Winter's Edge

Chapter 92 - Uncertainty

Ian

AGATHE shot me a crucifying glare through the thick, titanium bars of the cell door.

"Turn around," I said.

She sighed, rolling her eyes, then turned her back to me.

I punched several numbers on the keypad before entering the correct code. The primary lock beeped, but I still kept pressing numbers to add heat signatures to those buttons. Agathe couldn't just see through things—she could see heat signatures, infrared, and other wavelengths, too. One could never be too careful around her.

I used a key to open the secondary lock and pushed the door open. "There's still something I can't figure out." I took a couple of steps inside the door. "How did you get inside Braden and Robert's rooms without their keys?"

Agathe turned and gave me a hard look, folding her arms. "Why should I tell you?"

I shrugged. It'd help to know so we could change the system to make sure it didn't happen again. We were pretty certain we knew how she'd done it, but we wanted to make sure.

I'd done a little reading about serial killers in the library earlier that day to learn more about her behaviors. As it turned out, TV and movies were largely wrong about them. They weren't necessarily smarter than other people. It was just their obsessed psychopathic personality that drove them to be very good at what they did, much like many CEOs. But they wanted others to think they were smarter than them, not only because they really thought they were, but because they wanted to feel more powerful. That's what the games were about.

Agathe would answer my question because she'd want us to believe she was smarter than us in order to put us on edge. By asking her about the murders, I was appealing to that desire in her. The only thing that worried me is that she had powers, which meant she was smarter than most people. And possibly even smarter than us.

She thought for a moment. "Lena had the keys made from wax impressions of Joseph's keys."

"That only explains the first murder. Artie changed the locks after that. How'd you get into Robert's room?"

"I slipped in one day when he hadn't locked his door, then locked it on my way out after I put a knife in his chest." A subtle, pleased smile curled the edge of her lips. Her bloodlust was unsettling. "I'd hoped that'd cast suspicion on Kat, but you all were too stupid to think of that."

I wouldn't tell her Abby and I had thought of it. Her thinking that we were idiots would work to our advantage if she ever managed to get out of her cell. And she would try to get out. If she really were a serial killer, she'd eventually go crazy in the cell unless she satisfied her urge to kill someone.

I sat the tray of food on a table just inside the door. "Why'd you get me exiled from Winter's Edge? Why not just kill me, too?"

She sighed in annoyance. "Can't you figure these things out on your own?"

I had to play this out carefully for it to work. "I'm pretty sure I know why, but being pretty sure and knowing for certain are two different things."

She stepped closer, possibly intrigued, thinking I was a worthy opponent for her games. "So why did I do it?"

"You spied on me and Asa through the training room wall and figured out I was a Telekinetic. And besides, you like to play games. It's why you left the note for me at the warehouse and the message for Abby in the flowers."

A tiny smile tugged at her lips and her eyes licked me up and down like a lollipop. She stepped intimately close. "Killing a Watcher is easy. Their power isn't a threat. But trying to kill a Telekinetic is dangerous." She slid her finger along my cheek. "It was smarter to set you up and get you exiled. More of a challenge, too. And it lowered everyone's guard for a while." Her warm breath touched me as her hand rose to my face. She traced the edge of my jaw with her fingers.

I grabbed her forearm and she gave a lively moan as if roughhousing excited her. She was either trying to distract me with seduction or she was completely delusional. If she knew I felt any sympathy for her and her situation, she'd take advantage of it. So I kept up the angry façade and pushed her back telekinetically, letting go of her arm. "You were right to be afraid of me."

Agathe's excitement shifted into frustration, her tone dark. "You know this isn't over, don't you?"

I turned to leave.

Had it really been her childhood that had turned her into a serial killer or was it the madness that had taken her? The thought nearly sent a shiver through me, but madness was no longer an issue since the dark one had left me.

"The Hunters aren't just going to give up." She started to close in on me again but stopped when I glared back at her in warning. "They'll never stop."

I stepped out the door, ignoring her threats...

...until she said, "Aren't you curious what happened to the second dark one that came out of you?"

That stopped me dead in my tracks. What exactly had she seen with her powers?

I shrugged it off, ignoring her once more, and shut the door behind me. Only one dark one had come out of me. She was just trying to get in my head, make me worried...wasn't she?

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