Chapter 129

Kayla

Nicholas’s face was set in a grimace as Jade carefully stitched up his wound.

But more than anything, Nicholas was furious—furious about Gray and his two lackeys showing up here, on solstice no less, and we now had two hostages tied up in the cellar and a dead body out behind the cabin.

“I never wanted to take hostages,” he growled, passing a hand over his face. “I led those two guild officers away on purpose rather than capturing them simply to avoid this.”

I glanced at Nicholas. “Were the warriors that came with Gray just now the same ones as those you found the last time you were here?”

Nicholas looked at me, and that was all the answer I needed. So they were the same men. Which meant that Gray hadn’t just come tonight to get revenge on us for making him lose his position on the guild; he had come for Grace.

Emma shuddered. “What are we going to do now?” she asked quietly.

Nicholas pursed his lips. “That’s exactly the issue. We can’t hold onto hostages forever.”

“We could… you know,” Marcus suggested, implying what we had all been thinking.

Killing them… Could we really stoop to that level? One man was already dead from the fight, and that was bad enough. If we killed people simply to silence them, then we might not be much better than the guild at that point.

But then again, they might have killed Nicholas, or any one of us, just so they could get their political prisoner back. And if we released them, not only would the entire guild know where Grace was, but they would come back for her.

We’d all be screwed.

But Nicholas shook his head firmly. “No. We’re not killers. We have to think of something else.”

Jade finally finished her work. As she disinfected the wound once more, she said, “There are potions. Mind-altering ones. We could erase their memories of this place.”

Nicholas drew a sharp inhale through his teeth at the sting of the antiseptic. “You and your pagan beliefs,” he said gruffly. “I’m sorry, Jade, but your wards didn’t work last time. I’m not so sure if I’m inclined to believe that a potion will work.”

Jade shot him a withering glare. “My wards did work. But nothing is perfect.”

“So you’re saying,” Grace said, “that we should give them these… potions… and set them free?”

“The potions are said to put whoever drinks them in a dreamlike state,” Jade said. “We’ll give them the potions, drop them off at a random truck stop or something, and they’ll think they imagined the whole thing.”

I frowned. “If it works, then what? We’ll have to move Grace. Destroy the cabin.”

Grace flinched, as if the thought physically pained her. I couldn’t blame her; in such a short time, this place had become sentimental to all of us, especially her. After being locked in a cell for years, this was the first safe place she had to go.

“If it comes to that,” Nicholas said gently, “then we’ll have to do it. I’m sorry, Grace.”

Grace stared at her feet, silent.

Jade added, “But the ingredients for the potion are difficult to come by, and it takes a few weeks just to distill the potion itself. We’ll need to keep them hostage here until then, and hope that no one notices they’re missing and comes looking.”

That sounded risky. We needed a solution right now, not something that might not even work after weeks of preparing.

“This is all my fault,” I sighed, burying my face in my hands. “It was my idea to come here…”

But to my surprise, Nicholas grabbed my wrists and pulled them away from my face. His expression was hard as he firmly said, “No, Kayla. It’s not your fault. Don’t say that.”

“But—”

“They might have come here anyway even if we weren’t here,” Noah said. “Don’t beat yourself up, Kayla. It was probably better that we were here.”

I fell silent, not really sure if I believed them. It seemed that Gray may have followed our trail getting here, which was how he found the cabin. If we hadn’t come, then he might not have located it after all.

And yet… As I looked into Nicholas’s eyes, I couldn’t find it in me to argue. Not when he looked so hurt just at the thought of me blaming myself.

Suddenly, Nicholas rose, much to mine and Jade’s chagrin. “They should be sober by now,” he said, grabbing a clean shirt and tugging it on over his head. “I want to question them.”

I shot to my feet. “I’m coming with you.”

Nicholas nodded, and we turned toward the cellar. But before we reached the door, Grace called out, “I’m coming, too.”

We both turned to see Grace standing there, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

“Grace, you don’t have to—” Nicholas began, but Grace cut him off.

“No. I want to speak to the bastard who kept me locked up.”

We couldn’t argue with that, of course, so the three of us headed into the cellar together.

Gray and his lackey were being held in a small storage room in the cellar, guarded by Nina and Emerie. The two warriors stepped aside as we approached, and Nicholas opened the door to find the hostages sitting on the dirt floor.

“Sober yet?” Nicholas asked, folding his arms across his chest. “Or do you need some more time to detox?”

Gray’s eyes darted between the three of us. His lip curled when he saw Grace standing there.

“I knew you were the one who helped her escape,” Gray said, turning back to Nicholas. “You and your little gang of do-gooders.”

Nicholas said nothing, but Gray went on, “Give her back to me, Nicholas. And this whole night will be forgotten. You won’t be charged for your crimes. We’ll say that my cohort had an… unfortunate accident.”

Nicholas opened his mouth to speak. But Grace cut in, “I’m my own person, Gray. Not a commodity to be traded for favors.”

Gray didn’t even look at her, as if she were a petulant child.

“Do the right thing, Reynolds,” he continued. “Give me the girl, and you will be rewarded. I’ll get you on the guild—you can have my position. I don’t care anymore. I just need her.”

Beside me, Grace bristled. I touched her arm, and she leaned into me slightly, although her eyes remained fixed on Gray.

“Why do you want her so badly?” Nicholas asked.

Gray scoffed. “Goddess above, do I need to spell it out for you? She knows where an ancient relic is—a relic that could change the course of history, if only it falls into the right hands. My hands. I must find it before anyone else. And you must know, there are others—those who would use the relic not to build, but destroy—who seek it as well.”

“What makes you think I would entrust the information that I know to you?” Grace blurted out, taking a step forward. “You locked me up for years, isolated me, fed me half-rotten bread and cold butter. I’d rather take my chances with literally anyone else at this point.”

Gray snapped his gaze to her, finally. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, child. Your mother poisoned you with fairytales, told you that the relic would be safer left alone. But she lied to you.”

“You don’t know anything about my mother.”

“I know more than you think,” Gray sneered. “Far more than you think. In fact, I once took your mother as my lover. I bet she didn’t tell you that—”

“Liar!” Grace spat, surging forward, hands outstretched. But Nicholas caught her with one hand, pulling her back to his side.

“Enough,” Nicholas growled. The room fell silent once more, save for Grace’s heavy breathing. Nicholas turned to Gray. “I’m not giving you anyone. In fact, you’re going to remain here until I figure out what to do with you.”

Gray cocked his head. “Are you going to kill me, then?”

Nicholas bristled. “I’d rather not stoop to your level, but don’t go putting any ideas into my head.”

Gray scoffed. “This is why I didn’t want you on the guild, you know. Your bleeding heart won’t do any good for our society—we need people in power who are sometimes willing to do bad things for the sake of the greater good. Something that you’re clearly incapable of.”

He glanced at me then, his lip curling once more, and went on, “Perhaps, once, you had the capacity for evil for the sake of the greater good, Reynolds. But not anymore. That girl—” he jerked his chin toward me— “has softened you. Pathetic.”

I clenched my jaw, willing myself to remain silent. But Nicholas just laughed and shook his head.

“What a shame, Mr. Gray,” he said, turning away, “that I won’t turn out just like you.”

And with that, we left.

That night, as we laid before the fire, Nicholas and I quietly discussed our options. We wouldn’t kill Gray and his cohort, no, but something had to be done. And ‘giving’ Grace to him, or even asking her to give him the information, was definitely out of the equation.

We all knew that, whatever Gray planned to do with the so-called relic of Luporath, it certainly wasn’t for the greater good. It was pure selfishness, nothing more.

The next morning, we made our way back down to the cellar to question Gray once more, if only to get a better angle at whatever he planned to do with the ‘relic’. Nina and Emerie said that Gray and his lackey were still sleeping.

But as we swung open the door and Nicholas barked out Gray’s name, there was no response. Frowning, he strode up to where the former guildsman was curled up on the floor, facing the wall, and nudged him with his boot.

Gray’s body rolled over, revealing pale skin and blue lips.

And the ring he wore on his left thumb, the ring I had never cared to notice before now, was hinged open to reveal a small, pill-shaped compartment within.

A compartment that was now empty.