Chapter 878
“Kill her!” Celeste shrieked at Caleb.
Caleb roared and charged.
Celeste didn’t wait to see how it ended. She ran to a structural support column and slammed her fist against a detonator she had taped there.
The explosion didn’t open the floor like a door — it disintegrated it. The blast charges blew out the rotting timber supports in an instant.
Skye fell.
𝘙𝖾𝗮d 𝘧𝗋𝗲𝗲 𝗇𝘰𝘷е𝘭𝘀 оո g𝗮𝗹ո𝘰𝘃е𝗹𝗌.𝖼о𝗆
“Skye!” Alistair’s voice echoed from the stairs below. He had breached the perimeter.
But he was too late. Skye tumbled through the dust and debris, sliding down the remains of the old bell mechanism chute and into the darkness of the undercroft below.
Before she could orient herself, strong hands seized her. Caleb had come down after her on a rope.
He drove his fist into her temple.
The world went black again.
The sound of dripping water woke her.
Skye groaned, trying to move her hands. She couldn’t. They were zip-tied behind her back to a cold metal chair.
She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the gloom. She was in a cellar — damp stone walls, the smell of mold and old wine.
“She’s awake,” a voice rasped.
Patriarch Hayes sat in the shadows on a wooden crate, peeling an apple with a knife that looked too sharp for the task. He was thinner than the last time she had seen him, his skin ashen from months in a black site cell. Caleb stood by the door, his arm freshly bandaged. Celeste was pacing, the crushed remains of the fake diamond ground to dust beneath her heel on the floor.
“Where is the real stone?” the Patriarch asked, not looking up from his apple.
“I thought you were in a hole in Nevada,” Skye spat. “Did the Mastermind let you out for a walk?”
The Patriarch chuckled — a dry, rattling sound. “He has his uses for me. Chaos is a wonderful distraction, isn’t it? While you chase me, his Algorithm nears completion. Besides, prison walls are just code. And code can be rewritten.”
“Make her talk,” the Patriarch snapped.
Caleb stepped forward and pulled a pair of pliers from his belt. His eyes were dead again — a tool, nothing more.
“Wait,” Celeste said. She walked over to Skye and traced her jawline with a cold finger. “Don’t ruin her hands, Caleb. We need her biometrics. The stones are encrypted to the Sterling bloodline.”
“We don’t need her alive for that,” the Patriarch said. “A severed hand works just as well on a scanner.”
“We need the passcodes too!” Celeste argued. “The Mastermind promised me restoration if I bring him the unlocked data.”
“Greed,” Skye laughed softly. “It’s always greed with you, Celeste. Even with half a face, you’re still the same vain little girl. He tried to kill you once. What makes you think he’ll fix you now?”
Celeste’s hand trembled. She raised it to strike.
“Do it,” Skye challenged. “Prove me right.”