River: A Novel (45 page)

 Dawn began
to lighten the sky, reflecting off the snow and brightening Asher’s eyes. That
was when I saw it. Beneath the soft gray, it was there: defeat. There was
nowhere else to go.

 
“Finally!”
 
Mace boomed.

 Asher
shifted in front of me even more, his shoulder dropping down to cover me as
much as possible. Though watching Mace intently, I saw that Asher’s face had drawn
together in horror and rage. A dour woman was pulling Gwen into the middle of
the frozen lake by her hair. It was Danny’s mom, Ruby. 

 “Thank you,
my darling! What a
lovely
present you’ve given me,” cooed Mace as she
slid Gwen across the ice, spinning her around like a toy. I gasped, covering my
mouth. Hands and feet bound, Gwen was blindfolded and gagged. A grisly trail of
dark blood followed her.

 “No,” Asher
growled with such violence—it made me jump. He took a step toward them.

 “Asher,” I
whispered, squeezing his arm, feeling guilty even as I held him back. There had
to be a way out of this. If he were to charge Mace, it would be suicide.

 He seemed
to understand and rocked back on his heels, shooting a glare full of hated at
Mace. “What do you want?” His deep voice choked on the plea.

 “Hmmm, what
do I...?” Mace trailed off as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It was
obnoxious. “Well, let’s see. I’ve already had so many gifts this evening. My
darling Ruby here gave us our freedom. Once again, lovely timing my dear.” When
he pinched her cheek, she looked down and giggled silently. “You see, she
caught a glimpse of you in the kitchen.” Mace wagged a finger at us. Asher’s
shoulders slumped, as did mine. This was my fault. All of it. “She thought
something was wrong with that picture. Then she spied this little lovely
herding
us
like animals.” He pulled Gwen’s beaten face up by her hair
while she whimpered. Clutching my stomach in shock at her wounds, I used my
other hand to hold Asher back as Mace went on. I felt the muscles in his arm flex.

 “Ruby had acquired
an iron pot, you see, so the dear woman crept around a corner and surprised
little Gwendolyn in the face. You precious, you.” Mace reenacted Ruby’s sucker
punch and sighed, kissing her cheek. She blushed like a schoolgirl, and I felt
sick all over again. It was obvious that Danny’s mom had been completely
brainwashed. I held Asher’s arm even tighter while Mace continued the chronicle
of our demise. “So after we were awakened, it was easy to decipher your little
plan to trap us. Daniel, Petra, and the rest were a part of
my
little
game, however… and my plan worked so much better, don’t you agree?” He opened
his arms for applause, and the minions went crazy. I narrowed my eyes in
absolute disgust. He’d killed them as if it had been a
sport
.

 “Then I finally
got to try out my newest party favor. I’ve waited so long, and it was just…
exquisite. I’d been eyeing that little button to unleash the dam for such a
long
time
,” Mace lamented as my eyes widened. He’d opened up a dam to flood River,
and the night was so impossibly cold that the water had frozen everyone in it. I
stared at Mace and his subordinates, surging with more hate than I thought I
was capable of. He was nothing but a genocidal maniac with an itchy trigger
finger. It might as well have been an atom bomb for the mass destruction he’d
caused. Asher’s face also twisted with loathing when Mace spoke again. He was
obviously enjoying our outrage. “So to ensure my plan, some of my boys here
trapped the partygoers with a little fire here and there. It was my kind of
entertainment.”

 Mace’s malicious
bravado was really starting to grate on my overloaded nerves. I tried to shake
it off and focus on a way to get to Gwen. If we could get her gag off… I looked
at her nearly unconscious form as tears threatened. All our people, massacred. “We
should have killed you when we had the chance,” I said evenly, coldly. Asher
gripped my arm then, to hold me back or to agree with me, I wasn’t sure. An
ominous feeling in my core threatened to escape.

 Mace
returned a deliberately slow smile. “Perhaps you should’ve. But who else would
throw a get together like this? I should be a party planner!” He circled Gwen
slowly. “You know, I’m not sure my work is done. This was over far too quickly
for me, like a stack of dominoes falling down.” Without command, my head shook from
side to side. We needed to end him. “I guess I’ll just have to start over
somewhere else, plan a party in a new town.” Asher met my eyes at his statement,
his brows pushing together as we had the same revelation.

 
There
are
other
towns
.

 Mace was
still boasting while Asher and I separately began to devise a plan to save Gwen
and run—now that we knew there was somewhere to go. “It’s too bad that I don’t
think I can reform this one. She would have been so valuable to me. But like
Daniel, she has chosen her side and is far too dangerous to my cause.” He
shrugged and picked Gwen up by the back of her neck to hold her above the ice,
and then mocked her weak cries through the fabric wrapped around her mouth. I
felt Asher’s hand curl into a fist.

 “I’ll just
have to start fresh, like my father did, though I’m not exactly my father’s
son. I don’t have the patience to wait and breed complacent subjects. Just look
what happens when you don’t use force—a silly little rebellion that almost was.”
Mace
tsked,
and another swell of rage coursed through me. Looking up
intently at Asher, I waited until he glanced at me. My mouth pulled to a
straight line as I made the only decision that would help any of us.

 “Get Gwen
out,” I mumbled under my breath, which was blocked from anyone else hearing by the
sound of Mace’s muffled, demented cackle. Asher began to protest, but he was
too late.

 Screeching,
“You evil son of a
bitch!”
I slid and shot forward, pushing away Asher’s
grasp, giving them their only chance to escape. This was it. I would die. They
would live.

 “Elodie…
NO!
Stop!”
I heard Asher’s shocked plea reverberate behind me right before I rammed
head-first into Mace. He laughed and pulled me up by my jacket, swatting at my
flailing hands as if they were gnats. 

 When his
lackeys took possession of me, Mace patted me on the head. “Good girl. I was
hoping for some amusement. This soirée was a bit lackluster.” To my dismay, I
saw Asher a foot from where Mace had dropped Gwen in a heap. They had him, too.

 “
Damn
it,” I seethed, the hollowness from my gut spreading. We were completely outnumbered. 

 “So,
Elodie,” Mace purred. He was suddenly right in my face, filling my vision. I
cringed away. “Wanna dance?”

 I spat at
him, some of it landing in his eye.

 Without
seeing the fist blasting the side of my head, I felt a little surprised when I
flew into the air, uncontrollably twisting to land face-first. I opened my eyes
slowly after a few seconds and watched blood pool out from a fresh wound in a
vine-like formation. Red ink drew lines in the frozen water, branching from
symmetrical dots like smoke vapors. My ears rang.  

 Forcing
myself up, I was pretty sure my wrist was broken.
Just the beginning
, I
thought and resigned myself to the pain that was coming. I coughed out blood
and took a deep breath, which only made my ribs burn.
Damn it
.

 Slowly
curling my feet under me, attempting to stand, I cried out when someone pushed
me down, my wrist radiating pain. Squinting up to a short, heavily scarred man,
I balked when he shot me a grimace.
Watch little girl
,
he signed. Though my blurred vision
spun, I swiveled my head back to the horror scene, my left ear ringing as if implanted
with a high pitched siren. Wobbly enough to have trouble staying upright, I was
just able to cover the other one as Mace laughed at us. The sound reminded me
of steel-tipped nails scratching down a chalkboard.

 I was a
good twenty feet from where Asher stood. He was painfully close to Gwen. If
only I could get my lone guard away and somehow distract Mace. My head began to
swim with the impossibility of the situation. My non-injured hand fisted tightly
when Mace picked Gwen up again. Asher glared at him murderously.

 “If only
things had turned out differently,” Mace whispered with fake solemnity,
touching Gwen’s swollen cheek. “Alas, you will never be mine to control.” She
barely moved as she swung from his hands. I was wondering what he had done to
her when a flame of light ignited. 

 A man
walked, almost skipped, to the center of the lake where Mace held Gwen, and now
four men held Asher. Dan’s mother, Ruby, was off to the side, a look of
superiority wreathing her like a web. The man held some kind of propane torch. Were
they going to burn her? 

 “Monster,”
I hissed breathlessly, tears blurring the horror scene further. I had to get to
them. Starting to stand again, I grunted as the guard kicked me in the side, effectively
sprawling me onto the ice. Huffing out in pain and frustration, I surreptitiously
glanced behind me. With my good hand I pushed myself back, closer to the guard.
He grinned like a fool, watching Mace’s sick little show, unbothered by me. Well,
he was about to be bothered. One thing about dancers he was going to learn—our legs
are
strong
. I mimicked his mad grin while kicking up behind me straight
into his groin, feeling nothing but adrenaline fueled anger.  

 As my guard
went down, I scrambled and half-slid toward Asher, six men now holding him
back. The minion with the torch held my attention. He was pointing it at Asher’s
feet.

 “Stop!” I
choked out. All interest turned to me and away from the ones I was trying
desperately, with every ounce of my being, to save. It was all I wanted.

 What I
wanted was inches away when I was slammed down. It felt like I had run full
speed into a wall.

 “Annoying
little thing, aren’t you?” Mace muttered blithely, as if to a horsefly on a
lazy summer day, and not on a day when he had killed hundreds of people. He did
look very annoyed. Good. I had two of the guards off Asher and holding me, now.
Asher could escape with Gwen. I grinned at my captors. 

 “You’ll
have to do better than that to keep me down, asshole,” I said sweetly, giving
him my best smart-aleck head tilt.

 I laughed in
the manner of a crazy person when Mace dropped Gwen and stalked toward me,
because he was playing into my hand. Grabbing me by the neck, he turned darker
with psychopathic rage while I coughed out a laugh. “Oh, you
want
to
play now?” He sneered. I would’ve liked to have called him a string of choice curse
words, but I was having difficulty breathing.

 Unable to retort,
I just smiled hugely.
Keep him distracted,
I chanted through the
absolute fear. The guards had let go of my arms, but Mace still held me by the
throat. I clawed at his hands in a feeble attempt to get him to drop me before
suddenly realizing my legs were free. On a roll, I made a kissing sound just
before kicking him as hard as I could. Gasping at newly found air while hitting
the ice, I scuttled under Mace’s huge, hunched over body and barreled toward
the men holding Asher. 

 Keeping my
head down, I concentrated on getting under their legs. Using my good arm, legs,
and teeth, I was able to knock one down while two others were hitting and kicking
me. In my furious, insane single-mindedness, I didn’t feel a thing. Hearing a blunt
thud, I looked up through the chaos and straight into Asher’s huge eyes as he
began to pull me up. Though it killed me, I pushed at him and shouted, “Get
Gwen out of here!”

 He didn’t
look away from me when he elbowed another guard in the eye, shaking his head
angrily. Shoving the guards off me while scraping his hidden pocket knife at
them, he pulled me up and through with his long arms. 

 “Ash—” I
started to protest, but he pulled me to his side so fiercely that it knocked out
what breath I had left.

 Swiveling
us around to where Gwen was curled in a ball, Asher closed the distance,
already reaching toward Gwen to tow her up. He would have to let go of me to
hold her. I would make him. He had to get her out. While extracting myself from
his arm, I caused Asher to lose his focus for a split second. He shot me a look.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

 I’d pursed
my lips, feeling stubbornness overrule self-preservation, when I heard it—leisurely
measured applause.

 Asher tore
his eyes from mine, straightening abruptly; my gaze followed a second later
toward the flame. Mace stood next to Gwen, who appeared to be levitating off
the ground. My wild mind registered that the black shoes underneath her belonged
to one of the guards—he was holding her above the ice. I panted heavily, unable
to catch my breath, and looked at Asher sidelong. We could not abandon her. We
could not. He should’ve left me and fled with her into the woods. I unclenched
my jaw, leaving any misdirected anger at Asher behind. He was just trying to
save what was left of his world. What he… loved. I shook my head slightly.

 “No,” I
whispered.

 “Oh, please,”
Mace laughed out, unleashing the hellish poison of his internal thoughts. “I’ve
been waiting all night to listen to you
beg
.” Most of the guards joined
in, some nearly hysterical. Others glowered at us in response to their
injuries.