Page 106 of Dead Wrong

With a muffled shriek, Lynette pounds the ground with her fist, the dirt shimmering with golden dust as it rocked beneath our feet. The assailant dove for her, looking to sink the blade into her chest, but she was ready this time. Catching the blade between her hands, golden sparks showered the ground beneath her. She wrested it from the assailant’s grip, rolling far enough away to regain her footing. Using the edge of the knife, she cut the muzzle from her mouth, leaving a long gash down her chin. The device fell to the ground, and in a split second, her aura crushed the air from my lungs as she ordered, “Stop.”

Both mine and the assailant’s bodies went rigid, completely at Lynette’s mercy. She held out the blade, still slick with her blood, and for a moment, I thought she was about to slit the woman’s throat right there. Instead, she held it out handle first. “Take this back to my mother and tell her she’s too late. It can’t be stopped. I can’t be stopped. And soon enough, she’ll burn alongside all the others.”

The assailant took the blade with a trembling hand, utterly powerless to ignore the Command of my sister.

“Go.”

Knocking the woman back with the power of her word, Lynette straightened as the assailant fled from the scene. When she turned to face me, her expression was tempered steel. She’d been preparing for this moment, I imagined. The moment when she would fulfill this delusion that plagued her day and night.

And here it was.

She moved toward me, wincing as she clapped a hand over her wound to stymie the flow of blood. It hardly slowed her down. I was surprisingly calm as I met her gaze, acceptance hitting all at once.

“I won’t help you. If you’re committed to destroying the world, you’ll have to do it without me.”

Lynette held up a finger. “Not the world, Tobi. The Magi. We’re the blight that’s created this chaos. This violence. The Second Awakening will come with the lapping of flames and will bring balance once more. I’ve seen it.”

I tried to break from her hold. To make a run for it. She was deranged. Unmoored. Overtaken completely.

She wasn’t my sister any longer.

But my limbs remained motionless, no matter how much I urged them. With a wave of her hand, however, I moved along with her, headed for the empty hole in the ground just across from the grave of our father.

“What good can I do you if I’m already dead?” I asked. “Some sacrifice a dead guy makes.”

“Don’t worry, Tobi. Death is only the beginning for you.”

With a violent twist, I felt my spine snap, and my legs give out as I tumbled forward into the dirt. Along a shower of golden sparks, the loose earth began to bury me, another grave for another Tobias Greene.

* * *

My eyes snapped open with a start, my breath coming in gasps.

Lynette watched me, her eyes mirrors of my own staring back.

“You were going to let me die,” she said plainly.

“You fucking killed me!” I argued, the rage bubbling up all at once. “You actually fucking killed me!”

“Oh, calm down,” Lynette said, rolling her eyes. “I was always planning on bringing you back. Or at least, having someone bring you back. Your boyfriend took longer than expected to show up, though. I was getting worried he wouldn’t make it before you started to smell.”

“You already knew about Bastien?”

“Of course I did,” she scoffed. “I’m not oblivious, like most men. You really should have noticed your boyfriend exuding death magic, Tobi. Those glamours on his arms didn’t hide jack shit from me.”

“So, what, you brought me back to life just so you could kill me again?”

“Not exactly,” Lynette said, turning back to Lorelei and giving her a nod. “You’ll see soon enough, but I’m afraid there are some friends joining us for an important meeting, so you’ll have to sit tight and be patient.”

“If you think I’m going to sit here while—” my words were muffled by the gag Grigori shoved in my mouth, pulling the binding around my head.

Lynette turned to the brute. “If he doesn’t quiet down, rip out his tongue. He won’t be needing it for much longer.”

Grigori chuckled. Stupid Grigori. I was starting to think that we could have been friends.

The doors opened on the opposite end of the room once more, a stream of bodies moving into the meeting space. Lynette and Lorelei moved to the center of the table, standing by the high-backed chair that was elevated slightly above the rest.

Gasps rippled through the crowd as they entered, more of them seeing Lynette for the first time. A silver-haired man with half-moon glasses stepped forward, bearing the crest of the Hallowed on his vest. “What is the meaning of this?”

---