She shook her head, disgust written all over her features. “They can’t crown you if you’re dead.”
“And then what? You don’t think they’ll find me?” My lip hurt from being torn open, my head hurt from being slapped, but what hurt most of all, was my pride. I’d had no idea that Mannix’s goals coincided with Reyna’s, if only to a certain degree. I hadn’t cracked the case after all; I’d been too stupid to see what was right in front of me.
I’d been so gullible to think, even for one second, that I could trust Mannix. Despite everything that had transpired, I had wanted to believe that I could trust the clues he’d given me. How stupid, how foolish, how ignorant, I’d been. But no more. Never again.
I decided to fall back on the Romans, and Julius Caesar’s age-old but well tested strategy.
Divide and conquer.
“You don’t think the Conclave has been notified already, debriefed about who is really behind this? They’re on to you, Reyna,” I sneered, showing her a mocking, bloody smile. “But of course, Mannix’s name is nowhere in there. He’ll make sure he’s long gone before he’s caught. He’ll use you. He used me once, and he’s using you now. And you’re just a stupid, spiteful little girl who let herself get manipulated into doing the unthinkable.”
“Bitch!” She reached for me with the needle, but Mannix held up his arm, stopping her. He shook his head.
“You’re his scapegoat,” I said. “When all this goes down and you’re rotting in prison underneath the catacombs of Paris, you’ll think about how stupid you’ll have been.”
“Shut up or I’ll plunge this in your arm!” she threatened me, holding the needle up.
I threw my head back as far as I could and laughed. The laugh, to my surprise, was genuine. I didn’t know why—maybe because this was all so messed up—but it bubbled out from deep in my belly, mocking, hurtful.
All the stress of the past months, of the past days in particular, fell off of me. “You think that needle scares me? A fast, thirty-second-tops death doesn’t scare me, leopard,” I told her. “You’re the one who should be afraid. What did he tell you? Did he tell you leopards will have power now? When the world finds out it was you who brewed this whole potion, leopards will be stripped of whatever power they had. Your parents will lose their titles. You will lose everything.”
Her features were growing increasingly pale, and I reveled in the agony on her face as the truth of my words sunk in—she was becoming unhinged, and I needed that if I wanted to stand a chance. Although I loathed her for the depths she’d sunk to in order to get revenge, how she’d managed to kill her own sister even, part of me pitied her, too. Because Reyna Felton had fallen for the same tricks I had, and whatever evil concoctions were already swarming through her mind prior to her meeting Mannix, I knew he was the one who’d stirred them up, manipulated her into turning her fantasies into reality.
She looked from me to Mannix and back to me, her eyes wide in panic, acting as if she’d woken up from a bad dream.
Then her gaze focused back on me, and her eyes narrowed. “At least you’ll be dead.”
She lunged at me, needle at the ready, and I turned my head to the other side, the only body part I could move away from her impending attack.
Before she could plunge the needle into my skin, Mannix grabbed her around the neck with one arm and took hold of her hand holding the needle. He twisted it, breaking the bone, and then grabbed the needle himself.
In seconds, he slammed the needle into her skin.
Reyna cried out in agony. The sound of the bone breaking was painful, even to my ears. Despite my loathing her, I also felt strangely sorry for her.
She’d been lured in to the darkness, manipulated into doing something she might otherwise have never done.
“What…?” Her eyes watered, and she looked up at Mannix, confusion flashing across her face.
“If you’re wondering why you’re not dead yet,” Mannix said, “it’s because the needle you were holding didn’t have cobalt snake venom in it at all. It contained a concoction of my own, one that will keep you from shifting but is otherwise pretty harmless.” He sneered. “I couldn’t risk you growing angry and attacking Marisol with cobalt venom.”
He leaned closer toward Reyna. “You see…I never planned on killing her,” Mannix said, while he looked me straight in the eye. “And our plans were never as aligned as you thought they were. I didn’t care one bit about the people you killed, or about how much they hurt you. In fact, all I heard from you was whine, whine, whine,” he stated matter-of-factly. “And all I cared about was you killing them.”
Reyna started crying in earnest now. She looked at me pleadingly, but even if I wanted to help her, which I did despite everything she’d done, I was still stuck to this stupid chair.
She wriggled, trying to escape from his grip, a worm caught by a bird minutes before its demise.
“Don’t worry, the effect of not being able to shift is only temporary. Of course, by the time it’ll be out of your system… You’ll be dead.” He whispered this last thing in her ear, but his gaze was still on me. Slowly, Mannix took another needle out of his pants pocket and lifted it in the air.
I squirmed in my seat, pushing against the chains. “Don’t do it!” I screamed at him. “Don’t. Let her go.” I clenched my hands into fists, prayed, wished, demanded for the billionth time that those messed-up genes that rendered me unable to shift would just jump into action and let me change, so I could break out of here and save her.
But I stayed human. A stupid, worthless, pretentious human whose own arrogance had been her downfall. A stupid human stuck to a stupid chair in a stupid dungeon all because I’d once fallen for the wrong guy, and because afterward, I was foolish enough to let him walk free where I should’ve sent him to rot in prison.
“Don’t. Please,” I pleaded with him when screaming didn’t work. “Please let her go. For me.”
My jaguar roared again, her large claws tearing at the door, but with the beam I’d latched on to it, she’d have a hard time bringing it down. She was panting, obviously exhausted, but she didn’t give up.
“Why?” He blinked at me as if the request genuinely surprised him. “She tried to kill you. She killed people. She deserves to die.”
Then, he focused back on the crying Reyna still locked in his grip, his one hand over her mouth so she couldn’t speak. “But before you do, little Reyna, I have one last surprise for you. See…right now, in Paris, a North Sea away from here, the summit is going on between all the clans. The Gathering of Clans. And if I’m not mistaken, your dearest mommy and daddy are there, too…”
He paused for a second, smirked, and leaned closer toward her. “I’ve planted a bomb inside Castle Beauvord, where they’re meeting. Once I’ve finished with you, Marisol and I are going to play a little game. If she wins, she gets to save the clan leaders, and then they owe her their gratitude forever. If she fails…” He let out a raw, dry laugh. “Well, then there won’t be any clan leaders left to save.”
My mouth dropped open as the reality of what he said sank in. The Gathering of Clans. My mother. The other clan leaders. All those innocent people.
Meanwhile, Reyna turned a deathly shade of pale, all the color draining from her skin.
“My mother is there!” I screamed out, just as Reyna started wailing, too.
“I know,” Mannix said. “So is Reyna’s, and judging by her reaction, I don’t think she has much faith in you saving both of them. But don’t worry, my love.” He winked at me. “I believe in you.”
And then, before I realized what was happening, he plunged the needle filled with cobalt snake venom into Reyna’s neck.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Reyna gurgled. Mannix let go of her, and as he did, she collapsed to the floor, spasmed for two or three seconds and then lay still, her dead eyes staring at the ceiling.
I didn’t know what to say. Words had become meaningless. Words were gone. Everything was go
ne.
All that haunted my mind was what Mannix had said. He’d planted a bomb in Castle Beauvord. In my ancestral home. In the place I’d grown up in before my father was murdered and my mother couldn’t bear the thought of living there anymore.
He’d planted a bomb to kill all the clan leaders.
To kill my mother.
“Why?” was the only word that eventually came out of my mouth, all choked up and twisted. My cheeks were stained with tears. My hands hurt from balling my fists so hard.
“Why…” Mannix put a finger up and waved it left and right. “That’s the wrong question, my love.” He brought his lips so close to my ear that they almost touched my skin. “The question ought to be: why not?”
He pulled back, giving me some breathing room. As I looked at him, I realized I’d never hated someone as much as I hated him right now. This man was a monster. A terrible, horrible monster.
Any remnant of love I might’ve once felt for him was completely gone. My guilt was pushed to the back of my mind, my pain, resentment, my shattered heart, all of that didn’t matter anymore.
All I felt was anger and hate, and an urge, a need, to hurt him, to stop him.
My jaguar pushed the door nearly off its hinges, so fueled was she by the fury I felt.
Mannix inhaled my smell. “Hmm. You smell delicious. That fear, that anger, it all mixes so delightfully. I’ve missed you, Marisol. Missed you like I would miss air. Did you enjoy the book I gave you?”
“I never opened it.” I held my chin high. Pride was all I had left now, the only weapon I could use against him. Everyone would die, and it was all my fault, but I wouldn’t let him know how much he’d broken me—I refused to do that.
I was my mother’s daughter. Despite what people like Aria Forbes and Reyna Felton might think, I was a jaguar. Despite my inability to shift, I was a jaguar. And I wasn’t about to show fear in the presence of a predator worse than I was. I was going to show strength. Resolve. Fearlessness.
I would fight with all I had, fight to find a way out of this, a way I could save those innocent people, and my mother. Even if I had to die fighting, I would rather have that than let people die because I’d once trusted a monster.
“I figured you wouldn’t. It’s okay, though. I’ll find you another, more suitable gift. In retrospect, the book wasn’t enough. Nothing can ever be enough for you. I promised you I would give you the world. Well, this it.” He stepped back and leveled his gaze on mine.
“I’m giving you a choice, Marisol.”
He bent his knees and started unlocking my chains.
“What choice?” The look in his eyes betrayed his true intentions. He was playing his games, and if he gave me a choice, that could only meant both my options were equally horrible.
“The choice of a lifetime.” The chains clicked open, and Mannix pushed me forward. I rubbed my wrists. They hurt from being so restrained, and my skin was raw and red.
“In here.” Mannix opened a door in the back of the room and waited for me to pass through.
I contemplated running, but besides this door, I didn’t see any other exit. Since Mannix was a wolf shifter and I couldn’t shift, he could easily outpower me.
Better to use my brain than my strength.
I stepped inside the room, and Mannix followed suit, closing the door behind us.
The room looked like a control center for a rocket launch. Two screen monitors were suspended on the left wall, and in front of that stood a box with three buttons protruding on top.
On the right side of the room hung a map of the stars and constellations and a wheel with signs of the zodiac on it, the rudimentary lines that showcased the star constellations. Some of the symbols were missing, and at first glance, the zodiac wheel seemed to indicate thirteen rather than twelve signs.
Above the zodiac wheel hung a fluorescent board that showed four zeros and dots in between like a clock indicating midnight. At the end of the room was a steel door.
“It’s locked. Don’t even think about it,” Mannix said as he noticed my gaze traveling to the possible exit. I believed him.
“What is this?” Fear was still grabbing hold of me. I wished desperately this was a nightmare, a horrendous, frightening nightmare, and none of it was real. Especially not the part where he would kill all the royals during the Gathering of Clans, including my own mother.
It was real, though, and I couldn’t escape from it. I had no choice but to face this nightmare with everything I had, and hopefully make it out of here alive.
“This,” Mannix said, “is your ultimate test.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“I’m going to give you a choice, Marisol,” Mannix said. He looked as pleased as a kitten receiving a bowl of milk. “These two screens will show you two dreadful, horrible things. Neither of them has to become a reality, but whether they will happen or not is entirely up to you.”
My jaguar kept on pushing against the door, nearly breaking through the wood.
Calm down, I sent to her in my mind, I need to focus. I need to… I need to be Sherlock now. I can’t let you in. I can’t let my emotions in, not yet.
She slammed against the door once last time. Only half of the door was remaining now—she’d already pried off most of the wood. She panted and stood still in front of the door, staring right at me. I wished I could hear her thoughts in my mind, so I would know what she thought.
She gave a nod with her head, as if she wanted to say to me that it was okay. That I could push her back, could ignore her while I focused on logics, on the Sherlock part of myself, and that she wouldn’t try to break free while I did so, that she wouldn’t break my concentration.
Mannix grabbed a remote control that was lying on the table and pointed it at the first screen. The screen lit up, showing an enormous, richly decorated room that I knew all too well.
“The conference room in Castle Beauvord,” Mannix said. “As you can see, the clan leaders are gathering already.”
He was telling the truth. All the clan leaders were barging in, chatting amongst themselves, taking their seats. More than fifty clan leaders. And if I didn’t stop Mannix’s bomb, they would all be dead soon.
Then, last of all, Mother walked in. She looked stunning, regal, a queen leading her people in a stately gold gown.
A lump appeared in my throat, and tears threatened to spill from my eyes. “Mother…” I’d never had a chance to talk to her about Amaranth, not really. I never had the chance to tell her how sorry I was, how guilty I felt. I would never be able to make it up to her, or to my aunt.
My jaguar gave a small wail, but she stayed put, not moving, not attacking anything, not clawing at the door anymore. For the first time since we’d been ripped apart by the Big Betrayal, my jaguar and I really understood each other. She understood that I needed her to be quiet while I let the logical part of my mind take over.
“That is your first choice,” Mannix said. “I’ve planted a bomb in Castle Beauvord. You can choose to play. One of those three buttons will deactivate the bomb.” He pointed at the buttons on the table. Each of them had a distinct color: green, yellow, and red. “The other two will activate it. So ultimately, Marisol, the choice of whether your mother, and the other clan leaders, will die…is up to you.”
“You can’t make me do this.” I straightened my back and focused on him, fury flashing through me. I was ready to kill him. If I had a knife right now, I would stab him. But I had nothing, just myself, and I was no match for him, not unless I could shift.
I balled my hands into fists and gritted my teeth, forcing myself, willing myself to shift, until I tasted blood in my mouth. Dozens of times before, I had tried to shift, but I’d never had this much incentive to do so. Still, it failed—I didn’t feel my bones cracking, didn’t see hair growing on top of my skin. Nothing happened, no matter how hard I tried.
I’d never before felt this weak, this powerless.
“To find out which color is the c
orrect choice, you must solve the zodiac puzzle on the other side. For a person with your capacities, it should be pretty straightforward,” Mannix said, trying to flatter me when all I wanted to do was strangle him.
“What if I refuse to play?”
“Ah, but that’s what screen two is for.” Again, he clicked on the remote control, and this time the second monitor jumped on, showing a darkened room. Slowly, a light started burning in the room, illuminating a person sitting chained up in a chair.
“Indra?” I asked, my voice shivering.
“Who is this?” the person asked.
A male voice. A voice I recognized.
Wyatt Johnson.
Mannix had kidnapped Wyatt, too.
Wyatt had a blindfold pulled over his head, so he couldn’t see. His voice sounded fragile and scared.
“Let him go.” I turned to Mannix. “He has nothing to do with this!”
“Marisol, is that you?” Wyatt asked.
“I forgot to tell you he can hear us. The moment I turned the monitor on, the speakers in his room did, too. He now hears every word we say,” Mannix said. “And I’ve injected him with the same concoction you saw on Reyna earlier… He can’t shift to save himself.”
“Marisol, what’s going on?” Wyatt said, the panic in his voice increasing with every word.
“Yes, it’s me,” I told him. “Just stay calm, okay?”
“I’m afraid the boy will have trouble staying calm when he hears the choices you have to make,” Mannix said with a sickening smile.
Something inside me broke. I felt it breaking as I realized what options he was going to give me before he said them out loud. A small, innocent part of me, a part of my soul that still believed, was obliterated the moment he spoke those words.
“You can choose to play our game. If you play, you get one chance to deactivate the bomb. If you choose the wrong button, all the people in Castle Beauvord will die, including your mother. If you choose not to play, your friend Wyatt here will die, but the people in Castle Beauvord will stay unharmed.”
A Study In Shifters Page 23