Riders (Riders, #1)(97)

“Ra’om has commanded me to spare you,” Samrael said. “He thinks it would be a waste of potential. An error, in my opinion, but it is his decision. It seems your life continues. For now. I’ll find you again, Gideon.” He gathered the long silver chain into his hand, closing his fingers over it. “Right after I find her.”

Then he followed Ra’om, taking the rest of the Kindred with him.

And the key.





CHAPTER 53

This pine room feels like a box after what I’ve said. After burning fjords and hordes of demons. After Ra’om.

I stare into Cordero’s eyes, but it’s not Cordero anymore. The face in front of me is a woman’s, but all I see is Malaphar.

“And now we’ve come to the end, haven’t we?” Malaphar says. “You were picked up on that practice field shortly afterward, correct? You and the other riders?”

I don’t know why he’s still pretending. I don’t think I can do it much longer.

I’m going numb from the adrenaline running through me. I’m shaking from it.

“Where was Daryn, Gideon? Why wasn’t she there? Did she stay with her Seeker friend, Isabel?”

Daryn actually was there. After she’d gone to find Isabel, she’d come back to our practice field. I picture it. The two Blackhawks that had touched down. The team of US Commandos that had arrived to get us out.

I remember the quick, furious exchange I had with one of them. With Texas—the guy in this very room. I’d asked him about Daryn. He’d had no idea who I meant and we needed to go. There was too much smoke. The Blackhawks’s rotors hadn’t even slowed. We needed to go.

I’d looked up to the trail and seen Daryn there. Standing on the exact same spot where we’d met that day Marcus had dropped me in the river. She was just standing there, watching.

Making no move to join us. To join me.

Seeing that, madness had come over me.

I’d lost the key. I’d lost her. I’d let myself down. I’d let the guys down. How many innocent people would the Kindred bleed of their goodness because of me? How much evil would spread because I’d given up that key?

The failure had crushed me. Belligerent, Cordero called me at the start of all this. It was true. I’d lost my head. I’d fought to get to Daryn, hitting anyone who came near me. Jode. Marcus. My rage was immense. I fought until there were too many descending on me. Then Texas threw his elbow across my temple. Next thing I knew I was waking up sedated and strapped to a chair, with a hood dropped over my head and a radiator clicking behind me.

Here.

Texas is watching me like he’s remembering the exact same thing. He’s perfectly still, except for the hand that moves slowly, millimeter by millimeter, toward his sidearm.

I swallow, and make myself answer the question. “Daryn would have gone wherever she could best protect the key.”

“That’s interesting, Gideon. Because, as you know, Daryn came here. Are you saying the key’s here? Are you saying the Kindred took a false key in Jotunheimen? A decoy? Are you saying you know where the real key is? What are you saying, Gideon?”

There’s no room for deception in this room anymore. There’s no more time to wait for help. Not from Beretta, or from Daryn, or the guys.

“We both know where the real key is,” I say. “Don’t we, Malaphar?”

The door swings open. Samrael enters so fast, he’s a blur.

Texas draws his pistol, but Samrael pushes his arm aside as he stabs—once, decisively. Texas drops. The floorboards bounce like a trampoline under my feet as he falls.

It’s over in a second.

Samrael stands over him with a bone knife.

Cordero—who has transformed into Malaphar—is still sitting at the edge of the desk.

And me. I’m still sitting in this chair.





CHAPTER 54

I hear a terrible wheezing sound. Texas slumps against the wall. He’s bleeding from his side, struggling to breathe. His baseball cap sits in the growing pool of blood beside him.

Sucking chest wound. Still alive.

Samrael picks up the gun on the floor and hands it to Malaphar as he steps around the desk. He looks at me, then at the cuff around my wrist with a fever in his hellacious eyes. Reaching into his pocket, he removes the silver chain with the false key. Daryn’s necklace. “Don’t need this anymore.” He flips it toward me. It bounces off my chest and slides to the floor.

“When did you know?” Malaphar asks me.

My muscles shake with rage. “Does it matter?”

A smile spreads over Malaphar’s crater-skinned face. “No. But I think it was the Lagos story. When Daryn said the key disappeared, she meant it. Do you know what day that was? Because she didn’t mention that detail, did she? It was August second, Gideon. Do you know where the key reappeared? It was in four places, actually. I know even you can figure out at least one.”

Breathe. Just breathe.

“Clever, don’t you think?” Samrael says. “Very clever to separate it that way. Scatter the pieces across the globe and then hide them in plain sight.” He gestures with the knife in his hand, like this room is the world. “Caused us a fair amount of confusion as we tried to follow its power. We didn’t understand why it was weaker. Diffuse. Until that moment we took it—but then, you riders were all there together. A sound tactic. As was entrusting the pieces to people ignorant of what they even had. It made you immune to my capabilities. We had to do all of this. Mine you for knowledge you didn’t even know you possessed. We’ve gone to a good deal of trouble.”