Cold Tomorrow

[39]

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

She's positively livid. Even in silence, with her arms crossed and her face stony, her gaze projects a murderous fury. I'm suddenly reminded that that very same gaze kills – a power she never utilises and never speaks about, but that is well-known amongst Avexyrs, even if they don't yet have a name for it. A cross between necrogenesis and death vision, she has the ability to look a person in the eye and kill them at will. Just like that.

And if this is what her eyes look like when she's angry, I can only imagine what they must become when she kills.

"Where's what?" I respond meekly.

Harrison looks from the counterfeit stone anchor to me. And then his eyes flick very slightly left towards the hearth, which still burns with fire.

"The real anchor," Katherine seethes, teeth gritted.

"It's right there. On the table."

"Don't play games with me, Melissa. Because this isn't one. We know you swapped them out, even after you promised to let the council deal with this little debacle."

"Little debacle, huh? That's what the danger to Caden's life is to you? A little annoyance disrupting your lazy leadership? Because god forbid the council ever do anything besides sit around and bicker."

Katherine slams the table with her palm, making me jump. "We're tying to save lives! Scott's son! My daughter! You. This is no joke, Melissa. You've set us back two days with your nonsense and now we're left with very few options. You better hope for your sake that we can fix this mess you've made for us."

I take a deep breath and look her in the eyes. "I don't have it."

For a minute, she just stares at me, as if deciding what to make of my statement. "I don't believe you," she says at last.

"It's gone."

"Melissa, I'm warning you. Where is it?"

"Like I said. Gone. Destroyed. Poof. It doesn't exist anymore."

Katherine backs up a little. "What do you mean? What have you done to it?"

"She melted it," Harrison says, coming to my aid. Katherine looks at him like she only just noticed he was here. "In the fire."

Behind her, Scott folds his arms. "Impossible."

"It's the truth," I say. "I was trying to break the curse."

"Melissa!" Katherine exclaims. "Are you insane? You–"

"Relax, already. It didn't work – I couldn't do it. But I threw the stone into the fire and it – kinda melted."

"No," Scott says, stepping up to the table. "You couldn't have. Anchors are indestructible."

"But I'm the curse creator, and by extension, the anchor creator. If I destroy it, it's destroyed."

"Listen, there are two conditions that have to be met for an anchor to be destroyed. First, it must be destroyed by the one who created it. And second, it can only be destroyed during the breaking of the curse it sustains. Therefore, as you didn't break the curse, you didn't break the anchor."

"But I saw it melt."

Scott sighs and starts to move towards the lounge room. "Was this the fire you used to destroy it?" He points to the fireplace, still burning away, painting the room orange.