This woman in front of me is only a shell of who she used to be. If there is one thing that makes Malia Olin who she is, it’s her brutality. She’s fearless. This isn’t the woman I know and love.
Just looking at her confused expression tells me Elio Ricci has successfully broken my Little Warrior. I can’t even begin to fathom what extreme measures he used to get this result.
“Where’s my husband?” Malia asks me, her voice cracking, then becoming something that could pass for a growl. “Where is Elio?”
Footsteps echo off the walls, pounding in our direction and I move to step in front of Malia. Griffin and Oren train their weapons on the people charging in our direction. Nathaniel passes below a faint light, letting us know who’s heading our way.
He runs into the small cell, coming to a stop instead of pulling her into his arms. I can see his ache to do just that in the way he pumps his fists at his side. The fact that he doesn’t tells me that he must’ve been let in on Malia’s condition when Tyjae held him back.
“Do you know where my husband is?” Malia tries Nathaniel this time, her voice becoming impatient and snappy.
Nathaniel’s eyes shift to meet mine blankly. He allows me to see the fury in them for a brief moment before the calmness of The Omen returns.
“Malia!”
Lion’s loud, deep voice booms through the basement as he runs toward us, as desperate as I was. We all stand stock-still, not daring to move while we wait for Lion to reach us. He skids to a stop and takes in the atmosphere, finally settling his attention on Malia.
“Does anyone know where my husband is!?”
“Where’s—“ Lion stutters. “What?”
He looks from me to Nathaniel, then back to Malia.
“Mal,” he says, his voice dropping to a dangerous tone.
Nathaniel moves silently, ready to offer his nephew support if he needs it. None of us were prepared for this kind of outcome.
“You have no idea who I am, do you?” Lion concludes.
He figured it out faster than I did, but I also haven’t had a lifetime with her like Lion has. Nothing in her recognizes any of us.
Malia shrugs. The action is almost too cold for the pain all of us are feeling right now.
“No, I’m sorry,” she says, no emotion in either her tone or expression.
Lion punches the metal bars and roars his anger, making Malia gasp and stumble backward. The bravado she was slowly building is gone, melted away.
“What did he do to her!?” Lion yells.
Nathaniel’s lips thin as he turns to his nephew. “We will talk privately.”
The muscle in Lion’s jaw bounces as he grinds his teeth, staring at his uncle. Turning his back without another word, Lion stalks from the cell and back down the stone path between the cells. Nathaniel watches him disappear into the shadows and faces his lost daughter once again.
“We have your husband, baby girl,” Nathaniel says in a calming tone. “You need to come with us.”
“You look like me,” Malia says, suddenly not interested in herhusband. “We have the same eyes.”
Nathaniel swallows thickly and dips his chin, then somehow musters up a tight smile to give to her.
“That is right,” he rasps. “You are my daughter, Malia.”
There’s a sudden change in temperature at his words. Malia’s face falls into something hard and unforgiving as she stares at her father.
“So, you’re the one who left me for dead in that fucking warehouse,” she snaps. “The reason I can’t remember my own fucking life!”
We all fall still. The air is sucked from the room as some of what Elio has been up to within the past four months reveals itself to us.
He fucking brainwashed her.