Through the Fire (Daughter of Fire, #1)(69)

“For a monster, you’re pretty pathetic. I mean, you didn’t even put up a fight.”

I shook my head and tried to speak. I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t a monster, but it was useless. Even without the tape over my mouth gagging me, she would never have stopped her attack long enough to listen.

Yanking my hands again, I tried to free them from their binds.

“It’s no use,” Louise said. “I’m the best at tying ropes—Dad reminds me of that all the time. I learned the things I was supposed to, trained hard, and I use my skills the way they’re meant to be used. I’m not a disappointment like Clay.”

Pleading to her with my eyes, I tried to get her to stop what she was doing, but she just lifted her lip into a sneer. I yanked the cords one more time, only to have them bite tighter around my wrist. They were tight enough for my hands to lose all sensation.

Another course of action came to my mind and I wrapped my fingers around the rope, focusing heat into the tips and knuckles. It was difficult to concentrate on anything other than the throbbing in my head, but it might have been my only chance.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Do you think I don’t know all your little tricks? Don’t you realize I’ve dealt with your filth before? You’re not getting away again. I won’t assume you’re dead like Ethan did. I will wait until I’m standing over your corpse, and I will toast marshmallows on the fire that follows.”

I forced more heat into my hands knowing it wouldn’t take too much to burn through the rope.

“Are you stupid?” she asked, grabbing at my hands from behind. She leaned against me, her face suddenly appearing right beside mine. “I told you not to do that. Can’t you smell it?”

I inhaled deeply through my nose—the noxious scent still surrounded me. Something familiar about the odor danced through my mind, but it was too out of place to work out why.

Slowly, realization dawned on me as I recalled the smell from the years that I’d spent on the road with Dad, memories of gas stations and the scent of flammable fumes slowly seeping through the open window as he filled the car. My eyes widened when I identified the cause of the cold liquid that burned over my skin as gasoline.

“Now you’re getting it,” Louise sniggered. “There’s only one reason you’re still alive, and that’s because I want to save my brother before I kill you.”

How long had I been out? My concern grew over how far away Clay might be. Had he been captured too? Was he being held somewhere else, or was he being dragged back to his former life at that moment? I wanted him to walk through the front door and rescue me, but simultaneously, I hoped he was safe and far away.

“I’m going to give you one chance to release Clay from whatever spell you’ve put on him.”

Wriggling my arms desperately, I struggled to free my hands from their bindings again. I needed to get away, whatever it took.

“I have to admit that the ability to ensnare victims was something we’ve never encountered from your kind before, but we’re already editing the lore books. We’ll of course need to know how you did it.”

I dropped my chin to my chest in defeat as the things Clay had told me about his family and the Rain rolled through me. They were willing to change their beliefs as often as necessary, so long as you weren’t asking them to give mercy to anything that didn’t fit their specific definition of human. Whether they were wrong or not didn’t matter, because their single mission was to kill everything not human.

She stepped closer to me and ripped the tape off of my mouth with one hard pull. My whole body shook with the effort it was taking to keep myself calm and not allow the heat within to build.

“Tell me how you trapped my brother.”

“I didn’t,” I whispered. “He just loves me.”

She swung her arm and slapped my face hard enough to rattle my teeth. I bit on my tongue to stop myself from crying out—my pain would no doubt please her.

My cheek flamed with the outline of her hand. I longed for my hands to be free to rub it soothingly. The sunbird whispered soothing words to me, trying to force me relinquish control.

I couldn’t though.

If I did, both Louise and I would be dead.

“Don’t lie to me,” Louise screeched.

“I’m not.” I tried to infuse my voice with a peace that I didn’t feel. Taking a deep breath, I tried to cool myself down. My cheek still stung from the pain of the contact, and a fresh heat radiated from that spot to envelope the rest of my body.

“Please let me go,” I begged, unsure of how long I could keep control. My anger and fear were making my body go into overdrive. The hold I had over my ability faded more with every passing second. The sunbird struggled to the surface.

“Tell me what you’ve done to him!” she demanded.

“Please, I don’t want to hurt you. Just let me go.”

The fear that I could lose control and unintentionally ignite the gasoline that coated me, made my ability to hold myself together that much harder. Allowing the flames that were always so close to me to take over would be deadly.

She laughed darkly and moved quickly, pulling a knife out of a garter under her skirt and pressing the blade against my throat. “Don’t threaten me, you piece of filth.”

“It’s not a threat,” I tried to warn her. “I can’t . . .”