“I wasn’t looking for everyone I love to be in danger.” For all she knew, Maizie was upstairs in the rubble, dead following that explosion. “Whatever the two of you have going on here, I don’t want anything to do with it.” A lump rose in Eliana’s throat, but she swallowed against it.
“I don’t have anything to do with her.” Patience pointed the gun at Raquel, waving it as if she cared more about an aunt than the other woman down here. “She betrayed me a long time ago, and she’ll get what’s coming to her before long.”
Eliana was sick of all the killing. They all just needed to stop. “Everything to do with this place always ends in death,” she said. “That’s what people like you want everyone to think. You want them to believe it’s all because of the Shrine andDominatusthat people are oppressed or manipulated. But it’s in you. It’s in all of us. It’s just the sin nature we all have.”
“You’re going to preach to me?”
“You’ve twisted the truth so much, you probably have no idea what’s real and what you just made up in your head.”
Lydia thought she was bringing about the end times. Patience thought that she had the power of life and death over people’s lives, and that everyone she knew should follow her as if she was some kind of messiah.
Patience’s eyes flared. “You have no idea who I am, or how far I’ve come. You have no idea.”
“And now you get a shot to have it all.” Eliana waved her arm at the vault. “But how many people’s lives did you have to destroy to get here?”
Raquel rushed into the vault, grabbing the edge of the door and dragging it shut behind her. As if she was going to succeed by closing herself in the vault. Did it even work that way?
“No!” Patience swung her arm up and fired three shots between the door and the frame, trying to hit Raquel.
Eliana pushed her to the side, shoving at her arm so that she missed. The older woman stumbled to the side, screaming in anger.
Raquel wailed, and something clattered to the floor.
Patience pushed back, causing Eliana to stumble against the wall. She lifted the gun and pointed it at her.
Eliana froze.
Raquel didn’t get the door closed. It was still open, and Eliana couldn’t hear or see anything. Had Patience hit Raquel with that shot?
Patience motioned with the gun. “In the vault with Raquel, please.” When Eliana took too long, she added, “Now!”
Eliana flinched and hurried to the vault. If she could get inside and out of firing range, she could shut the door to the vault the way that Raquel had been planning to do. Close them in. Protect them both from Patience so that someone else could take her down.
A door slammed in the hall, echoing to them.
“Police! Drop the gun!”
Eliana nearly slumped to the floor with relief at hearing Maizie’s voice, no longer wanting to close herself in the vault with Raquel.
She stepped back toward Patience, knowing the situation was about to be over, but Raquel grabbed her arm and dragged her into the vault, closing the door behind them. The detective spun the wheel from the inside, and the door clicked into place.
“What are you doing? My sister is out there!” Eliana wanted to throttle Raquel. “This is over. You’re done! You aren’t going to get what you want, but youaregoing to let Carlos go.”
Raquel lifted her phone and waved it, blood on her fingers. “With one phone call, I’m going to let Wallace know that Carlos should be dead. It will only take him seconds to slit your boyfriend’s throat. He’ll bleed out long before you get to him.”
Eliana wanted to scream. And not just because somehow this woman had a signal.
“All you have to do is one thing,” Raquel said. “Take control of the Board of Governors, then hand it over to Lydia.”
“Lydia is dead! Didn’t you hear that explosion upstairs? Patience sent someone here with a bomb strapped to them and killed everyone upstairs.” Except her sister had survived.
“Lydia isn’t dead! She can’t die.”
Eliana backed up to the wall. Her gaze drifted, and she spotted the knife on the floor. Her knife—the one she’d been gifted. But it was behind Raquel, out of reach. She winced. “So you gave up one Mother for another one, is that it? All your life has been about finding purpose in someone else’s ideology. I guess that’s better than learning how to think for yourself.”
“I back the person with the most power.” Raquel sneered. “And sometimes that’s me. So tell me, are you going to do what I say and save your boyfriend’s life—or let him die?”
“I’m not going to do?—”
