All hope died. I hadn’t really expected there to be anything he could do, but it had been a glimmer of light. A glimmer of light now wholly smothered.
“Get her up,” Nosizwe ordered, and I was hauled to my feet by my kidnappers. Their leader gestured towards the Stones, and they dragged me closer to them.
My terror mounted. Feverishly, I tried to squirm from their hold. I tried to kick, tried to twist, tried to writhe my way free. From behind my gag, I was shouting for help, but my cries were muted, stuffed, strangled. My eyes rolled this way and that, pleading with the bystanders. Except for that one man who’d voiced his doubts, I registered only indifference or ill-concealed excitement. Nobody cared. Nobody was going to step up and put in a word, much less a fight, for me.
Please help me, please, I prayed frantically. I haven’t done anything to these people. Please don’t let them kill me. My family might never learn what happened to me. Please, please, please let me get out of here alive. Let them change their minds, decide whatever they’re planning won’t work. Let them—
My frenzied prayers were cruelly halted when the two men shoved me forward, bending me over the Stones. The impact of my stomach against the rough edges of the Stones forced the air from my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. One man knelt to pin one of my legs, while another person rushed over to grab the other. My hands were still cuffed behind my back. I wriggled, writhed. More muted screams of terror. Sweat drenched my body. I felt drops roll from my chin, splatter on the coarse cavern floor like drops of blood.
“You’ll have to let her up a little,” Nosizwe chuckled. “I can’t reach her belly.”
Whoever grasped my hands used them to jerk me upright, to where I was still bent over the Stones but not pressed into them.
I heard footsteps approaching, and craned my neck at an awkward angle, squinting, to see the entertainer approaching. In her hand, gleaming dully in the dancing firelight, reflecting back the flames, was a large blade.
“The protector’s blood,” she whispered, looking deep into my eyes. “Ballis is too difficult to take in his own nest, especially on such short notice. We needed his blood tonight. It’s a full moon. Might be superstitious, but a little extra magical persuasion never hurt anyone, right?” She glanced around the room, shrugging exaggeratedly, garnering laughs from her audience. “Full moon, a sacred religious space above, and an old shifter sanctuary below. This is about as magical as it gets, in Texas.”
Back to me.
“Sorry to do this to you, Ellie. That was your name, wasn’t it? Well, no, I’m not. You are only a human. One of billions that overpopulate this planet. It doesn’t matter what happens to you. I only hope your human blood doesn’t taint the baby. I wouldn’t think so. I think, if Ballis is the one, his blood, his lineage is powerful enough to overcome a weak human heritage.”
Baby? Human blood? Carter’s blood?
Just like that, puzzle pieces snapped together in my brain. Carter’s jokes several days ago about me being pregnant, the timeline he’d given coinciding with the night we’d spent together back in November. The fake nurse, the wendigo, the creature who’d tried to kill him. She’d been working with Joab Blake. She’d either passed that information to him and he, in turn, had passed it to Nosizwe, or else she was also working with Nosizwe and had passed it along herself. Somehow, Nosizwe had found out, found out right as her decoders had also broken the Stones’ cypher. They believed I was pregnant with Carter’s child; that his blood coursed through the veins of the supposed baby in my belly. That I was potentially carrying the legacy of one of the world’s rarest shifters.
Now I understood my kidnapper’s remark about being split wide open, drained of my blood. I was about to die. Because of an asinine joke. A misunderstanding.
My muted cries became even louder and I shook my head like a crazy person, trying frantically to communicate their mistake.
Nobody listened. Nobody cared. They all simply thought I was begging for my life. Honestly, even if I had been able to talk and tell them they’d gotten it wrong, I doubted it would have made a difference. Like Nosizwe had said, they knew the odds of succeeding were slim, but they didn’t mind taking the chance because I was only human. What did my life matter to them? If the ceremony didn’t work, the only thing they’d lost was me. Nobody cared about that.
Something else was buzzing at my brain, a revelation that didn’t matter now, but struck me all the same. According to what James had said, few people knew about the decoding of the Stones, about the secret prophecy and Carter being tied to it. How had Nosizwe known? There had to be a traitor. A traitor somewhere in Sean Costas’ household, his family. It was the kind of information Carter absolutely needed to know. Unluckily, I’d never get the chance to tell him.
An alarm sounded from somebody’s phone or watch.
“It’s midnight,” Nosizwe announced.
A ripple shook her body. Before my bleary eyes, she shifted, transforming from the well-known entertainer into an indescribable bird, tall as her human form, covered with gleaming black feathers. Its legs and tail were a volcanic red, as was its cruel, curved beak. The eyes, though, remained human. For a spit-second, Nosizwe stared back at me from the creature. Bile flooded my throat as the bird stepped forward. As it moved, I saw the familiar ripple, and then the singer was back.
“It’s time to open the Stones of Fire,” she breathed.
Her knife swooped downwards to slice my belly.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Carter couldn’t get there fast enough. Earlier, he hadn’t been able to drive fast enough. Now, he couldn’t run fast enough, couldn’t climb down the ladder fast enough, couldn’t race down the old metal staircase in the main cavern of the Pit fast enough. Every second counted. He couldn’t say why, but he felt it, felt it deep in his bones. Inside, the Talos was urging him on, begging to break free. He jumped the last several steps, bending his knees to take the impact of the jolt. Now on the ground in the cave, he dashed for the smaller side cavern from which he could see the lights, hear the music.
He’d never been so frightened. The metallic taste of fear had never soured his mouth like this. His heart had never beat so wildly. Cold sweat had never drained from every pore, drenching his clothing like it did now.
Sure, he’d been in hairy situations before, but it was usually his life at risk, or maybe one of his shifters threatened, and they stood a pretty good chance of holding their own.
This time, Ellie’s life was at stake. The Talos was bound to protect her. The Talos was ready to fight, to make war, to bring down the walls and ceiling of the Pit itself if it would save that girl.
“Psst. Carter!”
He stopped mid-stride, spun about, body still leaning backwards.
“Tracy?” he hissed.
The echoes of the music were loud, this close to the side cavern. The pulse of the drum matched the erratic rhythm of his heartbeat.
She rose out of the shadows, stepping into the ruby glow emanating from the opening behind him. In her hands was her shotgun.
“They have her in there,” she said soberly.
Carter nodded. “I figured.”
“Where’s backup?”