Delilah.
Something dripped on my head, making me flinch. The world had turned on its side, and I struggled to orient myself with the wall now serving as the ceiling overhead. The remnants of the shattered siren tank hung menacingly over us, the restraints keeping it tethered now groaning as gravity pulled and pulled.
The interior of the shuttle was a tangle of limbs and broken glass. And theheat—the flames outside were going to bake us alive. The air was already thickening, pungent with harsh, unfamiliar chemicals and acrid smoke. The motorcycle that had been tailing us revved menacingly, accompanied by the roar of another vehicle. The engines came to a halt just outside.
As I spotted Ben recovering and taking flight, a scuffle caught my ear. Cliff was tangled with one of the armored guards again. Both of their movements were clumsier, disoriented. Cliff managed to use this to his advantage, rolling the other man under him and locking his arm around his neck. He tightened his grip, teeth gritted as the guard bucked and wheezed.
Voices raised on the other side of the battered double doors.
Jon.I could hear Jon.
I heard him tug on the door, but it wouldn’t budge. A viciousthud, thud, thudbegan as he landed kick after vicious kick to the door, the fortified metal protesting.
A sharppopsounded, followed by the smell of gasoline.
“Shit,” Father breathed, whipping his head toward the sound urgently.
With the guard unconscious, Cliff rushed at the door, targeting the latch that had been bent in the crash. He shouted an instruction to the other side. The metal was thick, unyielding as he strained against it. Another pair of hands clasped the latch, pushing heavily.Rhett.
Cliff seized up briefly, glaring. Rhett gave him a curt nod, eyes gleaming with unshakable determination. A brief, unspokenunderstanding passed between them.Get out of the burning vehicle, then finish killing each other.
Rhett groaned through clenched teeth, pushing his weight along with Cliff. Astonishingly, the warped metal began to bend. I locked onto the bulge of the strange device protruding under Rhett’s sleeve, and I wondered if that revolting serum now pumping through his veins had amplified his stamina in more ways than met the eye.
After confirming there was no way through the shattered divider window, Father started toward the door too, ducking as another layer of glass shards rained down from the ruined tanks.
“Fuck—”He grunted, pulled back midstride by the second guard with the smashed visor.
He shoved Father against the wall, one thick arm pinning him by the throat, restricting his breathing.
Darting to regroup with Ben, I froze as Father struggled for air. He might be a cruel illusion, but could I risk it to watch him die again?
An incantation found its way to my lips before I could fully decide. Frost pooled around my hands as visions of icy spears filled my mind, but to my shock, Father’s strained expression quieted, and he locked eager attention on his assailant.
“Lie down,”he rasped in a low, firm voice.
The guard went still at once.
“Lie down,” Father commanded again.
The armored guard straightened and stepped back, obedient as a dog, as he curled up on the floor. I exchanged a bewildered glance with Ben.Glamour?Something certainly spiked the air like fae magic, but it was a sensation I didn’t quite recognize. If he were human, he shouldn’t have been able to performanyfeats of compulsion. Everything about Father was wrong now. His very existence before us was an impossibility.
Father gasped for a full breath and snatched a serrated combat knife that had slid under the rail. Kneeling, he grabbed the docile guard by his jaw, and—
I whipped my head away, unable to watch when the knife was brought down.
Nearby, Cliff’s father was blinking blearily, a swollen red mark on the side of his forehead. Even in his delirium, his eyes found me.
His top assets were about to escape.
Quicker than I could react, there was a gun in his zip-tied hands. He pointed it at us, his grip furious and trembling. After a beat of consideration, he shifted his aim from us to his own son.
Cliff was still struggling to open the doors with Rhett—utterly unaware of the lethal weapon now pointed toward his back.
The smell of gasoline and smoke was dizzying, cloying my senses. But through the chaos, I managed to form a single, coherent thought.
I will not let this wicked man take anything else from me.
I lifted my hands with a vicious snarl, but a pair of hands grasped my waist, pulling me aside before I could speak a spell. With stunning ferocity, Ben surged in front of me and threw out his arms. The dim, fiery light warped and bent like iridescent strands to his whim as he shouted a spell.
