Page 49 of Snag
“Because you claim to be awry, you’re all powerful?” Reck scoffs.
“I am awry,” Bellamy snaps.
“Then why the blood casting?” I ask again, genuinely confused and still just a little thrown by it. “And all the sacrifices, I assume?”
“For power!” Bellamy thrusts her hands upward dramatically, apparently also somewhat thrown by my fixation on how she accesses and wields her essence. “Why the fuck else?”
“You’re awry,” I say. “You have all the power you would ever need. You can pull from anything, everywhere. That’s what it means to be awry. Only pulling from your own blood or the blood of others … that life force is fleeting, temporary even, when removed from its living, breathing host.”
Bellamy just stares at me, not answering but listening intently.
“That’s limiting. Limited,” I continue. “Which forces you to kill again and again, shredding your own soul, your own life force, in the process.” I have to stop myself from rubbing my forearms, even though the echo of Chains’s life force etched across my skin has faded. “Or to drain yourself with every cut. Tying your castings to —”
“Why the fuck are you giving her pointers right now?” Reck snarls.
Rought clears his throat. “I have to agree, Zaya. This doesn’t seem like —”
I huff. “Fine.”
“Back to the cage?” Bellamy asks mockingly, sneering at Reck. “Like father, like son. You couldn’t even fuck me properly. You think you’re powerful enough to cage me?”
“What the fuck?” Rought mutters quietly.
“I’ll tell you later,” Presh whispers.
“If I can’t cage you,” Reck says malevolently, though his shoulders have stiffened at his siblings’ commentary, “then the most powerful awry in the fucking world certainly can. And you just killed someone she took responsibility for.”
My stomach sours at the reminder that I was responsible for Kris — prompted by the universe, in fact — and failed her. That I almost failed Presh and DeVille as well.
Bellamy snorts. “You’ve got this awry on retainer for the Authority?”
Reck gestures toward me. “You were just impersonating her. Badly.”
“Good enough to fool you,” Presh mutters behind us.
Reck’s jaw tightens, veins straining in his neck, but he ignores Presh’s jab.
“I’m not putting anyone in a cage,” I say mildly, uncomfortable at being included in Reck’s posturing. We aren’t working together. We barely know each other. And there is no fucking way I’m helping the Authority with anything, no matter how dangerous the awry currently standing before me is. “The upkeep alone is a nightmare.”
Reck throws a look my way. “You’re making fucking jokes? Now?”
Bellamy’s gaze swings back to me, the movement seeming unhinged. Though perhaps that’s just the energy writhing around her. “I’m here for the littlest of us. Daddy wants her home.” Her uncanny eyes flick over Reck and Rought dismissively. “You boys can pout and play at being scary beasts, but Daddy knows we girls are where the real power lies.” She fixes her gaze over my shoulder, on Presh. “Come now, baby sis. I’ll show you all the power that runs in your veins.”
“I’m not going back!” Presh insists. “Zaya is mentoring me.”
“Her? She couldn’t even stop me from taking your pretty friend’s mind.” Bellamy licks her lips, then grins. “Couldn’t stop me from siphoning all that little shifter’s power, pathetic as it was.”
Presh tries to lunge between Rought and me. But DeVille must still be holding her hand, because he yanks her back. Shrieking, she tries to wrench free of him.
As promised, DeVille unceremoniously lifts her over hisshoulder, pivots, and starts back down the hall. Presh beats his back with both fists, snarling.
I watch them for a moment. We all do. But fortunately, Presh’s fledgling power doesn’t spike. Not as it did last night.
“To Grinder,” Rought calls over his shoulder. “Then straight to Rath.”
Not looking back, DeVille waves in acknowledgment, then nearly loses hold of Presh when she throws her body to the side in an attempt to roll off his shoulder.
“See you soon, baby sister!” Bellamy calls down the hall, drawing all our attention to her again. Though I don’t think Reck has looked away from her once.
