And while Sebastian was a psychopath and an overconfident, self-aggrandizing asshole who was hampered by all of that, Iz didn’t think he was stupid. Logan had asked him the right question. Whywouldhe have lured them to another cave when he knew they had escaped the last one,andhe was willing to admit that he didn’t know how they’d done it?
He wouldn’t. And he wouldn’t want to destroy his own treasure, either.
Iz heard muffled noises behind her as her mother tried to fight through the gag. The noise made her stomach lurch. She couldn’t believe Sebastian haddared—
She turned her back to him without apology and went to remove the gag, which was a now-damp linen handkerchief monogrammed with Randolph Sebastian’s initials. Iz spitefully hoped that it was ruined for good. Her mother looked more desperate than Iz had ever seen her, even when things with her dad were at their worst.
“Mom, are you—”
“There’s no bomb,” her mother whispered, the words practically tripping over each other as she tried to get them out as quickly as possible. “He’s toying with you—”
Iz snapped back around immediately, her eyes going straight to Sebastian.
She watched his expression change as he took in the look on her face. He could guess what her mother had told her.
In an instant, all the amusement, all the pretend civility and arch manners, left him; it was like a mask had been lifted. All that was there was cruelty and icy fury.
He pressed the button on the detonator.
Chapter Twenty-two
Logan knew Iz’s motherhad whispered something to her, but he hadn’t heard what. All he knew was that Iz whipped around, her eyes suddenly that familiar liquid gold, her dragonmarks glowing so brightly he could see them through her dress.
And then Sebastian triggered the detonator, and all hell broke loose.
Logan sprang towards Iz, wrapping his arms around her to try to shield her from the blast, from the nearly deafening sound, but therewasno blast. No dust, no smoke, no shower of razor-sharp debris. It was just an explosion ofsound.
A cold dread sank in before he even let go of Iz.
One glance at Sebastian told them both what they’d heard: the screeching slam of metal thunderously hitting rock.
Sebastian’s detonator had been a remote, one as simple as a garage door opener.
One click to open the door, one click to shut it.
The door that Sebastian had shut had come down from the ceiling, closing on them like a trap around a mouse.