The Return - A Michael Vey Fanfic

Chapter 39

"Two weeks! It's been two weeks and you still have not found them?!" Quentin slammed his hand against his desk, causing Axel to flinch.

He didn't answer.

"Well?" Quentin asked impatiently. "Am I correct?"

"Yessir," Axel answered softly though that technically was a lie. Axel had found Emily and the others the day they had escaped, he just neglected to tell Quentin that small piece of information.

"And may I ask why?"

Axel swallowed, looking up at Tara who was leaning against a wall on the other side of the room. It wasn't a gesture of hope for her help, it was a gesture of fear for Tara was even worse than her husband. Her powers were worse too. "I guess- I guess they just hid themselves well?"

"That," Quentin hissed, "Is not an acceptable excuse."

Axel stayed silent again. He didn't even know what to say, he just knew he had to be careful.

"Well... At least Emily is dead, right?" Axel asked, attempting to put Quentin into a good mood.

Quentin snorted. "Yeah, sure. Five powerful glows and an ex-nonel escaped causing the genius that was doing all my work to die, all for got the ability kill one measly nonel. How is that good news?"

Axel's eyes widened in alarm. 'New plan,' he thought quickly. Plans A through L hadn't worked as well as he had hoped and Quentin might have been even more furious than when Axel had stepped into the room.

"If this little brat can't figure out how to find a couple of Glows again, maybe we need to remind him of why he's working for us," Tara suggested.

Dread seeped up and drowned Axel's heart. His sister. Peyton. They'd torture her again, make him watch, and Axel would cave. He'd tell them everything, Quentin and Tara would kill everyone of them, and any hope of freeing his sister or killing these tyrants would be diminished.

Axel kept his mouth shut but silently willed Quentin to reject the suggestion for whatever reason. Quentin was staring down at his desk, lost in deep thought. He was seemingly debating what Tara said which gave Axel hope but worried him at the same time.

Tara and Axel stared at Quentin, both pairs of eyes begging him for different answers. Quentin paid no heed to either of them. He began to tap his desk lightly, each tap a heart beats' length apart. With each tap, Axel could feel his heart slow to half the rate it have previously been beating at. Seconds seemed like minutes. Minutes seemed like hours. Hours seemed like days.

Finally, Quentin said, "No." Axel nearly felt his legs collapse from the anxiety and relief.

Tara frowned. Quentin saw the frown, and shook his head. "I mean not yet," he continued. Axel's body seized up like a clamp. "Axel will have two more days to find all five of those nonels or... We'll kill his sister, nice and slow. He'll watch the whole thing of course, all the up to the death of the one he holds most dear, then we'll kill him the same way." Quentin looked straight at Axel. "Do you understand?"

Axel tried to nod but his head wouldn't move. No part of Axel would move.

Axel fumbled around with his words for a moment before Quentin lost all his patience. "I said, 'DO YOU UNDERSTAND?'"

On que of Quentin's yelling, all of the lights in the room blew out. Axel didn't dare move to protect himself from the shards of glass raining down from the heavens.

He nodded quickly and stuttered, "y-ye-s-s yes-s-s s-s-sir. I-I-I-I I do."

Quentin growled. "Good, and for goodness sake. Stop stuttering, your not a snake."

"Y-y-y-y-e-e-s sir. S-s-o-o-or-r-r-r-r-y-y s-s-s sir." Axel bit his tongue to stop it from flapping around like a fish out of water.

Quentin rolled his eyes. "You are dismissed but do not disappoint me again."

Axel didn't look back as he ran from the room, down the hallway, and into the basement floor of the compound. The basement was home to the dungeons of Quentin and Tara which were translated to the torture chambers. The dungeons were different from the normal cells one floor above. The dungeons were solitary, always guarded and had only had four occupants ever held in them: Mackenzie, McKenna, Ostin and Peyton.

Fortunately for Axel, the guard who supposed to watch the dungeons was asleep on his job so Axel easily slipped past him. Axel quietly slid in front of Peyton's cell. He was about to call out for her when he caught the glint of her curious, bright eyes in the dim light of the surrounding area.

"Axel?" Peyton's tinny nine-year-old voice asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I-I-I'm I'm h-h-h-h-ere to g-get y-y-you ou-ou-ou-ou-out."

"Haven't you already tried that?" Peyton asked but crawled closer to the bars, toward her big brother.

"Y-yes b-b-b-u-t-t I'm g-g-goi-oi-ng to t-t-t-tr-y-y a-a-a-g-ai-ai-n."

Peyton sat on the floor and calmly put her hands on the bars. "Axel, your doing that shusher thing again," she pointed out.

"Stuttering," Axel corrected her. Peyton hadn't yet learned how to pronounce some words and would then make up her own words that sounded close.

"Yeah, that," she said. "Why?"

"It's nothing," Axel shook his head. "We just need to get you out of here as fast as possible." Axel knew he could call Nichelle to ask for help but he also didn't want to worry about them at the moment and how long it'd take them to get here. All he cold focus on was the threat that had passed Quentin's lips.

"Well it's some'm," she said. "You wouldn't shusher if it was nutten."

Peyton had him there. She knew him too well for him to keep something from her. Axel drew in a slow breath to compose himself.

"F-Fine," Axel said. "Quentin and Tara th-threatened to k-k-kill you." Axel wasn't sure Peyton would completely understand what that meant, but her eyes did widen in response.

"Why?" She asked again.

Axel looked down at the ground in shame. "B-Because I c-can't find some peop-p-ple they want me to find though I actually d-did find them but they don't know t-t-that because I wanted them to help me help you escape."

"You mean those nice people who got away awile ago?"

Axel nodded slowly, remembering when he had told her of them. "Yes," he admitted.

Peyton looked at him, and her eyes hardend. She stared at Axel for a while. Peyton and Axel stared at each other until she turned away from him.

Peyton didn't know how to say it, but Axel knew exactly what his sister was thinking. She couldn't believe he'd give up eight innocent lives for the life of one young girl.

Axel couldn't believe it either but what other choice did he have? Axel's gaze fell to the pocket holding his phone. He squeezed his eyes shut.

"Of course," he growled to himself. Of course there was another choice. There always was.