Chapter Thirty

                                    

                                          
No Man's Land by Rupert Gregson-Williams (Wonder Woman 2017)

                          
Grab your popcorn! 
                          
~
                          
Lily didn't know what time it was but she'd been tied up for hours. It was the middle of the night and the temperature had dropped, especially with the storm from the mountains approaching, and Lily was shivering. 
                          
Her raw wrists scratched against the zip ties - she'd tried to pull her hands out but it was no use, especially with her mother's bracelets jammed together. The zip ties were too tightly fastened and it would take a miracle to get them out.
                          
And she was out of luck. Lily was stuck in a forest waiting for death, and even if she managed to escape the zip ties, she couldn't outrun fifty rogue werewolves. Still, she kept yanking at the ties, rubbing them together to see if friction would weaken the plastic, even if it was impossible without shredding her hands. 
                          
Kristofer heard her rubbing the zip ties together, the plastic clicking against the metal pole. He left the group he was talking to and climbed the small mound up to stand level with Lily. "You can't escape zip ties." 
                          
Lily kept yanking. "There's always a way out," she said, more for her benefit than his. 
                          
Kristofer looked down on her and drew a knife from the holster across his lower back. Lily stilled as he pointed towards the storm coming their way, she could see the lightning illuminating the forest beneath it. "Do you see that Lily? You can't escape that. Accept it, you're going to die today." 
                          
"I'm not going to die." Lily whispered, a shiver wracking her body again. 
                          
Kristofer narrowed his eyes at her shivering, and grabbed her jumper. "Hey!" Lily screamed as he began hacking away at the fabric, leaving her arms bare and her thick-strapped vest revealed to the world. "What are you doing?!" 
                          
He chopped most of the jumper away from her body, leaving it hanging around her waist in tatters. Lily trembled when the cold metal pole touched her bare neck, goosebumps rising on her arms. Kristofer smiled and put his knife away. 
                          
"I've seen your creature rise to defend you." He pointed to the storm. "Now you're risking pneumonia, it'll rise up soon, and that storm will only get here faster." 
                          
"I can't c-control storms!" Lily's jaw clanged against her teeth. 
                          
Kristofer grabbed her neck and drew himself close, his warm breath fanning across her freckled cheeks. "Yuric might not have seen your creature but I have. You threw me across a field and into a tree."
                          
"You p-pushed me out a w-window." Lily forced out, her fingers growing numb.
                          
He only shrugged. "That was your intention anyway. My point is, while Yuric is out there with half our force hunting down that manipulative alpha and his blind followers, I'm here guarding you. Lightning can kill most things, but if it doesn't kill you, then I'm here to make sure you still die." 
                          
Lily couldn't tell whether her body was shaking because of the cold or his threats. Kristofer stepped back and crossed his arms, staring at her paling face. "Do you know what you're standing on, Lily?" 
                          
"Grass?"
                          
Kristofer scowled at her sarcasm. "You're standing at the same spot where the Witch of the Night was executed. Do you know how she died?" 
                          
Lily couldn't think. She remembered Mr Booth only discussing Andromeda a few days ago, when she found out she was Jack's grandmother, but he said she was executed? Why was she executed here?
                          
"She was burned to death." Kristofer tapped the ground beneath them. "This was a mound of coal with a stake for her to burn on. This graveyard was the same one she used to bring vampires to life, and it was abandoned when Andromeda burned here."