My heart gave in. I slowly rolled to face Adrian. “Promise me you’ll never hurt me again.”
“Now that’s the easiest promise I’ve ever had to make,” he responded, his face serious.
As I stared back at him, the edges of his lips curled into a soothing smile. Another layer of my defenses dissolved.
Reluctantly, I reached my hand out to touch his, yearning for the feel of his skin.
Without hesitation, he returned my sentiment.
We felt like a team again. Well, almost. It would take time until my faith was renewed in “us.” “So what are we going to do?”
“We need to get out of here, that’s for sure. How are you feeling?”
“Tired. Weak.”
“Is your head okay?”
My hand made a move toward the back of my head then stopped. I didn’t want to touch the bump again. The sting from before wasn’t so easily forgotten.
“It’ll be okay,” I said to not only reassure Adrian, but also myself.
“I was thinking,” he whispered. “Maybe we can use your water affinity to get out of here.”
My gazed rested on the bars, examining them. “Yeah?”
“Maybe your currents could move the bars apart. Just enough to squeeze through.”
“I can try.”
As I sat up, I tried to push aside the dizzy haze that clouded my head. Slowly, I positioned myself directly in front of the cell. A row of bars separated Adrian and me. The ones at the front of my cell were further apart than those between us. I targeted the front as the best spot to focus my energy.
Moving closer toward my point of attack, I mustered up as much mental strength as I could. I knew I’d need all I could summon to counteract the deficiency I felt inside.
Inside my head, I screamed.
Move god damn it.
Nothing happened.
The bars didn’t budge at all, not a single millimeter. My body was too battered from the scars left behind and the throbbing at the base of my neck. Each second of screaming caused my head to scream right back at me.
“Adrian, I can’t. It hurts too bad.”
“Okay, okay. Stop. It’s not worth hurting yourself.” His eyes dropped to his hands folded within his lap. “We’ll figure out something else.”
We sat there in silence for what seemed like forever. I tried to create options for an escape, but my mind offered nothing but blankness. No ideas crept into the folds of my brain.
Frustrated, I moved toward the bars again.
Adrian jolted, one hand pushing off the ground to jumpstart his body toward me. “What are you doing?”
“I want to try again.”
“Please don’t hurt yourself. We can think of something else.”
Determined, I focused on the bars, ignoring him.
“Anna—”
I waved my hand in his direction, cutting off the rest of my name.
Once more, my vision locked onto the bars. One by one my fingers made contact until I had a solid hold. Silently, I screamed for the bars to widen. The currents radiated straight from my palms into the cool metal.
I pictured Blake’s face, Blake’s betrayal, and yelled with every last ounce of strength I could muster. I pushed my limits so far that my vision blurred until shadows crept around the edges of my eyesight.
Only a pinhole of light escaped into my vision before I allowed my train of thought to drop.
Immediately, my body fell limp in the water, trying to recover. The beat of my heart matched the rise and fall of my chest. The throbbing sensation almost too much to bear, teetering my body on another round of unconsciousness. My body heaved like I swam a mile, but at the speed in which I’d perform a one hundred meter race.
Jumping forward, Adrian pressed himself against the bars that denied him access to me. His arms shot through the narrow spaces, his face helpless. “Annabelle! Are you okay?”
Then breaking his gaze from my face, his eyes went wide at the sight of the front of my cell. “You did it! Look, Belles, you did it.”
Even in my exhausted state, relief coursed through my veins. I had managed to create a hole big enough for my body to squeeze through.
Mustering up as much energy as I could, I ignored the primal need to recover from the use of my infinity. Instead, I dragged my body along the stone floor through the gap, and then used each vertical bar like a ladder to pull myself to the door of Adrian’s cell. We met there face-to-face, immediately grabbing hands.
“You don’t have enough strength to get me out too,” he started.
“I’m not going to leave you.”
“You have to.”
“Adrian, no. I would never do that. Leaving you is just…” I shook my head. “What’s the point?”
“What do you mean?”
“I have no clue what flower is on the coins. I have no clue where we are. I have no clue where to go from here. I need you.” This last statement left me feeling exposed, especially since I didn’t think needing him for this mission was all I meant. My cheeks blushed.
“All right. There must be a key or something to unlock my cell.”
“I’ll find it then.”
As he closed his eyes, I knew he didn’t have another solution.
“Just be careful,” he said, his brown eyes opening to lock intently with mine.
I tried to infuse confidence in my voice. “I will.”
Really, I was so scared to do this without him.
CHAPTER THREE
I made up my mind to find the key. Problem was, I didn’t know where to look first.
In the movies, the key was always hid in plain sight. The kicker: it was always just out of reach. So the escapee would use his shoe or some article of clothing to knock the key closer. He’d struggle for a second or two, barely touching it with his fingertips. Then, magically, he’d be able to grab it.
That definitely wasn’t the case here. No key taunted me.
“Adrian,” I whispered. “Which way should I go?”
There were two empty cells in front of us. To our right and left, two heavy-looking doors blocked the way.
He pointed to his right. “When they brought us in, we came from that way.”
Nodding, I pulled my hands from his.
Suddenly, he yanked me close, pressing us both against the bars.
Then, he kissed me.
A spark escaped into my entire body and spread until every inch of me tingled. I even felt it in my toes.
The only bad part… his lips parted from mine after only a second.
As much as I wanted to protect myself, the last part of my wall of betrayal tumbled down with that first kiss. A heap of my resolve now littered the ground around me.
“For good luck,” he added with a smirk.
I still felt the warmth of his lips as my face lingered between the two strips of the cold, steel bars. Shock from what just happened, and my heightened emotions, also lingered.
Regaining composure, I struggled to look to my left.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I promised.
“Okay. Remember: be careful. I’m pretty attached to you, Belles.”
“I will.”
Damn him. The wall was gone, so gone.
Looking back over my shoulder, I wanted one last look at his face before I headed to the door.
I prayed that it wouldn’t be locked. It’d be a surefire way to put an end to things, and quickly.
Fortunately, the door soundlessly slipped open.
Now, I’d never been in a dungeon before…
Imagine that
…So I didn’t know the typical layout of one of these things, but I pieced together that each section housed a quad of cells. As I inched forward, I entered into another group of four cells identical to the one I’d just left.
Quickly glancing to my left and right, all four were empty, and I released a sigh of relief.
Drawing attention to the fact that I roamed free was the last thing
I needed. Another thing I recalled from films… prisoners never kept quiet when they saw an escapee.
I cautiously approached the next door, then slid through the sliver of space I wedged open.
Four more empty cells.
So far, so good.
My pace quickened to the door on the far side of the cellblock. After a slow tug, I instantly stopped.
There wasn’t another block of cells in front of me. Instead, a large open area created the shape of an empty foyer. The new surroundings triggered my heart rate to accelerate, pounding in my chest as I tried to figure out my next move.
Straight ahead, an opening to the next floor piqued my curiosity as to where it led. To my left and right, two more doors begged to be yanked open, revealing whatever was on the other side. I hated that Adrian wasn’t here with me, and not knowing which path to take.
When I first faced the dilemma to trust Adrian or not, I counted down from three, then made an instinctive decision. It was a method I’d have to implement again to determine my next course of action. Currently, I hovered outside the dungeon door helpless to be spotted by anyone who passed.
I took a deep breath.
Three, two, one.
Left.
Without hesitation I swam toward the awaiting door. As soon as I reached it, my hand surrounded the knob.
Locked.
So perhaps it wasn’t a fail proof technique.
But at least it eliminated one possible direction.
The other door forced me back toward the center of the room, pausing to make sure no one was coming down through the opening before I crossed beneath. When the coast was clear, I hurried to the other side.
Of course, I found this door locked as well.
Strike two.
Two options remained: go back through the door I came from or go up to the next level. Thing was, I didn’t want to pass Adrian empty-handed. The look of broken expectation on his face eliminated that second path.
Shaking my arms, I gathered courage, and then swam in the direction of the floor above me. Ever so slowly, my head poked up until my eyes leveled the ground. I exhaled a breath I didn’t even know I held when I didn’t see another sprite.
The space around me mirrored the foyer below, except with different hallways to explore. Straight ahead two huge double-doors blocked whatever waited on the other side. Long corridors lined with more closed doors stretched far to my left, right, and behind me. They weren’t like the doors downstairs though. They didn’t look heavy. Rather, they appeared normal, like ones in any old house.
The foyer itself held a gray undertone. No pictures hung on the wall and, clearly, little attention was dedicated to decor. Even though the temperature of the water didn’t affect me, the blandness of the foyer left a cold sensation behind.
Suddenly, I heard an outburst of noise. My attention whipped to the right, my hair shifting to cover my face. Frantically, I cleared the stray strands from my sight as I peered down the long hallway. No one was there. I assumed the voices came from behind one of the closed doors. If my excited lungs didn’t relax, I wouldn’t be able to muster a single stroke in the direction of the sounds.
You could do this, Annabelle.
Adrian was trapped below.
My breathing calmed, steadier than before. I took one stroke, then another, the sounds becoming more distinguished each time I pushed the water behind. It revealed the barks, clicking noises, and squeals from encantado and selkie. The resemblance to Clemente and Shamus stung. I knew it wasn’t my friends. And I didn’t know what had happened to them… after we left them behind.
By the pitch and tones of the sounds, I’d bet money the mystery sprites were in the midst of an argument. One outburst overlapped the next, each sprite talked over the other, and the decibel level soared with each passing second.
Then, a loud crash escaped from the room. The strong voice of a man brought the chaotic chatter to a stop.
“Enough!”
His voice rung out, instantly binding my limbs in place five yards from the door. It was the first non-selkie, non-encantado sound I heard.
“That’s enough.”
It was a low, deep growl—one that came from the mouth of an authority figure. A male. There was no way to mistake it.
His next statement boomed out as a command, hitting me hard. “The chest has been opened. She no longer has value. Dispose of the girl.”
After the announcement, the dim from the room went silent.
From where I hovered in the hallway, I knew without a doubt, I knew I was that girl. The news of my impending death kept me frozen in place. I knew I should’ve fled. Two things were crucial to my survival: to find the key and to get the hell out of there.
But I couldn’t move. The panic that flooded my body paralyzed me in a moment of disbelief. Slowly, I pressed my hand to the olive leaf pendant around my neck in an attempt to quiet the seemingly audible sounds from my heart.
All of a sudden, the door swung open and I looked straight into another set of deep blue eyes.
Before I could react, I was thrown against the wall—an arm across my neck held me in place.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Shh, don’t say a word,” I heard.
Trust me, I was too shocked, scared, and probably a handful of other emotions to scream. I faced nose to nose with a young mermaid probably half my size with golden hair tumbling over her shoulders.
With the use of her free arm, she pointed down the hallway before bringing her finger to her lips. I understand her meaning clearly: don’t dare say a word.
Her eyes stared intently into mine, until I nodded once, twice, and then in a hurried fashion.
Satisfied, she loosened her fare-skinned arm from across my neck and led me away from the room.
Every few feet she glanced behind her, only stopping once we safely reached the foyer.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered. “You are lucky they didn’t catch you.”
I looked back down the corridor then again at the young girl in front of me.
How could this have been? My mind raced, my hands shook at my sides. Not from the powerful voice who sentenced me to death, but from the small girl mere inches away. Life had thrown yet another curve ball in my direction.
“Did you hear me?” she demanded, still in a hushed tone. “How did you get out of the dungeons?”
Instead of an answer to her question, I stared blankly back at her. I tried to piece together a response in my mind. Each time the words never left my lips. The girl watched expectantly, the twitches of my lips and eyebrows confusing her.
The question that eventually poured out was simple, straightforward. “Aurelia?”
It hit her like a violent wave. She rocked backward.
Shaking her head, she backed further away, her own face now ridden with confusion and surprise. “What did you just say?”
My next response came faster but didn’t help to ease the bewilderment of this poor girl.
“Your name. It’s Aurelia, right?”
She gasped at the sound of those three syllables. “How’d you know that? No one has called me that in years.”
“Your hair, your age, the shape of your eyes.” I paused for a moment, my face softened. “Adrian.”
Aurelia distanced herself again with a stroke of her arms. “That’s impossible.”
“What is?”
“My brother is dead. How dare you talk about him,” she contested, anger rising into her eyes.
“No, no, no. He’s not. I swear.”
“They told me they killed him after my capture… along with the rest of my family.”
My mind couldn’t keep up. Aurelia was alive after all those years, the Trackers deciding to hold her captive.
“Aurelia. I, um, Adrian is down in the dungeons.”
“What?!” she shrieked, whipping her focus down the corridor to make sure her outburst went unheard.
Then, she took off. In an instant she d
ove down through the opening, leaving me in the foyer alone. Once again I stood helpless to whoever stormed from the room.
Unsure of any other action, I quickly followed her. By the time I reached the lower level she disappeared through the first set of heavy doors with a large bang. There went my desire to stay incognito; Aurelia wasn’t worried about any noise left behind.
As I reached the same door, my eyes darted over my shoulder, exhaling loudly at the emptiness before I hastily opened it and raced through.
“Aurelia!” I called, also not bothering to keep my voice low.
She ignored me as she cut through that cellblock and dove into the next, barely squeezing through the crack she created.
Moments later, I threw open the last door myself. Adrian and Aurelia held each other in an embrace through the bars, both sobbing.
I instantly stopped in my tracks, bringing my hands to my chest and finding my necklace. It felt like I was interrupting a very private moment.
I didn’t have any instances in my life to use as comparison for what I witnessed. Blake’s betrayal now seemed insignificant, so trivial. I understood the comparison was like apples to oranges, but I couldn’t fathom the emotions that accompanied the thought of forever losing someone I loved, then for that person to be returned.
I wanted them to have that moment, but in the meantime, my head swiveled in all directions with the desire of getting the hell out of here alive and unnoticed.
“I really don’t want to intrude, but we just made a ton of noise. They’ve gotta be right on our heels,” I offered.
Ignoring me, Adrian and Aurelia exchanged whispers in a frantic conversation masked with tears. Each drop from their eyes added to the water around them.
I tried not to listen. Still, words of Adrian’s mother reached my ears. She had fallen sick only days after her capture. Aurelia could do nothing but watch as her mother grew pale and slipped away. Aurelia’s own life was only salvaged due to the fact that one day she could be of value. In the blink of an eye, her life once of luxury was transformed to that of servitude.
Kin (Annabelle's Story Part Two) Page 2
