Chapter 21

Erik holds a large, clear cup filled with iced coffee. The ice cubes make little clinking sounds as he swirls them around before taking a long swig from the straw. Then he tips the cup my way. “Want some?”

Want a fist to the throat?

My nails bite into my palms. Pain registers as it travels the length of my arm. The feeling lets me know I still have power over my actions and, oddly enough, breathes courage into my soul. “I will never touch anything you give me. Ever. Understand?”

He shoots a look at Yasmine, silently asking her, What’s her deal? But Yasmine has already crept to the far end of the tunnel and stands with her back to us. As if she’s giving privacy out of respect for Erik. Maybe that’s normal protocol.

We’re in some sort of air access. A loud humming sound begins, and light wind stirs hair across my face. I catch the wayward strands with my fingers and tuck them back behind my ears. The sickly-sweet aroma from the dance club swirls around me.

I can’t meet Erik’s eyes. A sour taste fills my mouth, but I swallow it down. Run. Get away. But there’s nowhere to go.

Erik quirks an eyebrow. “Don’t you realize by now? I never force people to do anything. Everyone in Mónatos? They’re here by choice. I don’t trick. That’s Nick’s game. I save people—people like you—from being used as pawns. Isn’t that what you want? Your own life? Not to follow a set of inane rules that make no sense?”

Gah. There. Like a master weaver, he twists words and ideas together in such a beautiful and convincing way. He’s spoken to me like that all along, hasn’t he? And I was so desperate to have someone, anyone, reinforce my thoughts, I listened to his warped logic. Lapped it up like a runaway dog. The Shifters warned me, and I didn’t listen. There’s only me—my stubborn head—to blame.

“You. Lie.” I lift my chin.

He pauses for another long drag of coffee. “I take it things didn’t go well with your mother?”

“You knew.” I bunch my hands together because if I don’t, I’ll hit him. “You knew she didn’t want me.” I skewer him with a glare. “You made me believe—”

“Ah, ah, ah, Gabriella.” He leans close, and the smell of coffee emits from his mouth. “I gave you the opportunity you wanted.” His blue eyes pierce me. “I never promised she’d want you.”

I draw in a slow, steady breath to combat the dizzy feeling in my head. “Everything you said was to make me think she missed me.”

“I allowed you to believe what you wished to believe. That’s what I do.” He occupies himself by pulling the straw in and out of the hole in the lid. It makes a terrible plastic-on-plastic sound. “It’s called encouraging hope. And it’s generally considered a good thing.”

“Right.” I cross my arms to put more space between us. “Encourage so you can dash it.”

“I didn’t lie to you. You have only your foolish desires to blame.” He dips his head so we’re on the same level. His voice lowers. “She may not want you, but I do. Everything I did, I did to save you. Isn’t that enough?”

“You hardly saved me.”

His breath tickling against my cheek is about to make me throw up.

I slant my body away from him. “You accuse Nicholas of using the Shifters as pawns when that’s exactly how you work. I know what you plan to do with me. Don’t deny it.”

His eyes snap, cold and hard. “She told you, didn’t she?”

Hopefully he means Rosa and doesn’t suspect Yasmine of deception.

I rock back on my heels. “I will never go along with it. With you.”

His right eye twitches. “Never is an awful long time. And I can be very … persuasive.” He touches a finger to my lips.

I recoil with a growl. “Never.”

“Imagine the man of your dreams. I can become him.” His voice is calm, measured. “I will worship you. Take care of you. Be available to meet your every need.”

“No.” Ready to hoof it down the corridor, I spin around.

Coffee splatters across the ground. Erik snatches my arm and yanks me around. He locks me right against his body. His ab and chest muscles are tense along my side. “Where exactly do you think you’re going?”

“I never should have—I’m leaving.” I struggle in his grasp. “You said I could go whenever I wanted.” There isn’t any space between us for self-defense moves. Then again, Eric has magic. Even if I break away, what chance do I stand against him?

I should have pretended I knew nothing. Now I’ve blown my cover. And probably any chance of escape. If I could put a deadbolt on my mouth, I would. Seeing as I clearly lack the ability to rein in my words before considering the impact they might have.

He presses his forehead to my temple, and his voice drops. “Leaving would be unwise.”

I shove my elbows into his ribs as hard as I can. “Let go.”

He releases me suddenly, pushing me away so I reel backwards a little and bang into the solid wall. Air shutters from my lungs, and panic rushes over my skin like static electricity.

Will he kill me?

“Fine.” A cat toying with a mouse, he stalks toward me. “Go ahead and leave, but know this—I will haunt you for the rest of your life. I will make sure everything you touch falls apart, and I will destroy everyone you love. The choice is yours. Remember, I gave you that much.”

“I’m not afraid of your threats.” I hate the squeak in my voice.

“Ah, but you’re smarter than that. Aren’t you?” He smiles wickedly. “If you care about the wellbeing of your father, Michael, Donovan, and the rest of the Brady Bunch, you won’t leave. I’ll put a price on every Shifter’s head. I will wipe them off the earth if you deny me.”

“The Shifters will stop you.” I’m goading him, but playing with fire is better than cowering silently.

Challenge lights his eyes. “Will they? I think not. And if they try … I’ll kill them one-by-one in front of you. Allow you to witness their screams and begging, all the while knowing you could have prevented it if you would have simply obeyed when you had the chance.”

He will.

And it will be my fault. Without chains or gags or jail cells, I’m trapped, and he knows it.

Erik braces his hands on the wall at either side of my head. “I wanted this to go so differently. I was going to woo you, Gabriella. Make you fall for me. Forget all others. You could have been happy—proud to be mine. So honored to do this one simple task for my people.”

Breaking news: Erik is creepy.

He drops his hands so they rest on my waist, his thumbs brushing over my hip bones. “Now I don’t have to, do I? You’ve saved me the bother of being kind.”

Every fiber of my being screams to shove him away—to knee him in the groin and take off at my fastest speed. But I’m in the middle of Mónatos, and I don’t know how to get out. Or if I even can. Erik cloaked the building … does that make it impossible for me to leave? Or does it only keep Shifters out?

It doesn’t matter. Escape isn’t an option right now. Not after Erik threatened everyone I care about. Disowning the Shifters was a mistake. One I can’t take back. But I can protect all of them in this small way. My stomach turns, but I grit my teeth against it. I have to stay. If something happened to my dad or Michael because of me … I can’t handle that.

“It’s sad really,” Erik continues. “You know, Lark did try to warn you. Don’t—” He gasps dramatically and clutches at his neck, making the universal choking sign. “Go. Don’t—” He gasps again.

I see red. All fists and screaming, I fly at him. “You bastard! You killed her.” I strike his chest, blow after blow. “You killed her.”

He catches my wrists in a grip that defies his lean build and pins my arms against the wall above my head. “I did not kill her.”

Blood roars in my ears. “I don’t believe you.” I spit out the words. “Why should I believe you?”

“I can vow upon whatever you deem appropriate.” His fingers are hot against my skin. “I did not kill her.”

I twist my arms and slip out of his grasp. Then ram my hands into his chest, and he finally backs up. “If not you, then one of your Shades.”

He shrugs. “I’ve told you before, I don’t control their actions. Every once in a while, they do as they wish. What do I care if they take out a useless Shifter girl here and there?”

I slap him. Hard. So hard my hand tingles and leaves a bright red print across his cheek. The line of blood along his chin says my nails got in on the action too.

He tosses back his head and laughs. “That’s cute. Really. You think you can hurt me? You think you have any power whatsoever?” His hands crunch down on my shoulders, and he squeezes, hitting a nerve ending. It feels like someone stabbed a heated knitting needle into my tendons. “That’s what’s wrong with you—all of you. You want to be your own masters. There’s no such thing. It’s Nick or me. You have no power, Gabriella. None at all. You never will.”

I wince and grind my teeth together to block out the pain. “It’s Gabby.”

A sneer pulls his lips. “Excuse me?”

I stand a little straighter. Blinding white agony shoots into my head. “My name is Gabby.”

“You lost your chance to play nice.” He shakes me. “Your name will be whatever I want it to be.” He gets right in my face. “I waited eighteen years for you. You’re mine.”

It feels like my heart is going to hammer through my ribs. “You may be able to coerce me into staying, but I will die before submitting to you.”

His hand rises, and I brace for a blow. Instead, he makes a fist and then flexes his fingers a couple times. “And if you ever strike me again … I might be willing to end you and wait eighteen more years for another girl.” He grabs me by the neck and traps me against the wall again. I claw at his fingers, but he presses harder into my windpipe until spots march into my line of vision.

“Your whole life is nothing more than a blip on my radar. Each breath you take is because I allow it. Understood?”

My eye twitches as I try to stare him down.

Finally, he jerks his hand away. I crumble. Hands on my knees, I gulp in air, but breathing hurts. Oxygen isn’t supposed to hurt. Tears blaze against my cheeks. The skin on my neck prickles like a poison ivy rash.

“Yasmine.” Erik straightens his spine and rubs the red mark on his jaw. “Take my future bride away before I do something terrible to her.”

Yasmine jogs over to us. “Yes, sir. Anywhere in particular?”

“Out of my sight.”

Yasmine wraps her arm around my shoulder and propels me through the doorway. I’m glad she’s steering me because I don’t think I’ll be able to walk on my own power. My legs wobble like half-set pudding. Yasmine navigates through multiple turns as I stare blankly ahead. Lark died because of me, didn’t she? Her death wasn’t an accident. A Shade murdered her.

And I’m next.

My gut twists. “I’m going to puke.”

Yasmine directs me to a bathroom and holds open the door. My head spins like a tilt-a-whirl as I stumble forward. I drop to my knees and gag before retching into the toilet. Again and again my stomach recoils, spilling the little contents it had, and then forcing me to dry heave until both my throat and abs ache. Tears splash into the water in the bowl. Trying to regain a semblance of dignity, I gulp in a few lungfuls of air until finally I’m able to grab the cold porcelain and use it to push myself to my feet.

I’m stuck. All of my bullheaded choices, my refusal to obey people who actually cared, have brought me here. And now I’ll pay.

I have to stay. Have to …

Erik will execute more Shifters if I leave.

And kill me if I refuse.