Page 50 of Beautiful Madness

Lennon shook her head at me asshe took the splinter. “I’m disappointed in you,” she said. “Just a little.”She nodded at Wyatt. “Shove the bitch full of silver, then pour that flask downher throat. If we don’t hurry, she’ll miss the spectacular show of the formeralpha dying in misery and torment.”

“Lennon,” I murmured. “I’mgoing to kill you. Before this is over, I will kill you.”

She wasn’t afraid, though. Shedidn’t believe me. “I have the pack on my side,” she told me. “You will kill noone.”

Then, she took her splinter,stabbed it into her body’s heart, and then left the wolf whose body she’dstolen. He fell abruptly to the floor, and the entire room watched silently asher body twitched, then began to slowly change from an ice-cold, waxy pale corpseto a living, breathing woman.

Eli fell to his knees besideher, his hands on her arms. “Lennon,” he murmured. “Lennon. My heart.”

She opened her eyes and one ofthe wolves, I didn’t know his name, rushed forward to wrap her bleeding arm. “Ican no longer heal myself,” she said, “but it doesn’t matter. I’ll growstronger. I’ll recover. Someday, I will be as powerful as before.”

“You were never powerful,” Itold her. “Only pathetic.”

Eli pulled her against hischest, and he was the one to give the order. “Wyatt,” he said. “Do it.”

Wyatt didn’t want to. He liftedthe first spike, but he couldn’t shove it inside me. “I can’t,” he told me. “Ican’t.” Apparently some people were more susceptible to the protectionsurrounding me than others.

“Wyatt,” I hissed, my teethclenched against the pain to come. “Do it, damn you.”

“For God’s sake,” Lennon said,her voice weak but clear. “Eli. Silver her.”

Eli, still angry, stilldevastated, did not hesitate. Lennon was truly all he had now. He left hergently but came at me with a stare full of blood and a heart full of death. “Ishould kill you,” he said. “I should kill you.”

But he didn’t want to kill meany more than Wyatt wanted to stake me, and he was glad of an excuse not tohave to. He grabbed the silver spikes from Wyatt, one by one, and shoved theminto my body.

And when I lay on the floor ina pool of agony, he forced the flask to my lips. I would swallow, or I wouldchoke. I swallowed.

As they dragged me out of thecell, Remy was punched in the face—somewhat hurriedly—and left lying on thecold floor. Alive.

If I could have, I would’vecried with relief.

Then a bigger relief came,larger even than the agony caused by the silver, when they dragged me outside,threw me into a trunk, and began to drive me out of Shadowfield.

They were taking me to thealpha.

My plan had worked.

ChapterTwenty-Six

It hadn’t been hard toimplement the plan, though we were all unsure of our chances. It was betterthan no plan, though, and if it failed, the only thing we would have lost wastime.

Not that we had any time tolose.

The only warrior Remy and Ibrought in was Wyatt. As captain, his men would do whatever he said to do. Heinstructed them carefully to wait until Remy and I were inside Eli’s cell withthe witchwolf, and then to rush into the cell, despite my orders to thecontrary, save Eli and Lennon, and take me and Remy down.

The plan wouldn’t have workedhad I not had an excuse to bring Lennon and Eli together, because Eli had noway into her cell—and he knew that no matter what, even if he managed tooverpower me, I would never give him the code.

I knew he’d have been shockedat how easily they managed to control me, but he’d also seen proof of myweakness when it came to those I cared about. I’d drank silver to save Max, sohe believed I would do the same for Remy.

Lennon was near the end and herpower, mental clarity, and ability to be the seer were gone. Both she and Eliwere manipulated because they were desperate.

Deep down, they both knew theyhad no chance. Lennon was running on hatred, and Eli was full of despair. Theyneeded to trap me, and they needed to believe they had.

But no one was more desperatethan I was, and I would have done nearly anything to save Jared—even allowmyself to drink silver and be speared with silver spikes. Over time, now thatI’d felt him, I could have tracked Jared. If not for Lucy, I would have tried,and I would have lost him.

I lay in the trunk, fightingthrough the pain of the silver. I’d known it wasn’t going to disable me the wayit had before. I’d gained too much power for that. After my shapeshiftingabilities had activated and especially after my encounter with Lucas, I knew mybody. I also knew that if an angel couldn’t turn me into a pile of ash with asingle glance, a little silver wouldn’t stand a chance.

But just because it could nolonger incapacitate me didn’t mean it couldn’t hurt like a son of a bitch. Thatwas good. The pain fueled my rage—not that I needed my emotions to bring mymagic, really. It just made me feel better.