Bound by Prophecy (Descendants Series) - By Melissa Wright Page 0,53

Aern free, and we will bring the chosen to you. The Drake girl is all that matters.”

Morgan laughed. “Don’t be a fool, Samuels. I don’t need your help to find Brianna. And besides, once my brother is gone, there is no other way for things to play out. The prophecy will bring her to me.”

“You’ll have to kill us first,” Logan said, stepping from behind Brendan to glare at my brother.

Morgan shrugged. “I could, but that wouldn’t be as much fun.” He glanced pointedly around the room. “You see, I can pretty much do whatever I please.”

I sickened at the reminder, suddenly sure that part of his display would include using the sway on one of us.

It was obvious the others were thinking the same. Logan’s chest rose and fell in measured breaths. I was certain he was forming a plan, one that would unquestionably cost him his life. The drowning sensation became suddenly acute. We were running out of air. We didn’t have long.

“Do it,” I said to Morgan. “Quit trying to make a show of yourself and just get it over with.”

“As you wish,” Morgan said, slipping the thin silver blade from inside his jacket. He took two steps toward me.

“No!”

The shout came from across the room, and every eye in the place fell on the same spot as mine.

Relief and terror flooded me. The source of the command was the one person none of us expected. The one person who didn’t appear to be a threat.

The one person who should have never been there.

Emily.

Chapter Twenty-three

Edges

She was wearing the same clothes I’d left her in, her white Henley smeared with dirt and blood, and she’d slammed into the conference hall much in the way she’d slammed into that warehouse on our first meeting. Morgan froze, visibly stunned, and there I sat, once again caught, bound, and powerless to sway her.

My gaze shot to Logan in a silent attempt for assistance, to beg him to remove her, but he just lifted his shoulders in a helpless shrug. Brendan looked furious, the rest of the room simply confused.

Recognition dawned on Morgan’s face, and he smiled, abruptly returning to his show. “Ah, and here’s the infamous sister. Such a pleasure you could join us.”

The implication in his tone tore through me and I was suddenly sitting upright, struggling vainly against my bonds. He would use her now. He would have Brianna.

Damn it, why had she come? It had been the one thing that kept me sound. The chosen was protected. Emily was safe.

Morgan turned and stepped closer to the edge of the platform, and the first drops of blood seeped through my fisted palms as they writhed beneath the restraints.

“No,” I hissed at Morgan’s back. “Leave them be.”

He didn’t turn but I could see the side of his jaw flex as his grin increased.

“Take the trade,” Emily said levelly from across the room. “If he dies here today, you will never get Brianna.”

Gods, what was she doing? She meant to threaten him?

“Well, well,” Morgan hummed. “What a puerile group of admirers you have here, brother.” He glanced over his shoulder at me, both of us knowing they were at his mercy. Neither of us doubting every single one would soon die. “Kind of pathetic, isn’t it?”

“Let them go, Morgan,” I said. “Let them go and I will follow you. I will submit.”

He smirked at the desperation in my voice, my clenched teeth. His gaze fell briefly to the blood trickling down my palms to pool on the floor, but he wasn’t concerned that I might escape.

“So,” Morgan said for the crowd, “you come here to make demands of me, little commonblood.”

Emily stepped forward, separating herself from the crowd at the entrance, centering her position between the Council men lining the walls. “I am giving you your last chance,” Emily said. She stared, unshaken, at the man who had killed her mother. The man who had held her mother captive, forced her into the only choice that could save her daughters’ lives.

Morgan shook his head, disbelief clear in his tone. “You people stand here as if you have some kind of say in the matter.” He gestured toward the door, the men lining the walls. “Do you think I’ve not covered these rooms with the highest security? Do you think I’ve not filled those halls with guns, with trained men who plan to stop each of you from leaving the property?” His voice dropped to a deadly tone. “Do you think that