Angelique tilted her head to the side, as if she was considering it.
“Don’t listen to him,” Link said. “He’s just tryin’ to save his own sorry ass.”
Silas ignored Link, his black eyes locked on Angelique. “Oh, and one more thing.” He paused for a moment. “How do you feel about immortality?”
CHAPTER 29: LINK
Bringin’ on the Heartbreak
Link had been in enough trouble, enough times, to know he was knee-deep in it.
The moment Silas said the word immortality, the game changed.
Angelique’s expression shifted, rage and bloodlust replaced by a different type of lust—the kind that involved cheating death.
Who wanted to die?
Who wanted to turn to dust in the earth, to be forgotten by the living?
Even Link understood the appeal.
If Silas isn’t lying.
Either way, once Silas planted that seed in her mind, Link and his friends became expendable.
Link leaned closer to Liv and John. “We’ve gotta get outta here.”
Liv nodded and opened her hand so Link could read something she’d written on her palm.
“Meet me at the car wash,” Link whispered to John, who nodded.
Silas rolled up his sleeves. “Do we have a deal, then?”
Angelique tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I want the details. I didn’t see any immortality serum in your lab. Which makes me think you’re all talk.”
“This isn’t the only lab, or the biggest. How do you feel about palm trees? Movie stars and the beach?”
He’s talking about Los Angeles.
Angelique pointed at Chloe the Butcher. “Do we have to bring your pet? She’s irritating.”
Chloe leered.
Liv slipped her hand into John’s, and Link inched closer to Lucille.
Silas nodded at Link and his friends. “I don’t know. Are you planning to bring yours?”
Angelique glanced over her shoulder, as if she’d forgotten they were still standing there. “Do whatever you want with them.”
She walked away.
Link stared, but there was nothing anyone could do to stop her.
Chloe smiled just as John nodded, his hand gripping Liv’s. Link scooped up Lucille and Ripped faster than he ever had in his life.
Link and Lucille broke through the darkness and crashed to the floor. Lucille landed on her feet, but Link wasn’t as lucky. He rolled over onto his side, his cheek pressed against the concrete. They were back in the hallway, but Link didn’t see the door with the plastic car wash flaps.
Crap.
A moment later, John and Liv appeared.
“I was worried you weren’t going to make it,” John said. “The car wash is back that way.”
Lucille strolled past him without so much as a look and took off, like she had a Sheer chasing her.
“Where the hell is she goin’?” Link shook his head. All he wanted to do was find Ridley and get out of this place. When they turned the corner, Link noticed another stone staircase leading down. “This has to lead back down to the dungeon.”
When they reached the base of the steps, Link caught a glimpse of another row of barred doors at the end of the passage.
Rid?
He bolted toward the cell door without considering who else might be on the other side—Darkborns, Incubuses, or golden-eyed Casters. The one person he didn’t expect to see was the guy staring back at him.
Lennox Gates.
“What are you doing here, Link?” Nox actually sounded concerned. Concerned, and a whole lot of things Link didn’t have time to decode now.
But Link was speechless.
Did I really come all this way to rescue this fancy-pants rich boy?
Link looked around. All he could think about was finding Ridley, which meant actually speaking to Nox. He walked over to Nox’s cell. “Where’s Rid? Have you seen her?”
Come on. Say yes. Please say yes.
Nox cleared his throat. “About Ridley …”
John and Liv walked over, and John rested a hand on Link’s shoulder.
“What about her?” Link could barely choke out the words. “Is she alive?”
“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean for you to think she was gone.” Nox scrubbed his hands over his face. He seemed to be having a hard time saying whatever it was he was trying to tell Link.
“Is she okay?” Liv asked finally.
“Silas took her a while ago. Said he was taking her to one of the private lab rooms.” Nox looked like he wanted to throw up.
“Why would he take her there?” Link grabbed the bars, wishing he could rip the door off like Sampson. Deep down, he already knew what Nox was going to say.
Nox stared at the floor. “It’s one of the places he conducts his—”
“Experiments,” Link finished.
Nox nodded. “Rid’s been through a lot. She’s … changed. I don’t know how to explain it better than that.” He looked at Link. “I didn’t do this, and I didn’t ask for this. You need to know that.”
Why is he telling me this? Link wondered. Why doesn’t he just shut up?
John’s eyes darted toward the staircase. “Someone’s coming.”
Link braced himself. After what Nox had just told him, he was ready to kill someone.
A moment later, Lucille trotted into the tunnel, with Necro, Floyd, and Sam behind her.
“Nox!” Floyd rushed to the cell the moment she saw him. “Are you okay?”
Liv looked behind Sam. “Where are the girls?”
“Headed far away from here,” Necro said, smiling proudly at Sampson. “Sam helped a little.”
“How did you get them out so fast?” Liv asked.
“We ran into this old lady who knew Nox,” Necro explained. “She said she helped him find his way here. Mrs. Blackwell—?”
“Blackburn,” Nox said.
“I guess she’d been trying to find a way to help them, but she couldn’t open the cells.” Sam shrugged. “Since we covered that part, she told us to come help you.”
“She’s an old friend,” Nox said sadly. “I owe her everything.”
Link didn’t have to ask how Necro, Floyd, and Sam had found them, not when they’d walked in behind Lucille. He had noticed that she had scampered off after they Ripped.
Necro looked around. “Where’s Ridley?”
Link looked at Nox. “You tell them.”
“Silas injected her with an Illusionist’s powers and I don’t even know what else.” Nox shook his head and looked at Link. “And it changed her.”
“Changed her how?” Link waited for the rich boy to answer him, but someone else did first.
“For the better, if I do say so myself. Think of it as a makeover.”
Link spun around.
Ridley walked toward them. Everything about her seemed different and yet the same. From the sultriness in her voice to the calculating expression on her face, it was all her but more pronounced. Like Ridley was more … just more, somehow.
But one thing was definitely different.
Her eyes.
The gold Dark Caster eyes he’d stared into so many times were a violent purple now.
It doesn’t matter. It’s still Rid, and she’s okay.
Link moved toward her, encircling her in his arms. It was so good to be near her.
She was warm and full of life, and love—
But when he pulled back and looked at her again, she seemed different.
She’s been through so much. It’s a miracle she’s alive.
“I thought you were dead, Rid. You don’t know how happy I am to see you.” He noticed the strange way she was looking at him, like she was scared. But he ignored it and slung his arm around her neck anyway. Ridley recoiled like he’d tossed a pot of boiling water all over her.
“What’s that smell?” She covered her nose and mouth, angling her body away from him. “It’s like you dragged a rotting body in h
ere.”
Link sniffed under his arm.
Maybe she’s messing with me.
But the way she was holding her arm out to push him away definitely didn’t make it seem like that.
“I don’t know,” Link said. “We were around a buncha Sheers in this house in New Orleans where they were murdered. Can you smell dead people now? That’s kinda cool, I guess.”
The thought gave Link the creeps, but he didn’t want to make her feel bad.
Liv walked toward them slowly, watching Ridley as she moved closer. When Liv was a few feet from Link, Ridley gagged and stumbled away from them.
“You smell even worse than he does. Don’t come any closer. Please.” Ridley braced herself against the wall with one arm and dry-heaved.
Liv froze. “Oh my gosh.”
“What?” Link knew he was missing something important.
Liv backed away and tugged Link’s sleeve, giving Ridley some space.
“John,” Liv said, waving him over. “Can you and Sampson come over here?”
Sampson and John walked over and stood next to Liv and Link.
“What’s going on?” John asked.
Liv nodded in Ridley’s direction. “Keep walking.”
Sampson and John exchanged a confused look and did as Liv asked.
Ridley had caught her breath by now, and she didn’t react at all as the hybrid and the Darkborn approached. “Am I under arrest?” she teased.