Page 55 of Merciless Prince
He led me toward a gaping black hole in the hill. As we drew closer, I saw a faint green glow emanating from somewhere deep within.
“Go inside,” the red-cloak said, giving me a gentle push.
“Is that a cave?” I asked, brows knitting.
He nodded. “Go.”
I tentatively stepped toward the entrance, heart hammering like mad. The green glow was getting brighter now, and there were faint voices coming from somewhere up ahead.
I stepped inside.
The cave was narrow at first, with bumpy stone walls and stalagmites sticking up from the leaf-strewn floor. About ten feet in, it opened up into a massive rocky chamber, like a subterranean cathedral. The edges were lined with borax-treated candles, lighting the space with an emerald glow.
Several masked red-cloaks were standing in the middle of the chamber. Two of them were holding a man who wore regular clothing and no mask. His face was pallid, and his shoulders were tight. “You can still stop this,” he muttered to one of the red-cloaks as I stepped inside. “It’s not too late. I won’t tell anyone.”
“Shut up,” one of the red-cloaks hissed back to him. He turned his masked face to me. “Welcome, Shay. Do you know who this man is?”
I shook my head. “No,” I said in a small voice, worried that I’d missed something obvious.
“You do now,” the red-cloak replied. “His name is Ethan McShane. Two years ago, he was an initiate just like you. He made it into our organization, but now, he has betrayed us in a terrible way.”
“They’re lying,” Ethan said, eyes widening. “I didn’t do any of the things they’re accusing me of. It’s all a trick. You have to believe me.”
The red-cloak raised a hand to motion for silence. “Ethan struck up a friendship with one of our other members. This member considered him a close friend. That is, until he found Ethan watching his little sister in the bathroom. She’s five years old.”
“That’s not true!” Ethan shouted. “I’m not a fucking pedo!”
“The contents of your hard drive and internet search history say otherwise,” another red-cloak chimed in. “Or are you accusing us of planting incriminating materials on your computer?”
As she spoke, she stepped over to me and procured something from the front of her robes—a large bottle filled with clear liquid. A label on the side displayed a black skull. She held it out to me, and I took it with trembling hands.
“My colleague has just handed you a bottle of acid,” the first red-cloak said loudly, drowning out Ethan’s protests. “You must make a choice, Shay, and you only have thirty seconds to do it. You can throw the acid in Ethan’s face to blind him so that he cannot look at children anymore, or you can choose to do nothing. What will it be?”
My eyes bulged with shock. These people couldn’t seriously expect me to mete out vigilante justice based on hearsay, could they?
Was that the real test—to see how gullible I was?
“Don’t do it! Please!” Ethan cried out. “You can’t believe anything they say.”
“It’s up to you, Shay,” the female red-cloak said, patting me on the shoulder. “Make your choice.”
As Ethan begged and pleaded, I twisted the lid off the bottle and stared down into the fluid. It didn’t look or smell like any sort of acid. It looked like plain old water.
That’s it,I realized.They asked me earlier—how far are you willing to go to prove yourself?
They wanted to see whether or not I would follow commands from the society, no matter how dark or depraved they were, but in the end, it was just a test. Ethan was acting, and the so-called acid was just water.
I lifted the bottle and hurled its contents toward Ethan’s face. The clear liquid splashed all over his eyes and nose, and he let out an unearthly howl and began to claw at his skin as the red-cloaks released his arms.
I stared at him with horror.
I may have just blinded an innocent man.
Ethan suddenly dropped his hands and laughed at me. “Just playing,” he said. “Don’t worry. I’m fine.”
My shoulders sagged with relief as I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding. “Holy shit,” I muttered.
The other red-cloaks joined in with Ethan’s laughter. A couple of them patted me on the back. “You did well,” one of them told me. “Most of the others waited until the very last second to throw it. You only took fifteen seconds.”
