33

RING OF FIRE

Mardi found Trent or Tris or Trystan, or whoever the Hell he was, climbing off the Dragon. He gave her a big open smile that implied he was ready to pick up where they had left off yesterday. What kind of idiot did he take her for?

“Hey, beautiful, I missed you last night. You should have stayed,” he said with a slow, sexy grin.

She put her hands on her narrow hips and glared at him with the full force of her dark, dark eyes.

He returned her cruel stare with a confused look. How had she ever been drawn to those blue eyes? She saw them now for what they really were: watery, shifty, weak.

“Mardi, is there something wrong?”

“You are scum, and the only reason I’m stooping to talk to you right now is to tell you that I’m never going to speak to you again. Oh, and also that I’m quitting my job. In case that isn’t obvious.”

“What are you talking about?” He looked and sounded genuinely baffled. But she knew now what a skilled player he was. To assume such divergent parts as to be able to seduce both Overbrook sisters at once, in alternating moments, you had to be more than a brilliant actor; you had to have a split personality.

“Give it up will you?” She seethed. “Dude, I think you’re a psychopath. If I cared about you even one little bit, I’d consider having you committed. But I wouldn’t lift a finger to help you now. I saw you with her yesterday. In the greenhouse at Fair Haven.”

“With who? I wasn’t at Fair Haven yesterday, Mardi. I was here, with you.”

“Are you really going to make me spell it out?”

He looked at her expectantly.

“Fine, Trystan Gardiner. Here is how it went down. After we hung out on your boat yesterday afternoon, I got a text telling me to go to the greenhouse in Fair Haven. I assume it was from you, since you obviously enjoy messing with people’s heads. I went because you’ve been threatening to hurt my sister if I don’t do everything you say. But you know that, of course.”

The color drained from his face.

Mercilessly, she continued. “And when I got to the greenhouse, what do you think I saw? I saw you sucking face with my twin sister, yeah . . . we’re identical . . . whom apparently you’ve been leading on whenever you aren’t busy trying to get in my pants.”

“Mardi, wait. I think I might know what’s going—”

“I know what’s going on—you’re sick!”

“Mardi,” he thundered, taking a step toward her, his face red with frustration, “listen, will you? Whoever that guy was, it wasn’t me.”

“Oh, right. As if there are two of you—”

“I was here with you. I was here all night. I wish you’d stayed with me. I’ve never met your sister before. Listen to me.”

“I saw you!” Hadn’t she? Hadn’t she gotten a good look at him as Molly pulled his pastel polo off over his head.

Pastel polo?

When did Trent ever wear polo shirts?

Not to mention Bermuda shorts.

But it was definitely Trent, wasn’t it?

The doubt must have showed on her face, because Trent began to talk again. “Look, I think I know what’s happening here. I think I know who’s been sending you those messages and who was with your sister. And if I’m right, he’s very dangerous. We have to make sure your sister isn’t with him. Do you know where Molly is right now?”

“Nice try,” she sneered, turning to go.

He tried to hold her back by the shoulder. As she turned around to punch him, he blocked her, grabbing her wrist.

“Get your hands off me!”

“Mardi, please listen.” He let go of her wrist.

“To what? More lies?”

“Look down at your right hand,” he said.

“Why?” she asked. Yet even as the question escaped her lips, she knew the answer. It was on her middle finger.

Her ring.

“I slipped that ring back on you yesterday. I needed to get it on your body without you knowing in order for you to assume its power again. That’s the way the curse works. If you demand the ring, it assumes its destructive power. If you receive it, it becomes pacified. And that’s why I haven’t been able to be open with you until now. I had to wait until the ring was restored. And for that to happen, I had to find it.”

“Where? What?”

“I stole it back for you, Mardi. It was taken from your sister in an unconscious moment, and I retrieved it. Whoever possesses that ring has massive power. All those accidents, those near deaths in town over the past week, those beaten women, were the ring bearer’s experiments with his newfound domination. If I hadn’t gotten it back to you, anything could have happened. Hold on to it, please. Don’t let anyone take it from you until we figure out what to do.”

Although she was beginning to believe him, Mardi was still on guard. “So if that wasn’t you in the greenhouse with Molly, who is the guy who looks exactly like you except for the clean-cut clothes?”

“I think his name is Alberich. He’s a shape-shifter who’s long been in disfavor with our kind. He’s been after your ring for centuries, while your mother and her sisters shared it.”

My mother and her sisters?

The maidens in the pool.

Rhinemaidens.

Thor had said their mother was a hottie, and more importantly, that the twins carried part of their parents’ spirits and memories with them.

“Okay, so let me get this straight. You stole our ring back from a creep who passes himself off as you.”

“Well, not exactly. When the wine cellar caved in, and I realized I hadn’t seen the ring on your finger in a while, I went to talk to Jean-Baptiste. He had noticed that neither you or Molly had it in your last session with him, and he was very concerned. I couldn’t tell you directly, and neither could he, because if you yourself had gone after the ring, knowing what it could do, its power could have turned on you. It’s cursed, Mardi. You dominate it while it is on your person, but as soon as it leaves the warmth of your—or Molly’s—flesh, it becomes incredibly, irrationally dangerous. Alberich thinks he can harness its power for himself, but he has no real control over it, not the way you guys do. He wants to use it to take revenge on the women of the world, to subjugate them and make them suffer, because he has felt humiliated for centuries by their rejection. He wants to enslave them. To see them burned by the state as witches. He wants to unleash the kind of wave of lawless paranoia that the world hasn’t seen since the Salem witch trials.”

“So you’re saying he made himself look like you in order to convince Molly that he was Trystan Gardiner and seduce her to get ahold of our ring? So he could punish us for being powerful female witches?”

“Something like that. As I said, he’s a shape-shifter. So he could take my form, but he could also take others. He could have looked like almost anyone in town when he got the ring off her body. The only feature he can’t change is the color of his eyes, which, if you look closely, are a much lighter, colder blue than mine. That’s how you could have told us apart if you’d gotten closer.”

She stared at him, at his warm blue eyes that shone with affection.

“I’m telling you the truth,” he said. “Please believe me.”

She looked into his eyes, and somehow she knew he wasn’t lying. Ingrid herself had said she couldn’t believe Trystan would do something so awful.

“The eyes aren’t the only difference,” she finally said.

“Thanks. That means a lot.” He took her hand. “The reason Alberich became Tris was to keep a constant eye on Molly once he had taken the ring. He’s a maniac. He’s experimenting right now in order to harness the ring’s power for his master plan. In the meantime, he doesn’t care who gets in the way.”

She gasped.

“What?”

“Those kids who died in the subway accident in New York. The ones we’re accused of killing or brainwashing or whatever. We’ve been trying to figure out why they were targeted. But now I see they weren’t targeted! They were anonymous victims, collateral damage. Alberich stole our ring and was going after us, trying to get us accused and punished.” Mardi was shaking. “They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“I’m sorry,” said Trent.

“Bret! He’s Alberich!”

“Who’s Bret?”

“The host of the party. It was his penthouse. He must have drugged us, stolen our ring, and entertained himself by sacrificing two of his party crashers on the tracks of the 6 train, then he framed us for the murders. And now he’s morphed into Trystan Gardiner . . . Wait, I can’t believe I haven’t asked you—how’d you find the ring?”

“He’s a Nibelung from the shadow world. He likes to burrow. I knew he would bury it. And his arrogance would push him to bury it somewhere symbolic.”

“But how did you know it was the greenhouse?”

“I didn’t. I got really lucky. I was feeding Killian’s flytrap, and I noticed the dirt under the box of worms was loose. I had a premonition, and I started to dig.”

She looked at him admiringly. “I think someone guided you to the ring. Someone powerful and benevolent. I think someone is watching over us.”

“Listen, we have to find your sister before she tries to get to Tris and give him Hell like you gave me. That wouldn’t end well. Alberich does not respond positively to criticism.”

“I can try texting her, but she’ll probably blow me off.”

“Tell her it’s an emergency.”

“I have a better idea.”