I didn’t struggle as rough hands grabbed me and hauled me from the ring. They dragged me unceremoniously up some stairs and threw me onto the floor near Doherty's feet. Closing the door, the guards took up position on either side of it.
Doherty grabbed my chin and peered into my face. “Remember me?”
His proximity made me recoil. “Of course I remember you. You were the perverted bastard always staring at me and watching me. Is that what this is about, you’re finally going to get what you want?” But I couldn’t bring myself to care. Reed… oh gods what did I do? Tears dripped off my chin.
He laughed softly. “Oh no, I couldn’t care less about you. But the warden has agreed you can entertain me until those sorry bastards down there kill each other off. He thinks you will still be around to fight the winner.” He leaned closer, his eyes bright, his teeth bared. “He was wrong. Tell me, do you remember the fire that killed your parents?”
I gulped, hating the goosebumps that erupted across my skin at the mention of that night.
He smirked knowingly. “I see you do.”
I could barely breathe as my gaze lifted to Connor. His marbled black and blue eyes stared at me, full of sorrow. My eyes burned at the pain I’d caused him. I’d killed his brother. He would never forgive me. Tears tipped down my cheeks. With a shaking hand, I swiped them away. “No. I don’t,” I said, my voice weak and my whole body shaking.
Doherty shrugged and stood up. “You’re lying, but it doesn’t matter.”
I swallowed down the desire to fold in on myself and, grabbing onto the strength of my wolf, glared up at him.
A smile curled his lips, and he scooped up a splash of Reed’s blood off my arm, wiping it on my cheek. “When I was a boy, I read a book on ancient mythology, and I knew then that I was meant for more than this mortal life, that immortality wasn’t just a dream, but was attainable. I devoted my life to looking for your kind—for your mother. She was going to be my salvation, until the selfish bitch ended her life. Now you are going to take her place.”
I spat in his face. “I’ll die before I give you what you want.”
He laughed loudly. “Will you? I don’t think you can. Tell me, Ember, how did you survive the knife I stuck in your gut that night?”
Connor’s eyes flew to Doherty’s face.
Zander looked at me, his irises burning as he palmed a knife. I dipped my chin and held his gaze for a fraction of a second.
“You ruined my life, you bitch. You didn’t die before your mother, like you were supposed to. Instead you lived. You took my wolf and sent him back to the Mother, and disappeared with my chance to live forever.” Doherty’s face twisted. “I don’t know how you did it, but since that night, I’ve been nothing but a human because of you; fragile and easy to kill. But no more.” He took a flat circle of metal from his jacket pocket. It gleamed with an unearthly glow. “This will rip your soul apart and take the gift that should be mine. I will be immortal.”
My mind spun and my arms collapsed, unable to support my weight as I became lost in the past. Gods. The night my parents died came rushing back. I gasped for air, my eyes fogging over as the nightmare played out. I was a little girl, safe in my bed, surrounded by warmth and softness.
My eyes fly open as fire tears through my tummy. There’s a man standing next to my bed and I scream, my heart beating really hard. I don’t understand why my tummy hurts, but I know this man is bad, that he’s here to hurt all of us. I cry out for mummy, my tummy hurting so bad I can’t move. No one comes, no matter how much I cry and cry. Smoke fills my room, burning my eyes and my throat. Still no one comes. Tears run down my cheeks and I look at the knife sticking in my tummy. There are flames dancing on the bed clothes and up the curtains of my pretty pink bedroom. But it doesn’t matter how bad I want to find mummy and daddy, I can’t move. I know I’m going to go to heaven