The Scarlet Dagger (The Red Sector Chronicles, #1)

Chapter 13

I changed quickly and returned to class shaken. At the end of the day, I told Aden about the incident. He brushed it off, saying it was an empty threat, but an uneasy feeling remained with me, like I'd swallowed gravel.

What if Rook had planted the heart in my locker to shake me up? Maybe I was meant to see it before class, so he could kill me off more easily.

I shook my head. It was insane – this was Rook. But I hadn't seen him for three years, and I had abandoned him and my brother to the Rogue. Maybe he wanted revenge. I felt sick at my stomach, I was so confused.

It took me a long while to fall asleep that night, since the image of the heart kept coming back to haunt me. I finally decided to try meditating, feeling somewhat stupid but calming down as I forced my mind to be perfectly blank. Around three in the morning, I had finally drifted off when a scream ripped through the air. A dream had seized me the moment I'd fallen prey to sleep, drawing me into Orion's last moments, and I bolted upright, reaching out and screaming, "Orion!"

As his screams died away in my head, I realized someone was actually screaming in real life, somewhere outside. The screams sounded strangled, more like a tortured animal. They were also very high-pitched.

It's a woman, I realized with a start.

I stumbled out of bed and threw open my door. Still half asleep, I stumbled the short distance down the hall to Aden's room and knocked. When no one answered, I opened the door to find his bed was still made, as if he hadn't been home yet.

My brows furrowed and another scream came, this one louder and more desperate than the others. Still groggy, I descended the stairs two at a time, trying to shake off the remnants of sleep.

There was a warm, orange glow glaring off the floor right under the crack beneath the door. I crept up to the door and peeped through the hole. Bright colors swam past the porthole, but the lens distorted the shapes too much to peg down exactly what they were. I grasped the doorknob, hesitating.

Maybe I should wake Mrs. Knight or try to locate Aden somehow. An agonized wail from the other side made me cringe, and gritting my teeth, I reached to unlock the door. I frowned. It was already unlocked.

Weird.

There was another scream, and I threw open the door. At first, I didn't believe what I was seeing. Men in long, hooded red robes stood in a line in front of the apartment with lighted torches in their hands. Their faces were covered, except for the two slits in the fabric that allowed them to see. They parted down the middle, revealing another robed figure clutching a woman to his chest, a red hot poker digging into her neck as she screamed.

A wave of terror rolled through me as my brain finally woke up, and I realized who she was.

Mrs. Knight!

The man holding her captive looked up long enough to notice me, his cold intelligence shining through his eyes. "So trusting," he crooned, lifting the poker from Mrs. Knight's neck. Tears streamed down her pained face, and she sagged in his arms, blood dripping onto her nightgown from the raised flesh on her neck. "Oh how easily the lamb comes to slaughter," he sang. "We called her, told her something had happened to her precious Aden, and she stepped into our fold without question. So willing, so trusting." He looked at me, hatred and loathing filling his eyes. "Look what her trust has cost her, hunter."

I immediately recognized the thick, gravelly voice. It was the lab technician who had cornered Angel and me in the hall earlier today.

"Let her go!" I yelled, pausing in the doorway. The anklet hummed around my ankle, a reminder not to stray beyond this point. "Damn it!" I hissed. I hated feeling helpless.