by A Lonergan
She took a step into the room and watched me carefully. I could end her life in seconds with the chains binding me. I had no doubt that I was faster than her, but was I faster than her magic? Almost as if Cal could sense the direction of my thoughts, his hands pressed into mine. I refused to look at him. I refused to take my attention away from our captor. I would fight if I needed to. I was going to get us out of here, one way or another.
Chapter Sixteen
The King
I blinked my eyes open and shook the darkness away. I could hear what my sister was saying, but I wasn’t processing. All I could see was the murderous look on Willow’s face. I could almost see her thought process, and I was surprised that Armia hadn’t noticed it. She was just prattling on and on about love and unrequited affection. Willow pulled the chain in between her wrists taut and I knew exactly what she planned. I touched her wrist to slow her action, but it did nothing to stop the next moments.
Willow moved like no other human I had ever laid eyes on. None of my elites, even with their magic, moved like she did. She was as graceful as she was deadly. The woman that had captured my eye was behind Armia before she could even blink. The chain was wrapped tightly around her neck, and I was the one that couldn’t breathe. I knew that bad things were bound to happen with Armia’s magic if she didn’t die or pass out quick enough. But, based on the look in Willow’s eyes, she wasn’t going to stop. She was too far gone in her planning to care what happened next besides survival.
When Willow looked down at me there were tears in her eyes, but there was a steel killer behind them. Armia was too good though. She was a grade a manipulator. She was letting Willow believe that she had won, so that she hesitated. Armia snapped her fingers and Willow was against the ceiling with her own chain wrapped around her neck.
Armia rubbed her inflamed skin and shook her head, like she was scolding a puppy. “That’s the wonderful thing about magic. One minute you’re here, and the next you aren’t.”
I finally found my voice. “Armia, don’t.”
“Oh, you actually care for this girl? You aren’t still hooked on Freya? What a shock. Finally after all this time.” Her nostrils flared and she let Willow drop to the floor. Willow gasped for air and clawed at her throat. Armia rolled her eyes. My dear sister beckoned with her finger and Willow floated to her. “How I wish you weren’t so valuable to me in here. I would put you on my frontlines, you deadly wraith.”
I sat up and looked at the evil being before me. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I think I have found my leverage.” She gave me grin. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
The door slammed closed behind her. My fingers illuminated the area around us and I could see the spotting of bruises starting to form on Willow’s neck. “I should have listened to you. Now she has bigger and better plans.”
I shook my head and tried to think of what I could say to convince her otherwise. “She would have figured out my interest in you one way or another. I mean, I did come down here alone to rescue you. I didn’t use my head.”
Willow looked at me like I had grown three heads. “What do you mean interest in me?”
“I mean you are different.” I didn’t know how to start this off.
“Aren’t they all?” She smirked.
“What does that even mean?” I frowned. I was doing this all wrong. After all, I hadn’t known her for very long and we were in different stations. I probably sounded ridiculous telling her my feelings like this.
“I can’t tell you how many times I had heard that line. That I am independent, I am confident, I am talented and I am different.” She scowled. “Why? Because in the sea of women that are all the same, I have different colored skin? In the sea of blondes, I have black?”
And how did one reply back to that? I had a feeling I was going to continue to rut this up if I didn’t shut my mouth.
“No, that’s not it at all. In a sea of all of those women, you are resourceful. You are intelligent and hardheaded. You think with your own brain and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, not even the king.” I acted horrified, but really, it had been incredible that my status hadn’t been able to change her mind. That she was willing to do what it took for herself to stay comfortable and sane. “You are self aware, and you’re willing to put yourself and identity at risk for people you don’t even know. You were willing to go head to head with Nico!”
The beauty sitting in front of me, laid her head on her knees. “You would be horrified if you knew what I had done. All the bodies, and the ways I had killed them. I am an elite, not a lady. I am a fraud, a deadly one. If you knew, you would no longer be interested, you would be repulsed. In order to set my mother free, I’ll have to do even worse things. You don’t understand.”
“She will never be free as long as you are both there.” I whispered.
She looked up at me with sad eyes. “I will never escape. I would rather die here. The Emperor will kill her right in front of me if I go back. Then he will kill me.”
“Without my head.” I finished the sentence for her. She looked at me horrified. “See, I use my brain too. I’m not as dumb as I look.”
She just stared at me.
“I know of the Emperor Hildiguard. I have heard the tales of his ruthlessness and his elites. I know about his king’s guards tattoos and their special abilities. But you are different and he doesn’t have a leash on you like he does the others.” I pinched my lips together in thought. “All he has is your mother. You have more freedom than you think.”
“Which is enough.” She laughed and it was the saddest sound I had ever heard.
“You’ll free her.” I believed my words as I spoke them. She was the best of the best. Even in chains. She would get her mother free.
Almost as if she was trying to change the subject, she said something I didn’t know if I was ready to talk about or not. I knew she was changing the subject from herself. “Who is Freya? I imagined she was the woman that fell through from the Mortal Realm… but I want to know who she was to you?”
I licked my lips and tried to think of the best way to explain the woman I had found myself falling head over heels in love with, in such a short period of time. The woman that had come and gone far too quickly. “She was the light that I never knew I needed. She showed me things that I didn’t have before, about myself, my people and just women in general. She was a love that I knew I would never get to keep, but I was okay with that as long as I got her for a short period of time.”
“And when she left?” Willow watched me with sad eyes.
“She broke me in a way I never thought possible. I never thought I would look at a woman again. I had always hoped that she would have come back. I told her I would wait and I did.” I could feel my chest getting tight. I hadn’t admitted it, or said it out loud it out loud, not even to Nico. “Wyna, one of my advisors, went to the Mortal Realm for a vacation, for Freya’s baby shower.”
Willow looked surprised. I continued on. “I knew when she came back here that she had a love back in her realm. I knew that he held more of her heart than I ever did, I just hope she was able to fix him.”
“I’m sorry,” She looked away from me.
“Nothing to be sorry about, she taught me too much to be sorry about our time together. It makes me sad, yes, but they are fond memories.” I swallowed back my grief and tried to focus on the future, if I even had one and if I would be able to salvage Willow’s feelings about me.
Sometime in the middle of the night Willow had fallen asleep on my shoulder. I hadn’t minded, and I had remained awake to ensure she stayed comfortable. She was probably deadlier than I was at my peak, and here I was worried about protecting her. The door banged open in front of us and Willow jerked up away from me. Armia had already seen everything she had needed to. My sister had two elves with her today that stood behind her as she assessed us.
“I gave you a warning,” Armia tsked. “I told you that if you didn’t tell
me where my genies were, I would take matters into my own hands. So here we are.” She looked between us for a moment. “We will start on the girl, see if we can get some information out of her.”
I jerked up into a standing position, ready to take her on. “No!”
The guards had already started to haul Willow up from the ground. I didn’t think she would go without a fight, but she was willing in their hands. I frowned and charged them head on. I hit a forcefield around them.
Armia sighed. “Defensive magic was what I learned first, brother. I would have thought that you would have learned this by now.”
“I don’t care what you learned, and I don’t care what you know. I care about protecting innocents.” I screamed at her. My chains shook with my anger.
She shook her head. “That’s the funny thing isn’t it? You have a fire in your eyes that died long ago. I have never seen any of the other people in your court spark you up like this.” The monster I had called my friend, and sibling, turned to her men and said, “Drop the girl. Bring the table in here.”
The elves were gone and back carrying a long metal table, and on top of it was a velvet bag. A velvet bag that I had only seen in the dungeons for war prisoners when our father had been alive.
“Don’t look so fearful. I know you remember Father’s treasure bag.” I knew exactly what was in the bag, but it wasn’t treasures. It was no where near anything special. She looked back at her men, standing in the doorway. “Put her on the table and hold her down.”
They moved like the genies did sometimes. They didn’t seem to have their own thoughts and just moved without thought, or consideration. Their actions mimicked machines. Their movements were jerky and forced, almost like they were short circuiting.
Willow let them do what they wanted and didn’t say anything as they pressed her into the table. I knew I couldn’t fight against the force fields my sister had put into place. I wondered why she didn’t fight. I knew their magic didn’t scare her. I had seen her eyes when she had faced off with Armia.
Willow looked up at my sister and her words made my blood run cold. “Do your worst.”
And Armia did just that.
Chapter Seventeen
Willow
If you screamed you died.
Thats how the Emperor had dealt with my trainings, and they still echoed in my mind to this day. The witch above me pressed a silver tool into my wrist and I didn’t even twitch. It was almost too easy. I had gone to my happy place so many times in the Emperor’s dungeons to care about what the girl above me did. She poked and prodded, then she became angry and started to hit me. It was a cycle of viciousness that I had been prepared for, in case I was tortured for information on Emperor Hildiguard. He had trained me well. I knew my body was beyond broken and bloody by the sounds of Cal on the other side of the wall of magic.
“I want to know where the genies are,” She watched me expectantly. I spit on her.
I was able to turn my head slightly and watched Cal; as he threw himself into it over and over again. Blood was running down his face and his knuckles were starting to turn colors from where he had punched the wall trying to get through. It had been no use. Watching him was the only pain I felt except when his sister started to take the knife to my wrist.
“You have scars marking your entire body,” I watched the woman inspecting my, now free, arm. “But you don’t have any on this arm. I have seen this magic before,” She twisted my arm and looked at my elbow. “It’s been a long time. It’s impeccable work.”
“What does that mean?” Cal’s hoarse voice interrupted Armia.
“You’ll just have to wait and see once I peel the magic away, Brother.” She started at my elbow and brought the blade down like she was peeling a vegetable. Her movements were smooth and fluid as she took the skin from my arm. I must have been delirious from fighting off the pain, because no blood sprouted from where she was cutting me.
I hadn’t felt pain when she had pressed her littlest blades under my fingernails, or when she had sliced little cuts down my legs, but as she started to take my skin from my arm, I could feel it all. I gritted my teeth and vowed silently that I wouldn’t let out a sound. That was what she wanted, wasn’t it? She wanted to hear me scream and beg for mercy. The woman would hear no such thing come from my lips.
Armia let out a sigh and turned her blade in the flickering light, inspecting it. The edge looked to be melted. “Stripping magic from someone is very tedious work, but it can be done.” She looked at the men standing in the doorway. “Please, fetch me more tools, these will not last long.”
And they didn’t.
I must have passed out because when I came around there was a buzzing in my ears and new pain all over my body. Armia was gone and I was strewn across the floor like discarded trash. My head was on something soft, but I couldn’t tell what exactly because the darkness was back. I wouldn’t have known I was even awake if there wasn’t something threading through my hair.
I tried my voice, “That better not be a rat in my hair.”
Cal’s chuckle somehow illuminated the room in a different way. I still couldn’t see him, but I could feel him. I could feel his magic and presence wrapping around me in the most comforting way. It was the best feeling I had had in a long time. It was the feeling that I would remember when things got tough, when I had to go back to Arinal. “It’s just me.”
I didn’t know what to say. I was obviously in his lap and he was running his fingers through my hair. My hair that was thankfully still long. “How long have I been out?”
“I don’t know.” Cal said. “It’s been awhile.”
“How bad is it?” I didn’t want to know, but I also didn’t want any surprises. There was a reason he chose to not have any light.
“Bad,” He didn’t elaborate.
“I want to see,” Even though I didn’t.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
I tried to push myself up into a sitting position and found that I couldn’t. My body wouldn’t obey. It was broken. Again.
“How badly did she break me?” My voice sounded small.
“You can’t feel it?” Cal sounded incredulous.
I shook my head against him. It was the only thing that would work properly. Dread coated my mind.
“How?” I didn’t know if it was a rhetorical question or not.
I answered it anyway. “The Emperor broke me so many times,” I paused to let it sink in. “Over and over and over again until eventually I could turn it off. Like a switch. I could no longer feel it. He made sure of it too. Our practices went on for months. When I emerged from my prison my parents threw themselves at my feet.” I swallowed back the emotions starting to hit me in waves. “I hadn’t pledged myself to His Grace yet, and they had thought he had sent me on assignment anyway. They saw the scars marking my body and I could do nothing. They could do nothing. We just acted like I was normal, even though I felt dead inside and I always felt dead inside.”
Cal didn’t say anything for a long time, but when he did, his voice sounded different. It was no longer soft. “I’m going to kill him. Someday I’m going to bring my ships to his kingdom and take everything from him. I will destroy him for what he has done to you and everyone else.”
My heart sank. “And he will win and take everything from you.” Cal didn’t know the Emperor, he didn’t know him like I did. He didn’t know the fear that the people had. He didn’t know the loyalty that his men gave so freely. Cal would lose and I would be the one to bring the final blow.
I must have slept because when the door slammed open, I jerked up and could finally see. Blood covered my entire body and there was blood on Cal from holding me for so long. His shirt had been wadded up under my head at some point and he was a good distance away. I wondered who he was doing it for. Was he putting distance between us for my benefit or his own?
I had full function back to my limbs, but as Armia strode into the room, I pretended as i
f I couldn’t move, still. I hadn’t done a good once over on my body just yet, but I would need to check all of my limbs once she left. But by the looks of the new table being carried in and the new bag, we weren’t finished.
Cal stood up and put himself in front of me. “You will do no more to her,” He held his arms out as far as he could with the chains and shackles on him. “You will not take her.”
“I want my information and I know she has it.” Armia watched Cal with narrowed eyes. “But, now that you mention it. I don’t think I am going to get anything more from her.” Armia snapped her fingers and Cal was lying on the metal table within seconds.
Rutting magic.
I stayed where I was. I couldn’t risk it. I winced and made noises as I pretended to struggle to get in a better position to watch what was about to unfold. I needed to reserve my strength.
It seemed like hours had gone by and finally Cal broke. He let out wails of pain like I had never heard before, but he didn’t give away the genies location. He would die before he gave them up. He would die before he let them go back to the slavery they had known, and the power she had greedily used. He would die for his people. He would die for the people that probably wouldn’t care or remember his reign.
Armia got in close, like she was going to kiss her brother, but then she pressed the knife against his cheek and smiled. “It would be a shame to ruin this gorgeous face.”
She pressed the knife down. Blood bubbled up from his skin and spilled out onto the table. She dragged the blade down his face, to his neck. He was bleeding far more than I thought he should. Then I realized she was going for the jugular.
