Page 113 of The Executioners Three
Yet for Born to actually gain control of her body and fully awaken the ghost of her ancestor inside her, he had to first kill someone the correct way… just as he’d had to hang someone to gain control of Bowman. And he’d had to decapitate someone to gain control of Laina.
Now, he had to disembowel Theo.
It was the only way to finish what he’d set out to do.
“Freddie!” Divya’s voice was a million miles away. Another universe. Another lifetime. “Freddie, what’shappeningto you?”
A fair question, and one Freddie really couldn’t have answered even if she’d had control of her own body. She could feel Theo’s life draining into her. She didn’t want it—she didn’twantto feel his soul feeding these flames, with those gentle blue eyes and his constant, restless need. But she also couldn’t stop the curse.
Yes,said the voice inside her skull.We are bound to the bell. Bound to the Oathmaster that rings it.
“Oh my god, where are they?” Divya was shouting into Freddie’s ear. “What the hell is taking them so long—” Her words snapped off as a new sound carved in. Sharp as the knife now stealing Theo’s life from him.
An engine.
Freddie slogged her head up, and through flames of an old curse that definitely proved miniature Fox Mulder had been right, she saw a black Jeep revving this way.
Kyle and his reckless driving.
Kyle finally getting to embrace his one talent for running things over.
Freddie would have laughed if she’d had any control over her own body. Instead, she simply watched—as lost in herself as Theo had been. As lost as Bowman and Laina too. The Jeep launched right through the Village Historique. It charged into hay bales and smashed over jack-o’-lanterns. Then it rammed across the schoolhouse benches like a monster truck, only missing Freddie because Divya dragged her out of the way.
The Jeep careened into the stage, a noise so loud it briefly dominated all other sounds. Even the ones inside of Freddie’s brain.
And with that noise came a burst of clarity. The ritual to kill Theo had paused; the Disemboweler’s oath was briefly held at bay; and for a fraction of a heartbeat, she was Freddie Gellar andonlyFreddie Gellar.
No Stabby. No flames. No commands from an Oathmaster with a bell.
Freddie cranked up her spine.The bell.That was what it had always come back to, in all her investigations. In all her clues and discoveries.
The bell.
“The schoolhouse,” she croaked at Divya in a voice that was all her own—for now. “We need to get into the schoolhouse.”
“No, Freddie.” Divya gawped at her. “We need to go!”
Freddie didn’t listen. Instead, she tore from her best friend’s grip and bounded away from the stage, away from the Jeep wrecked against it and spewing steam into the night.
Away too from Luis bursting out a passenger door with an axe and Cat right behind with the baseball bat. Away from Kyle bellowing for Divya and Freddie toCome on! Get in the Jeep!
Above all, Freddie bounded away from Dr. Born while the ritual was paused and he was distracted.
“Freddie, what are youdoing?” Divya chased hot on Freddie’s heels. “What’s in the schoolhouse?”
“The… bell,” Freddie panted, rounding past splintered and toppled benches. “We have to break the bell, Div. Don’t you see? If we break it, the curse ends.”
It was clear Divya did not see, but that was fine. Freddie didn’t need her best friend to understand. Hell, Freddie herself was still blundering her way toward clarity. All she really had right now was her gut telling her what to do.
And the dreams—they had always ended in the schoolhouse with Theo saying:On n’est jamais si bien servi que par soi-même.
One is never better served than by oneself.
So if Freddie wanted this done right, she had to do it—and theitin question was breaking the bell.Thatwas what dream-Theo had wanted from her—andthatwas what only Freddie could do.
Because it had never been a replica inside the cupola. All this time, it had beenthebell that Original Fabre had made. Freddie had no idea whenDr. Born might have switched it out since Mom had gotten the replica made… but he absolutelyhaddone so. Which was why Freddie had noticed just last week how beaten and weathered the bell was looking.
She’d also noticed how the lights kept getting knocked down—not from the wind, but from Dr. Born right over there on the stage.
