Asylum(86)

I heard the snap as the clasp broke. My breath caught as I waited for the onslaught of agony that I’d felt the last time the chain broke. I was still waiting for it as the tribeswoman placed the pendant on my palm. She gave it a gentle pat and stepped away.

I looked down at the once-deadly black heart nestled in my palm, now harmless. Tears slid down my cheeks. The Death Tribe had freed me of my curse. I was finally free.

My first instinct was to thank the chief. Too wobbly-legged to stand, I crawled off the planks. Somehow I managed to push to my feet, the pendant clutched tightly in my grasp. I squinted through the dark, seeking the bright-feathered headdress. There it was, about fifteen feet away. But the chief’s attention was glued elsewhere—on the jungle. His men had lined up on either side of him, spears at the ready.

There was no need to be so on edge with Max . . . So who was out there? “Sofie?” I called hopefully, my voice trembling.

Feline snarls and roars erupted, tribesmen shouted. To my left, a tiger yelped in pain. My head whipped in that direction in time for me to see a body flying out of the darkness into the tribal throng, stabbing at them with multiple spears and scattering them before landing two feet away from me.

Rachel’s citrine snake eyes locked on me, glittering with hateful intentions.





15. Kamikaze




We watched in silence as they gently lowered the platform. I tried to see Evangeline’s face, but a crowd of women immediately swarmed in to surround her, blocking my view. “What are they doing to her?” I hissed.

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look like they’re trying to hurt her,” Mage said. “Besides, Viggo can’t get to her if they’re there, right?”

As usual, Mage had assessed the situation clearly. Between the circle of tribeswomen around Evangeline, the tigers, and the tribesmen armed and ready along the perimeter of the clearing, focused both on our end and the other, Viggo would consider it too risky to come through yet. He was insane, but not in the stupid, kamikaze way that was required to get to her.

“What do we do now?” Caden whispered.

I sighed. “I’m going in. They should be okay with me. Once I get to her, I can—” I stopped abruptly as my ears caught Evangeline calling my name. A second later I spotted long, raven-black hair flying through the air from the opposite end of the clearing, its owner sailing over the tribesmen and tigers, flinging spears in every direction. Several tribesmen went down, and a tiger yelped, wounded.

Rachel. Heading straight for Evangeline. And I couldn’t get to her in time.





16. Rachel’s Plan



Rachel didn’t say a word. She didn’t smile. She was on a mission. Grabbing me roughly, she spun, putting her back to the fire. With her arm around my neck in a deadly headlock, I became her shield. “Stay away or I snap her neck, you parasites!” she shrieked.

“Please!” a new voice cried out.

Unable to turn my head, I strained my eyes to the right. A slender, red-haired woman stepped into the clearing and moved toward the crowd of angry tribesmen, her hands held up in surrender. Sofie! They parted enough to allow her past, closing in quickly behind her.

Sofie’s mint-green eyes fell on me for the first time since the day she sent me from the atrium into my safe haven. She had apologized to me then. Now I saw that same pleading, contrite look in her ghostly pale eyes. “Stand down!” she ordered, her voice confident. She turned her attention to the chief. “Let us come out from the shadows and no one else will get hurt. Otherwise, many more will die, I can promise you that.”

Let us come? My heart, pounding against my chest wall, skipped a beat. Who else was here?

The chief, kneeling over the fatally wounded tiger, paused as if weighing his options. Then he barked an order. Every tiger dropped to its belly in submission. The tribesmen followed suit, dropping to one knee.

Satisfied, Sofie sang out, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

Who was it?

From the jungle stepped two tall figures in custom suits. Viggo and Mortimer. Even in the depths of a tropical forest, they had found me. They approached slowly until they stood about thirty feet away from Sofie and from Rachel and me, the last point in a perfect triangle.

“Of course you’d bring that lunatic with you!” Sofie scoffed, earning a growl from Rachel that rumbled in my ear.

“And aren’t I glad that we did!” Viggo exclaimed, adding, “My darling Rachel, that maneuvering was fantastic! Your battle skills are top-notch.”

“I was highly motivated,” she purred, her grip on me tightening until I found it difficult to breathe.

“Hello, Evangeline,” Mortimer called. I hadn’t heard that booming voice in a month, and would gladly miss it for a thousand more. But he didn’t wait for my response, his attention quickly zoning in on my unadorned chest. “Where’s the necklace?” he demanded.