Chapter Eighteen
Full Circle
The storm outside had abated to a soft snowfall. One of his favorites. He loved it when the world quieted under the blanket of white. Everything made sense up here.
He sat in the quiet glow of the lantern, surrounded by more of his creations. They lined the walls. Silent witnesses to his progress. Each face reflected an echo of something he’d once loved, or destroyed, or both.
But tonight, his thoughts were on Ava.
“It’s almost our time.”
Excitement coursed through his veins at the prospect. She’d made her decision. He’d offered her his world and she’d thrown it at his feet by betraying him in the worst possible way.
Now, she would become his final beauty before he disappeared to newer hunting grounds.
But now he had a surprise for those with her.
They’d never walk out of his mine alive.
He’d studied the footage and smiled. They’d reached the room with his present for her. Would she recognize them?
He knew the answer already.
Her little group of survivors had joined in the hunt. The Redeemed. Just like him. He’d been redeemed from the darkness others had placed on him. He was no longer the victim but the victor.
“Every masterpiece needs contrast,” he murmured, melting another stick of wax into the bowl. “Shadow can’t exist without light.”
It wasn’t wasted on him that her K-9 partner was named Shadow.
Did she feel him close by like a shadow that wouldn’t go away?
In time, Ava would feel the weight of her decision three years earlier. He’d make sure of that. Pain always found its way home.
She’d caused him pain in ways she didn’t know.
He’d return the favor.
He pressed the pawn into the warm wax, sealing his mark—cross intersecting circle—and whispered, “I’ll leave this one here for them to find and know.” He turned to her. “Along with you.” He glanced to where he’d left his gift for Ava. Her fellow agent. She was slowly waking.
Wax imagined Ava’s pain when she realized she’d failed to protect her friend and agent. Another failure on her part.
Just like Rachel had failed to protect Ava.
His mouth thinned. She’d been a disappointment, just like Ava.
For a heartbeat, he could almost see her standing there again, pleading for mercy.
Her mother’s voice echoed faintly, ghostlike: You can’t have her.
He shut his eyes and smiled. “But I already do.”
◆◆◆
Cold crept down through the bone and into the marrow.
Rachel slowly opened her eyes from the darkness that felt heavy and physical.
Her breath came in shallow gasps, each exhale blooming a small cloud in the air. The faint flicker of candlelight burned all around her, revealing glints of wax.
She tried to move. Rope bit into her wrists. Her legs were bound as well.
Think. Don’t panic.
Memory came back in flashes. The collapse of the shaft she’d been on. Through the dust and debris, she’s seen something moving her way. At first Rachel thought they’d been rescued until she felt the sharp prick against her neck.
Before she lost consciousness, she’d seen his face and known this was Wax.
“Good, you’re awake,” a voice said from somewhere close by.
Her heart leapt to her throat. “Who’s there?”
“You don’t remember me?” The tone was calm and conversational. “Ah, so you do remember me. I saved you from the collapse that I set deliberately for this very reason. You will be number three.”
Three.
The word had never been so terrifying.
Three meant complete in Biblical terms. God the Father. The Son. The Holy Spirit.
But this was as far removed from Godly things as the east was from the west.
She’d become part of Wax’s sick games and, in his world, three meant she would be the final victim.
She strained to see him, but the candlelight cast him in silhouette. He moved with unhurried grace, the scrape of boots on stone echoing softly.
Rachel closed her eyes and tried to recall the man who had stood over her before injecting her with something that rendered her unconscious and was responsible for the grogginess that wouldn’t let her think clearly.
Older. Dark hair. Tall. Thin.
“What do you want?” she demanded.
He chuckled under his breath. “To teach. To remind her what she rejected.”
“Her?”
He stopped a few feet away, tilting his head as if studying her. “Ava. Like her mother, she surrounds herself with those who give her a false sense of safety. You,”—he gestured faintly toward her— “you’re one of those people she hides behind. That makes you useful.”
Rachel’s pulse hammered. “If you hurt me—”
His smile sickened her. “It’s not time yet. First, we need her. I’ve brought our story full circle.”
He stood again, the candlelight catching the faint gleam of metal at his belt. A key, ornate and gold.
Rachel froze. “What are you planning?”
He smiled faintly. “Redemption.”
Then he turned and walked away. The door shut behind him, and darkness swallowed everything except the echo of her own breathing.
The candlelight quivered with the gust in which he closed the door.
Rachel closed her eyes and whispered again the same prayer she’d repeated since waking:
“Lord, be my light in this darkness.”
◆◆◆
As she stared into the iridescent faces of the two people Wax had left behind as a clue, there was something familiar about both.
Shadow continued to bark and paw at the ice-covered wall.
Caleb stepped closer. “Oh, geez.”
Ava shifted his way. “What is it? Do you recognize them?”
The horror on his face scared her. Time stood still while she waited for his answer.
“The woman, she looks like the lady in the lake...and you,” he said finally.
“Who is she? Who is he? Get ERT up here right away.” Ava turned away from the terror she saw on their faces and focused on her partner. Shadow was trying to tell her something.
Ava hurried over to the animal who continued to paw at the wall. “Show me.”
Shadow’s soulful eyes met hers briefly before he continued his actions as if trying to gain access through the wall of ice.
Caleb joined her. Together, they felt around for a secret panel without any luck.
“Agent Blake, we have a problem.”
Ava pulled her attention away from Shadow’s unusual behavior to zero in on Agent Novak.
He stood at the door they’d just entered. It was now closed.
“There’s no door handle. I can’t open it.”
The chilling truth settled over her. They were trapped.
Ava rushed over to the door. Where the door handle should have been there was nothing. Wax had deliberately lured them inside here for a reason.
She banged on it hoping to grab the attention of her colleagues.
“It’s hopeless,” Caleb told her after several attempts.
“What do we do now?” Novak asked.
Ava glanced around at the worried faces of Larabee and Shackleford, Harper and Jace and didn’t have an answer.
She tried the comms without any luck. Her phone revealed they had zero service in the belly of the mountain. She fought back hopelessness. “Does anyone have service?”
“Nothing,” Harper said after trying hers. Others confirmed the same.
Ava brought her thoughts together over the panic. “We need something to pry the door open.”
Caleb dug into his pack and brought out a small axe he used to clear trees from paths. He tried to get leverage but the door closed flush with the icy wall.
“It’s useless,” he said finally. “He designed it this way.”
“We’re trapped without any way to communicate,” Harper said with a hint of uneasiness in her tone.
Ava glanced around the icy room with growing apprehension. Why had Wax brought them here and isolated them? There was a reason.
Shadow still sat near the wall where she’d left him. He had Wax’s scent and it was pointing him toward the wall. There had to be another way out.
“Shadow.” She hurried toward the dog. “There has to be another way in. We just have to find it.”
Ava pounded on the ice wall while the rest of her team did the same.
Her attention shifted to something in the top corner of the room near the ceiling. She moved closer and realized it was a camera.
Her stomach turned. “He’s watching us.” She pointed to the camera.
“There’s more.” Caleb stopped beside her. “Over there.”
Ava focused on where he pointed. “That one’s different.” She squinted and realized it wasn’t a camera at all but some spigot.
A spigot. Why would Wax install a spigot unless...
A heartbeat later, the answer became clear as a pale gas blasted from the spigot. The sound it made came from several different directions.
“Cover your faces,” she yelled.
Ava buried her face in her jacket, but she knew it was losing battle. On an instinct she couldn’t explain, she tucked her cell inside her boot.
In her rush for answers, she’d walked straight into Wax’s trap without questioning it.
Her eyes streamed as the gas reached them, filling the space. The world became fuzzy. Caleb’s face swam before her eyes. She became aware of Shadow next to her, nudging her leg and then the dog was still.
“What’s happening?” She wasn’t sure she’d said the words aloud as the world around her grew dimmer.
Ava reached out for Caleb and fell into him. They both stumbled over something and hit the floor. She glanced up through the fog closing in and realized someone wearing a gas mask stood close to the two statues, watching.
“Wax.” She didn’t know his face, but it was him.
“You’ve come back to me, Ava.”
She barely registered the words. She blinked and tried to focus but it was next to impossible. An object grew closer. She squinted and realized it was Wax. He was standing over her.
“Where is she?” Her words slurred.
The sound of him breathing through the mask was its own type of nightmare.
“No.” No. Please no. Not when there were things she wanted to say to Caleb. She needed to tell him how much she loved him. How sorry she was that she’d let Wax win before.
Suddenly, she was floating—spindly arms holding her in their vice grip.
Then the familiar prick that sealed his control. As the drugs coursed through her body, she knew Wax was taking her to her final destination.