Echo (The Soul Seekers #2)(66)
I roll my eyes in reply. “You can’t do this. Despite what you think, the Lowerworld is not yours to control.”
He smirks. Looks all around. Gesturing to a surrounding landscape that would seem to beg otherwise. “Perhaps you should take another look,” he says, observing all the damage and destruction he’s caused. Clearly pleased by the bleak state of wretchedness he’s single-handedly wrought.
I ready the blade in my hand. One eye fixed on the army of Richters keeping a close watch on me, the other on Cade.
“I’m guessing you’ve come here to kill me.” He smiles patiently, like you do with a very slow child.
I clamp my lips shut. Refuse to confirm or deny.
“That’s the second assassination attempt in one day.” He runs a hand through his hair, his lip curling as though amused by the idea, while my own reaction is anything but.
If I’m the second attempt, then Dace was the first.
It also means he failed.
Failed in the way of the prophecy?
My body stiffens. My heart fails to beat. Aware that the game has just changed, and yet there’s a part of me that refuses to believe it.
If something did happen to Dace, surely I would have felt it. Surely I would’ve sensed it in some way.
Wouldn’t I?
“I always forget what a newbie you are.” Cade slips behind a mask of chagrin. “So, allow me to give you a little piece of advice that might spare us this brand of awkwardness in the future. You’re not going to kill me, Santos. Dace isn’t going to kill me either. Believe me when I say that any attempt on my life will not bode well for either of you. Not to mention that your pathetic little Wiccan pruning knife is hardly up to the task.”
I shift the knife behind my leg, secure it from view.
But he just laughs. “What—you think I can’t see it?” He studies me closely, sighing as he adds, “Maybe I’ve overestimated you. You’re a much slower learner than I thought you’d be.” His eyes slew over me, lingering in all the wrong places. “Do us both a favor and run along so we can both try to forget this ever happened. I’m a patient guy, Daire. And I’m truly trying to work with you here. But you need to work with me too. You need to accept the fact that there’s no point in going after me. You’re in way over your head. It’s my world, Seeker—you’re lucky I allow you to live in it.”
Despite what he says, I remain right where I am. Imagining the thrill of rushing toward him—the satisfaction of slamming this blade straight into his heart. Assuming he has one.
“In case you don’t get it, this is me being altruistic. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. And, other than these little transgressions you seem to insist on, I’m thrilled to see you turning out to be a much better business partner than I ever expected. In other words, I’m not ready to kill you just yet. Believe me, you’ll know when I am.”
“But perhaps I’m ready to kill you.” My voice rings surprisingly steady as I make a move toward him, noticing how he fails to so much as flinch.
“Well then, I’d say you’re about to find yourself faced with a major dilemma.” He grins, purposely swiping a hand over his chin in the way Dace often does. The sight so disarming, I have to force myself to take the next step. “What would you rather do, Daire? Kill me—or save the life of my twin?”
With only a handful of steps left between us, it’s a distance I can easily close in one single leap.
“Yours to decide.” His voice grows bored as he focuses on a space just past my shoulder, challenging me to follow.
At first I refuse, convinced it’s a trick.
But when I hear a low rasping moan—the sound of someone in pain—chased by a trickle of Dace’s usual swarm of warm loving energy, I raise the knife high over my head, determined to do it—slay Cade while I can.
Then I abandon the idea just as quickly.
Instinctively knowing that the reason Dace’s energy is so faint is because his life force is fading so swiftly that in the time it takes to kill Cade, I’ll run a serious risk of losing Dace too.
I race toward him. Dismayed to find him discarded, left for dead, just a few feet away. His torso shredded and blood-soaked, his hands covered in bite marks, his arm awkwardly jangled and skewed at his side.
I sink to my knees and pull him to me. My need to save him the only thing driving me. It’s all I can focus on. All I can see.
My love for him completely consumes me.
Unfortunately, it consumes Cade as well.
Allowing him to morph. Grow. His clothes shredding at the seams, as his body bulges and stretches—undergoing a transformation that’s as spectacular as it is gruesome. Transmuting into a scaly-skinned, snake-tongued beast three times his normal size.
And when he turns—when he raises his hands to his sides and focuses his attention toward the mine—a horrible rumble roars through the land. Prompting Raven to squawk and lift into flight as the earth begins to loosen and shift until it becomes a harsh roiling tremor that causes me to lose hold of Dace.
The ground splits between us—stranding us each on our own hellish islands. My panic scored by the boom of Cade’s malevolent laughter as he throws his head back, yawns his mouth wide, and allows those soul-stealing snakes to shoot free, turning toward me in full demon glory.
His mouth a jagged, obscene gash of snakes and gums, he says, “Thought I’d shake it up a bit. Loosen the tourmaline and make the stones easier to retrieve. We may lose a few miners in the process, but hey—that’s the price of business, right, partner?”