Page 93 of Her Wicked Knights
I take advantage of his shock and agony to swing my feet over him, so that I stand on his back to get enough slack to make the rope jump half an inch over the blade of the fan.
Something tells me when he tied me up today, this wasn't the plan. He didn't intend to murder me, or he wouldn't be doing this in his office. But the look in his eye is unhinged, and his words about what will become of us in the end are clearly homicidal, maybe even suicidal. I can just imagine being a headline.
Final girl murdered by her own therapist.
Deranged therapist murders his patient in a fit of obsession.
Fuck that. I've been there and done that with the headlines. I had people whispering about me, suspecting me, thinking they knew me because my best friend died in front of me and yet I was set free. I didn't like it then, and I won't let that be what becomes of me after death. I won't let Hadley live to be the girl whose entire family was murdered.
Logan doesn't make any move to try and stop me from escaping when I slip the rope free of the ceiling fan and fall to the ground on top of him. My knee catches him in the rib, but if he wanted to, he could reach out and snare me. He just lets me go as I scramble up, rip the tape off of my mouth, and kick the blade with my foot, sending it skittering away from him, where it slides under the filing cabinet.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, you fucking psychopath?" I growl, finally able to use my tongue to let free all the words that have been sitting there, waiting to be let free. "You're fucking deranged. I should have known." I laugh, because I really should have known. I mean, a therapist who takes a client while his secretary is on her knees giving him a blow job is probably not qualified to help me unpack my trauma, but I trusted him for some stupid reason.
"Marley..." He shakes his head, pushing to his knees, but I'm not done. For the better part of two years, I've let him use me. Fuck, I've let him abuse me, because it was better than feeling nothing. And maybe he didn't hurt me, but he abused his power.He abused the trust I foolishly gave him. And he abused the limits I asked him to respect. While I've enjoyed the things we do, the way they make me feel, that doesn't make them okay. That makes us sick. Toxic. Fucking wrong. And the thing is, it doesn't even feel right anymore.
"No!" I snap. "You listen this time. I'm not your fucking puppet, Logan! You don't get to pull my strings anymore."
I'm not sure what about that strikes him as funny, but he laughs. He actually fucking laughs.
"You were never my puppet. You were my muse... my obsession. All from that first kiss."
"You're not supposed to become obsessed with your patients." I tell him, as if that isn't the first thing you would learn in school. I mean, I don't know for sure, but it seems like fairly common sense that you would need healthy boundaries with your patients; that's something we've never had.
"You were so much more, Marley," He shakes his head, and when he catches my eye, I'm shocked to find he's fucking smiling.
I make quick work of dressing, leaving the top and bottom button undone in my haste.
"You're fucking sick, Logan. I think you need help."
"Nobody can help me." He sighs, pushing to his feet. I take a step toward the door, just in case he gets it in his head to come after me. Instead, he sinks into his chair, all of his exhaustion evident as he practically collapses. "Not now. I have to pay for my mistakes."
I wonder, for a minute, if he's talking about legal justice. I don't have any plans of turning him in to the police. They already think I'm insane; there's no need to go tell them that I've been my therapist's sex toy for the last two years and I just let him do it. There's surely got to be a board of some sort to oversee ethics, and his license to practice could probably be revoked if I seekthem out to report him. But I don't feel right reporting him when I'm just as culpable here.
"I'm not going to report you anywhere." I tell him, sliding my shoes on. "But I'm not going to keep doing this with you."
"It's over." Logan says, and he sounds so sad that some tiny part of me wants to take it all back, to tell him I overreacted, to admit that I need him as much as he needs me and I don't think I can go without him.
Instead, I swallow all that and nod.
"It's over."
43
Colton
Dyingwasn'tasbadas I expected. It was quick; like going to sleep. I'd just closed my eyes when they were opening again, and I was reborn. Like the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes, each of us has been made new, exactly as we were... with one key difference.
Whit's hold over us is gone. His magic is fractured, the bond that linked us all now severed. And I'm sure he can feel it. I can feel it, Tripp can, Rev can. It's like being lighter, no longer carrying around his curse. He was never meant to be tied in with us; from the start, he betrayed us... her. He thought he could take everything from her and then throw her to the wolves. He didn't realize wearethe wolves. Tripp, Rev, and I. He underestimated us from the very start, centuries ago, and it's caused us all to suffer in perpetuity... until now. Now, all that suffering finally is going to come down on him. He's no longer linked to us, and now we can kill him.
We didn't tell the others how we did it; we still haven't told them about the past, the lives we've lived or how Marley divested her magic to us long, long ago. We just couldn't use it becausewe didn't know it was there until Whit came along. But they've noticed that they're free now, too, and they deserve their chance at revenge almost as much as the rest of us. It's why we're all here... really here this time. No projecting, no illusions, just a quick drive and some masks to hide our identities. We all had those already. And I'm doing Whit one better, because I brought the very mask he wore when he killed Audrey and terrorized Marley. He'll know who we are once we're securely in his office, but no one else will. The cameras won't catch anything.
The medical building's main door is still unlocked when we let ourselves in, but there's no one anywhere to be seen. The receptionist's desk is empty, but I follow the directional sign behind it to the office where Whit's been hiding in plain sight for the last three years, pretending to be her fucking therapist so he could be close to her. It's diabolical, and the worst part is that if I could have gotten away with it, I would have done the same thing. He's had her to himself all this time and we've had nothing but each other. I'm grateful for that, and I love Tripp and Rev like brothers, but they're a shitty consolation prize compared to her. I let Audrey run around on me while holding up the guise that we were a real couple who actually cared about one another just for the chance to be close to Marley, so I can't exactly blame him. But I also can't forgive him... not for taking her from us this time or even the first time.
And now, centuries of death and misery are finally going to come to an end.
There's a soft ding as the elevator spits us out on the fourth floor, and I scan the hallway for cameras. Whit taught us how to manipulate them when he did it the night we killed Audrey. It's almost funny how easy it is to splice a digital timeline when you have the power in your blood to do it. All it takes is intent... that's half of what magic is. It isn't spells and potions, the way the movies always made me believe. It's creating the circumstanceyou want by divine will... manifestation. The universe bends to appease the magic in me, and with it, there's so much possibility. Our deaths have unleashed the chains Whit had on us, and now there's virtually no limit to what we can do. But all I want is her. I'll do whatever it takes to have her... I'll always do whatever it takes for her.
Nick and Carson flank Mark's right as he walks in stride with me. I let him, because despite how much I still want to break his fingers for touching Marley that night in the haunted house, he's justified in helping us take Whit down. It's his own cousin, after all. That betrayal must hurt on a different level. Tripp and Rev are to my left, just behind me. And we're all in costume, just as we were that night.
