Page 102 of Into Darkness (Night Prowler 6)
That sounded bad. She gave him a curt nod, and resumed her pacing. Unsettled, her stomach lurched and twisted.
Gregor paused a moment, then, looking at the table, asked quietly, “Has he told you how he got all those scars?”
Lu stopped dead in her tracks, turning to look at him. She answered with a shake of her head.
“He’s a strong one, your man, I have to give it to him. I’ve seen pretty much the worst the world has to offer and I’m still standin’, but if I had to walk a mile in that lad’s shoes . . .” Gregor met her eyes, and what she saw there chilled her. “Well, let’s just say I don’t think I could.”
“What do you mean?” Hands shaking, Lu sank down into the chair across the table from him.
Gregor, twisting his pinky ring around with his thumb, asked, “How many people would you have to watch die, before you’d give up a secret? Ten? Twenty? One hundred?”
It was a rhetorical question, but Lu’s skin crawled. She waited, silent, watching his face.
“How about two hundred? How about if they were all your friends? Everyone you loved, grew up with, everyone you knew?” His voice darkened. “And not one of them over the age of fifteen?”
Lu put a hand over her mouth, her stomach lurching violently.
“They thought they could break him,” he said, admiration in his voice. “But they never did. Even when they poured acid on him. Even when they cut him. Even when they tortured and killed each and every one of the children they’d captured that day. He was captured, too, you see, the day of the Flash. Both his parents were killed. All the children were separated from the adults, taken to a different prison in Bolivia. By pure dumb luck, Magnus had heard Morgan screa
ming in the chaos to get everyone to the caves of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu in Wales, and he made the fatal mistake of telling one of the other children he knew where to go, if only they could all escape. Word spread: Magnus knew. And that was why they targeted him.”
Gregor paused, looked down at his pinky ring. “That . . . and one other thing.” He looked up at her again. “He’d seen the direction the great white dragon had flown, carrying its child to safety. He wouldn’t tell them that, either.”
Lu closed her eyes, sick. He’d saved her. He’d saved the new colony, and countless lives. And in trade, he’d sacrificed two hundred children. Two hundred of his friends.
Dear God.
“They brutalized him for three years in that prison, long after everyone else was dead. Then he came of age. His Gifts manifested. He slaughtered every one of the guards, and walked out breathing, but not really alive. He found his way to Wales. He began to search for other survivors, bringing them back one by one to the colony. And then he found you.”
Lu opened her eyes and stared in mute horror at Gregor. She couldn’t speak. There weren’t any words to convey the depths of her despair, her wretchedness. Her overwhelming, paralyzing heartbreak.
Magnus. Beautiful, ruined Magnus. No wonder he was so broken. It was a miracle he’d survived at all.
Gregor asked softly, “He’s saved your life twice now, lass. Don’t you think you should repay the favor?”
“What do you mean?” Lu whispered, shaking.
“I mean that if he stays with you, it’ll cost him his life. And he’s more than willin’ to pay.”
The automatic No! died on her lips, because with awful clarity the words Demetrius had spoken came flooding back, burned like a brand into her mind.
Cogs in the machine, Seeker, all of us. You know it as well as I.
And Magnus’s expression of recognition, of resignation, his fleeting look in her direction that was so foreboding she’d felt certain it was something terrible, equally certain he’d never tell her what.
Now she knew, down to the marrow of her bones. Demetrius had Dreamt of Magnus’s death. He’d known it, coming here with her. He’d known it, making love to her. He’d known it all along, and had accepted it willingly.
Gratefully?
Her brain exploded into chaos. She leapt from the chair, hands gripping her head, adrenaline flooding through her veins, making her heart hammer. She couldn’t let it happen. She couldn’t let him die.
“What do I do?” she cried, turning to Gregor. “How can I stop it?”
His face took on an odd, calculating cast. He leaned forward over the table, intent. “You need to find what you came lookin’ for alone, lass. Let him sit this one out. That’s the only way you can save him.”
“But I don’t even know where to start looking! And I could never convince him not to come with me!” She felt dizzy. Nauseated. Heat flashed over her, and she broke out in a sweat.
Gregor stood, rising slowly, pulling himself to his full height to look at her with calm, unblinking eyes. “I told you I’d set up a meetin’ with someone who might know where that prison is you’re lookin’ for, yes?”
