“Silas. Listen to yourself. You sound like an angry child.” Ridley was the angry one now.
Silas’ eyes narrowed. “Yeah? You screwed me, too, so I’d be careful how you talk to me.”
Nox stumbled to his feet, moving between them. Even after a beating, his first instinct was to protect her. Ridley appreciated it, but she also knew she wasn’t the one who needed protecting at the moment.
“It’s okay, Rid. Don’t worry about me.” Nox gave her a weak smile. “I knew this was coming.” He looked at Silas. “Weak men have no mercy. Especially not Ravenwoods.”
One of the guards grabbed the back of Nox’s neck and slammed his face against the bars.
“No!” Ridley shouted, heat burning through her veins.
Blood gushed from Nox’s nose.
Silas shook his head. “You got a real gift for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, kid.”
“Stop! You’re hurting him!” Ridley ran to the door of her cell, her fingers curling around the bars. She shook them, but they didn’t budge.
I won’t let you hurt him. I’ll kill every single one of you first.
The moment the thought took shape in Ridley’s mind, she realized something new about herself. Her new self. It wasn’t just a threat. She could actually do it.
The delicious cocktail of powers swimming inside her was calling to her—saying: Don’t let them hurt the boy you love.
The words formed themselves before she could stop them.
Do I love him?
Is that what this is?
Do I want that?
But it didn’t matter. Ridley gripped the bars tighter, focusing her wrath—and her power—on the Darkborns dragging Nox out of his cell.
You’ll let him go. One way or another.
The walls in the dungeon began to move—at least they looked like they were moving. Ridley knew it was only an illusion, but even she had never seen one that looked so real.
Silas looked around, as if he wasn’t sure he could trust his own eyes.
The four walls that formed the cellblock drew in toward the middle of the room.
“What’s going on?” the Darkborn holding Nox by the neck called out, her eyes darting around the small space.
Silas smiled. “Ignore it. The Siren’s creating an illusion. It’s just a reaction to how I juiced her up. For an Illusionist, it’s perfectly natural, not all that much different from a tantrum.” He turned to Ridley. “Though we might have to find something else to call you after this little display. You aren’t exactly a Siren or an Illusionist anymore, are you?”
Ridley didn’t answer.
Her mind was elsewhere.
She pictured the walls crushing the Darkborns—and the moment she did, the back wall of Nox’s cell burst through the barred doors on that side of the room. The Darkborns threw themselves—along with Nox—toward Ridley’s cell, narrowly escaping the falling metal bars. But the wall didn’t stop moving. And the ones at either end of the dungeon were coming closer, too, now.
Ridley fixed her violet eyes on Silas. “One more chance, little man.”
“Excuse me?” Silas looked at her, raging.
“I said … Let. Him. Go.”
You want to let him go, Ridley thought, focusing every ounce of her Power of Persuasion in Silas’ direction. Tell your men now, before I kill you all.
Silas rubbed his hands over his face, looking confused. He was one of the strongest Blood Incubuses in existence. Ridley knew he wouldn’t be that easy to take down, but she didn’t care.
“Silas, make her stop,” one of the Darkborns called out as the back wall pushed him closer to Ridley’s cell—and to being crushed.
“This isn’t an illusion!” the other shouted. “I can’t breathe.”
“Shut the bitch down,” called the first.
But Silas didn’t. He was too confused to do much of anything. He opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again without a word.
It was true.
She wasn’t just one thing. Not since Silas had given her the transfusions.
Idiot.
He was the one who had set her free without even knowing it.
There was no limit to what she could do—at least, it didn’t feel like there was.
Here they’d been, trapped in these little rat cages, when all she had to do was force them open in her mind.
Ridley felt a surge of heat and a wave of dizziness as she summoned whatever power she had left.
Let Nox go, she thought, her eyes drilling into Silas like she was reaching into his mind. And while you’re at it, unlock my cell.
The Darkborns who weren’t holding Nox had their palms flat against the shifting walls now, pressing against them.
Screaming.
“Let the boy go,” Silas said.
The Darkborns moved toward Nox, their shocked expressions only fueling Ridley’s power—and the incredible high it gave her.
Not enough, she thought.
She closed her eyes again, and the walls shuddered. Plaster fell from the ceiling.
“I said let him go!” Silas shouted, looking even more confused. He seemed even more surprised by the words coming out of his own mouth than his thugs were.
The Darkborns released Nox, and he fell to his knees, in the center of what was slowly turning into a shoe box of a room.
The walls in the room stopped moving all at once.
“Ridley, you can stop.” Nox choked out the words. “I’m okay.”