As much as I’d been defeated and beaten today, I could fight here and now. Because if they managed to drag me off to another location, I’d be doomed.
My body was tensed. I’d launch my weight at whoever entered the second they got close enough.
The doorknob rattled again, and a second later, it flew open.
Two people I worried I’d never see again stood in the doorway.
Amelia was dressed in all black, her silver-threaded hair pulled into a tight bun, and her features bled with a different sort of seriousness than normal—battle ready.
And Theo stood by her side, similarly attired in all black.
A little bit of his wolf had crept into his features, his fangs poking down, his claws extended, and his ginger hair trailing onto his cheeks.
The relief punched me so hard in the chest that I sagged forward.
I thought I’d never see any of them again, yet Amelia had been as good as her word.
At least someone had.
Bitterness at what I’d lost corroded inside me, clashing with the gasp of necessary air that their presence delivered.
“How?” I asked as they stepped in. “Wait, there are guards in the warehouse.”
Amelia snorted. “They were the furthest from professional. I’ve fought harder foes in my sleep.
” Relief thundered through me. How had she and Theo dispatched them while I’d slept?
The lethality they employed only confirmed how dangerous both of them were.
She fixed her gaze on me. “You’re the reason we found you. ”
My brows drew together, and I followed her stare, which was locked on the golden bracelet around my wrist.
The one she’d given me for protection at the gala.
Understanding crashed in.
“I wasn’t sure if its use had worn off,” I murmured.
“What sort of witch do you take me for?” she scoffed. Simply being able to talk to her made my chest squeeze tight. God. I’d only left this morning, and I already missed the entire crew at the Spires so damn much.
And Cillian. I wanted to see him most of all. Being apart from him had caused a deep, unabating ache in my chest, one that only grew by the second.
Theo knelt next to me and sliced through the zip ties around my ankles with his claws, then tackled the ones around my wrists.
The second I was freed, I moved my wrists and ankles around.
The freedom rushed me, and for a moment I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to move with the dizzying wave that went straight to my head.
“What happened to the guards?” I asked, not sure I wanted the answer.
“Currently trapped in a nightmare, so I’m a bit zapped for juice. We’ve got a limited window to escape.” Amelia tilted her head toward the door. “You coming?”
Damn, curse witches were scary. I bobbed my head and tried to surge forward. My legs wobbled, nearly buckling beneath me. Fuck. I was weak as a kitten from having barely any sustenance, an adrenaline drop, and puking my guts up. “Not going to be winning any fights like this.”
“Luckily you’ve got muscle now,” Theo said, crouching. “Climb onto my back.”
I didn’t argue, as I didn’t want to cause us any trouble in getting out of here, I just climbed onto Theo’s broad back and slumped there.
My eyes stung from the relief that ached through my marrow.
I’d expected to have to fight for my life later, to resist in any way at getting dragged to Thorin’s.
Yet the friends I’d made in the Spires were the sort of loyal I’d shown but apparently hadn’t received in return.
“We’ve got to get to Cillian, before it’s too late,” Amelia said, taking the first steps out.
“What happened?”
The words “too late” played on repeat in my mind, but all I could focus on was getting out of this place.
“I’ll explain in the car,” she said as she led us through the warehouse, footsteps echoing to the tall ceilings. Theo followed quickly on her heels, and I clung to him. My whole body sagged against his weight, and my vision blurred slightly.
The three guards sat slumped forward along the side wall, close to the exit point. All of them seemed to be deep in slumber. My shoulders tensed. Were they truly sleeping, or…
“They’re hard out, but we don’t want to wait around for when they wake up,” Theo reassured me, as if he’d sensed my concern.
Theo and Amelia’s footsteps echoed through the warehouse, and a second later, we burst out into the fading sunlight.
“Car’s over here,” Theo said as we quick-walked over to a black SUV.
I clutched onto him, exhaustion pummeling me after everything that had occurred today.
I could still barely believe any of it had happened.
Part of me still expected to wake up back in the warehouse office—or even worse, back in my father’s apartment.
Amelia hopped into the driver’s seat, and Theo helped me off his shoulders and into the back seat.
I slumped against the interior of the car, face pressed against the window.
He slid in beside me and brought the door shut.
Unlike the last time I’d been loaded into a van, though, the people with me now were safe.
They were protecting me.
“Why did you come for me?” I asked, my voice hoarse. My chest twisted tight at the reality that the people who’d shown up for me were the ones I’d walked away from.
“I made you a promise,” Amelia said. “I keep my promises.”
She might be one of the few who did.
She started the car and took off with a screech of tires.
Those words sank deep into my bones. These were the sorts of people worth my loyalty. Not the person I’d given all of it to before. My stomach roiled again.
“And Cillian?” I asked, needing to know he was okay.
Amelia’s pause made my stomach drop. “There’s a secret we’ve been keeping from you—because honestly, we weren’t sure it would work if there was interference.”
“What?” I asked. Tension roiled in the car, the sensation that whatever she was about to tell me now could change everything.
There had always been a secret lurking in the Spires—I’d sensed it the entire time I’d been there—but every time I’d tried to find the answer, it had only seemed farther away.
Amelia let out a heavy, loaded sigh. “Cillian’s under a powerful curse, cast by his ex, Olivia, and a technomancer, Henrik. Sponsored of course by Glacier fucking Industries.”
A million melancholic glances slammed into me at once. The cryptic way everyone talked about him, how he stared off into the distance as if he’d become petals waiting to get swept away by the breeze.
Oh no.
“What kind of curse?” I asked, my whole body locking up. Because deep down, the answer settled in place.
“A death curse,” Amelia said grimly. “The Rose Protocol.”
His tattoo. His fucking tattoo. I swallowed hard, my mind spinning faster and faster.
Death curse.
“Curse witches use emotion to cast, like channeling your own hopes and fears, converting that to adrenaline, and then powering it that way. The mark of her curse looks like a tattoo on the skin. Death curses are highly illegal, but since he’s not dead yet, no one has come after Olivia and Henrik.
Guaranteed Thorin has a plan in place to protect them.
Olivia could never have pulled off a timed death curse like this, something so heinous, on her own.
But Henrik used his technomancy to transfer the curse to binary—a code laid out into the tattoo on his skin that’s tied to a countdown on his computer. ”
The one on the screen in the locked room.
The truth socked me in the gut. It had been around me this whole while, the realization that Cillian was running out of time.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“There has to be some way around it, though, right? Isn’t there some sort of exchange in casting curses, some energy needed?
Witches can’t go around dropping death curses with no penalties, no loopholes,” I said.
I was certain I’d learned about curses years ago in a few of my books on monsterkind, and there were stipulations for casting certain types without alerting the authorities.
Plus, the casting of said curses cost the user as well—but maybe Olivia’s connection to him had allowed her to cast in the first place.
We whizzed through the city at top speed, narrowly zipping through yellow lights and swerving around car after car.
“Cillian had to fall in love and be loved in return,” Amelia said, a twist of bitterness in her tone. “Something Olivia believed to be impossible. I told you, us curse witches have a penchant for the dramatic.”
My stomach bottomed out.
Amelia’s gaze met mine through the rearview mirror. The understanding there smashed into me. She’d known I was the key to Cillian’s continued existence, yet she’d let me leave today without saying a word.
Cillian had let me leave, knowing I carried his last chance of survival with me.
Oh god.
A sob made my throat spasm. “There’s still time, isn’t there?”
“Not much,” she murmured. “The clock is counting down to the end tonight.”
“No.” I clapped a hand over my mouth, my shoulders shaking.
We needed to get to him. We needed to get to the Spires.
“If I’d known, I never would’ve…” I gasped out.
“You had to be free to make the choice,” Theo said beside me. “None of us fault you for leaving.”
“Fat lot of good that did,” I muttered darkly. Silence rang through the car. Amelia had been on the phone, which meant she’d heard everything. She knew of my father’s betrayal, and of his death.
“All we can do is try to get to him now,” Amelia said. “Before the vultures pick him apart.”
My throat tightened. “Thorin?”
“No. Olivia,” Theo said. “She called to set up one more meeting. They’ve been trying to convince him to sign the company over to them in exchange for lifting the curse. Cillian has refused. He’s a stubborn shit.”
“Money’s not worth his life,” I spat back. “Why not just hand it over?”
“Because the good he does for all of us is worth protecting.” Amelia’s voice rang out harsh and clear.