by Jaclyn Roche
“Do not shoot,” Vassily commanded. The sea of men that had gathered in front of the valet lowered their weapons and parted for him to step forward.
“I will use this.” Kali had never used an extinguisher of this size before, but she imagined it would spray like the smaller kitchen-sized ones she had used. “And then when it’s done, I will smash anyone who comes near me.”
“We aren’t here to hurt you, Kalissandra. We just want to make sure you aren’t harmed from your travels home. It was unfortunate that the storm hit so sudden and right before you arrived. That must have been terrible and frightening for you.” Another step forward, the soles of his genie-like shoes not making a sound.
“This isn’t my home,” she shot through gritted teeth. “Let me go.”
“This is your home. This has and always will be your home, Kalissandra.”
He moved too close. She pressed the lever about to let loose the chemicals within. “Prove it.”
“You cannot go to him, m’dear. You two aren’t ready for each other yet.” The valet shook his head. “Do what you will, but you are not a prisoner. You are the Hallowed. A Hallowed will save him and be his queen. You are his family. You will be our queen, should you prove worthy. Despite all that, I cannot let you roam about without knowledge and proper training for what’s ahead. This is for your own good.”
“I am not Hallowed. I am not your queen. I am Kallisandra Doe from Park Slope, a mere nobody. I am no one. I have no family. They’re all dead. And you don’t get to decide what’s best for me.” She threw the extinguisher toward him and turned, acting on pure instinct and former dreams. The light burst from outstretched palms and knocked the doors off the hinges. No time for Kali to be surprised, it worked. She ran through the doors, sprinting to the railing. The walkway not a far fall below, Kali straddled the iron rail and stood on the small edge. Boots marched closer through the hall, bursting through after her. Kali jumped, ignoring the posted soldiers beginning to raise their weapons, obviously not having not heard the valet’s orders inside the hallway. Had they heard him; she didn’t think they would dare to defy him. Pleased with herself, Kali stood and examined the next jump into the labyrinth.
“Hold your fire!” Seth Ngozi shouted from the seventh floor, staring at her over the railing. Seth dropped to the nearest walkway. He darted across and jumped another story down. “Kalissandra, stop! Wait!”
Ignoring his words, she jumped. Hedges broke her fall. Laughter bubbled from her. What have I just done? How the hell did I do it? Can I do it again? She rubbed the greenery between her fingers and sighed. It was real. Sniffing in the pine-like essence. Her feet touched the soft, grassy path. Her eyes slid closed, and pleasure washed over her. She was home, wasn’t she? Excitement exploded within her. She couldn’t believe it was all real. She had told Lucy she was the Goddess reborn, and Lucy hadn’t believed her. Could it be true? Was she the Goddess Isis? It explained everything that had occurred—including Lucy’s death. Kali opened her eyes, hearing the thud of Seth dropping to another catwalk above her. He was gaining on her. She sprinted, ignoring the pebbles scraping at her feet. Turning this way and that way through the maze. Searching for him. Ignoring the valet’s warning.
4
Her feet flew along the path. She had to find him. The maze was as she remembered since running it in her nightmares. Leaping over a tripwire, she skirted the edges of a sharp boulder meant to keep the nosy out as much as it was to keep the beast inside.
“Find me, save me,” Viktor and the beast demanded of her each night.
“I’m here! Come and get me!” Kali shouted, throwing her hands wide. Hope bloomed within her. She would find him and rescue him. She didn’t need a plan. If he was Viktor Ngozi, heir to the Minotaur Corporation, like Vassily claimed he was, she would save him, and he would return the favor and free her should she wish to leave this place. She yelled louder, her voice betrayed her and sounded like the desperation she felt, but tried to ignore. Seth wasn’t far behind each of his strides struck the ground for two of hers as he closed the distance between them. “Come find me!”
The ground trembled as if an elephant stomped its way to her. Yes, that’s it! Come on, Viktor. Kali surged ahead, moving deeper into the center of the maze. She dodged several traps and ducked under a log meant to be a false dead end. Almost there. Just one more turn.
Kali collided with a hard, bristly chest and fell onto her backside. The growl erupted from its snout; spittle sprayed her in the face. Her elbow wobbled while raising herself up to meet the monster. Perhaps she shouldn’t have dropped into the maze with an ancient bloodthirsty monster as hastily as she did. Her knee stung grinding into the dirt path, setting herself right to stand. It stared at her, snorting and huffing. Its head tilting back and forth.
Kali outstretched her hand and willed it not to shake. “Viktor?”
An ear-splitting roar tore through the air.
“I heard you. I’m here.”
Its—his—head inched forward. His muzzle so close to her hand it could tear it off. “You won’t bite. I’m your love,” she reassured herself as much as she did the beast.
The moist breath hot in her palm. They stood there eying each other, unmoving. Kali’s hand suspended in front of the beast for what felt like an eternity. If I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it. I’ll lose my nerve. She made the first move and stroked his cheek.
“I’ll save you, Viktor. I’ll find a way to save you.” Her voice barely audible to herself, quivered in his presence, awestruck, and a bit shook that he was real. The man of her dreams and the creature from her nightmares existed in truth on the path before her very eyes. The man she had loved her whole life there before her as the cursed monstrosity she had to fix.
The growl he let loose both subdued and ravenous, it vibrated against her hand. Kali’s breath hitched in her throat. Fear bloomed in her abdomen as the minotaur shook its—his—head and threw her hand from it. Its olive orchard eyes narrowed, and spittle dripped from its snout. With a lowered head, he pointed his horns towards her.
“Viktor, it’s me,” she whispered. Didn’t he remember her from the between? Viktor would, wouldn’t he? Could this beast remember her? Did the minotaur have Viktor’s memories? She hadn’t tamed this side of him yet in her dreams. She had been too afraid at the time, thinking it was just a nightmare. Had she known the importance; she would have found a way for him to know her. Her robe fluttered in the breeze, flapping about her legs. The beast raised his head to the sky and let out a ripping howl of warning before lowering its head again.
“Kalissandra, back away!” Seth charged from behind her and raised a sword made of material she had never seen. The daylight absorbed by the onyx metal rather than glinted off of it. The blade adorned with ancient glyphs and within the hilt sat a stone almost identical to hers except for its size.
Kali turned and blocked the minotaur from Seth. “No, you can’t. Don’t.” Fear of the beast wouldn’t prevent her from protecting him.
“You need to come with me, Kalissandra. You cannot be here. You’re not ready.” Seth stepped forward, brandishing the weapon, surging it forward and driving the minotaur back.
Its hooves stamped at the ground like an angry bull at a fight. Growling low. Heat and rage emanated from its fur.
Kali reached forward and stroked its head between the horns, whispering into his ear, “I’ll find a way, Viktor. I promise. I need to learn how to save you. I have to go with Seth, for now.”
The beast’s hand stretched out to grasp hers, heat tingling her fingers, sparks—literal and figurative sparks—exploded from where they touched. He remembered. Kali was elated and couldn’t contain her smile. I love you, she mouthed, before their grasp was broken, and Seth guided her away from the minotaur through the maze and back what she assumed was safe for her.
A roar of despair rent the air, tearing at her heartstrings. How was she going to rescue Viktor and save him from this curse? Kali couldn’t ponder t
hat without more information and that she would get from Seth at dinner tonight.
5
Kali trod the hallway, barefoot, flanked by guards, and the valet trotted behind her and Seth who seemed composed despite being ready to slaughter his brother moments before. Her arm draped in Seth’s as if he were her gentleman escort. They arrived at a double doorway opened by two women in simple, unadorned white outfits. They bowed and shut the doors, backing away still bowing.
“Such treatment. I could almost believe that you are royalty.” The room was large and elaborate adorned in a soft canary and ocean blues, looking as if from a magazine on décor and style. She could almost forget that she was on a remote island in the Pacific until she wandered onto the balcony drawn by the bird chatter.
“We are.” Seth bowed to her and kissed her hand before letting it go. “Of that, I have no more doubts. Vassily will see to it you are dressed and taken care of. I will see you at dinner.” He clapped his hands, and servants appeared hurrying about the room, bringing water and a tray of food for her to nibble on, followed by one doctor she had seen earlier. “Since you refused care downstairs, the doctor will see you here.” Seth turned to leave, stopping in front of Vassily, “Do not lose her again, or I will have your head.”
The doors slid open as if they were able to anticipate that he wanted them opened. Kalissandra had to figure out how Seth and the others were able to do that. There was no key that she could discern and no servants opening it for them. She would have to look closer, but didn’t see him touch anything that could be a biometric scanner. So how were these doors opening and closing with nary a command or key? She sighed. The answer eluded her.
“Seth?”
“Yes.” He stopped mid-stride, his back to her.
“Why didn’t they come for me sooner?”
“All your questions will be answered in due time.” The familiar sound of a lock sliding into place had Kali turning back to the view, letting go of the breath she had been holding. The balcony overlooked the beach cordoned off with gates and barbed wire, and as usual, she was figuring out, guards on patrol. There was no sign of the marina she had disembarked onto the island from. To the left of the beach was a tropical paradise, a jungle she itched to explore. That jungle just might be her best way out of there. She didn’t have many avenues of escape. No one did. She would have to get by the guards and through the fence to get into the jungle. Glancing down the seven stories, she saw the huge doors large enough for a tank to move in and out of the massive octagonal building. That might be her answer.
“Come now. Chop, chop.” The valet waved his hands about, sending the staff into a scurry of activity.
“Miss.” The doctor came forward, placing his bag beside the teak and iron coffee table. Snapping on purple gloves before he dug around in his medical bag.
Kali turned and obliged the man. She sat in the wingback chair, allowing him to tend to the cut on her head. The day had been long and turbulent. She wished she could rest, but night hadn’t fallen yet, and the day wasn’t even close to over. The teak canopy bed fitted with sheer mosquito netting looked especially comfortable. It had been almost two months since she had slept in a real bed. This one had so many pillows, she desperately wanted to sink down into them.
Thoughts of Lucy crept into her mind. How Kali had flown into a rage when Lucy first mentioned that she needed to go away to an institution at thirteen years old. The two of them in a fight again about her dreams and nightmares. At Kali’s insistence that things were happening to her she couldn’t understand, like the sun would always come out no matter the weather when she asked or that she could move small items with her mind, Lucy said that her delusions were getting worse. Her foster mother demanded that Kali move the object in front of her, and when she didn’t, Lucy claimed that Kali was troubled, and couldn’t she see that. Lucy picked up the phone to call Kali’s psychiatrist to confirm a bed in Bellevue, a hospital for the insane. The light had come then, firing from her hands as it had earlier that day. They told Kali that the light was a figment of her imagination. This was all a horrid mental illness, and she had not killed her foster mother with an imagined light flowing from her, but she had done it herself by starting a fire in the home, burning Lucy and the house to cinders. The light was just a mechanism her brain had thought up to protect her from the truth.
Kali bought into all that psych mumbo-jumbo after years of treatment and therapy. She was one of the lucky ones, they said. She was in an institution where they could help her, not in jail. As she grew older, and the random small things she could do despite being medicated, she wrote off as mere coincidences like the therapist told her they were. The light never came again. The warmth and heat of the supernova gone, and the memory shoved deep down until that moment she had needed it. She ate up their reality and spit it out until the day they released her. Early release for good behavior, they said. The same day they kidnapped her on her way to the halfway house and brought her to the island. Kali’s eyes became heavy, too hard to hold open despite the troubling memories seeking to come forward.
“Now, I’m just going to draw a bit of blood,” The man spoke, tying latex on her upper arm and making quick work of the blood draw.
Kali jerked forward at the pain in her earlobe. Heat spread through her ear and down her neck. She thought she would be sick.
“What was that for?” Kali fingered a tiny earring like a metal square on her lobe that throbbed. He tagged me like a goddamn cow. Her other hand clenched at her side. Anger surged through her. Her fingers tingled in the way that she was beginning to become familiar with. She wondered if she could call the light forth as she had earlier.
“Orders, miss. Have a pleasant evening.” The doctor scurried off with nary a look back at her.
It’s not his fault. Deep breath. “Vassily, what is this?” Kali demanded, holding her ear trying to ease the pain. Her fingers still tingled, and her earlobe felt as if it would explode. It throbbed and the blood rushing to it pounded in her ears. She had to remind herself that it wasn’t the valet’s fault either.
“The Minotaur Corporation tracks its holdings to safeguard against losses.”
“I am not property.”
“You became property the moment we found you. You should count yourself lucky.”
Kali frowned. “This is lucky?” Could she remove it? She could move things when she was younger. But she had never figured out how she could do it. She had never thought powers were real. After all, she was crazy.
“Indeed. You’re not of the parcel or casket class.”
Kali raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth about to ask, but Vassily shook his head.
“The less you know, m’dear.” He patted Kali’s shoulder and escorted her to the oversized, fluffy bed. “Now, get rest. You have a long night ahead of you, and you must be exhausted from your journey home.”
For once, Kali looked forward to sleep and allowed Vassily to once again to fuss over her. She had met the minotaur, the monster that stalked her in her nightmares. Perhaps she could save him and turn Viktor from beast to man. Perhaps she could have a home here and family. Wouldn’t that be lovely, finally, to fit in somewhere and belong? She hoped, despite the potential it was a long shot, that she could get through to Viktor. Sleep overcame Kali, and left her to the mercy of the minotaur pleading for her to save him.
6
“I thought I wasn’t a prisoner.” Kali fingered her mother’s necklace out of habit. The only piece of her life that they had allowed her to retain. She had woken up earlier and thought it lost until Seth slid it around her neck once more when she entered his private chambers through the adjoining doors.
“You aren’t.” His eyes held hers from across the table filled with succulent mutton chops and other savory dishes.
Kali’s mouth watered. She raised the wine glass to her lips and took a small sip from the crystal, glinting with the light of the chandelier overhead. “Then why chip me like one?” She was dying
to grab the lamb by the bone and tear into like an animal, but she fought the urge and carefully cut into it, raising the tender meat to her lips. Her eyes slid closed. Ecstasy, pure deliciousness and she didn’t even like lamb.
“To keep you safe.” He countered over his rocks glass.
“To make me yours?” Her eyebrow raised, questioning his motives.
“To not lose you again, Kalissandra.” He set his own glass full of scotch onto the table, the liquid sloshed out, making a puddle on the antique dining table.
“And my necklace, how did you get it?” She turned in her seat to catch him staring at her.
His glass raised midway paused while he contemplated his answer, “It needed an examination.” He took a sip while their eyes remained locked.
“For?” Kali realized that getting answers from Seth was akin to herding chickens.
“Authenticity.” His Adam’s apple bobbed with the last sip.
Did he lie? She couldn’t tell, but she didn’t think so. There was a brutal honesty in the way he formed his answers. Very matter of fact. She wondered if he could lie to her if she was fated to be this goddess reborn.
“Why couldn’t you have asked to perform this test or whatever you did?” He wasn’t telling her everything, Kali decided when he looked away before answering.
The next words whispered and despite having finished his third glass, they were precise and clear. Shadows fell over his face. “You don’t know how long I—we—searched for you.” Seth leaned over the long dining table set with bone china. His words came faster, sounding more poignant. “Years since your mother secreted you away. My father and his father and his father before that waited for you. They searched for you. They built this whole corporation for you, centuries before your birth, and your mother kept you from us.” His lips sneered with the last remark. “Your fingerprints and DNA taken aboard the ship confirm that you are her child. Blood work and a hair sample the doctor took this afternoon will confirm that you are her resurrected. Hallowed of all Hallowed. The queen herself, the direct descendant of the Goddess Isis and heir to her throne.” He raised his glass to her and finished it down.
