Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
athena
“Absolutely the fuck not,” Sinner barked. “She’s not going anywhere.”
His bicep twitched beneath my touch as I stepped to his side.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll be all right.”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight,” he said. “Not after what she just did to you?”
“Did to her?” Florence chimed in. “Are you talking about Director?” She laughed. “Director just made you a god to those people. You’re fucking untouchable!”
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” Sinner argued, stepping toward her.
I pulled harder on his bicep. “I’m fine. Really.”
“I don’t know what I’m talking about?” Florence shoved the door open and stepped inside. “Are you kidding me right now? You need to get a fucking grip on reality.” She looked between the two of us. “You both do.”
“Leave.”
“I’m not leaving without Athena. And if you know what’s good for you, you won’t put up a fight.”
I cleared my throat, wincing at the way it burned after I’d vomited up the contents of my stomach. “What are you getting at here?”
She huffed a breath, then flipped her hair over her shoulder and met my stare. “You have no idea how lucky you are. Director looks at you. She cares about you. Do you know how many of us would kill for that?”
“She doesn’t care about me,” I scoffed. “She only cares about my power, about what I can do for her.”
“Don’t be so fucking sensitive. People like us die for her every day. For the Ministry. And she has single-handedly selected you to be the face of her fight.”
“What if I don’t want to be part of this fight?” I spat, pushing Sinner aside. “What if I don’t want anything to do with this twisted place?”
Her thick brows drew together. “Are you delusional? The fight is happening with or without you. Stop living in a fantasy world. You’re a mystic.
A four. Accept it.” She relaxed, taking a step back out the doorway.
“The quicker you do, the faster you can stop pretending you ever had a life without magic.”
With that, she retreated down the hallway, only stopping ten paces later to stare at me over her shoulder. “You coming?”
With a sigh, I stepped after her.
Sinner snaked an arm around my waist and dragged me back. “I don’t like this,” he whispered into my hair.
“You don’t have to like it.” I pried myself out of his arms. “We can’t hide in here forever. Director put that show on because she wants everyone to know how powerful we are now because she has me. Us. She won’t hurt me.”
He glowered at me, not buying it.
But I didn’t have time to reassure him. Or dwell on how badly this could end.
I turned, and without looking back, I followed Florence off the ship.
On the black rock beach, we were met with five men who were armed and dressed in full tactical gear.
A new wave of nerves washed over me. The party was definitely over.
“Come with us,” one of them ordered.
Florence stepped aside, but she shot me a look I couldn’t decipher before she walked away.
I didn’t like her. And I sure as hell didn’t trust her. Though that wasn’t strange. I didn’t trust anyone here.
I pushed thoughts of Sinner out of my mind. Because if I considered how hard this must have been on him, I would run right back into his arms.
But I couldn’t let him see me crumble like that. Not again. Not when so much was still at stake.
The soldiers led me into a steel building I hadn’t paid much attention to. It was much smaller than the barracks, and it wasn’t positioned in the center of the camp like the courthouse. It was discreet. Almost hidden.
The masked man pushed the door open and stepped aside. “Director will meet you in here.”
Great.
I was having déjà vu as I stepped inside the steel room. This, unfortunately, wasn’t the first time I’d found myself in this situation. Hopefully it would be the last. I couldn’t freaking wait for the day I was no longer a pawn. Nobody’s little toy to play with.
“There you are,” Director announced as the steel door shut behind me. “It was a shame that you disappeared so quickly after your impressive show. We have much to catch up on.”
I lifted my chin and smoothed my black dress. “Yes, we do. I’m curious. Where have you been? Since kidnapping us again and forcing us into this place, that is.”
She laughed, her red hair cascading down one shoulder. The suit she wore was black, and it was a size too big for her fit, slender frame.
I fucking hated to admit it, but she was pretty. Though pretty in a way that put me on edge. That made me think twice about my words before speaking.
“You impressed me tonight,” she started, sitting on one side of a small steel table. “I won’t lie, I didn’t think you had it in you.”
I took the seat across from her, fighting the urge to shiver as I settled against the frigid metal of the chair. It reminded me of the room we’d first been introduced in. Cold. Solitary.
“That wasn’t the first time I’ve killed,” I answered flatly. “It won’t be the last.”
She cocked her head to the side. “You’re different now.” With one polished nail, she pointed at me. “You’ve changed. You have an edge to you…”
“Let’s not pretend like you know anything about me.”
“Don’t I, though?” She stood, her chair squeaking, her eyes locked on me. “I know more than you think I do. You may view me as your enemy. As the evil woman who forced you into this situation, but that’s only one sliver of truth.”
I held back a scoff. “And what is the truth?”
“The truth is that you and I are the same.” Her smile dropped. “You’re a powerful mystic. You can bend life with a single thought. You control the weaker people around you and you don’t even realize it.”
“I would never use my power to harm innocents.”
“Wouldn’t you, though?” She strode closer. Too close. “Haven’t you?”
I swallowed. “What is this? Why did you call me in here?”
She propped herself up on the edge of the table, crossing her arms over her chest, and stared down at me—once again like I was a toy. A prize to be won.
The fury simmering in my veins heated further. “You made me kill those men in there.”
“You had a choice. You always have a choice.”
I rocked back, blinking at her, dumbfounded. “Is there a point to this meeting? Because the war games begin tomorrow, and I’d like to get a good night’s rest. Survival of the fittest and whatnot.”
“Ah, yes.” She sat on the table, swaying one foot. “The war games. The true test. This will determine whether you will be an asset to us in this war.” She sighed. “There is just one thing that I am curious about.”
I kept my face straight. “Please, go on. I’m on the edge of my seat.”
Angling forward suddenly, she touched my face. Startled by the unexpected movement, I couldn’t help but flinch away.
“Oh, child,” she said, leaning even closer, her smooth cold hand brushing my cheek. “You have so much hope. So much fight in you. I should have seen this coming, really.”
My shoulders drooped. I was too exhausted. Too confused. Too mentally drained to decipher her words.
The door opened behind me and a man entered. An absolute giant of a person. A brick wall. He was enormous. A weapon based on size itself. He ducked to get through the doorway, and as he straightened inside the steel room, his head nearly touched the ceiling.
“Should have seen what coming? What is this—”
My words were cut off by a sudden, sharp pain. Any sense of hope I clung to with my tight grasp flew right out the damn window.
It started in my head—a shrill, piercing sensation that sucked the air straight from my lungs—and spread down my throat, cutting my scream off at the source.
The rest of my body locked up as the man focused on me, and a pain like I’d never experienced before pulsed into my veins with every beat of my heart.
The agony was so intense, I hardly noticed when massive knuckles struck my cheekbone.
“You forget that I own you now, child,” Director barked. “You think you can sneak around with the defiance? You think I didn’t know what your friend Leon had planned?”
Another punch. This one to my gut. Another wave of pain exploding inside me.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I gasped.
Blood filled my mouth.
“You think you’re so smart.” Director approached and leaned into my space, her face inches from mine. “Leon thought the same thing.”
She gripped my chin, her sharp fingernails digging into my flesh, forcing my face to hers.
“If I even get a whiff of the defiance on you, child, I’ll end you.
The others might see you as a powerful four, but to me?
” Her laugh echoed off the steel walls. “You’re nothing more than a sad, hopeless girl.
You’re nothing without me.” She shoved my face sideways and my neck cracked.
“You are nothing without the Ministry, child. Nobody is.”
She paced around the room again, shaking out her hands and pulling her shoulders back.
“The defiance is a speck of dirt in our vision. We can squash them with nothing more than a thought. Remember that before you get any grand ideas.”
I should have kept my mouth shut. I knew I should have. But anger boiled in my veins until I couldn’t contain it any longer.
“You really think you can control me?” I smiled, blood dripping down my chin. I spit a mouthful onto the floor. “You think you can wave your hand and we’ll submit to your every command? Think again. You need me a lot more than I need you.”
She guffawed, eyes widening. “Have you hit your head? Or are you really that delusional?”
“You don’t even know the best part,” I said. The truth rushed up like vomit before I could choke it down. “I never even completed the claiming.”
She sucked in a breath but quickly recovered, scowling. “That’s not possible,” she stated. “I would know if you were unclaimed.”
“Would you?” I cocked my head to one side. “You think I’m powerful now? Wait until I get out of here. Wait until I complete the claiming on my own—away from your grasp. Wait until I come back here and kill every last one of you.”
The slap echoed through the room before I felt it. Even the giant of a man now standing back and watching jumped at the sharp sound.
“You think you’re clever, but in reality, you’re reckless.
You’re arrogant.” She straightened her blazer, smoothing out the wrinkles.
“If you survive these war games—and please note that if what you’ve said about the claiming is true, you won’t—you will suffer.
A world does not exist where you are not mine.
You are a weapon. A tool. And that is all you will ever be. ”
Her words were still ringing in my ears when that familiar fist made contact one more time, and the world faded to black.