Page 45 of Snag (Conduit #2)

TWELVE

Bellamy takes a long drag from the cigarette as I approach. In the back seat of the sedan, Presh jerks forward, mouthing words. She’s not whispering, though. An iridescent red-tinted essence collar rings the base of her neck.

“A collar?” I sneer at Bellamy. “Really? Because Precious is such a threat.”

“I couldn’t stand the chatter.” Bellamy flicks the cig away. It lands on the pavement a few feet from her, bouncing, the tip still glowing.

“And yet you started the conversation.” I stop a few strides away, aware of Reck a step behind me and to my left — closer to Bellamy’s car.

“Monitoring your ward’s communications? How invasive of you, Zaya.

” Bellamy picks at something on her lip, then lightly spits.

“Fuck, when I nicked it from the kid, I was hoping it was weed of some sort. But they’re just old-ass, mass-produced shit.

” She sighs affectedly, leaning back against the car.

“Bellamy …” Reck snarls .

Her dark-purple-edged, whited-out eyes flick to him, ire abruptly infusing her expression. “I’m not interested in your words either, brother.”

“Don’t fucking call me that.”

“Why?” she mocks. “Because all of our other siblings are good enough to rescue but me?”

Reck hesitates.

“He knows, you fucking moron,” Bellamy scoffs dismissively. “He knows that every time you get the chance, you abscond with another of his bastards, tucking them away in some hidden part of the world. Presumably for your own nefarious purposes.”

“Fuck you. You don’t —”

“You still haven’t figured out that he doesn’t give a fuck about the boys.”

That stymies Reck’s instinctual protest. For a moment, at least.

“Because the awry gene is dominant only in his female offspring?” I ask, focused and calm. I have no idea yet what the universe was tugging me away from, because I get no hint that I can’t handle whatever Bellamy is about to throw at me.

“He thinks so,” she says, feigning detachment.

It’s interesting to me that no matter how powerful these two are, no matter how arrogant, neither of them uses their father’s name when speaking about him. They actively avoid doing so. And I already have a hint of the why— just not the how.

Bellamy told me as much when she mentioned having seen my necklace before. It just took me a while to weave that together with all the other hints, including her connection to the Authority agents, and those agents meeting with Devlin …

And Presh fleeing when she saw a cage being brought into her father’s compound. When she saw Bellamy, from afar, for the first time. Before that, he had kept Bellamy apart from the rest of her siblings, including her twin.

A twin now standing at my side, yet not with me at all.

The Cataclysm was involved in my aunt’s death. Her rejected soul-bound mate. Someone so powerful and so vicious that his children — who likely also rank among the most powerful figures in the world — are utterly terrified of him.

Reck finally finds his voice. “None of this is fucking relevant right now. Let Presh go.”

“I’m not holding her per se.”

“I’m not interested in your sick mind fucks, Bellamy,” Reck snarls. “I don’t care what shit he put you through. You think he hasn’t tortured us all? Taken everything we love? Tainted anything we treasured? You never should have laid hands on Precious.”

Bellamy steps away from the car, squaring off with her pissy brother.

“The power play between you two can wait,” I say. Then I turn my attention to Precious and DeVille, who has his arm wrapped protectively around Presh’s shoulders. “Get out of the car. And Precious? That collar can’t hold you.”

Precious’s eyes snap to mine. The purple infused through the deep blue of her irises isn’t even remotely subtle now.

Bellamy chuckles darkly. “You haven’t trained her particularly well.”

“I’ve had three days. Two of which have now been spent being annoyed by you.”

Bellamy opens her mouth, already snarling .

I lean a little closer, cutting her off. “Also, there’s been no awry weak enough to test her strength against. Luckily, she now has you to fulfill that role. I’m sure she’ll soon learn your worth in her life.”

“I thought we were sidelining the power plays,” Reck drawls. His attention is firmly fixed on his younger sister in the car.

“Go ahead,” I say to Presh, nodding encouragement.

Bellamy pivots just enough to have eyes on Presh, keeping her body angled toward us.

Precious glances at her long-lost sister, then at me. I lift my free hand — Muta is still weighing down the other arm like the asshole he is — and wrap my fingers around my throat.

Presh nods, swallows, and then wraps one hand around her neck, covering the red-tinted, essence-fueled collar. Her dark-purple eyes flick to Bellamy, and she glowers at her sister.

Bellamy laughs, sharp and too bright.

The collar writhes under Precious’s touch, then visibly tightens. Presumably that’s Bellamy’s control, though I can’t feel whatever power the dire awry is playing with because it’s literally nothing to me.

Precious soundlessly gasps for air, eyes widening in fear.

Reck jolts forward.

I raise my hand to him. “No.”

He actually listens to me.

“Precious,” I say mildly, “this is nothing to you, it’s completely beneath you. You are better, more pure, than your sister could ever hope to be.”

Bellamy narrows her eyes on me, clearly insulted.

Cheeks pinking, Precious takes a shuddering breath. At her side, still holding her as much as she’ll allow, DeVille looks like he isn’t breathing either.

Then, still soundlessly, Precious laughs.

I can practically feel the amusement, the honest joy, roiling off her.

The collar dissipates under her hand.

Bellamy huffs.

“Be glad it wasn’t me you tried that with,” I say, my tone still perfectly level. “I would have snapped it right back at you, just as Precious could have done, and you would have been on your knees, begging for your last breath.”

Reck’s gaze snaps to me. I can feel the heat of his regard. I ignore him.

“You knew that Precious is under my protection,” I say. “No court, no law, no authority can take her from me now. Nor will anyone even attempt to prosecute me for how I choose to enforce my guardianship.”

“She came to me,” Bellamy says, sounding just a little shaken. “She chose to sneak away to see me. You can’t kill me because she’s a stupid kid.”

“Hey!” Precious cries from the back seat of the sedan.

“I’m not speaking to you, Bellamy,” I say. “Or at least not solely to you. Am I?”

I allow my gaze to slide past the dire awry, looking behind the sedan and slightly to the right.

In a seemingly empty area of the paved lot surrounding the outpost, a simmer of essence catches in the sunlight, hovering about an inch off the dusty pavement.

A concealment ward. “Your mage is powerful.”

“The Authority attracts powerful people,” Reck says mildly. Not remotely shocked by the hidden presence of his agents. The two of them, at a minimum. “Get out of the car, Presh. ”

Precious glances between us all. Bellamy is all but ignoring her supposedly kidnapped victims now. The younger awry reaches for the handle of the door.

“Other side,” Reck says. He wants to keep the car between Presh and DeVille and the Authority agents behind their ward, currently listening to our conversation.

DeVille opens the door on his side, climbing out first, then reaching into the back seat for Presh. His eyes are bright with essence. Too bright.

“Reck,” I murmur.

“I see it.”

DeVille is on the edge of transforming into his beast. First-time transformations are chaotic under the best of circumstances— and with Presh at the center of everything going on here, that’s disconcerting.

As an awry, Presh might be naturally essence proof.

But if he’s lost to his beast, DeVille could accidentally maul her before I could take a single step to intervene.

“Reck,” I say again quietly, trying to sound calm.

“Can you just trust me for once in your fucking life?” he snarls, just as quietly.

Bellamy snorts derisively. “Trust you? Why should she? I don’t even know you, and I already know the levels you would —”

“I’m already fucking sick of your fucking voice,” Reck snarls viciously.

DeVille’s head snaps up, reacting to Reck’s aggression. He’s cradling Presh’s hand in his own, guiding her out of the car and coaxing her to keep her head down. Too close.

He’s way too close to Presh with his essence that bright in his eyes.

I can feel Reck’s hesitation. His gaze flicks to Bellamy, to the still-empty space behind the dire awry, then back to DeVille and Presh.

“You came here to protect Precious,” I say.

Bellamy snorts again. Her arms are crossed, athame still in hand and now resting along her bicep. In the sunlight, her eyes are almost white. That’s disconcerting, even to me.

Muta finally coils up to rest over my shoulders, leaving my right arm tingling from his weight. The death god trapped in the body of a bushmaster flicks his tongue out, tasting the essence shimmering in the air. His gaze is focused over Bellamy’s shoulder.

The death god’s intent aligns with my own.

Finally making a decision, Reck crosses around the front edge of Bellamy’s vehicle. Moving to protect Presh.

Bellamy eyes him with loathing, muttering, “Like little sister can’t handle her own fucking mate.”

I’m not surprised that Bellamy has so easily picked up on the ties between Presh and DeVille— because those bonds have strengthened from the events of the last couple of days.

From Bellamy manipulating and killing Kris.

But I ask instead, “Doesn’t bright light bother you?

” My own eyes lightly ache even behind my dark-tinted sunglasses.

Unfortunately, any of the mage-crafted glasses I’ve tried instantly fizzled under my touch.

Bellamy blinks, slightly thrown by the question.

“Your eyes?” I say. “The headache must be constant.”

“What do you care?” she snaps, arms falling to her sides.

I shrug. “Just stalling.”