by Elle Lincoln
I light a cigarette, knowing the scent may wake Neit, but the cherry red burn gives me a focus point. I pocket the lighter for now and briefly wonder if I can melt the lock.
No. If it can keep magic suppressed, then there is no way I can melt the damn thing. Instead, I keep searching my pockets, finally coming across something of use. Bobby pins. Heart pounding, I set the cigarette down just outside of my cage. I flick the lighter, and stretch out the bobby pins with my other hand, biting off the little rubber casing on the ends.
Time to study the lock. I’m not a genius when it comes to locks, but again, I have had my rebellious moments. However, breaking into my own locked apartment at three in the morning doesn’t really compare to this situation. Nor does breaking into old warehouses. Door locks are probably vastly different. I’m not a genius when it comes to breaking in.
But maybe I can be a genius when it comes to breaking out. I have to at least try. First things first, I set the cigarette on fire, which doesn’t work as well as I’d hoped, but I quickly pocket the lighter and dig in with both bobby pins.
The lock is situated on the top of the cage. I have to shrug off my jacket to get my arms to fit through the bars and even then, they just barely get through. Time beats quickly in my heart with savage adrenaline, the demand to break free riding every nerve in my body.
Finally, the pins make their way inside the lock, my body contorted at an odd angle. I close my eyes to the already dark room, concentrating on the task at hand. A pin slips. I blow out a breath, trying again.
And again.
And again.
A small sob dares to break free from my lips. I won’t allow this to define me. A failure is only a lesson to try again. No matter how many times I have to try and get it right, I’ll do this. I swear I will.
The lock clicks. A high-pitched squeak follows as the weight of the bar falls due to gravity. I struggle to grasp it. My hands cold and numb as the damn thing crashes to the ground.
“Fuck!” I whisper angrily.
“I do believe you have accomplished something I could not.” Is that admiration in his voice? Doubt it.
“Shh.” I sit in panicked silence. A chill races up my body as it prepares to fight to the death. I can’t think about Neit being right that I can kill without thought, because in this instance, he just might be right.
Slowly, I crab walk out of the cage. My body creaks as I stretch, my muscles aching in weary pain. I snatch up my leather jacket, covering my cool body before I begin to shiver.
I call for my scythe.
Nothing. I try again. Nothing.
I sink to the floor in defeat.
“It’s the room, isn’t it?” Neit comments in that bland, monotone voice.
A humorless laugh escapes my throat. “Looks that way.”
“Hm. I truly thought it was the cage. What’s the point of this?” He smacks the bars.
“Just a thought, but I’m going to say it’s all a part of the show.” I flick the lighter, scooting over to Neit’s cage to begin the arduous process of releasing him as well.
“You surprise me, Ms. Mae.” I can smell his stale breath ghost over my face as I try to focus on the lock.
“How?” But I bet I can already guess what he’s going to say.
“Why release me?”
“Because even if I release you, you still have no power here.” I pause as my heart skips a beat. “Just as I have no power.”
“Correct. Yet I could strangle you in your sleep.”
I laugh. “But you won’t.”
“I won’t. Tell me why, Mae.” He is one creepy fucker.
“Because you want an ally against whatever creature you made outside these doors.” The lock breaks free, and this time I catch it, lowering it gently to the floor.
“Have you figured it out yet, Mae?” he whispers, getting closer to me.
I scoot back, eyeing up the window and wondering if I can chip away at the sides. I stand, gripping the cage I was in, and try to lift it. “I’m working on it,” I grumble.
“It’s really quite simple.” His body creaks as he stretches.
“I know the changeling considers himself Flynn’s brother. I just need to know who adopted him. You or Rhia?” I can’t lift the stupid thing. “Care to help me?”
“What do you plan to do with that?” he inquires in his dull voice, unimpressed with my antics.
“Just help me move it to the window.” I go around to the other side, using the bars as a guide to get there.
“And what? Shimmy out that window?” I can visualize him pointing to said window. I hate that I can do that.
“Well, it’s a start. Do you want to stay here? I mean, he was cutting out that little magical organ.” I just barely lift the one side.
I let out a breath as Neit lifts the other end and together, we walk ever so slowly to set the cage under the window.
“He cut out the organ?”
“Yes, does it have a name?” The light outside just barely improves. “Wait, do they feed us breakfast?”
“Only dinner. Now tell me, what did he do with it?” It almost sounds as if this is important.
“I have no freaking idea. Honestly, I half expected to find you in pieces, but your cabin was decrepit. They blamed me for kidnapping you.” I balance on the bars and reach out, gripping the ledge of the window.
“My enforcers? Of course they thought you were to blame, you keep killing off my men.” He pauses in thought before curiosity gets the best of him. “Can you see anything?”
“I’m a bit short.” I can’t decide if I want to hop and take a chance at falling. Considering my track record, it’s a likely event. However, I also need to escape at some point.
“Here, let me.” He sounds almost gentle, and I climb down before I can think better of it.
“They were working on a tracking spell,” I say absentmindedly, as I listen to Neit climb the cage.
“It won’t work. If we cannot cast magic, then they cannot use magic to find us.” He pauses. “However, it looks like this is actually a tower.”
“You can’t be serious. Why isn’t it brighter outside?” How is any of this logical.
“Because it seems as though we are in a pocket.” He pats down his body. “Do you have a knife in that jacket of yours?”
I start to quickly rifle through my pockets again. “Just the pins. And what the hell is a pocket?”
“Hand me a pin.” I hand him the pin in question and wait patiently for him to speak. “A pocket is quite like your veil into the otherworld. Only this is a fae pocket. Think of it like an invisibility cloak.”
“Are you trying to tell me that my fate rests on Flynn finding an invisibility cloak?” I rub the tension from my temples.
“You watched too many movies as a child. That is not at all what I said.” He grunts before shaking his hand out the window. “With a little blood outside this tower, then we may have a chance. You’ll have to bleed.”
I back up a few steps. “Excuse me?”
“You will have to cut yourself and flick the blood out this window. I have no doubt that with you gone, my son’s priorities have changed to finding you first.” I listen to him climb down. His body gets close to mine and I shiver when his boney hands pry my fists open, and he places the pin in my palm.
“With the same pin?” I sneer in disgust.
“Mortal worries. You are not mortal.”
“In this room, I am. What if you give me some kind of weird, ancient virus that when I walk out of this room my body can’t handle? Then my superhuman speedy recovery actually speeds up the virus and I’m the first immortal to die of a flu bug?” I know I’m spiraling, but I had so much hope we were in a dungeon and not a fucking tower.
“Are you always like this?”
Taken aback, I reply, “No, of course not.”
“Good, now climb, I’m busy thinking.”
Dismissed, I swallow my anxiety and climb the cage once more. Steadying m
yself, I press the sharp edge of the bobby pin into the pad of my thumb and push as hard as I can, swallowing any cry I may make. Can’t look weak in front of the big bad God of War. I feel my skin break and I push the fatty edges together, trying to get a bit of blood to run. Then I toss it out the window.
With the bobby pin. “Dammit!”
“You threw the bobby pin, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Probably better off, maybe it will land outside the bubble.”
I climb down, feeling utterly foolish at this point. The light from the window brightens just a bit, allowing me to see everything in hints of shadows. I’m going to take a guess at it being dawn. Again, another night I haven’t slept through. Besides being knocked out of course, which doesn’t even count as sleep.
“Now what?” I begin to pace as a sense of unease settles over me.
“We wait.” Is he really yawning right now?
“For what?” I screech.
“You need to learn some patience,” he states in his stale voice, before yawning once more.
“I’m serious, Neit.”
“As am I, Ms. Mae. If you are to be my daughter-in-law, I’m going to expect you to work on a few qualities.” I hear him shuffling to lay on the ground, or at least that’s what his shadow looks like it’s doing.
“Oh, now you want me around,” I mutter, before laying on the ground myself, bundling into my jacket.
“It wasn’t a matter of wanting you around, it was a matter of when you should be with Flynn.”
I ignore him. At this point, I’ll never know what he wants.
“You must learn your opponent before you act.”
“You sound like Rhia.”
He chuckles at that. “Yes, I wondered if she was still around. Found a way to spar, did she?”
“Yes.” So, I guess that’s what we are doing after all—learning our opponent. Maybe there’s a reason Neit is as old as he is. He has seen so much more than I have, learned more, and of course had time to study his opponents. Which makes me wonder… “How long have you been studying me?”
“That is the right question.”
I growl at him before turning to face the wall, dismissing him though he cannot see me in the darkness.
“From the moment you walked into Flynn’s life, I knew you’d be around. However, it wasn’t time.”
Odd, considering I’m pretty sure his brother once said that.
“When you learn patience, Mae, you will finally understand what it is to be immortal.” He pauses on a sigh. “I suggest you sleep. I’m curious to know if we were expected to escape.”
I wondered at that exact same thing. After all, what was the point of the cage if not to test us? I’m also not entirely convinced that Neit couldn’t escape, more likely choosing not to. Even now, I ponder his choices. He has the gift of strategy.
So, in the end, the right question is what game is everyone playing if no one is playing by the same rules?
Chapter 23
Mae
Incessant shaking wakes me from a delightful dream. Flynn and I were on a beach with those little drinks that have those fancy umbrellas that taste like complete sugar. Only you know they are full of liquor and those bad boys sneak up on you. Yeah, I was on my third dream drink, and Flynn had just taken off his shirt.
Then the damn shaking. “Go away, I’m dreaming.” I roll back over.
“You insolent girl. There is someone coming.” Neit backs away just as a key slides into a lock, echoing through the tower dungeon.
I jump up too quickly and a wave of dizziness threatens to take me down. Unsteady on my feet, I rush to hide behind the door with Neit, just as rusty hinges creak open, sounding like nails on a chalkboard. That noise would disturb the best of men. I can feel Neit’s shiver, whether it’s due to the sound or anticipation, I don’t know.
“Ah, you two finally escaped.” That voice. It’s the same man who blew goddess knows what into my lungs. I hate him already. My lungs are freaking sacred.
Neit holds me still, his hands clamped on my shoulders like a boney vise. His harsh breathing disturbs the hair at my nape, causing me to shiver.
“Oh, fine.” A light brightens the room, momentarily blinding me. I push Neit away and back into a corner. “We need to talk.”
I remind myself that this man killed Marrok. The look of anguish on Argos’s face causes my chest to clench. “I have no need to talk to you,” I spit out. Neit hisses at me.
Right, we are to learn our enemy, but I don’t want to. I want him dead. Shit, I am bloodthirsty. As if suspecting my thoughts, Neit gives me a knowing look, but I ignore him.
“Oh, but we do if you want all those trying to charge my castle to live.” He shuts the tower door, locking himself in with us.
My mind sticks to the word castle. Of course we are in a freaking castle. What else is new? I wonder if he has brownies, since we’ve already established he has electricity.
Finally, his words register, and I grind my teeth, Flynn must be outside, meaning he worked quickly to find us. Still, I stay quiet, waiting for Neit’s call. Which again, I hate. But also, I can’t deny his intelligence when it comes to this world. A world I still know nothing about. I can, however, learn.
The man, the changeling, sighs heavily. I take the moment to look him over. His age places him somewhere in his mid-forties, but I get the feeling he’s much older than that. Not once did I get confirmation from Rhia or Neit about when they decided to kidnap a human child. A fact that I have yet to address. Not only that, but just how long was their relationship?
Know what? I don’t want to know.
“It’s been a while, Father.” My heart flutters as he confirms everything we suspected. I push myself farther into the corner, trying not to be seen.
Neit stands tall, his once pristine suit now a crumpled, dirty mess. “Cian.” That one word, spoken with such venom and a dislike, thickens the air with tension.
“So, you do remember my name. Good.” He nods to himself while leaning casually against the door. “Do you know why you’re here?”
Neit cocks his head, his eyes narrowing at Cian. The thick shadows under his dark eyes thicken as his nostrils flare. “Do you know what you have done?”
Cian emits a humorless laugh. “I know exactly what I’ve done, Father. Tell me, how is Mother these days?” He holds up a hand. “Oh, that’s right, you killed her.”
“I did what was necessary.” Neit pulls at his coat, a small tell. Does he doubt his own actions? Is that regret sparkling in his eyes?
“You murdered her to get her out of your way.” A cruel smile lifts Cian’s thin lips. “I have a secret, Father. Would you like to know what it is?”
Neit stands tall, refusing to answer him. That’s when the changeling turns his cool blue eyes on me. “Tell me, Mae, do you want to know my secret?”
“I’m inclined to say no, but I get the feeling you need to talk this out.” Yeah, that’s insanity igniting in my veins.
“You are correct, my dear. I do need to talk. See, I’ve lived hundreds of years.” Huh, and he only physically aged to his forties. As a mortal. I’m scared to know how he accomplished that. “Rhia wanted a daughter, Neit wanted a son. They ended up with me.”
I rub my forehead. I don’t understand any of this. “Why did they steal you?” I don’t mean to make it sound like a foolish action, but it was.
“They thought I was a girl.” He laughs. “There was no gender specific clothing in the early nineteen hundreds.” He smiles that cruel smile. “But we are getting off topic, do you want to know a secret?”
“Nope.” He sounds equal parts insane and sane all at once.
“I’m going to tell you anyway.” His head jerks to his father. “I’ve done many things in a hundred years, but there is one profound discovery I’ve made.” He turns back to me. “Have they told you about the curse of the fae?”
I swallow. Every time his attention turns to me, a shiver of ap
prehension skirts up my spine and my heart skips a beat. “Yes, they’ve mentioned it.”
“Good. So, I don’t have to explain that to you.” He scratches at the greying scruff on his face. “I’m a bit of a scientist, if you will.”
Neit breaks his silence. “You are nothing but a murderer who calls himself a scientist,” he spits.
“You’re still angry about Germany?” Cian waves his hands away. “I did what needed to be done to understand.”
“Understand what? That immortals and mortals differ? Any fool can see that!” Neit counters.
“To understand that anyone can become immortal if they desire it enough,” Cian corrects softly.
“Tell me how you consumed that little organ?” Neit advances. “Did you pair it with a proper wine?”
“You and I both know that you can’t just eat it.” Cian all but rolls his eyes, while I stand here in the corner, fascinated by this whole damn exchange. “There is ritual that must take place. After all, you were the one who taught me that.”
“I taught you the anatomy of a god, a foolish decision.”
I’ll say.
“You opened my eyes to a bigger and brighter future.” Cian stands with his arms wide. “It’s all become clear.”
“Did you feel anything?” The words fall from my lips on a silent whisper. A plea for the dead.
“What’s that?” Once again, Cian’s attention focuses solely on me.
“Why gut them like an animal?” I swallow back my bile. “You needed one small organ. They could have survived. You didn’t have to kill.”
“Oh, but I did.” He steps closer to me, but I’ve nowhere to go, the wall is already at my back. “I needed to feel their blood rushing over my hands as I nicked an artery. I needed to feel my hands clench it, knowing if I let go, their life will be no more. To watch the life fade from their eyes as regret played across their features.” Another step.
I swallow once more, wishing with everything that I could feel the weight of my scythe in my hands. That I could slice through his head with one swipe and watch it roll down the tower.
