Page 61 of Beautiful Prey

“Martel,” said a soft, venomous voice, cutting me off. A voice like a knife’s blade across metal.

I froze and turned to Emery, who was staring dead at me. Eyes that saw straight through me, that burned me. “Martel,” he repeated slowly, as if coming to terms with that name. “No,that’s not—that’s not possible.” He shook his head slowly back and forth. “That night…”

I could barely hold his terrifying glare. “Emery...”

“This is a test, you're testing me,” he said as if any other answer was impossible. “Didsheput you up to this? Tell me.”

I didn’t have to ask who she was. I wouldn’t doubt Dr. Hannah would try to test Emery’s will in some screwed-up way.

But I couldn’t lie to him any longer. “No, it’s not a test.” Pain hit me like a blow at having to confess it. And having to see that look of devastation.

“You…you weren’t there.”

“Emery, I couldn’t tell you, I’m sorry,” I said, wishing I could make him understand.

“No…you weren’t there,” he said as if not hearing me. “It was only them…a daughter, she wasn’t there. She wasn’t…” He bent forward as if in pain, shaking his head. “No…no…no…” he repeated, as if trying to stop the inevitable. He bent his head so that his hands covered his mask.

“Fuck,” Ethan cursed beside me. He drew back to the gate and took up his walkie, speaking into it quickly.

I got closer, my foot on the line. “Emery, listen to me, it’s in the past. But we can get through this.”

He made a sound, and the noise made the blood rush from my face.

I thought he was crying, but it took me a moment to realize he was laughing. “Emery, look at me, please.”

He pressed the palms of his hands to his head. “Evee. Evee, why? Why would you do this?”

I wanted to touch him, to comfort him. As I reached out, he lashed out.

If not for the chains keeping him back, he would have grabbed me. I stumbled back and yelped, almost losing my footing. The pole behind him bent, the chain straining.

I covered my mouth as he reached for me but couldn’t. He started speaking incoherently, his hands covering his mask again. “You said I could trust her. I saw her in my dream, and she was good. She was a good girl. You…lied.”

“Please, Emery, fight it,” I pleaded, trying to keep him with me.

He bent forward and groaned. His shoulders shook with cries or laughter or both. “You did a bad thing, didn’t you, Evee?” he said in a tone of laughter. “Bad…bad…little…rabbit,” he growled.

I backed away, afraid. “Emery,” I said, in my last effort to reach him. To have him look at me.

He did. And I gasped as he peered back at me from between his fingers.

He had changed. A wicked darkness stood before me. Emery was no longer there. Only a demon stared back.

He straightened to his full height, then tipped his head back as he stared at me with his skull face smiling, more sinister than ever. In one hand, he wrapped the chain around his knuckles. Then with all his strength, he pulled.

The pole bent forward, the stone beneath it cracking.

I cowered away. Hands drew around me, forcing me back. The guards swarmed past me.

I watched in horror as they moved on him. But even as they brought out their rods and dug them into his side, as they laid their hands on him, to try and get him to submit, Emery hardly budged. He tilted his head at me, only seeing me.

And it was like seeing a stranger.

“Get her out of here!” John called.

A hand grabbed my arm, and I wrenched it away. “Please, I can talk—I can talk to him,” I said weakly, uncertainly.

The stone cracked more under the pole, and I knew if Emery got free, no one was going to be able to stop him from getting to me.

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