Page 22 of Beg the Night (Mystics of Ashora #1)

TWENTY-TWO

athena

“ Y OU LIAR!” The small golden knife left my hand before I could even consider choosing peace in this situation.

It impaled her thin bicep instead of her chest. I’d have to work on my aim next time.

“Liar, liar, liar!”

She was lying. It was all fake. This was some sort of trick to get me riled up before the ceremony, so they could control me.

“Athena!” Director yelled.

Margaret sat frozen in her chair, lips pressed together like she was holding back a laugh.

I stood, hands splayed on the golden tablecloth, watching blood drip onto Katherine’s white dress.

“You bitch !” she yelled. “I am not lying, and we both know it! I’ve seen you use your power!”

I picked up Sinner’s knife, ready to throw that one, too. What the hell had gotten into me? It was like a deep hatred I had buried for Katherine had suddenly unleashed itself.

And I was ready to fight.

Two seconds before the knife left my grip, a strong pair of arms banded around me and hauled me backward.

“You don’t want to do this,” Sinner whispered in my ear. “Not now. Not here.”

“Trust me, I really do!” I reared back, fighting against him. But he effortlessly lifted me off my feet, restraining my arms against my own chest until the wave of rage had passed.

Director was standing now, holding a hand up to her guards.

Why? I had no clue. They could’ve taken me out easily, with the sheer number of them in attendance. Apparently throwing knives wasn’t cause enough for concern.

“Calm down, Athena,” she said. “Your sister is only trying to help.”

Katherine was crying now, gawking at her arm and the knife still inside it. She had always been a wimp.

“My sister has never in her life tried to help me. Everything she’s done has been for her own gain. Her apathy for her own flesh and blood has never been more evident than it is now, considering she’s willing to help the Ministry destroy her own sister.”

“You have this all wrong,” Katherine said through gritted teeth. “The Ministry are not the monsters you thought they were. They’re the only ones who can help the mystics!”

“And how would you know that, Katherine? What is your gift?”

She yanked the knife from her arm with a grunt. Then, as I stared at it in stunned silence, the wound began to heal itself.

Within seconds, the gash on her arm had closed.

Healing. My sister was actually healing her own damn wound.

Blurry memories of the healer who visited me in the dungeon flashed through my mind. The woman who’d always seemed so familiar, yet had never allowed me to see her face.

“Oh my god,” I whispered. “You’re the one who’s been healing me in the dungeons! You were there!”

She’d seen me the day I arrived, yet she hadn’t shown herself to me. And how many chances could she have had to?—

“I was doing what I could to help you,” she replied. “I’m still doing what I can to help you.”

My heart sank. I should have seen it coming. “So, you really are mystic, then.” You really are one of them. It was like looking into the face of a stranger.

“I am. And you’re a mystic, too. After all that happened to our family, I can’t understand why you’d try so hard to deny it. Open your damn eyes, Thena!”

Sinner had loosened his grip on me, though his hands still hovered over my body, waiting for my next move.

It was a smart plan. That gold knife was still looking mighty appetizing.

“My eyes are open. If I had used magic, I would know!”

“I’ve seen it!” Her voice cracked as a sob left her. It wasn’t about the pain anymore, I realized, because her wound had completely healed. She wiped the blood away with a clean cloth. “I’ve seen it! You’re…you’re powerful. Just accept it!”

My heart pounded and blood rushed in my ears. What the hell was she talking about? She had seen it? That was impossible. I had no power. I had no power. I had no power.

“See?” Director said, her tone exaggeratedly calm, like she was talking to two wild animals. “Like I said, she’s only trying to help.”

“What is it?” Sinner asked from behind me, each of his words vibrating through his chest and into me. “What is her power?”

Katherine looked from Sinner back to me before she glanced down at her hands in her lap. Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it.

She was lying. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the truth.

I had no magic. This was all so, so messed up.

“Did she tell you about the rest of our family?” Katherine asked softly, focus fixed solely on Sinner.

“About how they’re dead?”

She nodded, her lips pressed together. “Yes. They’re all dead.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked. “I was there when they died. I know what happened.”

I was there when Mother drowned in the lake.

I was there when Kylar was bitten by the snake.

I was there when Father’s heart attack stole him from us.

And when Jasmine’s fever wrecked her body.

I remembered every damn second of the agony. And I had nothing to do with it.

“Of course, you know what happened. Considering your magic is what killed them.”

If Sinner hadn’t been holding my arms, I would’ve collapsed. Liar. Liar. Liar. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true.

I would know if I had used powers against them. I didn’t have powers. I didn’t. I couldn’t have hurt them .

My vision tunneled. I tried to fight the pull of unconsciousness. I opened my mouth, desperate to tell them all that Katherine was wrong, that I hadn’t killed my entire family, but the room spun?—

And everything went black.

My head pounded as I shook like the rag doll I feared I’d become. “Athena. You need to wake up.” More shaking. Harder this time.

I blinked up at the ceiling. No, not the ceiling. There was no ceiling.

I sat up, my hands sliding across white silk sheets. Beneath it, a soft mattress. Sinner and I were in a bedroom, but…not.

We were outside. The bed had been placed in a small clearing surrounded by thick pine trees. And if I wasn’t mistaken, there was an illuminated film where the walls should have been, where the roof should have been.

I watched as a single glowing butterfly fluttered across the open sky above.

“Where are we?” I asked, struggling to wake completely. “What is this?”

Sinner let out a sigh. “We’re outside in the woods, but her mystics have enclosed us in some kind of magical room. We have to be under the full light of the moon for the ritual to work, apparently. These walls will stop us from leaving or running away.”

A piercing pain radiated through my skull as I took it all in.

“Oh my god.” As I rubbed at my temple, the reality of the situation hit me. Yes, I’d known what would happen tonight, but being here made it all too real. The moon was nearly at its apex, and we were sitting on this bed that was made for, what? For a fake, stupid romance that was supposed to merge our powers?

My heart took off at a sprint. Shit.

Don’t freak out. You’ve already freaked out way too many times tonight.

“Oh my god,” I groaned.

“I know,” he added, his head lowered. “Stay calm, okay? Can you do that?”

His hair—the thick locks that had been perfectly slicked back for dinner before—was in a disheveled mess. His shirt hung loosely off his body now, the ties across his chest almost entirely undone so I could see a large portion of his torso. His ridiculous shoes were gone, too, and so were mine.

I nodded slowly and forced air into my lungs. “I can stay calm. I can do that. Panicking won’t help anything, right?”

“No. It won’t.”

I closed my eyes for a few moments, and when I opened them, Sinner was watching me intently.

“What?”

“I need you to tell me the truth, Athena.”

My stomach sank at the seriousness of his tone. “What truth?”

“Is it true?”

I stumbled over my words, unable to summon an answer.

“Is what your sister said about your power true? About your family?”

I shook my head, giving him a pleading look. “I don’t want it to be true.” The words were a whisper. “It can’t be true. I couldn’t live with myself if—if?—”

“But if she’s right…” He leaned in until I could feel the heat of his breath. “If it’s true, then you’re even more powerful than me. Powerful enough to get us out of here. Powerful enough to get my sister out of here.”

I was already rejecting his words, head shaking. “I can’t do it.” I tried to match his whisper, but the words were too loud in the silent forest. Desperate for him to understand me, I clutched his arm. “If I could do what my sister says I can do, don’t you think I would’ve done it a long time ago? Like when I was first captured?”

“Fear could suppress your?—”

“I am not scared!”

He flinched at my words. He’d never reacted to me like that before.

I crawled off the bed and scrambled away from him. The forest floor was cold under my bare feet, and the cool night air that soaked through the barely-there fabric of my flimsy dress didn’t help, either. “I just need…I need time to think about this.”

He stayed where he was on the bed, head tipped back. “I’d assume you have twenty minutes. Maybe less. The second that moon reaches the apex, they’ll force us to claim.”

“I know. I know.” It was impossible to freaking forget.

“And they’ll hurt Mags if we don’t. That’s why they kept her. That’s why they?—”

“I know!” I spun around with a roar, my heart cracking wide open. “I’m very aware of what is at stake here, okay! You don’t need to remind me!”

He put his hands up in surrender. God, he was only trying to help. I knew that. He’d been forced into this shitty situation just like I had been.

“You said you had a plan.” I stepped closer, my voice lowered in case there were guards nearby listening to us. Spying on us. Surely someone was watching. “What is it?”

His eyes flickered with a rebellious light. “I’ve felt your power before, Athena. I know I have. When we were drugged, and again in the shower. They say we have to perform the claiming in order to share our magic, but…”

Holy shit. “You think you can do it without completing the ritual?”

His dark eyes locked on mine, his expression earnest. “Yes. And I think if you truly accepted the gift you wield, it would be even stronger.”

My heart stumbled. “How would that help us, though? Even if I did have power, I can’t summon it at will. I have no idea how to use it, how it works, anything.”

“That’s the thing about the claiming,” he whispered, standing and stepping closer. “You won’t have to know how to wield your power. I can wield it for you.”

It hit me then. The most terrifying emotion I could possibly feel in a situation like this one.

Hope.

“That could work.”

“And they still have no clue what your power can do. Sure, your sister prattled on about it, but they won’t take her word for it. They have to see it to really believe it exists.”

I lifted my chin and swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Can you feel it now?” I asked. “My power?”

He stepped closer and placed a hand on either side of my face. I shivered at his touch. My nerve endings lit up, urging me closer. My every cell was pulled toward him. Whether because of the blood moon, the ceremony, or the chaos of this day, I didn’t know.

But I wanted him closer. I wanted more of him.

The sound of a mallet striking a large gong rang out across the forest, bouncing off the trees and startling me.

Sinner’s eyes widened, but he didn’t release me. “It’s time.”

“We have to do it.” I gripped his forearms. “They’ll know if we don’t. If you try to pull on my power without the actual claiming, they’ll know.”

His smile matched the fight in his eyes. “I’m an excellent actor. Do you trust me?”