A Glimmer of Hope (The Avalon Chronicles #1)(90)

Layla looked up at the camera and smiled. And then she started to dance, allowing the rhythm of the music to aid her in her rebellion.





32

Elias had been on a call to Nergal, updating him on exactly what had happened and how they’d managed to catch Layla, when he heard a stifled laugh from a nearby room.

He ignored it and continued talking. “We’ll be ready to go within the day, although I’d appreciate it if I could go back to my home and recharge. I’m sure that once on a jet, there would be nowhere for her to go.”

“Do you have a plan to stop her from using her abilities? Thirty thousand feet is a high place to be if she decides to take the jet apart.”

“Once we’re certain she’ll help us, we’re going to tranquillize her. We just need her to make the initial contact.”

“What convinces you she won’t try to stall or get out of her agreement?”

“We used her friend as a way to gain her cooperation.”

“Will you be bringing this girl with you?”

“No need. Once we have contact with her father, we can use Layla as leverage to get her father to help, but Layla’s role will be over. We just need her to get through to her father so we can pinpoint his location. It might take several attempts to do this, but we knew that might be the case. She’ll convince him to help us, and we’ll have his location in a few days, max.”

Nergal smiled. “Excellent. Please feel free to take some time to recharge. The next phase of our plan will require a lot of traveling, and I’d hate to not have you at full capacity.”

Nergal ended the call, and Elias went to the room where the rest of the team were looking at one of the screens showing Layla.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“I think you should see this,” Shane told him, and he moved aside to give Elias a better view of the screen.

Elias watched for several seconds as Layla danced around the room, seemingly oblivious to the torment the loud music was meant to be causing her.

“What is she doing?”

“She’s dancing,” Masako said.

Anger began to flood through Elias. “Turn the music up.”

“This is as loud as it goes,” Reyes told him.

Elias watched as Layla stopped dancing and stood on the bed, looking directly at the camera. She mouthed something.

“What is she saying?” Shane asked. “‘Can you . . .’ I can’t make out the rest.”

“‘Can you put some Prince on?’” Masako translated. “She’s making requests. Looks like your prison is actually a club.”

Elias thought he saw a slight smirk on Masako’s otherwise emotionless face, but when he turned to confirm it, her expression of neutrality had returned.

“So, Layla thinks this is all a big joke?” Elias snapped, his voice rising with every word. “She thinks this is a damn game? I’ll show her a game. Shane, take Chloe back to our guest. Show her what happens to people who play games with us.”

“You want me to kill her?”

Elias shook his head. “Just make her watch while you make an example of her. Screw it, I’ll come with you—it looks like Layla could use a talking to at the same time. You wearing anything metal?”

Shane emptied his pockets of his phone and wallet, dumping them both on a nearby table.

The pair of them went to Chloe’s cell and unlocked the door. Chloe sat on the bed in the corner, a model prisoner. Jack’s body had been removed. The manacles were no longer needed; Chloe wouldn’t escape with innocent people’s lives at stake.

“You’re coming with us,” Elias told her. “Apparently your friend still thinks this is playtime.”

Chloe got up and walked over. “I wonder, why didn’t you just use your power on me, Shane?” she asked as she walked through the house to the outside. “This would all have been much easier if you could have just made me go with you.”

There was silence for several seconds, before Chloe chuckled and shook her head. “I get it: your power doesn’t work on other umbra. That has to be really embarrassing.”

Shane ignored her, giving Chloe a hard shove to get walking. They reached the rear door, and Chloe opened it, stepping through without holding it open for anyone else. “I know if my power didn’t work on a whole group of people, I’d be pretty embarrassed.”

Shane balled his hands into fists, and Elias placed a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “She’ll get what’s coming to her,” he told him. “Be patient.”

Shane nodded once and continued on without comment, stopping outside of Layla’s small prison cottage, the music inside barely audible to the three of them.

Elias opened the door, feeling thankful that neither Reyes nor Masako had turned the music down, and found Layla standing in the center of the cabin.

Anger bubbled up inside him. “You don’t seem to be grasping the seriousness of the situation.”

“I think you’re a pathetic idiot who believes he has something he doesn’t,” Layla told him.

“We brought Chloe for you to talk to,” Elias told her, stepping aside as Chloe was shoved into the cabin.

“You okay?” Layla asked her.

“Peachy.”