Chapter 2
Two
Rose
“So, what’s the plan?” I ask. “You’re going to hold me here while you go after Ash? Gotta admit, it’s not exactly the evil mastermind move I expected.”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you.” She stands. “Ash has already been incapacitated to a certain extent. Long enough for us to take you into custody, Then there’s nothing left but to finish the job.”
Custody. As if she’s some power-tripping cop. Except I haven’t broken any laws, and she’s about to commit murder. A couple of times. Because there’s no way she’s going to let me live.
She sweeps to the door, then turns back, eyeing me up like a fly she wants to tear the wings off. “Don’t bother trying to escape. This room will hold you.” She twists her wrist, murmurs something, and my skin feels like tiny needles are pricking it all over.
Helena’s lapdogs follow her out, leaving me alone in the room. The door slams, clicking shut behind them. The lock engages, and the door starts to glow with magic, covering the seams of the doorway.
I just sit there, staring at the table, trying to think, but my heart palpitations are making it difficult.
I push up to my feet, fighting through the panic. The first thing I do is try the door, but of course it doesn’t budge.
I press my ear to the door, listening, hearing nothing other than my own breathing.
Except as I listen again, now there are voices. Loud, angry, and not Helena’s.
“Let us through!”
Lucien. I’d know that icy rage anywhere.
Another voice, deep and angry. Soren. “You really want to do this right here?”
A third voice, shaky and female. One of the witches from Helena’s crew. “No one gets in. Not even you.”
There’s a scuffle, muffled thuds, something heavy scraping against the wall. I imagine Lucien’s marble-cold hands around someone’s neck, Soren smiling and getting way too into it, like the demon he is. If I weren’t currently the damsel in distress (kill me now), it would almost be hot.
“Lucien!” I yell, pounding on the wood. “Soren! I’m in here!”
The mark flares faintly, then goes quiet. I can’t sense Ash, wherever he is.
I slam my hand against the door until it stings painfully.
“Rose.” Lucien’s voice, right on the other side, has a desperation in it that makes me want to curl up in his arms.
I lean closer. “It’s warded. Can you break it?”
“I’m trying.”
Soren’s voice, lazy and dangerous. “You should ask nicely, little witch.”
“Less flirting, more brute force.” Infuriating as always, even in a situation like this.
There’s another thunk. The door vibrates under my hand, but I’m still stuck on one side of it, with them on the other.
I can’t see them, but I can picture Soren with his grin, and the anger in Lucien’s eyes. There’s probably blood, too, because I’m pretty sure someone is getting punched in the face.
“We’re not leaving you,” Soren calls. “Just give us a minute.”
I try to slow my breathing, but my body’s shaking and I can’t stop it. I hate this. I hate being powerless, hate being the one who needs saving.
But mostly I hate Helena.
Another crash. A scream. Someone cursing.
“Don’t you dare get killed out there,” I mutter.
I focus on the blood mark, trying to will Ash to hear me. Still nothing. I picture Helena’s magic around Ash’s throat, her witches pinning him down, and I want to scream too.
Instead, I try to think.
Okay, Rose. You’ve broken out of worse. (False. You’ve broken out of exactly one mall security guard’s office after he caught you stealing a watermelon lip gloss, not a magical super-max conference room.)
I look around the room for anything useful. The table is bolted to the floor, the chairs are too heavy to pick up, and the windows are probably warded. There’s a pitcher of water and some glasses on a tray, like we’re gonna need to hydrate before the killing starts.
I grab a glass anyway and hurl it at the window. It bounces off with a sad, anticlimactic clink.
Outside, the noise gets louder. Soren is taunting someone, Lucien is barking out orders, someone else is screaming. I wish I could see them. I wish I could do anything but sit here and wait to be rescued.
The air in the room is starting to feel thin, like the spell is sucking up all the oxygen. My skin is tingling, my thoughts are getting fuzzier. I blink, trying to stay present. I’m not sure if this is Helena’s magic or just a panic attack, and I don’t have time to figure it out.
Again, I try the door. I pound on it with both fists until my hands go numb.
“Lucien!” I shout. “Soren!”
The spell burns me where I touch the door and I jerk back.
I’m about three seconds from total meltdown when the temperature drops dramatically. I shiver, and I can see my breath.
It’s Drake.
He steps through the wall, barely more than a vague shimmer at first. For a second, I think I’m hallucinating from the panic attack, but then he’s there, pale and beautiful and heartbreakingly transparent.
“Rose.”
I rush to him, tripping over my own feet. “Drake!”
He tries to smile, but his presence is weak, like a dying lightbulb.
I move to touch him, to wrap my arms around him, but when I reach out my hand passes right through his chest. He flickers in and out.
“No, no, no.” Panic claws at my throat. “I need you, Drake. I need you to stay.”
He shudders, trying to pull himself together. I can see the strain in the way his outline blurs at the edges.
“Helena’s spell,” he says. “It’s too strong. I can barely hold on.”
“Can you get me out?”
He shakes his head. “It’s sealed. Even Soren can’t break it. Lucien’s about to lose his mind.”
On cue, another crash from outside. The door rattles, but the spell holds.
“Find Ash!” I shout to Lucien and Soren. God, I hope they listen to me.
Drake moves closer, trying to solidify, but the effort makes him glitch worse. For a split second, I can feel his hand brush my cheek, there then gone in an instant.
“You’re fading.” I hear the shakiness in my voice. “Drake.”
He tries to laugh. “Don’t worry about me. You’re the one in danger.”
I cover my face with my hands, trying to pull myself together. “God, I wish I had my magic. I wish I could burn this place to the ground.”
The room is spinning, or maybe it’s just my brain. I can hear Lucien and Soren still fighting outside, and see that the spelled door glows faintly.
I look at Drake, at the way he’s fighting just to stay here, and something inside me snaps.
“I’m not giving up,” I say, shoving the panic down. “I don’t care what Helena is planning. I’m getting out of here, and I’m finding a way to bring you with me.”
Drake stares at me. “I’d follow you anywhere,” he says. “But I’m not sure I can leave. Even if we find a way for me to stay.”
I grab for him, desperate, but my fingers go right through his arm. Not being able to touch Drake anymore scares me more than anything. I stare at the lights in the ceiling until my eyes tear up. “I’m so tired of being helpless.”
He strokes my hair, or tries to. “You’re anything but that, Rose.”
I choke out a laugh.
Drake leans in, his face close to mine. “Rose, listen. No matter what happens, you fight. You survive.”
His presence is fading, and his features are going soft at the edges. I grab at him, but my hands close on empty air.
“Drake! Don’t you dare leave me!” I’m yelling now.
“I’ll always come back to you. Even if it’s only as a memory.”
He vanishes, slipping away like a breath in winter air.
And I’m alone again, sprawled on the floor.
I curl up, arms wrapped around my stomach, and pretend Drake is still beside me. I replay his words in my head, over and over.
No matter what happens, you fight. You survive.
I can do that. I always have. I have to.
The covens, these witches, want to take everything from me.
I’ll see them all burn first.