He didn’t answer her question, just turned his smarmy gaze away from his children onto Mazz and laughed. “What, the queen couldn’t bother herself with us, so they sent a messenger?”
Mazz didn’t react. Her face remained impassive, her posture infuriatingly perfect while her body was relaxed. Her arms were crossed casually over her chest with most of her weight resting on one side and her hip stuck out. Fuckingmadefor interrogations. Even Bellamy had to admit she looked good like that—the loose pants and tight t-shirt accentuating her curves. No wonder Ves liked her so much.
Mazz shrugged her delicate shoulders and turned away. “If you’re not going to talk, you can rot in prison,” she said, her voice light and easy, like she didn’t care one way or another.
“Wait,” he called, a dangerous smile crawling onto his face. “You want to know about the potion?”
Mazz turned back expectantly. His lip curled, and his gaze slid back to where Bellamy and Vesper were standing, partially blocking Cypress and Cedar from his view.
He thrust his chin in their direction. “It was supposed to contain the abomination. At least, until she could be transported somewhere safe for study.”
Vesper moved to further block Cypress from his line of sight, tugging Bellamy with her. The man caught this, of course, and laughed at them.
“You’re protecting a monster, you know. You’re not prepared. She’ll kill you. Give her to us.”
“What are you saying?” Mazz demanded, finally losing patience as the man got more aggressive in his anger, pulling against his chains.
“My daughter,” he answered, his gaze narrowing, pinpointed on Cypress. “She’s a Damp?—”
His threat was interrupted when sparks flew through the air from behind them. They exploded inside the truck. No shape formed as they ate away at the two captives, burning their bodies, melting their skin. Blood pooled around them quickly as life evaded their reach.
Shouts erupted around them. Chaos ensued. Mazz yelled at Ro and another person, ordering them to find and kill the assassins. The twenty-some other people rushed about doing who knows what.
Vesper whipped around, dropping her hold on Bellamy, who stumbled from the sudden loss of support. She watched, just a little too slow to react, as Vesper lunged for Cypress, reaching her arm out just in time to block a bolt of Energy racing toward the Dampener.
“No!” Bellamy screamed. The Energy didn’t make it to either of them. It was encased in a thick, black liquid emanating from Cypress’s chest along with Vesper’s entire arm. In seconds, Vesperhad fallen, the black bubble eating into her. It seeped what little Energy she had, burning her life away.
A litany of no’s fell from Bellamy's lips as she dropped to her knees and crawled to Vesper and cradled her head in her lap. Vesper wasn’t breathing. Her pulse was almost non-existent. That fucking Dampener bubble soaked into her arm, staining the entire thing black as it took her life force.
Cypress screamed and cried as Cedar pulled her away, trying to calm her and get her to safety.
“Wisp!” Mazz yelled, running up beside them. “Shock her!” Her voice was frantic now. She’d lost her calm composure when she’d been interrogating the man.
Bellamy couldn’t look away. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. She couldn’t even find it in her to be upset with Mazz’s proximity as her gentle hand came down on Bellamy’s shoulder. She barely even saw her sister before Ari knelt beside her. A smooth yellow glow covered Vesper’s chest.
So, Ari’s a healer, Bellamy thought numbly. But it was too late. Ves was gone.
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
Bellamy
Why the fuck was it taking so long? It had been a week since Ves died—if only for a minute. A week since fucking Ari saved her—brought her back with no explanation. Since when the fuck was Ari trained as a healer? And now, Bellamy was in the hospital, next to Vesper’s bed, waiting for her to wake up.
They said it would take time. Her body was drained of Energy. Of life. That wasn’t something someone just walked off. But still, a fucking week? Bellamy was losing her mind.
Mazz had come by every day, much to her chagrin, but Bellamy hadn’t found it in herself to be irritated. As much as she hated to admit it, it was actually helpful. She’d distracted Bellamy for about an hour a day, forcing her to eat, almost taking care of her while she waited.
She even got an update on Cypress. The Dampener was still alive and well. They were still giving her special treatment, all of them. Like a fucking child and not a bomb waiting to go off. Cedar and Ari were working together to make a potion for her, to control her abilities until she learned to do so herself. Bellamy almost laughed. Dampener’s didn’t learn to control their magic; they died from it.
But as long as they didn’t drag her to this drab hospital room, Bellamy didn’t care what happened to her.
Okay, fine. Maybe she cared a little. She didn’treallyhate the girl that much after all. That was all the information she got though. Every time she asked about what the fuck had happened, Mazz just waved her off. Said it was a “secret,” and that Bellamy didn’t need to concern herself with it.
The door creaked open, pulling Bellamy’s attention away from Vesper’s motionless form. The healers had come back. Three of them shuffled into the room in their grey uniforms. They made Bellamy uncurl herself and move out of the way. She’d been sitting in one of the two chairs in the room. Had it pulled right up beside Vesper’s bed.
The metal legs screeched painfully against the concrete floor when she got up and pushed it to the empty wall behind her so the healers could move around Vesper freely. They checked her heart, her lungs, her blood, her magic, emptied her bladder and refilled the fluid drip going into her arm. Then, they checked the red conductive string wrapped around the black bubble leeching Energy from Vesper’s arm.
They’d explained to Bellamy the first day, when she almost killed one of them for shooting raw Energy into Vesper’s arm, about their little theory that overloading the bubble would cause it to disintegrate.
