Dark Matter - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 2

Chapter Twenty Nine - Prayers

Leah left the conference room feeling far more at ease than when she'd entered it. Even though she'd only been with Seth for ten minutes, it'd still been enough to calm her, to remind her what all this was for. He deserved so much more than the life he was living and today they had the chance to fix it, to remedy it, even if it meant going through the world of the dead one last time.

"Hey," Riley said, as Leah opened the door.

She was leaning against the wall outside the conference room, rolling her knife along her knuckles, and Leah closed the door quickly, hiding Seth from view.

"Hey," Leah said. "What's up?"

Riley straightened, shoving the knife back into its holster.

"What did Andrew want?"

Leah turned and started making her way down the corridor, conscious of the boy at their backs, one Riley would probably kill to see right now.

"He just wanted to go over the plan," Leah said, feeling strangely guilty as Riley fell into step beside her, "make sure I was comfortable and everything."

Riley scoffed. "Are they still scared you're going to lose control?"

Leah grimaced, her mind flicking back to the conference call with Sophie. This whole plan had been Sophie's idea in the first place, but even a blind person could've seen how sceptical she was of Leah's part in it, how worried she'd been that Leah's power wasn't as controlled as it needed to be.

"Because if they are," Riley continued, oblivious to Leah's lost thoughts. "I'm offended they didn't want to talk to me. I'm the one you'll be dragging in and out of the world of the dead with you."

Leah glanced at Riley. Her words had been phrased like a joke, light and sarcastic, but her expression contradicted them. There were nerves dancing under her skin, distorting her face with a suppressed fear Leah had never seen there before.

"You'll be fine, I promise," Leah said, trying not to let the sympathy she knew Riley would hate show too obviously. "It worked with Jared when I took him back there, and he's practiced with Marco. It'll work with you too."

Riley rolled her eyes, covering her nerves with disdain and scorn, but her features had smoothed out slightly.

"It better," she said. "I have much grander plans for my death. I'm not going to walk straight into it like an idiot."

Leah laughed. "I'll keep that in mind."

They emerged into the backyard and Leah glanced around, her adrenaline kicking back into gear again.

The first group was nearly ready to go. Tai and Marco stood flanking Jared, both wearing fake handcuffs with weapons hidden beneath their clothes. Marco's face was painted with fake bruises, Tai's arms riddled with cuts, and Leah started at how realistic their injuries looked.

Jared, in comparison, was unmarked. He stood silently between the other two, his face closed-off and schooled into an expression she'd seen often enough before, one that only came out when he didn't want to feel, or think, or hurt.

It made the reality of what they were about to do, what Jared was about to do, sink in deep, and Leah's heart thudded. This wasn't black and white for him, not in the way it was for the rest of the S.I.S. He was going to kill his father today. He was going to betray everyone he'd grown up fighting beside.

His eyes found hers and, for a moment, his mask cracked, revealing the anger and distress and hope that hid in there – every emotions warring with another just as strong, just as contradictory.