Chapter 110 : Unexpected

MAXINE.

It’s written all over Jonathan’s face, betrayal and apology, the kind of regret that can chew you up even in your sleep. A rush of understanding comes at me, but when I see the guards forcing Theo onto his knees, the pity turns into frustration.

Guards are also wrestling me to the ground. They’re all surprisingly strong. Someone is wrapping my body securely in chains that feel hot to the touch. The more I struggle against it, the hotter it seems to get. And the hotter it seems to get, the more my powers seem to shrink.

I know that if I shift right now, I will be able to take down all of them. Hell, no one even needs my upgraded powers. Theo’s powers alone would be able to stop all of them, but it looks like he’s also struggling against the heat and the effect of the chains.

I turn around to look at him, hoping to tell him that we can try at the same time, but the guards are already turning him around, pushing his face right into the ground.

“Theo!” I scream, but then the guard wounds a chain around my neck.

My skin starts to sizzle. The smell of it comes right before the sensation and I don’t know which one bothers me more. I wait for the pain to subside for me to scream again, but nothing happens. The sharpness of the burns remains, even glowing hotter with every passing second.

“There’s no point,” one of the guards tells me sternly, and I notice that they’re all wearing gloves just to handle the chains.

I should have known. This family never runs out of tricks to play against their enemies. The poison and the antidote that Draco carried when he attacked us. Jonathan being a pawn in bringing us here under the guise of helping Ajax. Currently, it’s the chains that seem to be alive, like white-hot snakes stopping any burst of power.

Now Theo is getting carted away from me, straight into a place where I can’t help him. I’m being dragged into the palace too, through a different door.

Every time the chains touch my skin, I smell and feel it sizzle. The only thing I can do now is cry out in pain. I don’t know why I’m so worried about helping Theo when I can’t even help myself.

By the time they carry me into a dark tunnel sloping down, I’m almost blind with pain. I have tried everything. From shifting fully to shifting just a part of me, but every slight expansion of my body feels like agony against the chains.

The guards toss me into a cell with a silver door. No one bothers to close it, probably because they know I’m not going anywhere. That bothers me more than anything. It’s sinister, how they know that I’m not going to get far. I desperately want to prove them wrong….

But how?

“Theo!” I keep screaming, but the silver just digs against my skin and I soon feel rawness.

Soon I smell blood.

The hopelessness of the situation catches up to me. Here I am alone in a stone box with a silver lid. The sheen of it is very familiar, the same sheen that the chains have. I know for some reason that one touch would burn and hurt. Theo is in the house somewhere, but I have no way to get to him. Not in this state. Not when every tiny movement causes my body to b burn.

What do I do?

I take a deep breath, and another. And another. I close my eyes and a sudden chill fills the room. Suddenly I realize that my mouth is emitting fog, like I’m lowering the temperature of the room. Frost is forming on the floor right in front of my lips.

Just a brittle layer, but if I keep doing this—

The rest of my thoughts come to a halt when the door opens and someone comes in. I look up, the loop of the chain around my neck burrowing against my skin. Hope is thrumming in my body and I’m just praying for it to be Theo or Ajax….

But no. It’s Draco.

And he’s carrying another syringe, twisting it in his fingers.

“Finally,” he whispers, crouching in front of me. “I finally got you where I want you.”

* * *

AJAX.

Jonathan returns after a while, looking more defeated than when he left. He doesn’t look any of us in the eye, but I can tell that he can feel my disappointment. I can tell that he can feel me throwing questions at his back like knives, and he’s just taking it.

Why did you agree? Why did you do that? Can you not see that they’re playing you, playing all of us?

Draco gets up as soon as Jonathan sits down, patting him on the back. “Wonderful. Are they in the mansion?”

Jonathan’s silence is enough as an answer.

“Very well,” Draco whispers. “I think that’s my cue to leave. Take care of them, will you?”

He motions to the guards and they all snap to attention. As he leaves, the guards just wrap Jonathan up in chains like the rest of us, proceeding to give him punches here and there even though he’s cooperating. But the head guard just gives them a stern look, making all of them stop.

Yelena is sobbing uncontrollably next to me. Her parents haven’t moved at all. I can still feel their life force and I know for a fact that they are alive, but barely so. Even though they’re strong, there’s only so much beating a person can take. And I have no idea how long they’ve been here.

Everything looks hopeless now. Maxine and Theo won’t be coming for us, since they also got trapped. No one is coming for us. This is outside of my power, outside of my range, and as much as I want to solve it all, I just don’t have the power to do it.

I hang my head, trying to think. Maybe a trick. Something that would make the guards free me. Something that doesn’t require strength. I’m about to try to mind-link Jonathan to make him make amends and help me solve this, but then I catch a small movement behind one of the couches in the distance.

I quickly avert my gaze, but I can still see it in the corner of my eye. A pair of feet. Thin spindly arms. A pretty face in the dark.

My heart stops.

It’s Livia.

And she’s hiding behind one of the ornate couches, pointing a silver gun right at the nearest guard and shooting him.