Page 141 of Inception

“Okay. So—”Wait. A new level of panic hit me as I wondered how exactly heintendedon doing that. “If I hold up my end of the deal and bring you the Amulet, I get to go free, right? You’re not going to kidnap me and turn me into some magical lab rat, are you?”

“Do you take me for a savage?” he asked, insulted by my insinuations. “I hold no one against their will. My subjects come tome.”

“So I have your word then?”

“Indeed, you have my word.” He dusted off the shoulder of his sleek black jacket. “You will be free to go once I am in possession of the Amulet...if you so choose to do so.”

As if I’d ever choose anything else, I thought to myself as a brief pang of relief kissed my insides. My curiosity over what he thought he knew about me—about what I was (and if it was related to the strange time freeze I kept experiencing)—paled in comparison to my desire to never see his face again.

“You have one fortnight to bring it to me.”

“A fortnight?” I shook my head. “That’s not enough time. I need to get close enough—”

“One fortnight is all you have.”

“And if I can’t do it?” I asked, already feeling defeated. “What happens if I fail?”

“Then I take matters into my own hands, though I assure you, it will be much better for this town and your schoolmates if you succeed. It has been a long time since the rivers ran red with blood. Let us keep it that way.”

My eyes shifted to Taylor. She was a wreck. She hadn’t said a word and was barely even moving. How much more of this could she take? I needed to get her home.

“Your comrade stays,” said Engel, noticing the direction my eyes had taken. “As insurance, of course.”

“But you said you don’t keep anyone against their will!”

“I was speaking of higher beings, child. Those who cannot have their will manipulated. She is but a mere human. She has notruewill.” He nodded to her capturer who proceeded to escort her out of the room. “Fret not. She, too, will go free if and when you return the Amulet to me.”

“I won’t fail,” I promised, though it was more of a promise to myself than to him. I had to believe I could do this. I had no other option. “I’ll get you the Amulet.”

“It is in your best interest to do so. I wouldn’t want to soil your hands with the blood of the innocent.”

“Aww,” moaned Dominic. “But think of how much fun that would be.” His steely eyes were as serious as cancer.

I wanted to carve them out of his head with my fingernails.

“One fortnight,” reaffirmed Engel, dismissing me with the flick of his pale hand.

And with that, I was gone.

44. END GAMES

The cool night air encompassed my skin like an oil slick as I left the church alone, my mind fragmented from the weight of the encumbrance placed on my shoulders. I was alive, yes, but for how long? And at what cost?

The truth was cloaked in darkness and tainted with the bitter deceit of everyone I thought I knew. Trace, Tessa, Uncle Karl, Dominic—they were all puppeteers and I was but a puppet in their show, ready to dance on command and I didn’t even know it. The stage was an illusion; the smoke and mirrors too thick for me to see through. Everything was a lie, right from the start.

But I would be a puppet no more.

I was in this thing alone and that was okay with me. It had to be. My friend’s life depended on it.Mylife depended on it. I was going to figure out a way to get the Amulet back from Trace and get Taylor home safe and sound. Some way, somehow, I would do what needed to be done. And after that, all bets were off. Jemma Blackburn as I knew her would be no more. I’d seen too much, been hurt too much, to ever go back to the girl I used to be. That girl was dead and gone.

Shehadto be.

In that moment, as plumes of fog lifted off from the ground to meet me—to guide me home like my own army of vagrant ghosts, I silently vowed to gut this town from the inside out. To find out all of its secrets and lies and then watch it all crumble to the ground like a falling house of cards. Some way, somehow. There would be hell to pay.

And Trace Macarthur was first in line.

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