Page 97 of Beg the Night

“We can’t go back,” Katherine said. “Not unless we’re turning ourselves in.”

Margaret cocked her head, licking the butter off her bread dramatically. “I wonder sometimes, Katherine. Truly. What is wrong with you?”

I choked back a howl of laughter.

Katherine gasped and pressed a hand to her chest. “Excuse me?”

Margaret shrugged, her expression light. “Clearly there is something deeply and disturbingly wrong with you. I’m just trying to figure out what exactly it is.”

Sinner coughed beside me as Katherine’s face turned red.

“We have to go back.” Benedict stepped forward. The more time I spent around him, the more I liked him. Though I couldn’t help but pity him, too. He must have really pissed someone off to be paired with my terrible sister for the claiming. “There are mystics in those dungeons just like us. It’s wrong. We can’t leave them there.”

“And where would we go afterward?” Katherine cocked a hip, her chin lifted in derision. “There isn’t a place on the planet that’s safe from the Ministry.”

The room fell into silence. That had been the question, the one thing stopping us. We could storm the Ministry, sure. We could pretend like the five of us had any chance against the hundreds of guards surrounding that dungeon and we could attempt to get the others out of there.

But then what? Where would we hide dozens of rebel mystics in a world where mystics are being hunted?

“Actually, I’ve heard of a place.” Sinner, who had been quiet all morning, leaned casually against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. “I’ve heard of places where mystics live together. Small communities safe from the Ministry’s reach.”

Katherine laughed out loud, shrill as ever. “You seriously think communities of mystics the Ministry doesn’t know about exist?”

Margaret put down the rest of her bread. “My brother’s right. Where we’re from, people talk about them. And I wouldn’t say that the Ministry doesn’t know about them. It’s more that they’re too afraid to confront them. If they did, they’d be outnumbered. Outpowered.”

A chill ran down my spine. If what they said was true…there could be an entire rebellion awaiting us.

Yet that still didn’t solve the issue of getting into the Ministry’s camp without dying.

“All right.” Sinner pushed himself off the wall. “Benedict, you stay here with Mags. Come up with a plan to infiltrate the Ministry. You two—and Katherine—know the grounds better than we do.”

“Where are you going?” Katherine asked, her eyes narrowed to slits, her whole being radiating suspicion.

Sinner straightened, grasped my wrist, and pulled me toward the door. “I’ve got one day to teach Athena how to use her power. We’re getting started now.”

Before I could argue, I was pulled out of the inn and into the bustling streets. Like last night, the energy of this town lit my body aflame. Excitement and nervousness both flitted through me. I relished it. This was like nothing I had ever felt before.

Sinner pulled me between two buildings, leading me away from the crowded main streets of the bustling city. He ignored my protests and questions, just like I figured he would, and didn’t stop walking until we reached a grassy field on the outskirts of the town. I could still see the inn in the distance, but we were at least a half mile away from any living being.

“You can’t be serious,” I said as I finally extricated myself from his hold. “I can’t learn my gift in one day.”

In the soft morning light, his face glowed. His skin was slightly pink from the sun exposure—exposure he hadn’t seen in months—and his muscles rippled with each movement.

And those dark eyes…

“You can and you will,” he replied. “You don’t have a choice. We can’t make it through this without you.”

I put a hand on my chest. “Aw, I’m flattered.”

“Don’t get cocky.” He fisted his hands at his hips. “It took me years to learn how to control my shadows. Now we’re going to teach you.”

“You’re forgetting an important detail in all of this.”

“Oh, really?” He stepped forward, brow arched, head bowed over me. “What is that detail?”

I didn’t back away as I craned my neck to look up at him. “I don’t have phantoms to wield. And every time I’ve used my magic in the past, bad things have happened. One day of training won’t help.” I tried to keep my voice strong, but the crack in my words betrayed my fear.

My power wasn’t the kind that could be reined in. How was I supposed to learn to control death itself? Evil personified?

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