Page 12 of Beg the Night (Mystics of Ashora #1)

TWELVE

athena

“ I thought you were dead,” I whispered as soon as Sinner and Director were out of earshot.

Despite what I’d assumed, Katherine looked very much alive and healthy, apparently in the good graces of the Ministry, too.

Her smile did not waver an inch. “Disappointed to see me, sister?”

Disappointed? A million emotions flooded my body. When Katherine left, I was pissed. How could she leave her sisters when we needed her the most?

And all that time, she had been here. With them. Disappointed in her? Maybe. But to see her alive and in the flesh… I swallowed down the anger and panic rising in my throat and forced a curt smile. “Just surprised. I was sure I’d never see you again after you left us.”

Her brown eyes sharpened. “Yeah, well, things change. And change isn’t always a bad thing, Thena.”

I clenched my fists so tightly my nails pierced into the skin on my palms. “Oh yeah, it’s been real peachy for me so far. You know Jasmine is dead, too? I had to bury her by myself while the crows circled in the sky above me. A real pain, dragging a body with no help.”

For a split second, Katherine’s smile faltered. “What?”

I shrugged. “Not like you’d care about her, or any of us. When you left, it was pretty damn clear you wanted nothing to do with our family.”

Inwardly, I cringed. I’d planned to take the high road. But the warm buzz from the wine was infiltrating my senses, making me forget why my behavior mattered at all.

Hell, I’d all but forgotten why anything mattered.

“Are you working with them? Did they take you, too?” My words came out in a rush, a mix of curiosity and hurt and panic.

“I’m here to help you.” She stepped even closer, her sweet perfume wafting over me and making me dizzy. “When Director told me they found you, I could hardly believe it. But here you are.” She looked me up and down, her expression scrutinizing.

“Considering they came and kidnapped me from our home . They found me, all right. Suddenly, it makes more sense. For our whole lives, we lived in peace, without the threat of the Ministry, yet you wandered off, and within weeks, they’d discovered our home. Now look at us.”

Darkness overtook her expression for a heartbeat. “You’re hiding your powers from her and you need to stop. It’s only going to hurt you.”

There was no stopping the scoff that escaped me. My sister had definitely gone nuts. They had gotten to her, too. “I have no powers.”

Her laugh shook my bones. “We both know you’re a mystic. You’re not helping anyone, least of all yourself, by lying.”

Yep. She’d lost her mind completely. Had she been indoctrinated into the Athena-has-powers club?

“Lying? You’ve known me my entire life, Katherine! Are you seriously telling me you think I’m a mystic?”

“Look around you,” she ordered.

Over her shoulder, I scanned the room of soldiers dressed and playing nice. People were laughing. Dancing. Probably getting way too drunk.

“Everyone here is a mystic,” she said, her tone harsh. “Including me. Including you.”

Oh. My. God. This conversation had gone from concerning to entirely deranged. “You’re a mystic?” I breathed, unease coiling in my stomach. “Exactly what type of power do you have?”

“That’s not important right now. They don’t want mine nearly as much as they want yours. That’s why we’re having this discussion.” She sighed like she was already tired of this conversation. I despised it when she acted like even speaking to me was below her.

Standing tall, I locked eyes with her. “You’re lying.”

“About what?” She held her arms out. “What reason would I have to lie?”

“If I were a mystic, don’t you think I would have used my power to get out of here?” I threw a thumb over my shoulder. “You know where they’re keeping us, right? Do you know what they want me to do ?”

“ Of course I know. I’m a lot closer to you than you think, Thena. You’re being detained in the dungeons with the rest of the mystics until the claiming. But it will all be over soon, okay? I promise you this is the worst part.”

A silent beat passed between us while my mind raced with all kinds of ridiculous thoughts. Who was this person? She’d never been overly kind to anyone, but she was absolutely frigid now. “Did you go through this, too, Katherine? The claiming?”

She stepped closer to me, lowering her voice. “Yes, and you better do it too. If you cooperate and perform the claiming with that man, they’ll get you out of that dungeon.”

My heart pinched painfully. My sister, the one person left in this world who should care about my well-being, was here forcing my hand just as Director had been. Where had we gone wrong? When had things gotten twisted enough to send her running to the enemy?

“How could you say any of this? How could you support this? You know how awful this is! This isn’t right!”

Her only reaction was a deep inhale and a lift of her sharp chin. “There is no place for right or wrong here, Thena. Just survival. You want to survive, don’t you? You’ve always been quite the survivor.”

My heart raced at her proximity. My sister. After all this time, she was alive. And she was with them. I could barely believe the words coming out of her mouth. She wasn’t here to break me out, to help me. No, her purpose was to ensure my compliance.

I looked to where Sinner and Director were speaking near the edge of the party, talking in hushed tones like Katherine and I were.

Always so secretive.

I’d been dragged here with nothing. Nobody. I had no intention of giving them anything they wanted. But the deep pit in my stomach told me the tides were shifting. There were more forces working against me than I’d realized, one of which, it turned out, was my heinous sister.

“If I agree to go through with this—which is still pretty damn unlikely—you need to do one thing for me.”

She stiffened. “What?”

“There’s another girl in the dungeons. She barely has any power. Margaret. You have to let her go free.”

Katherine’s mouth fell open in disbelief. “Are you kidding? You really think Director will agree to let a mystic woman walk free?”

“She’s a low level, probably a one. I think your bitch of a boss would be more concerned about Sinner and me participating in the claiming than about keeping a low-level mystic around. If Director really wants this to happen so badly, she’ll let her go.”

She studied my face, lips pressed together and eyes narrowed to slits.

For a moment, I considered asking her more about what she did for the Ministry, how she’d ended up here, how long she had been with them and what power she was using to assist them.

Before I could, though, she exhaled loudly, pulling me from my thoughts.

“You’ll claim with him willingly on the next blood moon?”

God, this felt so wrong. Everything in me was telling me to run, to lie, to hide.

But if I was really being forced into this fate, maybe one good thing could come of it. “If you let her go, yes. I’ll do it.”

A few seconds passed, but eventually, she nodded once. “Fine. I’ll see what I can do, but I make no promises.”

Rather than walk away like I expected, Katherine lurched forward and gripped my forearm, her expression full of fear. “You’ll die if you don’t go through with this. I know you. I know you’ve been trying to fight, trying to find a way out. But there is no way out. Bond with him, use your power, and fight the battle you were born to fight.”

I yanked my arm free from her anyway. “I don’t trust you.”

“Good,” she whispered. “Don’t trust anybody. It’s the only way you’ll make it out alive.”

Director was on the stage now, garnering the attention of the crowd. Katherine—like the good little dog she was—looked proudly toward the stage.

Disgusting.

Director rambled on about the war, spitting lies and claiming false victories while the crowd blindly cheered. As soon as it ended, I turned to find Margaret.

Before I could locate her, a piercing sound split through the air, stopping my every thought in its tracks.

“I’ll see you soon, sister.”

A breath later, the world went black.

Water. I needed water. My mouth was caked with thick saliva and my eyelids felt weighed down. I pried them open eventually, though my vision was blurry. What the hell happened? And how long had I been asleep?

“Finally.” A deep voice echoed off the walls and ricocheted inside my skull.

Fuck . Sinner’s voice tended to do that.

“What happened?” The words were barely audible. My lips were cracked, my head pounding. As my vision cleared, I pushed myself to sitting and quickly assessed my surroundings.

From the look of things, the two of us had been locked in a smaller cave-like room. It was large enough to fit one of those tiny cots from the dungeon, but not much else. There were only a few feet of stone floor between it and a padlocked prison door. At least this door was made of bars, and we could see the hallway lit with exposed hanging bulbs, but nothing else.

Sinner pushed a cup of water in my direction with his foot. He sat on the ground with his arms crossed over his chest and his back resting against the wall. And, of course, he looked as annoyed as ever.

“I know just as much as you do. Someone must have used their power to incapacitate us. Couldn’t tell you why, but now we’re here.”

“Only us? Why would they separate us?” I downed the water in two gulps.

Sinner cocked his head to the side like that was the stupidest question I could have asked.

“Oh, right,” I answered for him. “Because we’re supposed to be doing this stupid claiming ritual in two weeks.”

“I’d say that’s a decent guess.” He rested his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. His throat bobbed as he swallowed.

His lack of general concern for our well-being was seriously starting to concern me. “And you’re…what? You’re letting them?”

A second passed. Then another. Rage built inside of me with every lingering moment of silence. How was he not absolutely freaking out right now?

“It’s not like we have a choice, New Girl. We never did.”

“Don’t say that.” I stood and immediately swayed. My vision darkened, and for a moment I was sure I’d pass out. I breathed through it, willing myself to stay conscious, and when my vision returned, I made my way to the cage door that secured our new little prison. I yanked once on the bars, rattling them loudly, but it didn’t budge. That was unsurprising, of course, but damn. At least I was willing to try.

“Can’t you use your magic? Have you tried? You could… You could?—”

“I could nothing ,” he whispered, sounding far too serpent-like for my liking. His eyes locked on mine. “You forget who we are down here. We are pawns. Toys. We are powerless.”

I shrugged, annoyed. “You didn’t look powerless earlier tonight. That’s all.”

“You truly believe I haven’t thought about using my power to escape?”

I gave up on the bars and kneeled in front of him so we were eye to eye. “Why not? You could do it. We could get out of here!”

He assessed me, his lips tugged down in an expression that appeared to be annoyance but then morphed into sadness. “There’s too much at risk. It’s not only my life I’m worried about. Fuck, if it was, I would’ve burned this place to the ground and taken myself with it.”

Then I remembered the sad realization of Sinner’s situation. “You comply because of your sister.”

He dipped his chin, then rested his head on the wall again. “Bingo.”

“You think she’ll get hurt if you try to leave.”

“Trust me, I don’t just think it. Director has made her intentions very clear to me.”

I sat back on my heels, my heart rate picking up, and cleared my throat. “I guess this is probably a good time to tell you that they’re freeing her, then. If they haven’t already.”

He eyed me like a predator assessing its prey, searching for every one of my weaknesses and finding them with ease. “What are you talking about?”

“My sister, the woman I spoke to at the ball. She told me she would release Margaret.”

He scoffed, his lip curling in disgust. “And why would she do something like that?”

“Because she wants me to perform the claiming willingly.”

Sinner straightened and inspected me, the intensity in his eyes so fierce I swear to god he made time stop. I nearly crawled out of my skin as he sat, silently shooting daggers at me.

“You agreed to claim with me in return for Mags’s safety?”

“I did.”

His chest rose and fell with a heavy breath. “I don’t trust your sister. I sure as hell don’t trust Director. Whatever they told you, they’re lying.”

A wave of unease washed over me. “She wouldn’t lie to me.”

My sister had her flaws, yes, but she was a woman of her word. If she made me a promise to free Margaret, then she’d be free. Especially if they wanted me to claim.

And for reasons I had yet to understand, they were dead set on my participation.

“What makes you think I’d believe that?” he gritted out. “You seemed awfully surprised to see her. A mystic. At the president’s ball. You’re hiding something, New Girl. Don’t think I can’t see it.”

“I’m not hiding anything.” I heaved a breath out. “I didn’t know my sister was mystic, and I sure as hell didn’t think I would ever see her again, let alone at Director’s ball. Forgive me for being shocked.”

“Does she know?”

“Know what?”

“That you’re hiding a power Director wants.”

God, she was the reason Director was under the impression I had power. She had been the one whispering about me, as if I were some sort of pawn that would save them all from this war. She believed it all, too. She believed she was a mystic, and she believed I was, too.

Had they tortured her? Had they locked her down here and brainwashed her until she’d broken? It was the only explanation, because my own sister thinking I had magic?

No way.

I crawled away from Sinner and sat against the opposite wall, arms crossed over my chest in hopes that I could retain a little of my body heat. I was still wearing the dress from the ball. Sinner was still in his suit as well, though he had stripped down to his undershirt and trousers.

It was colder here. Darker. Before this moment, I couldn’t have imagined missing that dank, dirty, crowded dungeon, but this made that place look like a haven.

Sinner was still staring at me, waiting for my reply.

“I’m not going to argue. I don’t have any power, but clearly you’ve chosen not to believe me.”

“Correct.”

“Enjoy being disappointed, then.”

I waited for a quip, for a scathing response, but none came. Only silence. Silence and the thick tension that suffocated me with every passing hour.

It was going to be a long freaking night.