Page 57 of Monsters of Mayhem
“Why? What are you going to do, throw me in the pit of lava?” I asked. I swallowed hard and wiped the tears from my face. There’s a damn good chance he might do just that. Fuck. Fuck. Right now, my heart was so broken, I wasn’t sure I would even mind it. How could she be gone?
“Don’t be like that, Firefly,” Cade said. “There are much greater things to be in life than some banshee’s best friend. It’s time you stepped into your own and became the woman you were always meant to be.”
“What the fuck do you know about me?” I asked. “You don’t know shit about shit. Caroline was half of my identity. Being her best friend meant more to me than almost anything else in the world. We were twinsies, BFFs. We were everything. I know it may sound stupid at my age to have all that, but best friends just get better as years go by. We just get closer and tighter and have more shared experiences. You just ripped all that away from me.”
Cade suddenly burst into molten lava again like the way he had been around Ryder. He reached toward me and I pulled back suddenly, terrified he would sear my skin and leave me with burnt flesh.
“You will go down the hallway.” His voice was gravelly. “Or so help me I will strangle you right here.”
I retreated from him knowing he was not bluffing. Knowing if Caroline meant so little to him, he would do the same to me. Although I did not feel like living for my sake, I knew there was something more I had to do. He came towards me again and this time I raised my hands like a small bowl and electricity pooled there, charging over my fingers. I was pretty proud of my electricity but he just laughed. I watched as he took it into his body, making his molten lava glow.
“You have some powers, little firefly. “
“My name is Laney,” I said.
He raised his hands, sending fire bursting out of them that struck me in the chest, knocking me to the ground and scorching my clothes. I rose. My clothes hung in shreds over my curvaceous body. My breath was strangled in my throat as my skin seared in pain.
“Don’t cross my path,” Cade said. “I can destroy you, but I want to keep you for my brother. Now get down the hall.”
I glanced up at the roof where Magnus was caged in the shadows, and then I looked to the pool of molten lava where Caroline had disappeared. My heart fractured. There was no way out of this. I looked up at Cade. He would kill me and then who would avenge Caroline? Who would help Ryder?
I took a deep breath, staggering unsteadily to my feet.
More importantly, who would destroy this monster that had been brought to life through the death of my friend? Caroline would not want me to give up. She would not want me to lay down and die.
She would want me to fight.
Because that’s what we were. That’s what we had always been. Fighters. People struggling against bad childhoods and crazy relationships to try to find a peace and calm and steadiness in the world. We had found that together and now, I would have to find it alone, but I would avenge Caroline‘s death.
“Fine,” I said, deciding compliance was going to be the best way to get past this situation. “Let’s see your brother then. I hope he’s not as ugly as you are.”
Cade flared but turned his grotesque hand toward the hallway. “You will wait in the bridal chamber until he attends you. The sacrifice of the rings has been made. Now it’s just a matter of time before he rises from the rift. He will need a woman.”
I swallowed hard. I wasn’t prepared for this. I wasn’t prepared for a monster to tell me I would need to be taken by a resurrected monster. I was going to have to find a way to combat him. There was no way I was going to comply with his request. None whatsoever. Still, I needed time to think and test my powers. I walked towards where Cade pointed. Down the hallway and around the corner was a glowing white chamber with a large bed in the center.
“When the moon is full and this hourglass runs out, he will be arisen,” Cade said, placing an hourglass on the side of the table to show where it was running out of sand. “Then he will feed on you and be reborn as a monster among men. We will overturn the Demigod Corporation and there will be new rulers of New Attica. The monsters shall dwell everywhere on the earth.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” I muttered under my nervous breath.
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