He walked closer to the bars, getting so close that the zapping blue barrier lit up half of his face, making him appear even scarier than in my childhood nightmares. The rest of them followed to get a better look at the lost kid.
“How...” Ternin started, but then his eyes flicked around the cage and something clicked. “You work for your uncle, don’t you?” I could tell he meant it as a rhetorical question as he straightened and lifted his chin.
My breathing increased as I stared him down. He was in the fucking cell, he was at the disadvantage, but why did I get this feeling like he was disappointed in me. Why the fuck did I care?
I taunted out to them, “How could I not work for the man that raised me,saved mefrom being murdered by greedy fucks like you right after my own parents died?” I spat out that last part, my mask cracking by the second. It was so fucking embarrassing, but facing these men now, everything I had been keeping in bubbled to the surface. “How disgraceful can you be to want to get rid of a kid, your best friend’s kid, for fucking power. Power that, if you just asked for, I would’ve gladly given just to be a part of something my father loved so much.”
My head hung after that, not wanting them to see the agony on my face from the feeling I was all alone in this world.But you’re not.
That’s right. I’m not alone anymore. I had my fucking beautiful, deadly, sexy, and vicious mate.His fucking daughter.That thought alone made me smirk. The best revenge I could get on him would be to tie myself, the boy he wanted to get rid of, to the light of his world. Yes. He would be forced to deal with me now.
Before I could tell him that, his voice took on a serious tone, one that Ternin was not known for as he said, “Is that the garbage that your uncle has been telling you? Is that why you turned your back on us?”
“You turned your back on me!” My head snapped up, bellowing out my frustration, anger, and pain. “You fucking broke your promise! You lied and went back on your word and made a mockery of your friendship with my father!” I stepped up to the cell bars, no longer afraid of these men.
Smoke was seeping from my skin, swirling around my feet as the shadows bent toward me, and saying it was at the ready when I needed it.
Instead of Ternin blowing up like I expected, Syris stepped forward as he yelled at me, “Don’t you dare spout off about shit that you know nothing about!” Ternin put his hand on Syris’s shoulders, trying to keep him back, but he shook it off and came forward another step with vehement outrage. “You want to blame the rest of us for not trying hard enough, fine. I’ll accept that.I deserve that, but Ternin? No. He worked tirelessly to find you, to keep his promise to our dear friend. He lookedeverywherefor you, and every time he got a lead, you would disappear. He even had a room set—”
Ternin jerked his friends to the side, signaling to Manic to handle Syris as he turned back to me. “Look, I think we need to have a conversation, one without bars and spells, but you’re right about one thing, I did fail you.” My chest constricted as my magic stopped at his words. “I failed you, and I failed my best friend. I will never forgive myself for as long as I live. That I can promise you, whether you believe me or not, I need you to hear it.”
The shadows sunk back into their spaces, the smoke from my fingers stopped, and I was left wide-eyed and mouth parted as I gawked at this man and his solemn face. True regret shone in his eyes as his friends all looked down in shame. If this was all an act, it was a very good one... but even I was having a hard time thinking that.
I didn’t know what to say anymore. All the piss and vinegar was out, and now it was all just sad and depressing. That was not my scene. “How did he get in your cell?”
“Who?” Easton asked, curiosity building in his eyes.
“My uncle. How did he get into the cell to fuck with you? I’m guessing that even Kevin couldn’t come through the barrier?” They all narrowed their eyes, and I sighed, closing my eyes at the inconvenience of it all. I was suddenly very tired.
I waited until Ternin answered carefully, “He used his blood.”
I snorted. What was it with my uncle? If it wasn’t a tattoo, it was blood. The realization hit me hard. My uncle was so obsessed with these four that he practically copied everything they did. The only thing different was these four men always thought of their heirs, always put them in the calculation. I took a knife from my pocket and sliced my finger to drip my blood onto the barrier, and it slowly crumbled. I yanked opened the door, catching on to the fact that my uncle never thought of me in the equation.
Before they could ask me anything, I huffed out, “Rayla sent me. Well, she kinda did. I mean, I didn’t think I would be able to get you out, but I was sent to get information to save you all.”
Ternin stared into my eyes, trying to decide something. “Does she know you’re a part of this?” He waved his finger around, not even attempting to get out until he got his answers.
I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. “She’s the one that told me to come, to talk to you four, to give you all a chance to explain. She never once believed my words on the subject.” I grumbled under my breath, “Damn daddy’s girl.”
Ternin’s flat lips turned upward and a wide smile appeared, blinding me from his pearly whites as he stepped across through the cell door. “Hell yeah, she is.”
I looked down at my watch and realized we had a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time. I turned around, walking through the hallway as I counted the minutes I had left for my deadline. “We gotta go. I need to be back before sunrise or else she’s going to chain me up in your little dungeon.” Ternin smiled as he walked up to my side, grinning. “I don’t know why you’re grinning, she said she was going to chain me to you.”
His smile fell as he faced forward and added a little more speed to his steps. “We need to get home, now.”
My thoughts exactly. The cuffs in front of him would be a problem in the going fast department. “Look, we need to get those off.” I pointed to the cuffs. “There are two human scientists up ahead with a key to those.”
“We saw them on our way in,” he replied, “so we just get them to give us the keys and then kill them.”
I nodded. “Yeah, sure, but we need to make sure to get the woman’s drivers license and send someone to her house ASAP. There is a USB on her desk we don’t want to see the light of day.”
“What’s on it?” Easton asked from the back.
I threw over my shoulder, “All her research on supes and ways to control us with chemical compounds.”
“I will have someone retrieve it and bring it to me” was all he replied, and that had to do.
“Then we just need you to transport us out, sneak off the grounds, steal a car, and get home. Super easy peasy.” Ternin’s optimism was so infuriating I wanted to punch him in his stupid smiley mouth.
