Guess that answers the question of if he slipped a bonding potion in our water. If I get out of here, I’m never going to give Bellamy shit over his stranger danger paranoia again.
When, not if. I’ll rage quit life before I let this asshole win.
“Come along, then,” he commands, snapping his fingers and expecting me to fall into line and follow behind him like a trained pet.
I really should have anticipated the shock that comes through my collar.
“Forgive her, Mr. Nocturne, she doesn’t know what’s expected of her yet,” Skylar says between gritted teeth, pulling me up off the ground.
That gives Dane pause. “Promising,” he murmurs under his breath before taking me by the arm and dragging me out of the cell, slamming the door behind us and leaving Skylar trapped.“You brought this on yourself,” he says with a disappointed shake of his head as he leads me up the basement stairs, muscles still twitching and sending up a silent thank you to the universe that I didn’t pee myself when I was electrocuted.
Missing a step as I hurry to keep up, he yanks my arm to keep me moving and upright, growing more agitated with every passing minute. “I gave youonerule, and you broke it on the first day!”
“Well how the hell was I supposed to know which one was the west wing? It’s not like you have compasses strapped to the bannisters!”
He glowers at me, but thankfully, doesn’t shock me again.
“Here's what's going to happen. You're going to finish the device and heal my mate.”
“Let me guess. If I don’t, you'll kill me?”
He scoffs. “And throw away amimic? Like I told you from the beginning, Ms. Moore. I've been searching for something special foryears.The mermaid scales were all but useless. Unicorn blood helped for a few months, but they die far too quickly in captivity. So far a phoenix has been the only thing that's had an effect long term, but even that's waning as of the last year.”
He shoves open the door and all but tosses me into my chair in front of the workbench. “You’ll help my mate, or those men of yours will die a slow, painful death you’ll have a front-row seat to. I’ll put them in the cell next to yours and let you watch as they die of starvation, giving them just enough water to stretch out their suffering. Helpless to save them. Unable to comfort them. Just a slow, miserable way to die.”
Unfortunately for him, there’s something Dane Nocturne doesn’t understand. In the supernatural world? There’salwaysa bigger monster out there.
Tugging the sphere closer, I start unscrewing one of the panels as he watches my every move. I don’t even have to say anything; after a few minutes, he starts talking to fill the silence.
“I came to Mercy Ridge in search of a miracle. And lucky me, I stumbled acrosstwo.”
Fuck. He’s more aware than I gave him credit for.
“Thank goodness for that mate of yours clueing me in. Imagine my surprise when I was wandering the city getting a lay of the land and he simply shouted to the world that, ‘I’m a mimic. And Ever is too.’ I nearly walked right past the answer to my prayers.”
I close my eyes in defeat.The night Bell confessed to us all what he was before Myles could get the sound barrier up.
Moving onto the next screw, I tentatively ask, “How did you even get in? The barrier is supposed to prevent anyone that comes there with the intent of hurting someone within the wards.”
His dark chuckle has an unpleasant shiver snaking down my spine. “Only useful thing Adam Carrington has ever done. When he came clean about it being your project and not his as he'd led us to believe, he brought one of your mate’s inventions as a consolation prize to try and save his ass.”
When Myles decked him and Adam crashed into that shelf. Son of abitch
“Brilliant little thing,” Dane continues. He pulls a slim TV remote-looking device out of his pocket, marveling it in the light. “Weakens wards enough I was able to walk right through, like a supernatural skeleton key.”
Shit.Can’t let the psycho have free reign with something this powerful. He'd be an unstoppable dictator.
Seeing the cube from when I first met Myles resting on the bench, the last piece of the puzzle comes together.
“So when your mate’s healed, if this even works, then what? You keep her locked up here for the rest of her life so she never finds out you're lying to her about Cyrus still searching for her?”
His demeanor shifts in an instant. “You'd do well to remember I only need you so long as you serve a purpose. Breathe a word about that pathetic whelp, and it's your mates that will pay the price. Am I clear?”
I grind my teeth and spit, “Crystal.”
Careful about my sleight of hand, I finish ‘swapping out the core’ and put everything back together under Dane’s diligent observation.
“It's done then?” he asks, excitement spurring him to his feet.
