Chapter 198
Lynette's POV
The silence after Kael's challenge was worse than the screaming.
Every eye in the hall turned toward the cameras. Waiting. The enhanced guards stood frozen mid-grab. Glenn's hand hovered near his collar—that metal band I'd spotted earlier.
He was waiting for orders.
My heart hammered against my ribs. I pressed deeper into the crowd, trying to make myself smaller. Invisible.
Please don't let this work. Please don't let Rezar—
The speakers crackled to life.
"Mr. Harrington." The voice rolled through the hall like smoke. Deep. Cultured. With just a hint of an accent I couldn't quite place. "What an unexpected pleasure."
My blood turned to ice.
No.
I knew that voice. I'd heard it before—in the forest, through Cole's encrypted messages, in my nightmares about what happened to those missing rogues.
Rezar.
"I must say," he continued, amusement threading through every word, "I didn't expect North America's most powerful Alpha to personally intervene on behalf of an assassin."
Kael didn't move. Didn't even blink. "I'm intervening on behalf of three hundred witnesses to what appears to be a massacre disguised as an investigation."
A low chuckle echoed from the speakers. The sound made my skin crawl.
"Always so diplomatic, the Harringtons. Your father would be proud."
I saw Kael's jaw tighten. Just barely. But I caught it.
Rezar had struck a nerve.
"However," Rezar's tone shifted—still smooth, but with an edge now, "I'm afraid you've misunderstood the situation. The man your... friend is protecting? He's not the assassin I'm looking for."
My stomach dropped.
No. No no no—
"The real killer," Rezar said, each word precise and deliberate, "is a woman. Smaller frame. Faster. More... creative in her methods."
The crowd erupted.
Voices overlapped—questions, accusations, panic. People started looking around. At each other. At every woman in the hall.
I felt Kael's hand find mine in the chaos. His fingers wrapped around my wrist. Tight. Anchoring.
Don't move. Don't react.
"Your description," Kael's voice cut through the noise like a blade, "could apply to half the women here. If you want to accuse someone, provide evidence. Otherwise, Pinehollow will consider this harassment of our allies."
Silence fell again.
I held my breath.
Through the speakers, I heard what might have been a sigh. Or maybe a laugh. With Rezar, it was hard to tell.
"You make an excellent point, Mr. Harrington." A pause. "Very well. Let's try a different approach."
Every muscle in my body tensed.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Rezar announced, his voice taking on an almost cheerful quality that made my skin crawl, "since we cannot seem to identify our mystery assassin through conventional means, perhaps we should give her an incentive to reveal herself."
"What are you—" someone started.
"The ship is now in international waters. All communications have been severed. You are, for all intents and purposes, isolated."
My grip on Kael's hand tightened.
"Some of you," Rezar continued, "will serve as... motivation. Let's see who our killer cares about enough to sacrifice herself for."
"You can't—" a woman's voice, desperate.
The enhanced guards moved.
Not toward Cole this time. Toward the crowd.
They grabbed people at random. A young guy near the front—couldn't have been more than twenty. An older woman in an expensive dress. A teenage girl who looked like she'd been dragged here by her parents.
They screamed. Fought. But those guards were too strong. Too fast.
I watched them get dragged toward the back of the hall. Toward doors I hadn't noticed before. Heavy. Metal. The kind that locked from the outside.
Prison cells.
My vision tunneled. The hall seemed to shrink. Every instinct I'd honed in the North screamed at me to move. To fight. To stop this.
These are innocent people. They have nothing to do with—
Kael's voice was in my ear. Low. Urgent. "Don't."
"They're going to—"
"I know." His hand moved to my shoulder. Holding me in place. "And if you step forward, they'll kill you. Then they'll kill everyone else anyway. That's what he wants."
A girl—maybe sixteen—was sobbing as a guard grabbed her arm. "Please, I didn't do anything, please—"
My throat burned.
This is my fault. All of this. If I hadn't come here, if I hadn't—
"Lynette." Kael turned me to face him. His amber eyes locked onto mine. Fierce. "This is not on you. This is on him. On whoever's pulling these strings. You staying hidden right now? That's keeping people alive."
"How?" My voice cracked. "How is watching them get taken keeping anyone alive?"
"Because the moment you reveal yourself, he wins. He gets what he wants. And then there's no reason to keep any of these people breathing."
Logic. Cold. Brutal.
Exactly what I would have said back in the North.
But God, it hurt.
Another scream. Another person dragged away.
I counted them. Couldn't help it.
Seven people taken so far.
The guards kept moving through the crowd.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" Rezar's voice drifted through the speakers like poison. "How quickly civilization crumbles. How easily fear takes root."
I wanted to rip those speakers out of the walls.
"I wonder," he mused, "how many will it take? Ten? Twenty? Before our mystery woman decides her conscience is worth more than her life?"
The crowd was starting to panic now. Really panic. People pushed toward the exits. Found them blocked. Enhanced guards stood at every door like statues.
Trapped.
We were all trapped.
"Of course," Rezar continued, "if the assassin wishes to end this quickly, all she needs to do is step forward. Identify herself. And I give you my word—everyone else walks free."
"Liar," I breathed.
Kael's hand tightened on my shoulder. "He is. Which is why you stay right here."
A man in a gray suit tried to rush one of the doors. The guards released their grip on Cole, letting him slump to the floor, and moved toward the crowd. He hit the floor hard. Didn't get up.
Someone screamed.
The guards grabbed two more people.
Nine now.
My hands were shaking. I shoved them in my pockets so no one would see.
Think. There has to be another way. There has to—
"This is your last chance," Rezar said. Almost bored now. "Step forward in the next sixty seconds, or I start making examples."
The hall went dead silent.
I could hear my own heartbeat. Could feel Kael's pulse through where his hand gripped my shoulder.
Sixty seconds.
I looked at the people who'd been taken. Saw their faces. Their terror.
Saw that teenage girl still crying.
I can end this. Right now. I just have to—
"No." Kael's voice was steel. "Whatever you're thinking. No."
"You don't know what I'm—"
"Yes. I do." He moved in front of me. Blocking my view of the stage. Of the prisoners. "And I'm telling you—as your ally, as your..." he paused, something flickering in his eyes, "as someone who gives a damn whether you live or die—don't do it."
"Thirty seconds," Rezar announced.
The crowd started shouting. Begging. Some people were crying.
I closed my eyes.
Elara. Mom. Dad. Ethan.
If I died here, they'd never know what happened. They'd wait. Wonder. Hope.
And eventually, they'd have to accept I was gone.
Just like before.
"Fifteen seconds."
I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
"Ten."
Kael's hands framed my face. "Look at me. Lynette. Look at me."
I opened my eyes.
"We find another way," he said. Quiet. Certain. "I promise you. We find another way."
"Five."
A sob caught in my throat.
"Four."
"I can't just—"
"Three."
"Trust me," Kael said. "Please."
"Two."
I nodded.
Barely. But I nodded.
"One."
The speakers went silent.
Then Rezar laughed. "Well. It seems our assassin values her own life more than theirs. How disappointing."