Chapter 48 THALIRA'S CAPTIVITY
CHAPTER 048: THALIRA'S CAPTIVITY
Every heartbeat sends pain through my hand. I can't move my fingers without wanting to scream.
Mom is still standing in the doorway, blocking the light.
"Hello son," she says again.
Marvin goes completely still. The knife in his hand drips my blood onto the stone floor.
"You're dead," he says quietly.
"Clearly not." She steps into the chamber. Now I can see her properly.
She looks like the visions Zev showed me but older, worn down. Her silver hair is gray. Deep lines mark on her face. But her eyes, those moon-colored eyes I share with Luna, are fierce.
"How?" Marvin asks.
"Does it matter?" She moves closer to me, her eyes scanning my injuries. "Let her go."
"No."
"I wasn't asking."
Marvin laughs. "You think you can stop me? You could barely stop me when I was a child."
"I stopped you from killing your sisters when you were five. I stopped you from burning down the pack center when you were seven. I stopped you from murdering that girl when you were twelve."
"You exiled me," Marvin says, his voice climbing. "Your own son. You threw me away like I was nothing."
"I gave you a choice. Treatment or exile. You chose exile."
"Treatment." The word is bitter. "You wanted to lock me away. Pretend I didn't exist."
"I wanted to help you before you became this." She gestures to me, to my blood on his hands. "But you were already too far gone."
The knife in my palm shifts and I swallow up the scream.
"Let me pull that out," Mom says, moving toward me.
"Touch her and I kill you both," Marvin warns.
"You won't kill me. You've had twenty years to do it and you haven't."
"Because I wanted you to see what I became. What you created."
"I didn't create this. You chose this."
"I chose nothing. I was born wrong. Born broken. You said so yourself."
Mom's expression softens for just a second. "I said you were born with darkness. That's different from broken. Darkness can be managed, redirected, controlled. But you fed it instead."
"Because that's all I had." Marvin's hand shakes. "You gave me nothing else."
"I gave you everything. Love, patience, chances. You threw them all away."
"You gave them to the twins. To Thalira and Luna. The perfect daughters. While I was the mistake you wished you could erase."
"You were never a mistake. You were a challenge I failed." Mom's voice breaks. "I failed you as a mother and I'm sorry. But that doesn't excuse what you've done."
"Doesn't it?" Marvin moves to stand beside me. "Every girl I killed, every scream I recorded, every drop of blood I spilled, that's on you. You could have stopped me but you chose your precious daughters instead."
"I chose to protect innocent people from a killer. That killer just happened to be my son."
Marvin's face twists into something ugly and broken.
"I'm going to enjoy this," he says quietly.
He yanks the knife from my palm and I scream loudly which I can't help it.
Mom lunges forward but Marvin is faster. He presses the bloody blade against my throat.
"One more step and I open her up."
Mom freezes.
"Good," Marvin says. "Now sit. Right there. And watch."
"Watch what?"
"Watch what happens when perfect daughters aren't so perfect anymore." He leans close to my ear. "The weapon was never the endgame Mother. It was insurance. My real goal is standing right in front of you."
"You can't use them for dark magic," Mom says. "Phoenix Souls are protected by ancient law."
"Your ancient laws mean nothing to me. I've already broken every other rule. What's one more?" He trails the knife down my arm, not cutting, just threatening. "Twin Phoenix Souls. Do you know how rare that is? Their combined essence is enough to make me immortal. Unkillable. A god."
"You'll never be a god," I manage to rasp out. "You're barely human."
He presses the blade harder against my throat. I feel the cut in my skin break.
"Marvin please," Mom says. "Let her go. Take me instead."
"I don't want you. You're old, used up, powerless. But they're young and strong and full of untapped potential." His smile is terrible. "All I have to do is drain them both slowly, painfully and completely."
"You won't get Luna," I say.
"I already have. She's walking into my trap right now. Can't resist saving her sister."
"She won't come alone," I argue weakly.
"Of course not. She'll bring the boys. The tracker twins. That shadow witch. Maybe even that annoying human girl you're friends with." He sounds pleased. "When they arrive I'll kill them first. Make you watch. Then I'll kill Luna while she watches you die. Then I'll take what's mine."
I pull at the chains desperately. They burn my wrists, the dark magic in the metal searing my skin.
"Fighting only makes it worse," Marvin says.
I don't care. I just keep pulling.
The restraints glow brighter, and burning hotter. The smell of my own burning flesh makes my stomach turn but I don't stop.
"Stubborn," Marvin observes. "Like your mother."
Mom is watching me with tears in her eyes. "Thalira stop. You're hurting yourself."
"Better than letting him hurt everyone else."
Marvin sets the knife down on a small table and pulls out a photo album.
"Want to see my work?" he asks pleasantly like we're looking at vacation pictures.
He opens it.
The first page shows a girl, maybe eighteen, with dark hair and terrified eyes.
"Melissa," Marvin says fondly. "My first. She reminded me of the she-wolf who rejected me. Same hair, same eyes, same condescending smile."
He flips the page.
Another girl. She's younger this time.
"Sarah. She was a fighter. It took three days to break her."
Another page.
"Jessica. She cried the whole time. It was annoying."
He keeps flipping, keeps talking, describing each murder like they're achievements to be proud of.
I want to close my eyes, block it out, but I force myself to look.
These girls deserve to be remembered as more than Marvin's victims.
"Each one reminded me of her," Marvin says quietly. "The she-wolf. Rebecca. She was everything. Beautiful, strong, perfect. And she laughed at me when I told her I loved her."
"Because you were obsessed," I say. "Not in love."
"Same thing."
"It's really not."
He slams the album shut. "She should have wanted me. I gave her everything."
"No one owes you their body. Their love. Their life."
"She mocked me. Humiliated me in front of the entire pack."
"So you became the thing she feared. You proved her right."
His hand moves so fast that I don't even see it coming.
The slap snaps my head to the left side and blood fills my mouth.
"Don't," he says very quietly, "presume to tell me what I proved."
"Then stop proving it by acting like a monster."
He raises his hand again but Mom's voice stops him.
"Marvin that's enough."
"Enough?" His laugh is sharp. "I haven't even started."
He moves to the table and picks up something else. A larger knife. The kind designed for skinning.
"I wanted to wait until your sister arrived but you're testing my patience."
He moves toward me.
Mom steps between us.
"Move Mother."
"No."
"I'll kill you."
"You've been saying that for twenty years. You've never done it."
"Maybe today's the day."
They stare at each other. Mother and son.
Then running footsteps echo from outside the chamber.
Marvin's smile returns.
"Right on time," he says.
The door bursts open.
Luna explodes into the room in human form, her eyes wild. Behind her are Kieran, Alaric, Cassian and Zev. All of them were armed. All of them, looking ready to kill.
Luna's eyes find me and she makes a sound like a wounded animal.
"Thalira."
"Welcome to the party," Marvin says pleasantly. "Let's begin."
He moves faster than anyone can react. One second he's standing beside Mom. The next he's behind her
with that skinning knife pressed against her throat.
"Nobody move," he orders. "Or I open her up right here."
Everyone freezes.
Marvin's smile widens.
"Now then. Let's talk about the rules of this game.”