Page 91 of Worse Fates

The two new mages share a look. My heel digs in deeper and a pained gasp escapes my captive.

“Wait, wait!” At the woman’s insistent cry, I halt. “I’ll tell you everything, we didn’t even wanna be involved in all this stuff, okay? We were bailing.”

For the first time I notice the canvas bag at their feet. “Tell us everything,” I demand, not bothering to pull back. Until she’s done he’ll suffer.

The woman’s shoulders drop, her pale white skin stark in the darkness and a few strands of brown hair have fallen from her messy bun.

“So,” she begins, voice hitching, “we know this guy called Jace.”

Summer’s eyes roll. “He’s just popping up everywhere.”

“Jace used to be cool, then he joined a fight club. Personally, I thought the whole thing was stupid—a bunch of shirtless guys beating each other up for cash, who gives a fuck, right? But then Eric and I lost our jobs.”

“And suddenly you gave a fuck?” Summer demands, arms crossing.

“When you have little choice you do what you’ve gotta do. We went to Jace and he was happy for us to join, but first he wanted us to take some weird pills. He said it’ll open our minds. We agree, thinking it’ll get us high and we’ll have a bit of fun. Jace takes us up to his office and we meet this older chick, Emma and she was…weird. But we took the pills and then Emma, out of nowhere, cut my arm open. I was about to scream, but then my blood floats up and the next thing I know they’re asking us to join their family.”

“And you agree,” I say, less of a question and more a fact.

“Wouldn’t you?” The woman looks desperate for us to understand. “Jace is known for being a bit intense, but he’s a good guy and now he’s given us power when we had nothing, who would turn that down?”

“But it got worse,” Eric whimpers.

The woman shuts her eyes, breathing deeply before continuing. “We had to make…spellbooks.”

“And of course you went along with it,” Rurik spits. Summer’s face twisting up in disgust.

Heavy shame drags the woman’s gaze away.

“We know how those books are made.” Rurik glowers down at her. “Spells carved into the flesh of someone still living, then skinned alive. Their intestines, hair and mucus binding the ‘pages’ together.”

“And here I thought I’d grown out of peer pressure…” A tear rolls down the woman's face. She can't look at any of us, not even at her own reflection in Rurik’s penetrating gaze. “I did what we could, drugged up the—” Her lips tremble. “I drugged up the girl to her eyeballs so she didn’t feel a thing. But not everyone did.”

Silence closes in with a weight that could suffocate. The woman’s breath grows heavy, each clouded exhale hanging suspended in the air, blurring her features. At that moment, it’slike she’s no longer here. Instead, in a room, hands slick with someone else’s blood, carving spells into a person she hopes isn’t aware.

But…

Oh, it’s the unknown, really, which kills.

Because…what if in that drug haze, their victim felt every single cut.

“Look,” she whispers, suddenly appearing ten years older and exhausted, “we know where your Apollo is. Just let us go and we’ll tell you, we just want to get away from this shit.”

“Fine,” Rurik snarls, releasing her neck from his fist.

She opens her mouth. “He’s—”

An explosion of blood and brain matter splatter out, then a thud as the woman drops—headless—to the ground.

“Shit!” I bark.

Blood soaks through my clothes, blinding me in red. Blinking furiously, I whip around in search of our attacker.

Summer chokes out a frantic string of “oh god, oh god” between retches, while Rurik roars a furious curse. Eric screams, hands over his face.

In the distance, a familiar figure stands out of a sunroof—Mickey. Jace’s lackey, who attacked Golden and Kai near the tattoo studio I left unconscious.

But before I can move—finishing the job and ending the footnote that is Mickey’s life—the blood ruining my leather shoes rises, like a ghastly rain falling in reverse. It hangs, suspended, thin strands solidifying into needle-sharp points the length of my hand.