Chosen One Gone Wrong (Villains & Monsters #1)

Chapter Eighty-Six

Short, short chapter with a bit of torture/ gore mentioned. Love you guys. -Rae

Once upon a time, the mere thought of walking through a massive, dimly-lit torture pit by herself would have made her sick. As Daija approached Jamie's cell, she listened to the party that was faintly heard from all the way where she was.

When she reached the outside, she gave the two guards a soft nod, and they moved. She quietly opened the door and saw Jamie, restrained in the chair, but sleeping soundly. She noticed that his arm was neatly bandaged, and that there were a few small bruises on his face from Adrienne. She stepped inside and loudly slammed the door shut, the echoing noise waking him up instantly.

His eyes landed on her, and he gasped, his shoulders sagging in relief. "Holy fuck, you're alive! No one would tell me anything about you!"

Daija said nothing, just leaned against the solid wall and stared him down. She could tell that he had been barely sleeping. With this place, no one would. It felt unreal to her. One moment, she was willing to kill anyone for him, and now, she looked at him like an enemy.

He was a different Jamie, and she was a different Daija.

"Daija, please hear me out," he said, and finally she moved towards him, clicking the button on her glove in the process. Before he could talk any more, she punched him hard three times. As he groaned in pain, she stepped back from him, restored her glove and crossed her arms.

"For knocking out Wylan, for knocking out Violet and for drugging Hazel," she said.

Blood dripped down his face, and he stared up at her, struggling to find words. Finally, he whispered, "I'm sorry."

"No, you're not."

"Why would-"

"I've been inside your apartment, Jamie. All of this was carefully planned. You wanted this to happen."

His eyes widened, but he got himself together. "Walking in my house and going through my things? That's like me walking into your bedroom and reading your journal."

"My journal and your at-home lab are nowhere near the same. You designed that drug to take out Hazel and you crafted blue fire to kill me."

He held her gaze, and something shifted in his green eyes, as if finally revealing something almost too personal. His voice was low and careful. "If you were truly inside of my apartment, Daija, you would know that I never planned to kill you."

She thought about the deep red serum that smelled like lavender, and shook her head slowly. "Everything you could've devoted your time, effort, energy and resources to, and you chose that. So, what? You have me on your side, then you use me and my powers to lead the heroes?"

"Use?" He looked confused. "Why would I use you?"

Oh, please. "You faked a friendship for your benefit, didn't you? When all that went wrong, you needed something a bit more forceful."

"Faked? Is that what you believe? If I faked our friendship, then why didn't your danger sense ever alert you from the beginning or any time up until we really started arguing?"

When she didn't answer, he slightly sat up and said, "I may have lied to you, but I never faked anything. You stood up for me, you saved my life, believed in me-"

"Yet you still fucking betrayed me," she cut him off, "Called me a monster, accused me of mass murder, used and endangered the friends that I introduced to you and set me up to die. Bite the hand that feeds you, am I right?"

"I was going to kill him," he said quietly as he looked down.

She furrowed her brows in confusion. "What are you talking about?"