I’ve ruined his plan to destroy this place. That must’ve been the reason of him running back and forth from Witcher’s Place. He was using the port key, allowing him to access back and forth as he pleased. One thing I’ve been wanting to ask Jared keeps pounding against my thoughts. I look up at him slowly to ask, “Are you a myth too?”
Jared’s eyebrows rise up. I can tell I hit the right spot for him.
“I can’t remember anything about me being a myth. Every time I try to remember something that deep it hurts. I feel pain, my heart throbs, and the memory doesn’t exist.”
I furrow my eyebrows at the reply. “But you’re my brother; aren’t we blood?”
Jared glances up at me and shakes his head, “I’m not sure, Eliza, I can’t remember that far. I know I’m your brother.”
Is Jared really suffering from amnesia?
“It’s okay, because no matter what, you’re my brother. You got that?” I hold back my tears, I know the reason why his memory’s been faded. He’s hurt by the topic. I reach in to hug him. It was that moment when you just needed a hug from someone and why not have that hug received by me? He walks back into the closet, pulling out a different outfit—a tight skirt and a red top with fashionable cuts.
He glances up at me. “First thing to do is look the part and screw with their minds.”
“So you want me to look like a slut?”
“No, I want you to look like them, prove to our father that you would like to be Ravamere’s Queen.”
“I think I know what to do,” I say. Smirking and taking the clothes, I walk into the bathroom.
***
I open the dining room’s door as their feast is stopped by my appearance and dramatic entrance. The lights are still brown and I see my friends on the ground. I can feel their numbness and see the toxic hickies across their necks. He sees me enter, and is sitting in his chair at the table. My father stands up as I walk over to him.
I lift my hand with my palm faced in front of me. Slowly, and without losing eye contact, I remove the mood ring I need for protection.
Chapter 22
His eyes are skeptical from the gesture I make. I wait for him to take the ring from me, but there is nothing but silence. The mutters and movements in the background become stiff, and the attention is on the girl in the middle of the doorway—me. I drop my gaze to his smooth hands by his sides. I flip my hair and move his hand away.
I place the ring strategically in the middle of the table.
“You wanted the ring. You don’t seem too happy about receiving it.”
I look at my friends and then switch my focus back on the man in front of me.
“You exchange the ring for your friends. Very clever of you.”
“No, that’s not why I’m giving it to you.” I glance down at my ring that is now his; the only thing that is to keep me from being corrupt here. I think I’m at the point where I’m fine with the myth I am. A ring simply can’t hold her back forever, so why not meet my father half way? I chuckle to myself, looking down at the ground, and then lifting my stare up slowly at him.
“The ring was holding me back,” I say as I cross my arms. Christian gets up to approach me shortly. I don’t want him to get any further, so I turn around and leave.
I hate skirts and the one I am wearing now is a bit too tight, I can hardly breathe. Underneath my skirt, against my right thigh lays a dagger—you know, in case I need to cut someone’s throat.
I feel a pinch inside of my head, a headache approaching, but this feeling is familiar. How Charlotte and Audrey would communicate with me and Jared—it’s the same hunch. Someone’s reaching out to me, I close my eyes to try and focus my energy on them.
Four things need to be done to cause havoc in Ravamere.
It’s Jared.
And that is?
I respond. I continue down the dark hallway in the mansion.
Jared walks out of the shadows and stands not too far from me. My heels click clack toward him. “Let’s start off with saving your friends from being devoured. With them, disappearing will cause frenzy by itself.”
“Donovan says he has a plan for that,” I say.
“And you’re still trusting the guy.”
“You’ve kept secrets from me too. I would have to say I don’t trust anyone at this point.” I pause to look out a large window at the mystics. At my mystics, I should say. They want a queen, I’ll show them how queen-like I am. “I think it’s time to dethrone the king here,” I say. “Don’t worry, Jared, I got this, I know what I have to do. Watch out for me, and pull me back if I’m doing too much.”
Jared nods his head in agreement, he soon disappears into the darkness. Footsteps sound on the floor shortly after Jared’s leave. Red markings glow up from the ankles of the person and the same scratched clothing appears in front of me.
Wavy dark red hair tousles down into the middle of her breasts. She licks her lips showing her sharp fangs. Two scratch marks were under her eyes. This particular mystic is following me around in this mansion.
“Why are you following me?”
“Our ‘queen’ is planning to destroy Ravamere, huh?” she says.
She must’ve overheard what Jared and I were discussing.
“I think that’s pretty funny, and would love finding out how you plan on doing this.”
She senses the awkward pause I give.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone or try to get in your way. I want the same thing.”
“You want the same thing?” I say.
“I didn’t choose to be corrupt; I was turned against my will by a shifter. I’m trapped here because once you’re in Ravamere, you can’t leave. I’m only allowed in the mansion because of Christian.”
I stare at her, wondering what she meant by Christian. The girl rolls her eyes, so I figured not to go there with her.
“About Christian, anything I should know?” I furrow my eyebrows at her, maybe this act could help me find the truth about him.
“Let’s say he has a thing for unordinary people, and craves corruption. He helped the shifter corrupt me; I still have the scratches.” She bares her neck to show me and points at a glittery one. “That one is Christian’s, meaning he’s pretty strong.”
“Strong?”
“He’s pure evil—he can corrupt anyone. The shifter couldn’t turn me, so Christian did it himself,” she says. “He wants to be the almighty prince of darkness here, but can’t because someone is in his way.”
She plays with her hair and walks over to the window, gazing out at the dead scenery. I follow her to the window that lights up the hallway. She flicks at the glass as her markings beam alive. Jared’s walking out toward the forest. I notice Dawn descending slowly from where she floats, and as soon as Jared disappears into the forest, a group of masked people surrounds Dawn on the ground. I press my fingers on the glass, my eyes wide at this all happening. I need to save her. I open the window. The group picks up Dawn and calmly walks her through the portal.
Is this really happening right now?
Once you’re in Ravamere you can’t leave unless you kill a mystic, being corrupt while doing so. My heart’s beating fast with worry for my best friend. The corrupt mystic clears her throat and I turn around. In the corner of my eye, the portal glows a bright purple. Dawn has successfully left this corrupt world. I blink, I can’t lose focus right now, there’s no way I can leave Ravamere at this moment. I glance back out the window; Jared walks out of the forest. Checking side to side to see if anyone’s watching him, he too, leaps into the portal.
Maybe he had a group of witches save Dawn?
I can’t trust this shifter yet. If she notices Dawn isn’t in the sky anymore, she could alert Marcus or Christian. I can’t let that happen.
“And who is in his way?” I say, catching back up to our conversation.
A sly grin appears on her face as she looks away from the many mystics outside.
“Jared.” She looks
over at me, checking if what she said caused a reaction. Could it be that Jared really was already corrupt? But how could he not know about his own corruption when he rescued me from Ravamere? Was that a way of him remembering?
“You aren’t telling me the whole story,” I say. “Is Christian planning something for Jared?”
“Maybe?” She pouts her lips. I don’t have time to play around with her, so I leave.
“The name’s Rissa,” the mystic mumbles to herself.
I need to fit in a bit more, so I take off these heels and toss them to the side. My fingers fly up into my hair, messing it up even more. I don’t care what the mystic’s name is. Low growling creeps from behind me. I stop walking and turn around. White paws step on the glossy floor, red markings slither around the claws of the wolf. I glance past the wolf at the window where Rissa gazed.
She must be the wolf.
The growling grows louder as she darts in my direction. I take out my dagger, ready to block her attack. Instead of attacking, she runs by me. Her white tail whipping across the stiff air, she turns around to stare at me. Her thick white body disappears into the shadows. I place my dagger slowly back against the strap around my thigh.
A fairy floats past me, it’s black eyes staring lifelessly in the direction it travels. I close my lips tightly and avoid any eye contact with the corrupt mystics in this place.
“Wow, look at where we are.” There’re steps echoing around the dark halls of the mansion. Emily appears from the dark. “You know, killing me actually freed me from Christian’s manipulation and hallucinations.” She purses her lips. “I come in peace, don’t worry.” Her voice dry and sarcastic. She must’ve come here with Donovan. This could be a good thing. I’m going to use both of them to get what I want. The two are both going to be dead to me pretty soon anyway. I meet her halfway down the hallway.
“What do you want, Emily?” I hiss.
“I want you to know that Christian’s plan is to kill Jared, again, here.”
“Why, out of all mystics, should I believe you? You never sought to actually help me.” I roll my eyes.
“Well, like I said, Christian’s been controlling me too. You think you’re the only one who was tricked into thinking you were in Ellevil for only one day?”
“He trapped you in an illusion too?”
“I don’t even know why I wanted to kill you. I was on the mission to stop Stacy and David from corrupting the real world. I know you remember running into me several times in Richmond,” she says, leaning against a wall, playing with her nails. “I was a neutral person, until that rat caught up to me and spoke his clever words,” she whines, waving her hands in the air. “‘Oh I love the way your hair is done, I love what kind of elf you’ve trained to become,’ this and that and the other that Christian would mind fuck me,” Emily continued. Her sharp eyes flick up. “It was all a game.” She chuckles, her voice echoing down the hall. “And here you thought you were the only one. Listen to me carefully, Eliza Rose. Christian is not the elf you want to fall for. Stay away from him before it’s you that ends up blood and bones.” She presses her lips, and walks away, but stops and turns around. “For the record, I don’t like your boyfriend. That kiss meant nothing to me, it was his idea to help you from destroying yourself.”
“What are you talking about?” I say.
“I don’t know, ask him.” She moves her hair to the side and disappears into the shadows.
It’s true we’re all just Christian’s toys in the game he plays. I should know that more than Emily. I don’t care about Donovan anymore, now that I know the truth. I projected, seeing him kill my brother. There’s a problem still between us. We’re both going to have one last match soon.
Christian’s standing outside of the dinner room with his clothes wrinkled up. He notices my approach and quickly fixes himself up. I walk over, grabbing his wrist and taking him downstairs. I find a narrow hallway and shove his back against a wall. We glare at each other briefly, the guy I once thought was helping me turned out to be my worst nightmare. He knows how I feel as he smirks at this. I grip his wrists tightly. “How could you do what you did in front of me?”
“It was on purpose, and obviously, you aren’t aware of what I’m trying to do.”
“She isn’t coming out.”
He frees himself from my grip while his skin freezes me. My teeth clench; he holds onto my hair. I remove his fingers from around my strands.
“Oh, she’s gonna come out sooner or later.” He resists my hold on him and continues to touch my hair. “I knew you would find out about being betrothed to a corrupt. It took you awhile.” He smiles his sharp teeth down at me.
“It isn’t true, get out of my head.”
Once betrothed to a corrupt, leaves the wife corrupt.
Bianca’s voice travels through my thoughts.
“Why give in and come back to the one place you despise the most?”
“It’s not that I had any choice. I know something is up, and you’re planning it. When I find out what the deal is…” My ear twitches, picking up slight footsteps to my right, my father walks up to the scene. “We’re going to be such a powerful couple running this piece of crap,” I say to Christian as I turn around, acting differently. He notices my personality change in front of Marcus.
He takes the opportunity to grab onto my waist and kiss my neck. It’s cold, freezing me. I grin in pain.
“So wonderful seeing you two finally cooperating and connecting. I guess not having the ring is certainly favorable.”
I nod to him. “Come on, Christian, you have to show me around some more.” This is hilarious to him, he scratches his chin and holds my hand.
Shortly after we leave, we end up in the middle of another hallway. I gaze through a window at a cottage outside. Christian takes my hand and walks over to exit the mansion. I force my hand out of his grip to look at him.
“Don’t spoil the act, sweetheart. What if someone sees?”
“Eventually, you’re going to die. The killer? Me.”
“This is fun—I’m enjoying myself.”
A mermaid and a fairy are in the hallway making out with each other. Glitter and sparkling water drop on the ground as the fairy moans and the mermaid gropes her body. I look away from Christian’s black eyes, the same ones I witnessed in the forest.
They fade back into his normally green eyes.
“Aren’t you curious about my plan?”
I’m not sure if I should answer that question or not. The feeling is weird because I want to know his plans. I want to know everything about Christian and where he comes from.
All the facts of him being strange around the elves in Ellevil and how he was already corrupt but they weren’t aware of it—they don’t make any sense to me. I know something is in the making, the nerves in my body are boiling.
Could this be my own trap I’m setting myself up for? I clear my throat and the mystics that were making out look toward me. I slide my gaze over at them. They notice that it was their queen and king in the same hallway as them and they scurry off.
“Just to let you know, I’m very capable of handling you by myself. It didn’t take much for Donovan to cause you to run away.”
“That’s because I didn’t want to hurt you in the process.”
“No, you’re a coward.”
“You’re the one who stood there and let his brothers take you in. Do you think it was all his plan to lead them there?” He walks me over to the door and opens it. We step out of the mansion. The trees stretch up into the purple, dark blue sky. The mansion’s roof peeks through the thin trees.
Where are you? Don’t leave the mansion.
Jared pinches inside my head.
I don’t find comfort with the trees here, I can’t find any peace to hold. I sense death everywhere and each step I take hurts my soul. I hate Christian with all my heart, but sometimes when I’m around him, it feels different. It’s evil, tempting, and something I know I shouldn’t be
doing. That’s the thing about him, he’s mysterious, and everything he does draws me in whether I resist or not. He’s the perfect elf to silently kill anyone emotionally, mentally, and physically. He’s the elf my family warned me about in the grimoire—extremely dangerous.
He plays around with me and he knows exactly where to find the buttons I’ve hidden from him. I feel like I lose myself and I escape reality when I’m with him. The harsh warm wind outside tickles my eyelashes as we stand in front of a dark brown cottage.
Christian opens the door and looks behind me. Knowing we haven’t been followed, he grins. He allows me to enter his evil haven. I know this is wrong of me to go in somewhere alone with him, of all mystics, the prince of corrupt beings.
I need to find out answers and stop what is about to happen in this strange world. I’m not afraid of anything and that’s what I’ve learned the most about being a witch. I must use my mind and not my emotions. Jared and I are here with a plan and I’m going to execute it.
The dark green markings on his skin glow against my cheeks. His face is hidden within the darkness around both of us. I feel his hands on my stomach and he gently pushes me back against the wall.
“Where are we?”
“The place I go when I need to think.”
“You like to think in darkness? You really must be corrupt.”
I proceed to move, hitting against something warm. I’m guessing it’s Christian’s chest. He is breathing against my neck. The wooden floor creaks as he lifts his foot, causing me to move.
I try to push him back a bit, but I’m lost in this pitch black cottage. The couch that was once beside me is now gone. My hands fly out in front of me, Christian is not there.
Magical (Mystical Series Book 3) Page 14