A Glimmer of Hope (The Avalon Chronicles #1)(23)

“Excuse me?” Dara asked.

“You murdered people she worked with. She hates you, and if she doesn’t, she’ll at least resent you. Besides, I have another job for you. Shane, this is for you to deal with.”

Shane smiled.

Elias stared intently at the younger man. “You screw this up, and I’ll skin you alive and feed you to the blood elves. Not an exaggeration.”

The smile faltered. “She’s not my type.”

“Keep it that way.”

“So, what do I do?” Dara asked.

“You’re coming with me. Shane and Reyes can cope for a few hours, and we can talk about compound security while we’re on the plane. After that, I want you to fly straight back here, and then, if she’s being helpful, you can bring her and everyone else back to the compound.”

Dara sighed. “Twenty hours of flying is not my idea of a fun time.”

“Don’t care, it’s your job. We need to talk about security; we can’t have any more breakouts. Eventually, I want Layla’s father out of that prison and in our custody. We can’t do that without making sure he’s no danger to us or anyone else.”

“You really like this guy, don’t you?” Shane asked.

“Caleb Cassidy is a genius, and one of the most dangerous people on the planet. He worked with the FBI for over two decades while maintaining his hobby as a murderer. He kept meticulous diaries of every single kill. Their names, location, reason for killing, method of killing. Everything. He has an incredible amount of power at his disposal. No one should underestimate him. Ever.”

“Did you know that we found loads of scrolls in this compound?” Shane asked with a smirk. “Any chance some of those are spirit scrolls?”

Elias shrugged. “Be my guest and go through them. I know allies of Nergal used this place to study the spirit scrolls before they were shipped all over the world. A few of them might have remained. I assumed Nergal and his allies would have taken all of the scrolls, but it’s not like we’re short of them, so maybe they were left here for safekeeping.”

“Gives me something to do between talking to Layla.”

“Leave her for twenty-four hours. Give her food every six. Normal food, nothing weird, nothing pissed on. We want her help. It’s one thing to threaten, it’s another to begin torturing her before we’ve even given her a chance to say yes. We’re not monsters.”

“Speak for yourself,” Dara said with a smile.

“And keep Reyes away from her,” Elias continued, ignoring Dara. “I don’t need to hear about deaths or injuries. Clear?” He didn’t actually think that Reyes would do anything—she was a professional after all—but he had to say it nonetheless. Even if it was just to make himself happier.

Shane nodded. “Anything else?”

Elias shook his head, and Shane walked off.

“He’ll do fine,” Dara said when they were alone.

“I know. I just like to be in control, and this is important. Nergal has been after a way to track down those who already have scrolls, and Caleb Cassidy is our best chance of doing that. We need to be able to find those who escaped our grasp, or who are working against us. Caleb can help us find them all and remove them or force them to help. This is a game changer. I won’t be the one to make a mistake here. I won’t be the one who has to go to Nergal and tell him it’s not happening. He’ll kill us all for that.”

Dara shivered slightly. “Let’s get going. You think Layla will agree to help before I get back here?”

Elias glanced over at the door leading to the cells. “That woman is going to help us, or she’s going to bathe in the blood of innocents until she does. And either way is fine with me.”





9

It didn’t take Layla long to get her emotions under control and prioritize what she was going to do about her current circumstances.

She wasn’t going to stay there and wait for Elias and his band of crazies to come and kill her, that was for certain. She had to get out. Had to figure out how to do that too. Her father might have spent years training her how to fight, but he hadn’t trained her to fight an ogre. That was something even his sick, warped mind hadn’t foreseen.

Being alone in the cell allowed Layla to get her first real look at her surroundings. The room was large: twenty feet square, according to the rough measurements in Layla’s head. The floor was a mixture of old stone and concrete, with the walls and ceiling constructed entirely of cold, gray concrete. It had been created in haste, and the concrete had set with bumps and jagged parts jutting out from it.

A sink, once white enamel and now a speckled gray color, sat against one wall. Layla ran her finger over it and found that it was covered in concrete powder and dust. She took a good look at the door. It was thick and well made, and appeared to have been created almost entirely of steel. That made it about as impossible to get through as a door could be.

She sighed. She wasn’t in the best situation of her life, but refused to give in to the fear that bubbled up inside of her. She looked up at the single light in the center of the room, the dim glow doing little to help her spot any loose bits of wall that might be a sign of a structural weakness. It was a long shot, but at that exact moment in time, long shots were all she had left.