Chapter 22
22
Raze
I t’s a risk to go down to the cells now that the others are gone. The Syndicate could discover their absence at any time, and I’ve got to make sure I’m as far away from those cells as possible when it happens. But I can’t leave Matilda’s body lying there the way Brody and Niles left her.
A simple drive past the mayor’s home tells me that James has already retired for the night and the others have likely followed suit. Given the lack of attention they’ve paid their captives since they were brought down there, I decide it’s worth the risk to sneak back into the school on my way back to my apartment.
Calling in help is not an option. At least, not for this part. I can’t bring any member of the rebellion into the belly of the beast without risking their life—which I won’t do. In the chaos of everything, I haven’t even had a chance to break the news of anything that happened on this fucked-up day to anyone. Specifically, my mother, who has considered Matilda as more of a sister than a friend.
The loss will devastate her. It’ll devastate all of us. Every member’s life is as valuable as the next.
But Matilda was an integral part of our movement and we were confident she’d make her way out. She deserves to be laid to rest with respect, not discarded like a useless sack of flour by a man with less integrity than a fucking rock.
I find her in the exact position where Brody dropped her in his memory. Part of me is relieved that she’s still here for me to take, and the other is completely dumbfounded that those fucking idiots haven’t come back to clean up their mess yet.
Who kills someone like this? Of all the ways, this had to have been the least efficient. They’ve created a mess of blood and other bodily fluids that will never be scrubbed clean from the stone floors. And now all of it is going to be on me .
The chaos of what happened down here still lingers in the air. Sonny’s screams seem to have clung to the walls and they still vibrate with her energy. A quick peek into the cell she was locked in reveals a puddle of blood sitting beside her makeshift bed. I hadn’t noticed any major injuries on her before, but I was too distracted by everything else to do a full examination.
I hope they take the healing tinctures I left for them.
Twisting around, I try to place my feet in the same place she was standing when Matilda was killed, just to get her point of view. Of course, she had a direct sight of the whole thing. That’s why they taunted her so much before they did it.
“Are you watching, red?”
Those words will be the last they hear right before I kill them. It was impossible not to tell her that I’d already seen the whole thing take place when she was telling me about it in the cabin. The fear and fury in my little nightmare’s face staring back at them will be ingrained inside my brain for eternity.
I’m glad she scared the shit out of them. They need to see that there are bigger forces at play. They need to know how small and insignificant they truly are.
Especially up against a Landry legacy. The most powerful bloodline of them all.
Stepping across the hall and into Matilda’s cell, I take my phone out of my pocket and shoot off a text for my mother to meet me in the woods behind the school. She answers almost immediately, letting me know she’s on the way.
“It’s just you and me now,” I mutter to the dead woman before me.
Of all the gifts my bloodline grants me, speaking to spirits is not one of them. I’ve been grateful for that small mercy up until the point. The dead terrify me, and I know how easily they can get attached if you let them. Then it’s a real problem. But just this once, I wish I could talk to the old woman’s spirit and assure her that her death wasn’t in vain.
That this entire town will pay for their part in all of this corruption.
Rigor mortis has settled in, permanently stiffening her body into its awkward position. It makes carrying her through the halls and up the stairs a bitch.
Nothing is worse than the smell. It takes a concentrated effort to limit my breaths and inhale through my nose. Even then, my stomach is still twisting at the rotten scent.
This is why we dispose of the bodies as soon as possible. It’s Serial Killer 101.
Thankfully, no one is here to interrupt me this time around because carrying her extra weight has made shielding myself with shadows next to impossible.
I sprint across the final stretch of grass before hitting the cover of the trees, then stop to take a break.
“Oh no!” my mother cries out, startling me. She brings her hands up to cover her mouth in disbelief. “They didn’t...”
“When I told you to meet me in the woods,” I grind out through labored breaths, pushing myself to get a little further into the woods to avoid being seen. “I didn’t mean for you to be directly in the tree line. Anyone could have found you standing out here.”
“When did this happen?” she interrogates, ignoring my chastising. A few steps close the distance between us for her to examine the state of her best friend slung around my shoulder.
“Earlier today.”
The angry look she shoots me is one that would have me pissing my pants when I was a kid. It’s the one that said I better get as far away from her as possible. I’m too tired for it to bother me tonight, though.
“I don’t want to hear it. I’ve spent my entire day cleaning up one hell of a mess,” I chastise, gently laying Matilda’s body in a bed of leaves and snow.
My mother climbs to her knees beside her friend and runs her fingers through her hair. In the moonlight, the gash across her neck appears even more angry and bloody. I almost feel bad for allowing her to see her in this state, but I know the fallout of not allowing it would be far worse.
“I’m so sorry, Matilda. We were trying to get you out,” she whispers.
I take a step back and double over, resting my hands on my knees as I try to recover my breath. “I don’t think there’s much time for us to gather everyone for a proper burial before her condition worsens.”
When I go to stand straight again, I realize the entire back half of my jacket and all of my right shoulder are soaked in...something. Shrugging it off my body, I throw it on top of Matilda to obscure her neck from view.
Unfortunately, my shirt is soaked in the dark fluid as well.
My mother sniffles, and when she turns back toward me, I see the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“We’re going to make it right, Mom. That’s what all of this is for,” I soothe, reaching out to wrap my arm around her shoulders until I notice the gore covering my palms and decide against it.
Too many times, I’ve stood at her side and watched her mourn the loss of a loved one that was taken by the Midnight Syndicate too many fucking times.
She closes her eyes and gently runs her palm against Matilda’s cheek in a final goodbye. Once she opens them again, her expression has morphed. Gone is the anguish that twisted her features before, and in its place is hard determination.
“We’ll have to burn those clothes,” she tells me. Her tone is detached, all business. “Call August out here to help move the earth. We’ll tell the others in the morning and hold a memorial later with the rest of the town, so it’s not as obvious. We can’t be gathering alone at this point.”
I’m already typing the message to August before she finishes speaking, pissed that I hadn’t considered calling him before. As a Primaris with Terrakinetics, he’s our fastest bet for getting a grave dug quickly and efficiently, especially with the ground being frozen.
Once the message is sent, I release a long breath. “I haven’t even told you the worst part.”
She scowls. “What could be worse than this?”
“I told the Ellery girl about the key this afternoon. She’s escaped the cells.”
“Raze Anthony Whitlock,” she scolds, her face taking on a brand new level of fury. “You had no right to do that.”
“They were going to die down there if we didn’t get them out soon. Look at Matilda.” I point to the dead body lying before us to prove my point. “That was completely unprovoked.”
“What do you mean ‘ them ’?” she prods, never one to miss the small details.
Swallowing, I tilt my chin toward the trees and beg whoever is up above to grant me the strength to get through telling my mother what I’ve done without her whooping my ass for it like the pathetic, grown man-child that I am. “As it turns out, the girl was unwilling to leave without her friends. She broke them out with her. All four of them are staying in the cabin.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, she pinches the bridge of her nose in a move I realize I’ve learned from her. Obviously, Sonny’s stubborn tenacity doesn’t impress her as much as it did me.
“We had a timeline set.” Every word is enunciated with one hand slamming against the other. “They were going to be out of there soon enough,” she seethes.
Straightening my shoulders, I shake my head in the negative. “You didn’t see them. They weren’t going to make it, and I made the judgment call to get her out. It wasn’t worth the risk of losing her altogether.”
That, and I couldn’t stomach the idea of her spending one more night locked away once I saw her condition under those fluorescent lights this afternoon. No one treats the people I care about that way.
“Then, I hope you’re willing to back that up with the rest of the movement because they’re going to be angrier than I am. They aren’t ready to take them in.”
“They’ll get over it once they realize how valuable she is. She’s shown traits of Luminara on top of Valeria and Aeternum. It’s only a matter of time before the others manifest. She’s the real deal—exactly what we’ve been waiting for. I think we can handle a few small adjustments to accommodate her. Especially them .”
“That’s a problem for another day,” my mother huffs, staring back down at Matilda’s still form.
August finds us less than ten minutes later and the three of us decide that it would probably be best if we buried her body off Ravenshurst property. Thankfully, he’s able to help me carry her through the woods and into my trunk, since neither of them is allowed to bring their cars on campus, anyway. They load into my backseat, and we drive out to the edge of Nocturne Valley, then pull off into a random hiking trail and August gets to work laying the only woman to rest.