“I don’t think I’m much in the mood to listen. Right now I’ve got a lot on my mind.” Working through the maze of thorny roses, I avoided them until I remembered this was all an illusion, as real as Oakley’s foursome fantasy she’d shoved in Atlas’s face. I inhaled deeply, then walked through the wall in front of me, Lynx following.
“Why don’t I go see what Oakley says and then we can meet at home?” he offered, gripping my hand tightly with his own. I braced myself for the flood of calm, but it never came.
At least he’d given me the space to stew.
“Sure.” Though I doubted a thirty-minute head start would be enough to let me figure out what the hell was going on.
He headed around the house, peeking into the glass door before glancing back at me, as if wanting to give me one more chance to change my mind and follow him. I waved at him to go ahead before continuing down the long driveway.
From Blessed Crescent, I spotted Luna’s with its light on and rolled my eyes. Lynx must have forgotten to turn it off when he closed up earlier.
When I reached the cul-de-sac it was quiet. The chirping of crickets the only sound aside from the masquerade in the distance. Stepping up into the truck, I reached for the button and flicked it off before a sting pinched the nape of my neck. “Wha—”
“Well, this was easier than I thought it would be.” As he spoke, images slammed into my mind, knocking into each other like bumper cars.A musty hallway. A bloody gray suit. Computer screens. A room with no windows. Throbbing pain.
Then everything faded to black.
* * *
“Rise and shine, Agent Holt.”
The familiar, yet abrasive musk of bleach mixed with iron clogged my nostrils as I opened my eyes. Slumped over the back of a metal chair, my chest ached. When I moved to sit upright, the muscles of my shoulders tensed from the restraints cuffing my hands behind my back.
I’d been here too many times to question where I was. I knew it all would be white: the walls, floors, chairs, everything down to the cuffs on my wrists.
Most people believed SNO-OPS was where all the terrible secrets of the government played out, but they would be wrong. There was a darker, more sinister spot, tucked beneath the department’s underbelly. Somewhere, most agents, including my very own partner, never ventured.
The Casket.
“Agent Aleander, what’s the meaning of this?”
Through the only window in the room, two people were slumped over chairs, unconscious. Aurora and Fitzgerald Wells. Fitz was bleeding all over the white floor from his face and knuckles.
He’d tried to fight them off.
Aurora’s eyes were vacant, poised on the floor ahead of her. I recognized that look all too well. It was the same one my mother had when my father wouldcorrecther. Like if she stared at that one speck of dust somewhere on the ground, she could mentally escape from this moment. Like it wasn’t really happening.
If they’d hurt Aurora already, I couldn’t see it. But they would. It was rare for anyone to completely escape the trauma left behind from their time buried in The Casket.
Pain was quite a motivator. Find someone’s weak spot and they would do just about anything. If the government didn’t already know someone’s, it was usually my job to dig around and find it.
But the physical pain? That was left to an enforcer.
Currently, it looked like that would be Festus, Agent Aleander’s lackey and occasional side piece, though he thought he was stealthy enough that no one else at SNO-OPS knew.
“I tried to do this the nice way. Tried to put a little pressure on you and light a fire to get the information we needed,” Agent Aleander said, his breath hot over my shoulder. “Unfortunately, your continual refusal forced me to get creative.”
My gaze narrowed, hands tightening into fists. “What are you talking about?”
“I think you just need some motivation.” Agent Aleander strode across the room and out of reach, pressing the invisible panel built into the wall. “I considered using Agent Carver, knowing you two have a history, but then tonight, like some blessing from the Mother Goddess herself, an even better opportunity fell into my lap.”
That’s when I truly saw the person sitting there, tethered to that white chair. One surprise I never could have prepared myself for.
Oakley.
I thrashed against my bindings, kicking and screaming despite the fact that I’d been in this room a thousand times and had seen a thousand people do the same thing with no success. “What did you do?”
“Really, I didn’t need to do anything.” Agent Aleander picked at some dirt from beneath his fingernails. “I just happened to catch that spectacularshowback at Archon Thorne’s place. Falling for the sister of your open case vic and witchling momma to your boss? Classy, Holt. Didn’t know you had it in you.”
