Kaliya Sahni: Volume One (Kaliya Sahni Volumes Book 1)

by K. N. Banet

  Taking our seats, we joined hands, forming a triangle around the sleeping naga.

  It happened quickly. Once my eyes were closed, Monica began to chant softly, her voice the only audible thing in the room. Power flew through the room like a strong wind, threatening to take the air from my lungs.

  Then I was standing in the prison, but for the first time, I was inside the cell—white stone walls and a metal door with a small viewing window. A guard walked by without looking in. I could feel what Nakul was feeling with a sense of detachment. He was bored. Another long day in his cell with no new books to read. Another day to feel the sorrow of missing his son and wife. Another day of guilt that he would never see any of his people again. I felt his chagrin as he corrected that. He would see none of his people except one.

  Monica was right, I was still aware of the world. I could feel Raphael’s heat but not see him. I didn’t move a muscle or try to look around. This wasn’t my sight, this was Nakul’s, and we just had to go with it.

  Which was especially odd when I saw myself walk by and look into the cell. My eyes didn’t seem so dark when I looked into a mirror. I had dark brown eyes, and I knew that, but they looked black to him through the glass. I blinked, and they turned the red-orange of my snake form then back again. Knowing me, I was probably mad when I saw him and had to reel it in. This wasn’t the day of the breakout.

  I left the view. Nakul stood up and tried to look out at me, but the small window didn’t give much option for that.

  He didn’t hate me. There was a feeling of understanding from him that I was a touch surprised about.

  The vision faded, which caught me off guard, and an interview room formed around us. Eliphas sat across the table, smiling kindly as Nakul shifted in the seat to get more comfortable.

  “Nakul, how are you feeling today?”

  “I’m feeling fine, Warden. Why am I here?” There was something hard about the way Nakul spoke. He was distrustful, even angry about being in the room. He didn’t want to be there.

  “I thought it was past time we talked. I talk to every inmate in the northern cell block in hopes that maybe one day, we can rehabilitate you and let you go home under more house arrest instead of being here.”

  “If I ever get out of these walls…” Nakul trailed off. “You know what I did. I would keep doing it. I won’t stop until the Tribunal pledges its full power to stop the slaughter of nagas.”

  “Ah. Then let’s talk about that…” Eliphas, his words thoughtful, faded out.

  The hard part of memories was the sense of time. I didn’t know which memory came first on the timeline. I didn’t know what day it was or even the year.

  The third memory started, and now Nakul seemed to have a sense of enjoyment sitting in the chair with Eliphas across from him.

  “Good afternoon, Warden. Time for another chat?” Nakul sat down. I could feel the smile on his face.

  “It is!” Eliphas grinned back. “And I’ve brought a guest today. I hope you don’t mind. We reached out to him for help with Wesley, and I think you’re a good candidate for what he does.”

  “What does he do?” Nakul trusted Eliphas, but he didn’t know how to feel about this new party. I didn’t blame him. This was a classic set up. From the feel of it, Eliphas had weaseled his way into Nakul’s trust, then decided to abuse it.

  “He’s a healer.”

  “I’m not broken,” Nakul hissed. “You know that. I had…have moments of temporary insanity. We’ve spoken about this. You know how I feel about—”

  “He might be able to fix that, Nakul. He might be able to bury the urge. He might be able to give you a normal life again. Try talking to him. Just once.”

  Nakul nodded, and I wanted to groan. Hook, line, and sinker.

  The new man walked in, a crisp, young-looking man with a kind smile, wearing the white coat of a human doctor.

  Raphael’s audible gasp spooked me. The connection to him broke, and I heard him fall back, heaving for air. I couldn’t do anything about that yet. He knew this face, and we would have to talk about it once this was done.

  The meeting faded and went to another. Nakul didn’t like this new guy. He didn’t like that Eliphas kept bringing him around. Today was no different.

  “This is one that’s been tampered with the most,” Monica said, stopping her chanting only for that.

  I could see why. It was hazy and threatening to give me a headache. I heard a groan and figured it was from Nakul. Raphael had left, his heat no longer close to me.

  “Why him? He won’t do it,” Eliphas snapped as the two men stood across the room from Nakul.

  “Because he’s needed. She’s made someone very angry, and that’s the fun part about blackmail, Eliphas. You do what I want. Now do it.” The doctor, a guy they all called Doctor Bauer, nodded his head sharply at Nakul, who tensed.

  Eliphas sighed and sat down across from him.

  “Nakul, I need you to do something for me.” Eliphas’ words carried power.

  Nakul knew how to identify a spell being woven when he felt one. He jerked against the bonds, but the magic of the prison made him weak and removed his ability to turn into a snake. He couldn’t get away.

  “Nakul, you will do this thing for me,” Eliphas continued, looking angry.

  “No,” he hissed. “I will not be a puppet.”

  “You will kill Kaliya Sahni.”

  Nakul’s stomach dropped as magic clawed its way into his mind.

  “No!” he screamed. “I will kill no one for you. How could you betray me like this, Eliphas? I thought you were helping me!”

  “I’m sorry,” the Warden whispered. “But I won’t lose everything just to protect you.” The witch took a deep breath. “Nakul, I need you to do something for me. Nakul, you will do this thing for me. You will kill Kaliya Sahni.”

  I could barely breathe. My heart raced as I felt the rage and pain from my uncle. They were asking him to do one thing that was so far out of bounds, the spell was more than just a suggestion. It was a violation. The very idea of killing another naga, especially me, was so far past Nakul’s moral line that it was like being…

  I didn’t continue the thought as the feelings of my uncle swirled around me.

  “NO!” He wouldn’t do it. He would never do it. The compulsion spell sank into him, but he fought so hard. It buried itself deep inside him. It was there like a cancer, a foreign object that didn’t belong. It made him ill.

  “He won’t do it if he remembers it’s there,” the doctor snapped. “Move over and let me finish this.”

  Eliphas backed off quickly, his face blank. The doctor raised a hand over Nakul’s face, and an insidious black power wove its way into my uncle’s mind. It blurred things. It replaced things.

  “If you kill Kaliya Sahni, you will be given a new life. A new name. Freedom will be yours to do with what you want. If you wish to return to killing, we can facilitate it. Others will be trying, though.”

  “I won’t kill my niece or any other naga,” Nakul hissed, but I knew what just happened where my uncle did not. The man had blocked the memory of the spell that had just been done and replaced it with a ‘piece’ of a new memory. This was some heavy power. This healer was immensely powerful, and he was skilled with memory manipulation.

  Something curled in my stomach as I felt Nakul’s violation. That feeling didn’t go away. As he was walked out of the room, the feeling that something had tainted him remained.

  It reminded me all too much of the mistakes I had made as a teenager and what had been done to me. Bile rose in my throat as Nakul’s violation mirrored my own. A memory of a man forcing a potion down my throat came to me, and the scene started to change.

  Monica let go of my hand, and it all ended.

  I turned and vomited in the middle of the surrounding audience.

  27

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Kaliya, what happened?” Monica demanded, leaning over me as I finished emptying the
contents of my stomach.

  “Nothing. It’s fine,” I snapped. Nakul’s feelings had been so visceral, and my life had taken such a fucking left turn recently, everything had collided at that moment. I normally had no reaction. What happened to me as a teenager was a long time ago, a hundred years ago, to be precise.

  The witch touched my shoulder, and I hissed, revealing fangs as I turned to look up at her.

  “Don’t touch me,” I ordered. “You ended the spell. We have what we needed. My business is my own.”

  She pulled her hand back, and I watched her put on a professional mask, then direct her attention to the witches around us, all silent and respectful. She had them well trained.

  “Of course. Everyone, you’re dismissed. I want two junior coven members to clean up. Then all of you to take the rest of the night off. Rest and recuperate.” She looked back down on me. “You and Raphael can come with me.”

  I nodded, getting off my hands and knees, trying to ignore the contents of my stomach that were now on the ground. A handkerchief appeared in front of me, and I snatched it from Piper as I passed her, wiping off my mouth. Raphael was quiet and pale as we were led to Monica’s office.

  She locked us in and glared.

  “Kaliya, this may not surprise you, but I cut the line because you were beginning to drag us into your memories. And Raphael, you had to break off pretty early. Are you okay?” Monica didn’t sound caring or motherly as she spoke. It felt like a perfunctory question before she chastised us like a headmistress.

  “This isn’t your business. You have your money.”

  “I do,” she said, looking away. “You can talk in private here. I’ll be outside.” She stomped out, her heels making that obnoxious click on the marble floors.

  “The doctor?” I looked at Raph, not liking how washed out he was.

  “He worked in the lab I was in. He was one of them. He might not officially work for Mygi, but he works with them,” Raphael explained, his voice rough.

  “I figured by your reaction. That’s…good. We have a lead from this, and now we know it’s definitely about you and me and that whole mess. They went through a lot of trouble to make sure this didn’t come back on them, but now we have it.” I wanted to scream. Those fucking idiots really thought all of this would work?

  “What was the rest?” he asked, rubbing his scarred wrist, the wonderful place where they had cut off his hand, then let his healing ability reattach it. It was by far one of the worst physical marks they had left on him. After months of seeing him, I had grown used to the damage his body had, but now that I saw him rubbing it, I thought about how many gunshot wounds and scars he had—five years of being a lab rat and another five on the run.

  “Eliphas was doing therapy with Nakul and one day, brought in that guy, Doctor Bauer. The last memory was the good doctor blackmailing Eliphas, and he used a compulsion spell on Nakul. It was not pleasant. A compulsion spell is easiest to do when the person wants to do it and won’t because they’re too afraid. If someone wants to bungee jump but can’t get over their fear, a compulsion spell makes it easier. It gets harder by degrees, depending on how mentally stable someone is and how much they don’t want to do it.” I took a slow breath. “Using a compulsion on Nakul to kill another naga—me—went against everything. It was the strongest violation of magic they could have done on him. That’s why he was able to fight it off for so long.”

  “The strongest violation of magic?” Raphael frowned. “Compared to what?”

  “Doing that to someone is tantamount to raping their mind,” I answered, using the r-word I disliked so much. Raphael’s already pale skin lost more of its color, looking ashen grey at this point. “Before you ask, that’s why I threw up. The feeling of that level of violation struck a chord with me. I’m not talking about it further, but that’s what we’re dealing with here. Nakul will be lucky if he comes out of that sleep in the right mind because the spell finally won and forced him to try to kill me. It won’t be pretty for him.” I knew from experience how hard it was to overcome that level of pain and shame. After a hundred years, I could admit I never really did.

  “Then, that fucking doctor went in and blocked the memory of Eliphas casting the compulsion spell to let Nakul believe he turned down the offer to kill me. Then Nakul had to live with the feeling of violation, knowing something was very wrong in his own mind but not what. The compulsion spell would have drawn him to find me over and over until he finally broke and completed his task.”

  “Like Wesley hunted you down twice,” Raphael said, nodding slowly.

  “Wesley must have been easy to spell. He’s not mentally sound. He would have taken the compulsion spell, it would have agitated him because he doesn’t like killing, and it would have continued to drive him into a frenzy.” I sighed. “Which was why he was too agitated to see when we were there and Tarak was walking us through. He said Wesley wasn’t fit for visitors, even for my walkthrough. Fuck.”

  “You know, Korey mentioned Tarak knew about this guy. Do you think he was in on it and got caught in the blast by accident?” Raphael leaned on Monica’s desk.

  “It’s a good thought, and there might be one person in the building with the answer.” I knew Kartane was waiting downstairs. “Let’s go. The witches have Eliphas’ second in command here. That’s what Monica showed me before I came up. We might as well get to talking to him.”

  Raphael nodded and followed me out. Monica met us outside the door and led us. I didn’t think she had heard us, but she was leading us to Kartane.

  “You weren’t eavesdropping, right?” I asked casually. “Because we were hoping to speak to Kartane.”

  “I don’t need to read minds to know what your next stop was going to be. I wasn’t going to let you leave before you listened to him, and with what we saw in Nakul’s memory, I’m pretty sure we all know who is behind all of this.”

  “Yup, just need to fill in some gaps at this point and call the big guys. Leave that to me.”

  “I was planning to. I like the witches on the Tribunal, but I try not to speak to them often. Being under the radar is better than getting a reputation, even if it’s a good one.” She went into the basement first. I went down before Raphael, who was a little hesitant. I couldn’t blame him. We were going into a witch’s basement. Who the fuck knew exactly what went on down there?

  She led us to a dark back corner, then opened the door, closing us in with Kartane, separated only by the bars.

  “Tell me your story,” I ordered as I grabbed a chair from one side of the room. “What exactly are you doing here and not supporting the prison during a massive breakout that’s going to send ripples across supernatural society for decades to come?”

  “I knew it was him,” Kartane whispered, looking up. “I caught him and Tarak sneaking in that healer and his crew. I knew something was fishy because Korey had no idea what was going on. Neither did Dian, and nothing is done in the prison without all three Wardens knowing. Tarak was all about helping Wesley, but Eliphas acted differently. He started letting that guy talk to other inmates for ‘therapy’ sessions…” Kartane sighed. “I’ll start from the beginning. There’s a backstory.”

  “Please.” He had started at the bad part, but I wanted to know how it got bad.

  “Eliphas had been doing therapy for the southern cell block inmates for years. It was something many of us did. Group therapy, individual therapy, work therapy, you name it, and we tried it in hopes it would lower the re-offender rate. He started working on the northern cell block inmates, which we all thought was useless, but then it really started helping at least one person…um…” Kartane seemed like a teenage boy about to talk about someone he knew I didn’t like.

  “Nakul,” I filled in.

  “Yeah. Nakul was showing a lot of improvement. He was a good inmate after starting those. Less solitary confinement, though fights will always happen, you know? Well, when Tarak and Eliphas brought in that healer for Wesley, everything see
med fine. It was fishy, but I was the only person who noticed, so I didn’t know who to ask for help. Maybe they had Tribunal permission, and I just didn’t know. I had no idea what to do. Then the guy started seeing people Eliphas was doing therapy with. I don’t know what was happening in that, but I didn’t like it.”

  “How long was it going on?” I asked softly.

  “At least a decade if not more,” Kartane whispered. “I should have raised the alarm sooner…”

  “You should have,” I snapped. “I’ve reviewed the prison three times in the last decade. Any one of those times, you could have approached me and let me know the prison had unauthorized visitors. Neither of them mentioned it to me.”

  “I know. I was scared Eliphas would know I ratted him out, and I…wasn’t keen on dying.”

  “Moving on. Was there any suspicious activity recently?” I waved a hand for him to continue the story.

  “I always made sure to check on people after they had therapy with that healer. They didn’t like him, but they never wanted to talk about it either. They probably just assumed it was allowed, and they didn’t have a choice in the matter, so they didn’t complain. I had to dig for information. Some thought he was creepy. Some were just uncomfortable. Then about three to four months ago, they started coming out of those sessions…different? They wouldn’t talk for the rest of the day. They didn’t remember the appointment. They didn’t know who I was talking about.”

  “He was removing evidence of himself,” Monica muttered hotly. “That fucking monster.”

  “Yeah…” I didn’t react. I felt cold. I encased my heart in ice for what I knew would be my task later in the evening. “And Nakul?”

  “Oh, yeah…His last meeting with that guy left him all sorts of messed up. He wasn’t happy anymore and was insanely paranoid. He kept saying someone was in danger, but he couldn’t tell me who. Everyone just assumed he had snapped again, and the progress with him was fucked. Everyone in the northern cell block is a little, if not completely, insane. They aren’t normal prisoners, you know that.”