“Do you want the truth?” Danny goaded, holding out his hand, showcasing a phone. “I have all the proof you need.”
Weston walked back to Danny, grabbing the phone out of his hand. He didn’t speak as he turned the screen on, but I knew that whatever was on the screen of Danny’s phone had sealed my fate. I could see it in the whitening of Weston’s knuckles, in the bobbing of his throat, in the hardening of his eyes.
He wasn’t simply a man lost to anger. He was a monster consumed by it.
He closed his eyes, his grip on the phone tightening until his arm began to shake, and then he was turning, an enraged sound escaping his throat as he grabbed Danny by the throat, the phone falling forgotten to the ground as his fingers found purchase in flesh, digging inward.
“You don’t want to watch this,” Silas cautioned. “I’ve seen him do it before. It isn’t pretty.”
“What is he doing?”
“Killing him. Overcrowding his brain. Danny will experience the equivalent of an extended epileptic seizure.”
I remembered the feeling of all of my thoughts being rushed to the surface of my brain when Jayden had briefly attacked me, and wondered if what Weston was doing was somehow similar.
“Why isn’t he fighting back?” I muttered, my eyes narrowing on Danny.
There was a foamy substance dribbling from the corner of his mouth and his eyes had rolled backwards. Weston’s hands seemed to be the only thing holding him upright, because his legs were twitching too much to be of any use. Silas didn’t answer me, so I supposed that he didn’t have an answer.
“You’re going to kill him!” I finally shouted, my heart conflicted as I took a step toward Weston.
I wanted Danny to be stopped. I wanted him to pay for his crimes. I just… I didn’t want to stand off to the side while a person was killed. It didn’t matter that the person was evil incarnate—and it didn’t matter that the person used to be my brother. I realised, in that moment, that death would not be the solution. It couldn’t be.
There had been too much death already.
“Weston, you need to s—” It was too late.
Weston released Danny’s inert body, and we all watched as he crumpled to the stone, blood seeping from his nose and ears. I stood there, taking him in. I was too transfixed by the smear of blood trickling down the side of his familiar face that I didn’t even realise that Weston had advanced on me until Silas was in front of me again, pushing me back.
“I’m not going to hurt her yet,” Weston growled, his nostrils flaring. “Get the hell out of my way before I change my mind and decide to kill you all for keeping this from me. The same way I killed him.” Weston jerked an uncaring finger over his shoulder.
Silas stepped aside, his body vibrating with violent tension. Clearly, Weston had disregarded my threat and used his power on Silas again.
“I’m going to give you a choice, Seraph.” Weston straightened out the lapels of his jacket and brought his head up, though his face was still tinged red with rage. “You can consider it your second test—and keep in mind how miserably you failed the first one. I couldn’t have handed you a simpler hostage situation to solve if I had tried, short of sending in actual children to threaten the college. You had a very manageable task… but perhaps my mistake was in not providing you direction. I would have, of course, if I hadn’t been trapped inside of a glass box.”
He straightened out his jacket again, dusting off imaginary speckles of dirt, and I took a brief moment to properly inspect him. If he had been trapped inside of the glass box this whole time, then he had taken a moment to change his clothes. That was odd.
“I’ll do anything you want,” I lied quickly.
“Oh no…” He laughed deeply, his shark’s grin flashing over his angry face, making me stumble back a step. “You won’t give me pretty statements. You’ll give me a promise. And I’ll be able to tell whether you’re lying.”
He sprang forwards in a blur of sudden movement, capturing my hand and ripping me away from Silas, who was already beginning to react, his hand inches from the front of my shirt as Weston spun me around. The sudden press of steel against my collarbone had me calling out to ward him off.
“Stay back!”
His eyes flashed to my neck immediately, and I flinched, because we had been in this situation before and it hadn’t ended well the first time. Behind me, Weston was rumbling out another laugh.