Page 75 of Beg the Night

My heart sank. I should have seen it coming. “So, you really are mystic, then.”You really are one of them.It was like looking into the face of a stranger.

“I am. And you’re a mystic, too. After all that happened to our family, I can’t understand why you’d try so hard to deny it. Open your damn eyes, Thena!”

Sinner had loosened his grip on me, though his hands still hovered over my body, waiting for my next move.

It was a smart plan. That gold knife was still looking mighty appetizing.

“My eyes are open. If I had used magic, I would know!”

“I’ve seen it!” Her voice cracked as a sob left her. It wasn’t about the pain anymore, I realized, because her wound had completely healed. She wiped the blood away with a clean cloth. “I’ve seen it! You’re…you’re powerful. Just accept it!”

My heart pounded and blood rushed in my ears. What the hell was she talking about? She had seen it? That was impossible.I had no power. I had no power. I had no power.

“See?” Director said, her tone exaggeratedly calm, like she was talking to two wild animals. “Like I said, she’s only trying to help.”

“What is it?” Sinner asked from behind me, each of his words vibrating through his chest and into me. “What is her power?”

Katherine looked from Sinner back to me before she glanced down at her hands in her lap.Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it.

She was lying. Whatever it was, it wasn’t the truth.

I had no magic. This was all so, so messed up.

“Did she tell you about the rest of our family?” Katherine asked softly, focus fixed solely on Sinner.

“About how they’re dead?”

She nodded, her lips pressed together. “Yes. They’re all dead.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked. “I was there when they died. I know what happened.”

I was there when Mother drowned in the lake.

I was there when Kylar was bitten by the snake.

I was there when Father’s heart attack stole him from us.

And when Jasmine’s fever wrecked her body.

I remembered every damn second of the agony. And I hadnothing to do with it.

“Of course, you know what happened. Considering your magic is what killed them.”

If Sinner hadn’t been holding my arms, I would’ve collapsed.Liar. Liar. Liar. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true.

I would know if I had used powers against them. I didn’t have powers. I didn’t. I couldn’t have hurt them.

My vision tunneled. I tried to fight the pull of unconsciousness. I opened my mouth, desperate to tell them all that Katherine was wrong, that I hadn’t killed my entire family, but the room spun?—

And everything went black.

My head poundedas I shook like the rag doll I feared I’d become. “Athena. You need to wake up.” More shaking. Harder this time.

I blinked up at the ceiling. No, not the ceiling. There was no ceiling.

I sat up, my hands sliding across white silk sheets. Beneath it, a soft mattress. Sinner and I were in a bedroom, but…not.

We were outside. The bed had been placed in a small clearing surrounded by thick pine trees. And if I wasn’t mistaken, there was an illuminated film where the walls should have been, where the roof should have been.

---