Greyson marched up to the desk and hunched over the screen, his fingers dancing over the array of buttons. I hurried to his side as the screen went white, and a faint ringing sound echoed from the speakers.
“Pick up,” whispered Greyson, and he grabbed my hand. I squeezed back, my heart in my throat. This couldn’t be it. Maybe Daxton was lying. Maybe it was just another twisted game for his amusement. Maybe he’d wanted to see whatwewould do.
Or maybe it was real, and Knox, Elsewhere, and all its citizens were seconds away from turning into ash.
“Why isn’t he picking up?” I said frantically, my voice hitching. “He’s always in that stupid office. He never leaves. He eats in there, he sleeps in there—”
The screen turned black, and Greyson pressed a few more buttons. “Hold on, I’m trying again.”
The white screen returned, along with the ringing. I bit my lip so hard I could taste blood, and every cell in my body was focused on that box, waiting for Knox’s face to appear. He had to answer. He had to get out of there. I wouldn’t accept anything else.
“It’s pointless, you know.”
I’d been so engrossed in the hope that Knox would pick up that I hadn’t heard the office door open, and as I looked up, I forgot how to breathe. Daxton stood between the two fountains at the entrance, four guards surrounding him—including the ones Greyson had dismissed.
“The drones are two minutes out,” he said. “They’re quicker than I expected, as it happens. But regardless, even if you were able to warn Lennox and the other Blackcoats, they would have no time to escape. All you would do is give them a few moments to ponder the pointlessness of their entire existence.”
I blinked rapidly, and several tears rolled down my cheeks. I didn’t bother wiping them away. Knox and the Blackcoats deserved them. “You’re despicable.”
“I’m a dictator, darling. It comes with the territory.” He motioned to his guards. “Escort them to the couch. I have something I want them to see.” Daxton winked at me. “You won’t want to miss it.”
I struggled as the first guard led me to the sofa and pushed me down. Daxton continued to keep his distance and two armed men between us at all times, and no matter how badly I wanted to rip his throat out, consequences be damned, I wouldn’t have made it five feet.
Greyson sat down beside me, far more cooperative than I had been, while Daxton pressed a few buttons on his screen. “Ah, there we go. Straight from the drone,” he said, and he angled it so we could see.
The image was dark, but a spotlight appeared, illuminating the ground. I couldn’t pinpoint the section, exactly, but I did recognize the uniform gray buildings and straight roads of Elsewhere. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Oh, Lila. You will watch,” said Daxton, and I heard the click of a gun. My eyes flew open. He was pointing the barrel directly at Greyson’s head.
My chin trembled, but I forced myself to stare in the direction of the screen. I tried to look past it and focus on the bookshelves instead, but there was no ignoring the images. There was no pretending this wasn’t happening.
I spotted Mercer Manor, and my stomach twisted as the few bites of dinner I’d taken threatened to come up. The lights were on. They were still there, and they had no idea that they were all about to die.
“And then...the magic,” said Daxton gleefully. Silently the screen exploded into flashes of white and fire, and then everything went black.
That was it. No sound effects. No screams. No indication that tens of thousands of people had just died. Just silence and a blank screen.
Elsewhere was gone.
X
Noose
That night, I stared into the empty darkness, certain I would never be able to sleep again. Though Greyson had given me something to relax, it hadn’t stopped the image of Elsewhere burning playing in a continuous loop in my mind.
It was only after I’d cried myself out and pretended to be asleep that Greyson had finally passed out on the sofa bed. As he snored, I quietly slipped out of bed and padded to the adjoining bathroom, where I shut the door and turned on the sink to drown out the sound of my voice. Taking a deep breath, I sank down in the empty bathtub and touched the silver cuff on my ear. I couldn’t bring myself to take it off, no matter how useless it was now.