28. Rowan
28
ROWAN
“ A ll you have to do is give me some useful information, and it'll all be over.” Diesel huffed out a heavy breath. “Why do you have to be so difficult?”
He drizzled an acidic potion down Rowan’s spine, and she screamed in agony.
Her voice filled the dungeon, echoing off the stone walls surrounding her.
Her body was done for. She was so very exhausted, that she didn’t know how it was still even possible for her to feel any pain anymore. “I don't know what you're talking about…”
“Stop lying to me, Agent Lexie . I know you've been on my trail for years, which I ignored because you had no evidence to convict me, but now all of a sudden, my potion operations are backfiring? I’d say that’s no coincidence.” Diesel grabbed a chunk of Rowan's hair and pulled her head back. “Now tell me, who do you have working for you on the inside? Tell me who it is, and I might even let you live.”
Rowan grunted, but swallowed the pain, showing him an unwavering glare. “You think you can break me? It won't work. You'll just have to kill me.”
“Now where is the fun in that?” he scoffed, throwing her head forward as he released his grip on her hair. “I'll leave you to stew in your wounds. Perhaps you'll be more pliable when you're on the verge of death.”
Diesel disappeared into the dark shadows, leaving Rowan alone in the dungeon.
Rowan's whole body relaxed, allowing the pain to take over fully. She let out a little sob before catching herself. She knew she couldn't afford to break down now. She’d been here for days, and no one had noticed. Or they had noticed but couldn’t find her, or even do anything about it.
I'm going to have to find a way to escape myself. I don’t know if I can hold on for much longer… I'm at my breaking point.
Rowan was dipping in and out of consciousness, struggling to stay awake, but she could still hear footsteps approaching. “Back already? Don't tell me you missed me,” she laughed weakly, but fell silent when she noticed it wasn't Diesel standing before her. “O—Omara Ransom…”
She was shaking like a leaf, staring in horror at the tortured woman before her. Her hands slowly came up over her mouth as tears rolled down her cheeks. “What's happened? What are you doing here?”
“What does it look like? Your doting husband has had me down here for days, torturing me for information I don't have.”
Rowan closed her eyes, shaking her head in disappointment. Of all the people to discover her, this naive, frightened woman certainly wasn't going to be her way out of this.
Omara had been complacent with Diesel's actions for years now. Rowan knew she would be foolish to think that Omara could suddenly grow a backbone.
“My husband is doing this to you?” She struggled to speak as if she couldn't catch her breath. She tumbled forward, grabbed onto the wall, and dragged her nails down the stone there, gasping and sobbing. “I can't—I can't breathe!”
My head snapped up as I realized she was busy hyperventilating, and likely about to pass out.
“Omara, listen to me. Raise your head and look at me.” My tone was soft yet commanding. So much so that she couldn't help but listen.
Her head slowly rose, and her mouth was agape as she tried to draw air into her panicked lungs.
“I need you to take a deep breath. Breathe with me. Ready? One, two, three. Breathe in… Hold it… Breathe out… And again.” Rowan realized that she’d been wrong. Judging by Omara’s reaction, she might not have been totally aware of everything Diesel was doing.
Rowan watched as her breathing slowed, and a calmness—or some semblance of it—swept over her. “Feel better?”
“Why is he holding you down here? Who are you?” She furrowed her brows in a distrusting manner, but still inched closer to Rowan.
“I am Special Agent Rowan Lexie. I work for the Department of Potion Regulations, and I've been investigating your husband for the past five years.” Rowan paused, giving Omara a moment to absorb the information. “That's why he abducted me. He knew I was getting close to exposing him.”
“No. I refuse to believe that. Diesel can be a great many things, but this is too far. You have to be lying… Tell me the real reason why you're down here.” She took a few steps back again, shaking her head.
Rowan could tell she was losing her only way of escape, and knew she needed to act fast. “Come on, Omara. You have to know better than that by now. You're a very smart woman, and you had to have noticed things before now. There's a part of you that resents him, isn't there? Maybe there's even a part of you that questions if Diesel had something to do with his own brother's death—with your husband's death… What if I told you you weren't crazy for thinking that?”
Omara’s eyes dropped to the floor and widened in horror. Her hands slowly lifted to her mouth, as if she was trying to keep a silent wail at bay. “It can't be… There's no way Diesel would hurt his own family.”
“Diesel has done much worse than that, and you know it. He's played you for a fool this whole time, but you have a chance to make it right. You don't have to turn a blind eye anymore.”
“If I let you out…he’ll be furious,” she mumbled, seeming uncertain about her decision as she drew her arms around herself. “All hell will break loose.”
“All hell has already broken loose, Omara. Diesel's responsible for burning half the city to the ground, for Goddess’s sake! If you don't let me stop him, he will do a lot worse than that. More families will be devastated, and that won't just be on him. That'll be on you as well.”
Rowan narrowed her eyes at the terrified woman before her, refusing to even blink, hoping against hope that her words had finally broken through to Omara’s conscience—and her courage that had to be hiding in there somewhere.
The room fell silent. So much so that if a pin dropped, the next city over would have heard it.
Omara’s features then suddenly twisted into a cold scowl, her eyes darkening in a way that sent a harrowing jolt down Rowan’s back—which was why she flinched when the unrecognizable creature before her charged forward with vengeance written all over her face.
She expected Omara to go for her neck and strangle her, but was surprised when she grabbed a hold of the chains wrapped around Rowan's wrists instead.
Bones breaking and cracking filled Rowan's ears as she watched Omara shift halfway into her wolf form. This gave her just enough strength to rip the chains to pieces.
Rowan fell to the ground with a loud thud, immediately rubbing the bruised and bleeding parts of her wrists. She managed a nervous laugh as she said, “I'll be honest with you, that wasn't my expected outcome.”
“A part of me has always known. I just wanted a better life for my sons, something I couldn’t give them by myself. I know that doesn't excuse anything, but I was acting in the best interest of my family.” Omara was almost pleading with Rowan to see things from her perspective, but forgiveness couldn’t be given so easily.
“I also grew up in a poor village. I was raised by only my mother, and you know the most valuable thing she taught me? A decision made to save a few, to the detriment of many, is a bad decision. Don't look to me for redemption, you won't find it here.”
Rowan moved past her without another word, and exited the dungeon, leaving Omara to wallow in her thoughts.
Change was in the air; a revelation of truth, an ultimate disclosure, an apocalypse, if you will, of an old era to make way for the new.
And it was time all involved realized it.