Page 89 of The Aether

“What are you doing, girl?” Morcant growled as she touched the door. “Get away from there before you blow your fool head off.”

“You sound like you care, Mr. Thywyll,” she said with a tilt of her head. Giving him a cold stare, she sneered like she’d seen Aunt Josie do. “Or is it that you would miss my Aether magic? You know, if you don’t kill me yourself, it goes back to my Papa, right?” she taunted. “You know what no one tells you, Mr. Thywyll? That you have to have special DNA to keep it, and you don’t. Too bad, so sad you’re weak. You can’t even pop a simple protection bubble. You’re as stupid as your ability.”

“Beastie.”Warning evident in his tone, Papa said,“Don’t poke the bear in the cage. Morcant is a wild animal and unpredictable at best.”

Forgetting his number-one lesson in controlling her temper, she ignored him.

“Who eats bad thoughts?” she yelled at her jailer. “Dumb people! That’s who!”

A satisfied light entered Morcant’s mean, reptilian eyes, and Sabrina reigned in her outrage over his treatment of her family and her. Picking on him to distract him was one thing. Letting her fear and anger build was quite another, and it would give him the advantage.

She shrugged. “I’m sorry you’re not very smart, Mr. Thywyll.”

Fury washed over him, and he charged.

“Now, Ronan,” she whispered, and flicking a finger, she disengaged the lock.

She’d have to reduce her shield by half to duck through the opening and get to her mother’s body. By doing so, it would allow Morcant to get closer than he should.

As he was almost to her, she clenched her fists to her chest and called the C-4 to her. The suction sound made Morcant’s beady eyes round. He didn’t know that she’d already neutralized that particular explosive along with the ones closest to her.

When it was in her hand, she opened her arms wide. “Want a hug, Mr. Thywyll?”

He looked like he wanted to vomit. Sweat beaded his brow and dampened his hairline.

“You don’t know what that can do, girl. Easy now, put it down on the ground.”

With a scoff, she tossed it from hand to hand.

“Sabrina, I mean it. You’ll kill us both.”

“You don’t think you deserve to die? You’re a bad man, and you’ve lived too long.”

Backing out the cell door, she called two more bricks to her and, in the process, watched him sway on his feet in terror. Good. He should know how all his victims felt.

“Wow! This is a lot of clay,” she said to no one, flaring her eyes ridiculously wide. Infusing excitement into her voice, she said, “We could use it to model dolls.” Grinning, she held one out. “Wanna play, Mr. Thywyll?”

“You’re crazy!”

“‘Mad as a hatter,’ Papa says,” she agreed with a nod. Her father said no such thing, but it was fun to turn the fear back on Morcant.

The wall behind him parted, but Sabrina didn’t remove her gaze from him. It was important to keep him distracted for a little while longer. Just until Alastair could get behind him with his sword. Taking another step backward, she looked down the hall to see who it was she’d heard in the other cell earlier. To find the woman who had been in excruciating pain and was fighting against her suffocating fear.

Stomach plummeting to her toes, Sabrina made the mistake of looking past Morcant to Alastair.

When he met her eyes, his dark-blond brows collided.

Morcant was already turning toward the group of Sentinels crowding through the door.

“Get out!” she screamed. “Get out!”

But the few in the rear were too slow to react, blocking the others from escaping. Sabrina flung her hands upward, stretching the boundaries of her bubble to encompass everyone, including the prisoner down the hallway. The woman, who had been taken while she was out shopping for her husband’s birthday present, was very important to Uncle Alastair and needed to be saved.

Unfortunately, Sabrina’s actions removed the existing barrier between her and Morcant.

CHAPTER31

An explosion rocked the room.

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