“Originally, I felt the man’s chest beneath my hands and was a part of it, but once I realized it wasn’t real, I was relegated to the cell,” Wren explained.
“Yet you continue to be in the scene,” I murmured.
“I think part of the fun for them is making me watch over and over again.”
“Watch what?”
“You’ll see.”
The scene shifted to reveal Wren standing outside a door marked operating room. Another young woman and two men about her age stood with her. Wren’s blue scrubs were replaced with a pair of jeans and a blue sweater.
When the door swung open, a doctor emerged to let Wren know the patient would live. She smiled and politely thanked him, but when the doctor went back through the doors, she let out a cry of joy. One of the men enveloped her in a hug, lifted her off her feet, and swung her around. Then, they kissed.
In the cell beside me, Wren cringed and bowed her head.
“Who is he?” I inquired.
“I don’t know,” she said, “but apparently in that world, he’s my boyfriend or something.”
The man set her down and kissed her again. “We have to go out and celebrate!” he declared.
“I can’t,” Wren replied. “I have to meet my parents for dinner.”
“After dinner?”
“After dinner,” she promised.
Then, the scene shifted again to reveal Wren sitting in a restaurant with her napkin on her lap. She had a forkful of food lifted halfway to her mouth, but she ignored it as she eagerly regaled the couple sitting across from her with the details of her day.
Gray tinged the couple’s hair and wrinkles lined their eyes and mouths. Judging by their similar features to Wren and the love in their eyes, these were the parents she’d told her boyfriend about. Parents who, in this world, had been killed when the gateway opened.
“And then the doctor came out and said he’s going to live!” Wren gushed before shoving her spaghetti into her mouth.
“That’s fantastic,” her mother said.
Her father rested his hand on Wren’s. “We’re so proud of you.”
Beside me, I scented Wren’s tears, but I didn’t look at her. She would hate it if I saw her cry.
They exchanged more stories about their lives, and I came to realize this was a weekly dinner date for them. It was a time for them to catch up with their daughter, who was a resident in a hospital an hour away from their home.
When the meal came to an end, they exchanged hugs, and her parents promised to let her know they’d arrived home safely before saying their goodbyes.
“I miss them so much,” Wren whispered beside me. “This… this is what they would look like now if they’d lived. I know it is. They would have come to visit me weekly, and I would have looked forward to every one of their visits.”
I glanced at her as she wiped the tears from her eyes and straightened her shoulders. Then, the scene shifted again to reveal Wren sitting in her car. She dialed her phone, and I realized she was speaking with her boyfriend when she told him she’d meet him in twenty minutes.
Wren hung up before pulling out of the parking lot and driving through a green light. She was halfway through the intersection when a truck barreled through a red light and toward her car. Brakes squealed but not in time to stop the truck from crashing into the driver’s side door of her car and spinning it around into another vehicle. The screeching of metal reverberated outside the cell before Wren’s car skidded to stop a hundred feet away from where it was initially hit.
Within the car, Wren’s head lulled at an awkward angle on her broken neck.
Then, the scene vanished.
CHAPTER 37
Magnus
“Every few minutes it loops through the same thing,” Wren said and turned away from the bars. She walked to the back of the cell and slid down the wall to sit on the floor again. “Thankfully, you can’t see or hear it from back here. There’s only so many times I can watch myself die, although the first time, I actually heard and felt my neck snap. It was horrible.”
“You experienced your death?” I asked.
“Yes. Well, sort of. The mortal version of me died in that world, but I was still alive when the scene started over.”
“Your torment is different from the others we witnessed, probably because the jinn and horsemen want you alive.”
“Why?”
“Because you are Corson’s Chosen and few are closer to the king than he is.”
Fire blazed from her eyes when they met mine. “They’re in for a rude fucking awakening then because I won’t allow them to use me for anything.”
I smiled at her before glancing at the hall. “What made you realize something was wrong in here?”
“His kiss,” she said. “Real or not, it felt so wrong. I went through the entire play once, but when he kissed me the second time, I almost threw up and my hand went to Corson’s marks.” Lifting her hand, she rested it against the fading marks on her neck. “Touching them woke me up to what was happening.”
“Then what happened?” I asked.
Gripping the bars, I braced my feet against the cell door as I attempted to pull the bars apart. They didn’t so much as groan, never mind bend or move in any way. My shoulder popped, my injuries protesting every movement, but I strained harder on them. Nothing.
“Then, I woke to find myself in here, and that… that playing over and over again. Do you want to know the weird thing?”
“Always.”
“I think it’s real. I mean, I know it’s some kind of movie or something, but I think that’s the way my life would have gone if the gateway never opened. I think I would have gone to school to become a doctor and dated the cute resident. My parents and I would have remained close, but it all would have come to a screeching halt the night I died in that car accident.”
I stopped yanking on the bars to look at her. “The jinn cannot reveal the future in such a way, and none of our paths are set for us. Free will tends to get in the way of that.”
“Maybe, but something about what happened out there feels right. For so long, I wished many things were different in my life. I wished my parents had lived and the gateway never opened, but I think if it remained closed, I would have died young. I think the death I was supposed to have in that world transferred over to this world when Greed’s horse pummeled me beneath its hooves and becoming a demon is the only thing that stopped it.”
“That’s not the way things work.”
“Then why does it feel so real?”
“Because the jinn are very good at imprisoning people in their thoughts. Before coming here, did you make a wish to someone?” I asked.
“No.”
“You didn’t wish life could be different? Or that the gateway never opened and demons never came to Earth?”
“I said no!” she retorted. “I realized years ago longing for things I could never have was pointless. Besides, I never would wish for it now that I have Corson. Never!”
“I believe you.”
I turned my attention back to the bars. I was still weakened from my fight and probably feeling some lingering effects from Sloth’s ability, but I should be able to do something with these bars.
“I told you, they don’t budge,” Wren said.
“Hmm.” I made my way around the cell, jerking on every bar I could, but none of them moved.
Glancing around the cell again, I stared at the sandstone floor before turning my attention to the ceiling where I spotted the large, circular symbol carved five feet over my head.
The circle encompassed a rotated square forming a diamond and another square imposed behind it. The squares held numerous lines etched into different angles that became a maze throughout them. At the center of the maze, a monolith shape rose tall.
“I don’t know what those markings are,” Wren said, and I realized there was an identical etching in the ceiling of her cell.
“Ancient symbols. When I saw them on the monolith
, I assumed they might be some form of demonish, but it’s something different.”
“What?”
“I think it’s a binding mark.”
“But if they’re not demonic, then what are they?”
I rubbed my chin as I pondered this. “If they’re on the monolith, then they must be fae. But why would the fae need a prison? Unless….”
My voice trailed off while I inspected our surroundings again. My mind spun as I tried to puzzle it out.
“Unless what?” Wren prodded after a few minutes.
“Unless the fae had more abilities than anyone realized. They didn’t have abilities that manifested themselves physically, like your talons or my illusions, but inner ones that revealed themselves in this world and in their symbols.”
“Like they’re witches or something?”
“The fae could be where the legend of witches came from, though they were known for their fair beauty and didn’t wear pointed hats. They also didn’t cast spells.”
“Or maybe they did,” Wren said as she rose to her feet. “Not like a cauldron kind of spell, but maybe some other type, and maybe those markings are their spells.”
“It could be possible. There is power in symbols as evidenced by the ones that once held up the seals. I’d bet the fae learned the power of these symbols from Absenthees. The mark above us is something they took from the monolith to help them fight their enemies. We’d assumed the fae were pushed out of the Abyss without a fight, and maybe it didn’t become a physical altercation, but they did try to resist the jinn. The fae must have placed some of the jinn into these cells before they were overrun, and that symbol made it so they couldn’t escape.”
“So how do we get out of here?” Wren asked.
“Have you tried destroying the symbol?”
“No, but I didn’t think it was a mystical binding thing either.”
No, she probably wouldn’t have put the two together. She’d never seen the seals.
“Besides, I’m not entirely sure destroying some ancient, mystical binding thing is a good idea,” she said. “When the seals fell, they pretty much destroyed Hell.”
“Maybe it’s not a good idea, but it’s the only one we have.”
Grasping the bars, I locked my legs around them and started to climb.
CHAPTER 38
Amalia
I kept my attention diverted between the horsemen and the ruins where they’d taken Magnus. Having slightly recovered, Lust dragged herself into a seated position a few minutes ago and propped herself against the wall.
I couldn’t help but feel pleased she looked as bewildered as she did beaten. She’d never imagined someone might be able to resist her once she unleashed her power on them, but she’d never encountered someone like Magnus before.
He resisted her because of me.
Tears pricked my eyes, and my heart swelled. Not only was I terrified for him and worried about where they’d taken him, but I’d also fallen in love with my Chosen. I think I’d been in love with him since he handed me those flowers.
There had to be a way to get out of this and get to him, but I had no idea how—not while they were surrounding me. I was already healing. My ribs were only fractured instead of broken, and my internal bleeding had stopped. Soon, I would heal enough to make a move, but I needed a plan for when that time came.
Think, Amalia.
My head spun as the jinn who’d taken Magnus away returned to the pit. I will get us out of this. I will figure this out.
I didn’t know where he was in those ruins, but if the jinn had returned, then he was secured somehow. He was still alive, I would feel it if they’d killed him, but what had they done to him?
My parents stood beside me; my mother’s hand rested on my shoulder while my father surveyed everything with his arms crossed over his chest. Their disapproval thrummed against my skin as did their love for me. They’d followed Olgon, they’d picked this path, but they did not sign up for this.
But then, they probably hadn’t expected me to do the things I’d done either. No matter our different paths, they would try to protect Magnus as they understood the Chosen bond, and they wouldn’t risk losing me should the horsemen decide Magnus should die.
Olgon and Pride stood near Absenthees, occasionally glancing at me while they spoke. This close to the monolith, its power electrified my skin, but I could also feel its wrongness, just as so many things were wrong in the Abyss.
Behind Pride, his horse shifted, and its tail twitched in annoyance while it surveyed the crowd. Nalki moved to stand a few feet in front of us and to my left. Some of the jinn still blocked the pathways leading into the pit, others clustered into a small group, and the rest stood near the monolith. All of them were unusually subdued; their uneasiness drifted from them in waves reminding me of ripples spreading across a pond.
Thinking about water made my heart ache as I recalled my too brief time with Magnus beside the pool and the life we’d returned to that area of the Abyss. I glared at my uncle before studying the ruins again. There was still no sign of Magnus or anyone who may be up there watching over him.
They wouldn’t leave him alone, would they?
No, there is no way they would feel confident in doing that. Unless it was impossible to escape wherever he was located, or maybe Sloth could keep him unconscious for hours or days.
“We won’t let them hurt you,” my mother said for what felt like the hundredth time.
I believed she would try to keep them from doing so, but what were the three of us versus the jinn and three horsemen? Not much at all considering Sloth knocked Magnus out with a touch of his hand.
And I didn’t want anything to happen to my parents.
Olgon and Pride broke apart. The smirk on Pride’s face as he sauntered toward us caused my hand to fist with the urge to hit him. Walking beside Pride, my uncle’s face was expressionless, but I sensed his fury.
Taking a deep breath, I lifted my chin. There may not be much we could do against them, but I refused to cower before these pricks.
“Have you come to a decision?” I asked as I held Olgon’s gaze.
“We have,” Pride replied.
Knowing it would infuriate the most arrogant of the horsemen, I refused to acknowledge Pride. “And?” I asked Olgon.
Pride kept his face impassive, but a wave of annoyance washed off him. I bit back a smug smile. I’m an empath, asshole; you can’t hide your feelings from me.
“And,” Olgon said, “if Rislen revealed our heritage to you, that means you have spoken to her recently and returned to the Earth plane.”
A shiver of foreboding raced down my spine. I didn’t know where he was going with this, but I suspected it wouldn’t be good.
“So?” I inquired with more bravado than I felt.
“You are Magnus’s Chosen, we hold you both prisoner, and we also hold Corson’s Chosen. Magnus and Corson are friends of Kobal’s, but Astaroth tells us Corson is closer, and we want him too.”
“And you are going to return to Earth and bring us to Corson,” Pride said. “You must have met him if you encountered Magnus.”
“I haven’t,” I lied.
“Your eyes give you away, Amalia,” Olgon murmured. “Do not lie to us; it will be your Chosen who suffers the consequences of it.”
I almost spat at him that he was family, but I bit the words back. I was family too, and I brought an enemy into the Abyss. It didn’t matter to Olgon I did it to save lives. He was determined to destroy those lives.
“Even if Corson is close to the king, you have to know Kobal won’t risk everything to come here and try to save him,” I said.
“Of course he won’t,” Pride purred.
“Then why do you want Corson?” I asked Olgon.
“Because Corson knows things about the king no one else knows,” Olgon replied.
“He’d never tell you anything that could be used against his king.”
“Maybe not normally,” Pride sai
d. It took all I had to keep my focus on Olgon. “But he’ll do anything for his Chosen, and he most certainly won’t be able to stand seeing her tormented in any way.”
Don’t react. Don’t react. Even if my eyes gave me away to Olgon, Pride wouldn’t know how to read my emotions yet.
“I’m not bringing you to Corson,” I stated.
“But you are,” Pride purred.
Behind his back, Lust rose to her feet. Swollen and bruised, her face resembled a half-smooshed tomato, but she was healing fast. Grasping her horse’s mane, she pulled herself onto its back and settled there. I hoped one day I’d get to watch her and her asshole beast meet with a horrific fate.
Lust’s head lulled forward before snapping up. She nudged the horse toward us and stopped beside Pride’s steed. Sloth remained near the monolith with his eyes closed; he appeared to have fallen asleep, but I suspected he was listening.
“She and that filthy demon will be cut apart piece by tiny piece, and they will watch it happen to each other!” Lust vowed. “Then, I will feed them to each other before starting the process all over again.”
I inwardly recoiled at the prospect of such a thing happening while Lust’s green eyes burned into mine. I didn’t know what possessed me, but I smiled at her. Drop dead, bitch.
I’d never known someone so beautiful could become so ugly, but her face twisted into a rage that blurred her features into something hideous and unrecognizable. For a second, Lust’s face mirrored her insides.
“I’m going to kill her,” Lust snarled.
Pride held up a hand, forestalling her when she went to dismount. “Not yet,” he said.
“Look at what that demon did to me!” she spat at him.
“You should have suspected the Chosen bond would make him capable of withstanding your power. Your hubris did that to you. Do not forget, you are Lust, not me.”
If Pride could feel the hatred Lust emitted when she pinned him with her stare, I suspected he would have killed her, or at least tried. However, after her brief lapse with me, she’d composed her face into a blank expression again. Outwardly, she showed no signs of loathing toward her fellow rider, but inwardly she seethed with it.
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