Ariah steps in closer— no one attempting to stop her. She stands to the left of her father, still giving him room to interrogate Elise.
“Who else is in on this?” Mr. Bradford asks.
Elise doesn’t answer, still whimpering at the sight of the blade lodged in her leg.
Aaron turns the blade, and Elise screeches. She pushes back against the chair, attempting to escape the pain.
“Who else?” he barks again.
I look around the room. Everyone is frozen to their spots— no one dares to interfere. Ariah’s father looks as if he’s grown two times as large as he looms over his wife.
Elise’s green eyes look crazed when she lifts her gaze to meet Aaron’s stare head-on. One of her pupils is tinged with red, making her appear almost animalistic. She must have popped a blood vessel at some point. “You might as well kill me because I’m not telling you shit,” she grits.
A shrill cry rips from her throat as another knife impales her other thigh. “I have plenty of knives and endless time, Elise. You know better than most— Ialwaysget the answers. I’m relentless in that regard,” Aaron states emphatically.
“F-fuck you,” she spits.
“Never again,” Aaron responds, reaching down and turning both knives, driving them deeper.
Lev steps up and pulls a vial from his vest. “Try this,” he offers, and Aaron takes the proffered bottle.
“What’s in that?” I whisper once he steps alongside me.
“Acid,” he murmurs as Elise screams until she’s hoarse.
I arch my brow. “You just walk around with acid?”
“Never leave home without a few different methods to aid in compelling people to answer questions,” Lev quips, and I’m not sure if I should be worried or impressed.
Shaking my head, I turn back to see Aaron dripping another drop of the acid into Elise’s wound. “Who the fuck else, Elise?” he demands.
Snot runs down her tear-streaked face. Elise hangs her head in defeat. “No one you don’t already know about.”
The Council steps forward at that answer. “That can’t be true,” Wes’s dad snaps. “What about Senator Baker?”
“A convenient distraction you idiots believed,” Elise mutters. “You fools were so focused on amancoming for your seats you missed all the signs in front of you.”
“It’s not possible,” Donald grumbles. “There have to be more people in on this.”
Elise thrusts her neck back, resting it on the back of her chair. It looks like it took all her strength to muster the move. “And that’s how I was able to do everything. You’re too fucking arrogant.” She angles her neck to stare at Owen. “It’s how I was able to take your sons,” then she turns to Ariah. “It’s how I was able to fuck your son. The little shit got hard for me, too,” she cackles.
A distorted cry fills the air, and we all watch in what feels like expedited slow motion as Ariah pulls a dagger from Owen’s belt, pushes her dad out of the way, and plunges the blade into her mother’s throat before pulling it out and stabbing her repeatedly. “You fucking monster,” she shouts. Her arm raises and lowers, over and over again, until Owen grips her wrist before her next downward strike.
Owen leans into her, saying something inaudible to our ears, and she drops the knife to the ground as she falls into his arms.
He scoops her up and carries her from the room without a backward glance.
Sudden movement causes me to turn in time to see Aaron open the top of the vial and pour the contents all over Elise’s lifeless face. Then he turns and exits the room after his daughter.
I stare at Elise’s mutilated corpse—monsterisn’t great enough of a word to describe who she was, but now it’s over.
“Do we think she was telling the truth about Senator Baker?” Wes inquires.
“We’re still working on uncovering names, but so far, everyone that’s been discovered, we’ve known about,” Lev answers.
A throat clears. “Keep digging. For now, we’ll call this finished. Elise was the primary focus — she was the leader of the Filiae Bellonae, and with her and the key players taken out, we can work to find the remainder of the scum in hiding,” Donald Edgewood instructs. “Meet us back at the Tombs once you’ve ensured Miss Brad- Ariah’s okay, and you’ve dealt with Antonio.”
I growl at the mention of his name. Wes might’ve called dibs, but I’m sure we’ll all get our turns before he’s disposed of.
