Page 52 of Cruel Revenge
“Am I allowed to leave now?” the woman demanded harshly. “It’s been hours. Hours! I want my money and to go home!”
“You’re not allowed to leave right now. If you do, Heath Everson will hunt you down immediately and get our location from you… so you can’t leave.”
“That wasn’t the deal!” Courtney snapped.
“Why don’t you enjoy a moment with your daughter and?—”
“That thing is not my daughter. Not anymore,” Courtney snapped.
Carey growled, but not out of anger. She didn’t know how to make any other sounds yet.
Good, because you’re not my mother. You never have been.
“And I’m not a prisoner! You have to let me leave.”
The witch just laughed, reaching out to grab Courtney’s shoulder hard enough to make the woman wince.
“You’re lucky you’re alive now that you’ve served your purpose,” he said softly, but it was clear to Carey. “Now that we don’t need you anymore. Plus, you were supposed to get her alone, and you couldn’t even do that. You were supposed to gain her trust enough to meet you alone. We lost people thanks to you.”
“You got young werewolves out of this. You weren’t expecting them, though!” Courtney was trying to bargain, and the smell of her fear versus the evil satisfaction of the witch made Carey wrinkle her nose. She disliked both smells. Both disgusted her deeply, making her stomach flip around.
“Listen well, Miss Lane…” The witch pulled Courtney closer. “If you don’t want to see Carey, then you should go back to your room and stay there. Otherwise, you risk your own life by testing my patience. Youaremy prisoner for as long as necessary. Settle in and shut up.”
The witch shoved Courtney into the wall.
Carey settled down, staring at her egg donor, as the woman came to terms with her reality. After a moment, Courtney looked at her.
“This is all your fault,” she said, venom dripping from the words. “Everything that has ever gone wrong in my life can be tracked back to you and your fucking father.”
My dad fucking you was probably the dumbest thing he’s ever done in his life.
Carey didn’t let the rest of her words affect her. She had her dad and Landon and Jacky. She had a good family. Courtney Lane wasn’t important. Nothing she could say would matter to Carey.
I have better things to focus on, like how to escape.
20
CHAPTER TWENTY
With the ferocity of my earlier words, I did eat, with my mother and two brothers watching me. None of them said anything as I inhaled the food to regain my energy. Once I was done, I looked at them, my spectators, and sighed.
“So… how are Heath and Hasan going to get the votes to let Zuri come through the Tribunal to us?”
“Heath secured Corissa’s vote. Hasan is making sure the witches understand what will happen if they don’t agree to it,” Subira answered. “He can be very persuasive, your father.”
“So, he’s threatening them,” I said, nodding.
“He’s threatening the very Tribunal,” Subira clarified. “They should wrap up quickly enough.”
“And you two heard everything I told Subira?” I looked at my brothers, both of them nodding. Niko suddenly came closer and sat down across from me at the table.
“This has to be said. We’re rooting for Carey. She’s the best kid. We believe she’ll Change. Her father is a werewolf, her brother survived the Change, and her living brother was born a werewolf. She’s got a great chance. We really believe she’ll makeit, and I want you to hold that with you. Okay? We want you to know that, and you need to hold it with you.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, the reality of the situation unavoidable. “But that doesn’t change the reality that we don’t know if she’s dead or alive.”
“You have to remain positive,” Davor said gently. “You can’t let the negative thoughts overpower the positive ones. She’ll have survived, and we’re going to find her.”
I let their hope sink into me. Niko and Davor had lived so long, had probably seen many Change, even if they weren’t of the family. They had certainly known Liza, the one member of the family who had lived between their early days and mine. If they believed Carey could survive and go through the Change and become a werecat, I could let their hope light up my dark night. It was something to look forward to when I was done killing every witch who even looked at my Carey the wrong way.
