Dangerous Deception

  Angelique tilted her head to the side, as if she was considering it.

  “Don’t listen to him,” Link said. “He’s just tryin’ to save his own sorry ass.”

  Silas ignored Link, his black eyes locked on Angelique. “Oh, and one more thing.” He paused for a moment. “How do you feel about immortality?”

  CHAPTER 29: LINK

  Bringin’ on the Heartbreak

  Link had been in enough trouble, enough times, to know he was knee-deep in it.

  The moment Silas said the word immortality, the game changed.

  Angelique’s expression shifted, rage and bloodlust replaced by a different type of lust—the kind that involved cheating death.

  Who wanted to die?

  Who wanted to turn to dust in the earth, to be forgotten by the living?

  Even Link understood the appeal.

  If Silas isn’t lying.

  Either way, once Silas planted that seed in her mind, Link and his friends became expendable.

  Link leaned closer to Liv and John. “We’ve gotta get outta here.”

  Liv nodded and opened her hand so Link could read something she’d written on her palm.

  “Meet me at the car wash,” Link whispered to John, who nodded.

  Silas rolled up his sleeves. “Do we have a deal, then?”

  Angelique tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I want the details. I didn’t see any immortality serum in your lab. Which makes me think you’re all talk.”

  “This isn’t the only lab, or the biggest. How do you feel about palm trees? Movie stars and the beach?”

  He’s talking about Los Angeles.

  Angelique pointed at Chloe the Butcher. “Do we have to bring your pet? She’s irritating.”

  Chloe leered.

  Liv slipped her hand into John’s, and Link inched closer to Lucille.

  Silas nodded at Link and his friends. “I don’t know. Are you planning to bring yours?”

  Angelique glanced over her shoulder, as if she’d forgotten they were still standing there. “Do whatever you want with them.”

  She walked away.

  Link stared, but there was nothing anyone could do to stop her.

  Chloe smiled just as John nodded, his hand gripping Liv’s. Link scooped up Lucille and Ripped faster than he ever had in his life.

  Link and Lucille broke through the darkness and crashed to the floor. Lucille landed on her feet, but Link wasn’t as lucky. He rolled over onto his side, his cheek pressed against the concrete. They were back in the hallway, but Link didn’t see the door with the plastic car wash flaps.

  Crap.

  A moment later, John and Liv appeared.

  “I was worried you weren’t going to make it,” John said. “The car wash is back that way.”

  Lucille strolled past him without so much as a look and took off, like she had a Sheer chasing her.

  “Where the hell is she goin’?” Link shook his head. All he wanted to do was find Ridley and get out of this place. When they turned the corner, Link noticed another stone staircase leading down. “This has to lead back down to the dungeon.”

  When they reached the base of the steps, Link caught a glimpse of another row of barred doors at the end of the passage.

  Rid?

  He bolted toward the cell door without considering who else might be on the other side—Darkborns, Incubuses, or golden-eyed Casters. The one person he didn’t expect to see was the guy staring back at him.

  Lennox Gates.

  “What are you doing here, Link?” Nox actually sounded concerned. Concerned, and a whole lot of things Link didn’t have time to decode now.

  But Link was speechless.

  Did I really come all this way to rescue this fancy-pants rich boy?

  Link looked around. All he could think about was finding Ridley, which meant actually speaking to Nox. He walked over to Nox’s cell. “Where’s Rid? Have you seen her?”

  Come on. Say yes. Please say yes.

  Nox cleared his throat. “About Ridley …”

  John and Liv walked over, and John rested a hand on Link’s shoulder.

  “What about her?” Link could barely choke out the words. “Is she alive?”

  “Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean for you to think she was gone.” Nox scrubbed his hands over his face. He seemed to be having a hard time saying whatever it was he was trying to tell Link.

  “Is she okay?” Liv asked finally.

  “Silas took her a while ago. Said he was taking her to one of the private lab rooms.” Nox looked like he wanted to throw up.

  “Why would he take her there?” Link grabbed the bars, wishing he could rip the door off like Sampson. Deep down, he already knew what Nox was going to say.

  Nox stared at the floor. “It’s one of the places he conducts his—”

  “Experiments,” Link finished.

  Nox nodded. “Rid’s been through a lot. She’s … changed. I don’t know how to explain it better than that.” He looked at Link. “I didn’t do this, and I didn’t ask for this. You need to know that.”

  Why is he telling me this? Link wondered. Why doesn’t he just shut up?

  John’s eyes darted toward the staircase. “Someone’s coming.”

  Link braced himself. After what Nox had just told him, he was ready to kill someone.

  A moment later, Lucille trotted into the tunnel, with Necro, Floyd, and Sam behind her.

  “Nox!” Floyd rushed to the cell the moment she saw him. “Are you okay?”

  Liv looked behind Sam. “Where are the girls?”

  “Headed far away from here,” Necro said, smiling proudly at Sampson. “Sam helped a little.”

  “How did you get them out so fast?” Liv asked.

  “We ran into this old lady who knew Nox,” Necro explained. “She said she helped him find his way here. Mrs. Blackwell—?”

  “Blackburn,” Nox said.

  “I guess she’d been trying to find a way to help them, but she couldn’t open the cells.” Sam shrugged. “Since we covered that part, she told us to come help you.”

  “She’s an old friend,” Nox said sadly. “I owe her everything.”

  Link didn’t have to ask how Necro, Floyd, and Sam had found them, not when they’d walked in behind Lucille. He had noticed that she had scampered off after they Ripped.

  Necro looked around. “Where’s Ridley?”

  Link looked at Nox. “You tell them.”

  “Silas injected her with an Illusionist’s powers and I don’t even know what else.” Nox shook his head and looked at Link. “And it changed her.”

  “Changed her how?” Link waited for the rich boy to answer him, but someone else did first.

  “For the better, if I do say so myself. Think of it as a makeover.”

  Link spun around.

  Ridley walked toward them. Everything about her seemed different and yet the same. From the sultriness in her voice to the calculating expression on her face, it was all her but more pronounced. Like Ridley was more … just more, somehow.

  But one thing was definitely different.

  Her eyes.

  The gold Dark Caster eyes he’d stared into so many times were a violent purple now.

  It doesn’t matter. It’s still Rid, and she’s okay.

  Link moved toward her, encircling her in his arms. It was so good to be near her.

  She was warm and full of life, and love—

  But when he pulled back and looked at her again, she seemed different.

  She’s been through so much. It’s a miracle she’s alive.

  “I thought you were dead, Rid. You don’t know how happy I am to see you.” He noticed the strange way she was looking at him, like she was scared. But he ignored it and slung his arm around her neck anyway. Ridley recoiled like he’d tossed a pot of boiling water all over her.

  “What’s that smell?” She covered her nose and mouth, angling her body away from him. “It’s like you dragged a rotting body in h
ere.”

  Link sniffed under his arm.

  Maybe she’s messing with me.

  But the way she was holding her arm out to push him away definitely didn’t make it seem like that.

  “I don’t know,” Link said. “We were around a buncha Sheers in this house in New Orleans where they were murdered. Can you smell dead people now? That’s kinda cool, I guess.”

  The thought gave Link the creeps, but he didn’t want to make her feel bad.

  Liv walked toward them slowly, watching Ridley as she moved closer. When Liv was a few feet from Link, Ridley gagged and stumbled away from them.

  “You smell even worse than he does. Don’t come any closer. Please.” Ridley braced herself against the wall with one arm and dry-heaved.

  Liv froze. “Oh my gosh.”

  “What?” Link knew he was missing something important.

  Liv backed away and tugged Link’s sleeve, giving Ridley some space.

  “John,” Liv said, waving him over. “Can you and Sampson come over here?”

  Sampson and John walked over and stood next to Liv and Link.

  “What’s going on?” John asked.

  Liv nodded in Ridley’s direction. “Keep walking.”

  Sampson and John exchanged a confused look and did as Liv asked.

  Ridley had caught her breath by now, and she didn’t react at all as the hybrid and the Darkborn approached. “Am I under arrest?” she teased.

  “Want to tell us what we’re doing?” John looked back at Liv.

  “Testing a theory,” she said quietly.

  “What kind of theory?” Link asked. “What the hell’s goin’ on, Liv? Why can’t we get near Rid without makin’ her want to puke?”

  Liv looked away. “I think it’s because we’re both Mortal—at least, part Mortal.”

  Link’s stomach twisted into a knot, and for a second, he thought he might puke. “That can’t be right.” He shook his head. “Tell her she’s wrong, Rid.”

  Ridley kept her distance and tossed her pink-streaked blond hair over her shoulder casually. “Makes sense to me.”

  The way she said it was almost like she didn’t care.

  “But what about us, Rid? How are we gonna fix it?” Link swallowed hard, a sinking feeling settling inside him.

  She looked troubled, avoiding his eyes. “We aren’t. It was good while it lasted, Hot Rod. But things are different now.”

  “Rid, we can figure this out. Maybe there’s some kinda antidote or somethin’.” Link knew he was begging, but he didn’t care.

  Everyone turned away like they were watching a car crash.

  “You don’t get it, Shrinky Dink. I’m not the same person.”

  “Then who are you?” Link was hurt and confused, but he wanted to understand. He hadn’t come all this way for nothing.

  Ridley looked away. “To be honest, I feel like throwing up. I need some air.”

  Link shook his head. “I don’t know what Silas did to you, but deep down, you’re still the same girl.”

  “Hardly,” she said. “I don’t know what I am. Not anymore.” She had never spoken more honestly in her life.

  Link ran his hand through his spiky hair. “I know who you are. You’re the girl who gives me a hard time and won’t let me call her Babe. The girl who lives to torture my mom, but who’s always there for the people she cares about.”

  Ridley shrugged. “What kind of torture are we talking about? You know, so I can picture it.”

  She smiled at him, but she wasn’t with him. Not really.

  Link reached into his pocket and took out something he’d been saving.

  A cherry lollipop.

  He held it between them.

  “The girl who loves cherry lollipops.” He took a deep breath. “And me.”

  Link realized she probably couldn’t stand to get close enough to take it from him, so he laid it on the floor and backed away.

  Ridley walked toward it slowly, her eyes darting between him and the lollipop. When she finally reached the red and white wrapper, she stopped.

  She’s gonna pick it up.

  Link’s heart swelled.

  Ridley stared at him—and then at Nox, who wasn’t saying a word. In fact, it looked like he’d rather be anywhere in the world other than where they were right now.

  But it was time.

  “Rid. Just tell me. Do you love me?” Link asked.

  Ridley said nothing.

  He swallowed.

  “Do you love me? Even a little?” It was the same question Link had asked her on the highway, when they were trying to get away from New York City.

  Before the accident.

  Ridley looked him in the eye and stepped on the lollipop, crushing it under her platform shoe. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. Not anymore.” She leaned closer, dropping her voice to almost a whisper. “There’s nothing sweet about me anymore, Shrinky Dink.”

  “What?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “I don’t want to be sweet. That girl is gone. She’s dead. Silas Ravenwood killed her.”

  In that one moment, Link’s world imploded. Every dream he’d ever had—everything he’d ever cared about—since the day he met Ridley Duchannes died.

  As John Ripped the rest of them out of the labs and away from Silas and Angelique and New Orleans, Link felt like part of him died, too.

  The sweetest part.

  But Link refused to leave.

  He’d Rip himself out of there when he was ready. For now, all he could do was sit alone in the prison cell where Ridley Duchannes had destroyed him.

  Link stared at the prison bars, the plaster ceiling, and the frail little bed.

  How can I blame her? Who knows what they did to her in here?

  Then something caught his eye.

  Letters, scratched into the nightstand.

  She wrote my name.

  That was when he realized Rid hadn’t forgotten him.

  She had been stolen from him, and he’d do anything to get her back.

  Because Ridley Duchannes is my girl.

  Nothing could ever make him forget about her, and he swore that someday she’d remember him the same way. It wasn’t a promise.

  It was a Binding, even stronger than the ring he was wearing around his finger.

  When he held up his hand and looked at it, the ring glowed green for the very first time since he saw her.

  This was his vow.

  Even if she would be the last to know it.

  CHAPTER 30: NOX

  Heaven and Hell

  Nox stood across from Ridley, staring into those hypnotic violet eyes—speechless. They were still standing outside the cells.

  Rid had refused to leave with Link, and from what Nox could tell, she’d seemed physically repulsed by the Mortal part of him.

  Something he can’t change.

  Ever.

  “What’s wrong, Baby?” She hooked her fingers through Nox’s belt loops.

  “What kind of power did Silas give you this time, Rid?”

  Her eyes sparkled at the mention of the infusion, and Nox felt sick. The look in her eyes reminded him of the Chemist and the Shine.

  Rid nuzzled close to his ear. “It’s a surprise.” Her lips grazed his, and he couldn’t think about anything else but her. “You like my surprises, don’t you?”

  “I love everything about you, Rid.”

  He spoke words she expected to hear, even though he felt miserable saying them. Because they were the truth.

  Even now. Always.

  Nox deepened the kiss and lost himself in her.

  “I hate to interrupt,” a voice said from behind them, and Nox almost jumped out of his skin.

  He turned around. “Mrs. Blackburn? What are you doing here?”

  “The right thing,” she said. “Something I should’ve done for your mother all those years ago.”

  “Nox, who is this lady?” Rid asked.

  “She works for Silas, a
nd she worked for Abraham before him—I’ve known her since I was a kid.”

  Ridley only nodded.

  “We don’t have time for introductions,” Mrs. Blackburn said. “I need to get you two out of here. Silas is heading to his lab in LA with one of the other Casters he experimented on.” She shook her head. “He said he could make her immortal.”

  Ridley’s head snapped up when she heard the word. “Are you positive that’s what he said?”

  Mrs. Blackburn frowned. “I may be old, but I’m not deaf.”

  Rid’s eyes lit up, and Nox’s spirits sank.

  Immortality?

  She looked mesmerized.

  Nox grabbed her hand. “Come on, Rid. You said we could leave after … you know, it was finished.”

  Ridley gave him a quick kiss, a viper curling around her neck. “I’m done here.”

  “How are we going to get past Silas’ guards?” Nox asked the old Caster.

  “We aren’t.” The cook headed down the hallway, with Nox and Ridley on her heels. “I’m taking you through the Tunnel that leads to the house. Leave the same way you came, and you’ll end up at the Mile.”

  “Thank you,” Nox said.

  “I owe it to you. You, and your mother.”

  “There’s a Tunnel that leads into the house?” Rid asked. “Are you sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure. Who do you think cooks all the meals for Silas’ research staff?”

  Mrs. Blackburn led them to her secret Tunnel like she promised, and when they reached the Outer Door inside Silas’ house, she gave Nox a quick hug. “You know it’s your job to get that girl right again, don’t you?” she whispered.

  He nodded.

  It’s all I think about.

  It’s the only thing that matters.

  Whether or not it means she stays with me.

  Ridley and Nox didn’t stop again until they were safely out of Silas’ house and in the Tunnels. It was the first time he felt like they actually had a chance.

  He pulled Ridley against him. “So where do you want to go?”

  She tilted her head, as if she was deciding. “I’m thinking LA.”