Chapter 211. Samhain VIII
Maisie
Fire exploded through my veins.
It wasn’t just the pain. It was the wrongness of it. Like death itself had been poured into my bloodstream and was now eating me alive from inside.
My back arched off the ground as the burning spread. Down my neck, across my chest, into my arms and legs. My blood felt like it was boiling.
Froth gathered at the corners of my mouth. I couldn’t stop twitching. Couldn’t stop shaking. Couldn’t stop convulsing.
Tessa watched me with a pleased little smile as she pulled the empty syringe from my neck.
She checked her watch, then brightened.
"Looks like we’re in luck, mutt. It’s almost midnight." She tilted her head. "You’re about to become a legend. Cinderella, perhaps? The one who disappears when the clock strikes twelve?"
My face kept twitching. My legs jerked and spasmed against the ground like they no longer belonged to me. I was choking on my own breath.
Anything was better than this. Death was better than this pain.
Tessa clicked her tongue in mock disappointment.
"How dull. And here I thought you had a sense of humor."
At my pained whimper, her face scrunched up with disgust.
"Bring her," she said softly, wiping a streak of my blood from her fingers. "She won’t be fighting much longer."
***
They dragged me up the mountain.
The rogues hauled me between them like dead weight, my feet barely skimming the ground.
I tried to fight at first. Tried to kick, to twist, to do something. But the poison was moving fast. My legs were already going numb. By the time we reached the halfway point, I couldn’t feel them at all.
Tessa walked ahead of us like we were on a casual evening stroll.
"You know," she said lightly, not even glancing back, "I was shocked when the Queen found me in the infirmary after you burned down my home and humiliated me. She’d never really cared enough to visit before. She told me there was a way to get rid of you. Permanently. Without killing them. And all I had to do was bide my time."
She laughed softly.
"Even then, I didn’t understand why she despised you so much. It couldn’t have been out of mere dislike. The cold-hearted bitch dislikes everyone. Even her mates. But you..." She shook her head. "I’ve never quite seen her that way with anyone else."
My head lolled forward. I couldn’t lift it anymore. The world was starting to blur at the edges.
Tessa finally glanced over her shoulder, her smile sharp. "She let me in on an interesting tale. Of course, the only reason she told me about it is because when you’re gone, I’ll finally take the place that should’ve been mine.
"Knowledge of our origin is passed down from queen to queen. Only queens. So those who wield power know precisely what is at stake. What we need to protect."
She continued forward, ever graceful in her steps. "Imagine my surprise when I learn you are the very thing standing between us and the very end.
"If I am being honest, I still don’t believe it. Maybe the cranky old bitch is insane, after all. What do you think, mutt? You don’t look all that dangerous to me from this angle."
I wanted to answer. I wanted to tell her to come a little closer and find out how ’not dangerous’ I was. But my tongue felt thick and heavy in my mouth. All I could do was breathe through the rising panic clawing at my chest.
I’m going to die.
The thought settled over me like ice.
I’m never going to see them again.
Soren’s face flashed behind my eyes. Then Jericho’s. Mercer’s. Quinlan’s. The way they looked at me. The way they touched me like I was something precious. The promises they’d made.
There’s not a place you could go that we wouldn’t find you.
Tears burned behind my eyes, but I couldn’t even lift my hand to wipe them away.
By the time we reached the top of the cliff, I couldn’t feel anything below my waist. My legs dragged uselessly behind me as the rogues hauled me forward.
The wind was stronger up here, colder. It whipped my hair across my face and whispers circled around me, like a thousand voices speaking to me all at once in a horrendous cacophony.
Please, they screamed. Let us out.
Tessa turned to face me, the moonlight catching in her silver hair.
"Well, this is it," she said, voice slightly off as shivered, glancing around like she could hear the same things I could. Her eyes lingered on the odd coloring in the skies for a moment, and the dark clouds that gathered, shrouding the moon.
One of the rogues shoved me forward until I fell useless at her feet.
My nails broke against the rock as I tried to crawl away from her. But my body wouldn’t obey me. I couldn’t feel my hands anymore.
Tessa caught me by my hair and dragged me down, down toward the edge of the cliff.
My skin tore against the rocks, but I didn’t feel the pain. My body had lost all feeling.
She dropped me right there, an inch away from the plunge, and pressed her foot to my chest, glancing again at her watch. "Five minutes to midnight."
Then she reached into her pocket and drew out a dagger.
It looked old, but when she pulled it out of the sheath, the blade looked was sharpened, and ashen.
"Since we have a bit of time," she cooed. "It wouldn’t hurt to tell you what happens after you die. I suppose it’ll help you rest in peace. Not that I care if you don’t."
I conveyed through the murder and tears in my eyes that if I died tonight, I was going to become a fucking ghost, or the grim reaper, and the first one I killed would be her.
As if reading my thoughts, she giggled and crouched in front of me.
She reached for me with the sharp point of the blade and brushed my hair away from my face as she said, "The explosion should’ve happened by now."
What explosion, I screamed in my mind. Oh god. Were they alright?
"Your mates will be frame for multiple murders and treason," she said. "They’ll fight but they’ll be put down."
My heart might have been hammering, if it wasn’t beating so slowly now, I knew for sure I was already dying.
"But it is only a distraction," Tessa said. "By the time they get out of custody, there’ll be nothing left of you to find. I’ll have gotten rid of your body and had every trace of your scent and blood eliminated. And in the place of that, we’ll leave other traces behind.
"The daughter of a traitor will always be a traitor. The general public will know you as the mastermind behind the attack at the Night Shade pack tonight. Everyone knows how much you hate the Queen and the members of that pack.
"Finding a motive and a connection shouldn’t be too difficult, considering your recent visits to the Ridge, manipulating your mates into taking you there, and your suspicious meetings with your half-brothers. Not to speak of saving the daughter of a traitor."
She tsked. "You don’t think at all, do you? Every action of yours can and will be interpreted to the benefit of this story."
Tears rolled from my eyes.
"On the bright side, this will save your mates from being executed for murder and treason, as you’ll already be dead and will take the fall for it. They’ll look for you, of course, but I suppose that little letter you wrote them and left in your dresser should take care of that.
"But you understand that we couldn’t leave it that way. We replaced your cute little love letter with something better. Something they’ll remember for a long time. All in your words and writing, of course."
A wretched wail rose and died in my throat. They had to know. They would know something had happened to me.
She brought the dagger to my throat. "The Queen has promised me that I will be wed to them within three months if I do this one thing right."
Her hand tightened around the dagger and she rose it high, over my heart. "Any last words, bitch?"