“I’m the one with the leverage here, so I’ll be the one making the demands, brother.” His snide tone is laced with an undercurrent of true frustration.
“I will say,” he adds, “you have certainly found yourself a resilient girl. The demon hybrid is impressive as well. Neither has very good self-preservation tactics, so now I’m turning their lives over to you since I can’t seem to break them. Give me my weapons, and I’ll let one of them live. You get to choose.”
I swallow hard against the instant knot in my throat. Even if that was an option, I know better than to think he would let either of them live. Gavin makes deals and breaks them in the next breath.
“No deal. Both of them live,” I say, stalling as I try to think of a plan.
“Again, let me point out the fact that I’m the one with the leverage. Either you come for one, or you get two dead girls delivered to your doorstep. Your choice. I’ll keep plucking people out of your happy little life until I find the right one who is worth my fucking weapons. Understood?”
I say nothing, because I can’t make a deal. For all I know, he has an oath spell buried within the words.
“You have two hours. Meet me at the address I’ll send to your phone. I’ll show you your girls, and you can choose which one will live or die. You can bring one person with you to carry back the dead body. But if I see the king, queen, or Drackus Devall, I’ll kill them both and cut my losses.”
He hangs up, and almost immediately, a text comes through, and I open it to read the promised address. Waving my hand over my phone, I try to turn it back on, hoping he maybe slipped up and I can hear him without his knowledge. But he’s made sure to thwart off that magic.
“You’re taking me with you.”
Chaz’s voice startles me, and I shake my head. “No. Don’t take this wrong, but I need someone stronger than a duster to get them out. He didn’t put Ella off limits.”
Chaz’s jaw ticks as he takes a step toward me. “Ella isn’t going anywhere near your fucking psychotic brother. I can help you get them out—both of them. I can do shit you wouldn’t believe. But we need a third person. Someone who can walk through protective barriers, deny the laws of magic by wearing a face they don’t have, and do so despite the spells that keep someone from masking their identity. It’s the only way we can get them both out without detection, because I won’t be able to hold out for long.”
That has me tilting my head. “What do you mean?”
He sighs long and hard. “I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else, and you can’t ask questions.”
“I’m good with that if you promise you can help me get them out. But what about the other part of your plan?”
“Isn’t obvious?” he asks, motioning toward the woods. “We need a witch that walked amongst the light council and all the protective spells. She can wear any face at any time, and she can fool them. I can’t get them both out while you distract him, because what I have to do will leave me weakened. At most, I’ll be able to dust out one before I have to drop the veil, but she can help me get them out if they don’t know she’s among us.”
As confusing as that sounds, I don’t ask questions. Not yet. Time is too valuable to waste. I’m sure everyone realizes I took Sadie, so I’m not surprised he has figured it out.
“This way,” I say, grabbing his shoulder and returning to the cell I didn’t plan on seeing for a few centuries.
We disappear and reappear in the cell. Sadie looks up just as we appear, but her eyes move aside.
“Come to gloat?” she asks bitterly. “Go ahead. I deserve it.”
A tear slips out of her eyes, and guilt that I shouldn’t feel tugs at me. “We don’t have time to deal with the pity party,” Chaz says, speaking before I can. “You need to break the blood oath and release my friends. Now. Then you can have a chance to earn your freedom.”
That vow isn’t his to make, but under the circumstances, I allow it.
She rolls her head back meeting our gaze once more, and her dirty appearance is cleaned up with the use of my magic, freeing her of the filth that might dissuade her to deny us. If we let her go, she’ll probably run, but it’s the only choice we have.
“I broke the blood oath the day I was stuck in here. I’ve killed myself three times. You weren’t lying about these restraints bringing me back to life.”
Okay, so now I feel a little more than a mere tug of guilt.
“You said you wanted a chance at redemption. We’re here to give it to you,” I say quietly, my whole body on the verge of madness.
“Oh?” she asks, her eyes untrusting. “And what would that be?”
I move toward her and with a flick of my wrist, the shackles come undone. She rubs her wrists and stands as the other cuffs fall from her ankles.
“The chance to save the girl you once kept behind bars and almost killed in your quest to free Damon and Dragona from purgatory. The chance to free another girl who was taken as a child and locked away for even longer.”
Genuine concern flickers through her eyes, and she tilts her head. “Who has her?”
Taking a deep breath, I say, “Someone who makes you and Hilly look pretty damn moral, now will you help?”