Varrick muttered in some unknown language. "You do exactly as I say from here on out, no questions and no arguments. Do you understand?"
"I understand. Just...we have to get him help."
He nodded as he lifted the boy into his arms. "We will, but he might not thank us later."
CHAPTER TEN
"Ariana, would you please knock it off?" Sheridan’s voice turned softer even though her exasperation was still evident. "I don't want to treat you like a prisoner, but you aren't leaving me much of a choice. You just attacked Domrick. He's my mother's second in command."
Ariana struggled against the hold of Sheridan’s goon, shouting her expletive-filled response from underneath the hand clamped over her mouth as she was dragged down a dingy set of stairs. She’d woken up in a luxurious bedroom, complete with its own set of guards outside her door. So what if she had bashed the second in command upside the head with a handheld mirror? How else was a girl supposed to escape after being kidnapped? She probably would’ve gotten a lot further if the sheer size of the house she was in—as well as its medieval looking décor and lack of any sign of electricity—hadn’t left her frozen in shock.
She didn’t blame herself for that. Not too much, anyway. She expected to be in some sort of basement, not a castle. But it appeared the basement was exactly where she was heading now as they continued to descend the winding staircase, and she continued to fight against their hold. All her struggles ceased as they rounded the corner and she realized where she was.
They had brought her to a dungeon. Barred cells lined the hallways, some empty and some with occupants, though whether or not they were alive was up for debate. Her stomach twisted and her legs ceased to work. The goon holding her wrapped his arm around her waist, hefting her into the air so her toes dragged across the dusty floors.
There was very little light in the room they brought her to, but it was enough to see the devices lining the walls. The shadows they cast only add to the threatening ambience as her heart pounded in her chest. She wasn’t just in a dungeon.
She was in a torture chamber.
Sympathy welled in her chest as she noticed that the room was already occupied. A young man, who didn’t look much older than her, was hanging from a set of chains. The bars behind him formed an ‘X’ and forced his body into the same position with his arms hanging in the air and his legs splayed apart. His dark hair fell along the line of his sculpted jaw, and he was wearing…well, to say his outfit was dated was an understatement. She’d only ever seen someone dressed like a medieval peasant on Halloween, and she was pretty sure it was a bit early for costumes. Had he been here since last Halloween? Her heart broke at the idea.
The dark-haired prisoner leaned against the posts behind him, somehow managing to look as though he were casually standing by with a crooked grin on his face. “Welcome home, Sheridan.”
Sheridan rushed across the room and throwing her arms around his neck. "Alec! It's been so long. What are you doing down here?" She pulled away and cocked a knowing brow. "Please tell me you weren't mouthing off again."
"You know me."
Seriously? He was talking to Sheridan as though she was an old friend instead of someone holding him prisoner. Either this guy was really messed up, or Ariana had no idea what was going on at all. Possibly both.
"Yes, I do. I really wish you would just behave, Alec. I hate when she hurts you." Sheridan reached out and stroked the light bruise across his cheek. "You aren't healing."
He turned his face away from her touch. "Kellen is starving me. She knows when I'm low on energy, I'm not as tough."
"You must have really made her mad." Sheridan reached behind him, unwinding the chains holding him in place. "Still, Alec, if you would just agree to help her—“
"No," Alec spat out the word through gritted teeth. "I might have betrayed my duties when I left Estridia, but I will not betray its people by helping that monster take over." He lowered himself down to the ground and let his cheek rest against the posts he was chained to. "She can torture me all she wants, but I will never help her again. And you shouldn’t either, Sheridan.”
Ariana watched their conversation, her confusion deepening so much that she was beginning to wonder if they were even speaking English. All she knew was she had to get out of here. She struggled against the man holding her, her grunts of effort muffled by the hand still clamped against her mouth.
The guard threw her to the ground, grabbed a fistful of her hair, and yanked her head up so he could smack her across the face from a better angle. She let out a whimper, tasting blood in her mouth.
Alec’s attention shifted to her. “Sheridan? Who is that girl?”
"Yes, Sheridan," a cold female voice came from the doorway. She was tall with rosy undertones to her pale skin that contradicted her demeanor as her icy blue eyes glared at the young blonde girl to her right. "Who is this girl, and why is she chained up in my dungeon? Because I told you to make sure the girl I sent you to retrieve was treated as a most welcomed guest and not a prisoner."
Sheridan dropped to one knee. She lowered her chin to her chest, obvious terror in her every move from displeasing this woman. "I tried, but she fought us."
Ariana still rubbed her wounded cheek. “You killed my best friend and expect me to play nice?”
The woman glided over to Ariana with the grace of a serpent weaving its hypnotic dance. She knelt in front of her, inspecting her wounded cheek with a sympathetic pout. “My darling girl…What have they done to you? I must apologize for my soldiers. Their methods can be quite barbaric, but you must understand. They are used to dealing with our enemy one on one. They see opposition and they think the worst. Can you forgive me?”
Ariana pulled away from her touch. “Who are you? What do you want from me?”
“I want to help you, my dear. My name is Kellen. I am a Cahiran, but you might do well to think of us as revolutionaries. I’ve read about the world the Estridians sent you to, so I understand there was a great war there as well. One between the North and South?”
Ariana nodded slowly, unsure of the reason for the history lesson. “Yeah. The Civil War.”
“To free people, yes?”
“The slaves, yeah. What’s that got to do with you kidnapping me?”
Kellen rose to her feet and offered Ariana a hand up, which she reluctantly took. “I do apologize for that. It was critical that we get to you before the Estridians. You see, much like the North from your war, we are fighting for freedom and equality as well. I believe you can help us do that.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Alec urged, his grey eyes filled with urgency and regret as they bore into Ariana’s. "Ask yourself: Do you really want to help a woman who keeps children chained up in her basement?"
"You are hardly a child, Alec," Kellen scolded with warning.
He threw himself forward, his chains snapping him to a halt before he could get close. "I was when I got here!"
Ariana didn’t need to hear anymore. She didn’t care. These people had killed her best friend and just left her body there. She wrapped her arms around herself as she thought about whether or not anyone had found Emma yet.
Whatever the reasons were, they didn’t matter. Nothing could justify that, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to jump onto the side of people who would treat murder as just another casualty of war. There was no apology possible to cover what happened, no matter what freedoms they were fighting for.
“Not a chance in hell,” she echoed her thoughts as she glared at Kellen. “You can’t just go around killing whoever you like and then expect to recruit their best friend. I don’t care what war you’re fighting, but now? As far as I’m concerned, you are my enemy.”
Kellen’s face twisted into a scowl, her glower shifting to where Sheridan stood watching. She snapped her fingers for Sheridan to come forward. "Who is this girl she keeps speaking about, and why was she killed?"
Sheridan's head hung between her shoulders, her blo
nde curls curtaining her face as if her hair might hide her from the furious woman before her. "A young girl Ariana and I—I mean, a friend of Ariana's. The girl snuck up on us when I was trying to talk Ariana into coming with us, as you instructed us, and my men overreacted."
Her commander's hand snapped out, gripping her around her throat. "You have failed me, Sheridan. I instructed you to make sure the girl was on our side and to make sure no harm came to her whatsoever." Kellen tightened her grip, pulling Sheridan closer so her hot breath singed the girl's cheeks with her words. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you."
Sheridan clawed weakly at the hand blocking her airway. "Because I'm your daughter," she answered with a sob.
Kellen released her, watching the young girl drop to the ground. "That is your only saving grace." She bent forward. "For now. Do not disappoint me again."
Sheridan nodded, clamping her mouth shut as her lips quivered with the sobs she struggled to hold in. Her shaking hand rested protectively on her neck, rubbing it as though she might be able to ease the burn. "Yes, Mother. Please forgive me."
"Get out of my sight," Kellen sneered as she turned away from her daughter, not paying attention to the way the girl scurried away in fear. "I'll deal with her later. As for our new guest," she gave Ariana a malevolent smile, "you will find there are other ways to coerce you into doing what is necessary for me. I'm certain that, after some time, you will find my requests to be reasonable."
"You just threatened to kill your own daughter in front of me," she pointed out as she turned back to the woman in front of her. "I think the chances of you ever looking like the good guy after that are slim-to-none. You really should've done your homework before choosing to kidnap me. You can ask my parents. I'm pretty much a stubborn selfish brat."
"Oh, you are going to be so much fun to break." Kellen threw a glance to Alec. "You two might have a lot in common, my pet." She turned to the two guards standing on either side of Ariana. "Unchain her and follow me. There's something I want her to see."
Ariana jerked away from the guard's touch. "I'm not going anywhere with you." Her eyes widened as an invisible force wound its way around her neck. Her hands frantically searched for the object choking her, but could find nothing. She gasped and choked as she clawed at her neck, fearing she was about to die.
"Kellen!" Alec cried out, pulling against his restraints. "Don't! Leave her alone! Kellen!"
Ariana felt her heart try to jump from her chest as she realized Kellen had been choking her without touching her. She could find no other rational explanation for what had just happened to her, though this explanation was not one she would consider rational under normal circumstances. "How did you do that?" she panted as she rubbed her neck.
Kellen had turned her attention to Alec. "You seem awfully protective of our new guest."
"She's an innocent young girl," he half-whispered, half-pleaded to her. "What possible reason could you have to cause her harm?"
"Your need to protect her has nothing to do with her innocence or age, though I'd wager she's not much younger than you." She grabbed Ariana by the arm and marched her over to him, thrusting her wrist in front of his face. "You wanted to know who she is? This is who she is. And why your blood is burning with the need to protect her."
Alec stared down at the five pointed star on Ariana's wrist, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "No," he breathed, "this can't be."
Kellen ran a finger down the Ariana's cheek, tracing the lines her tears had created and relished in the fear and confusion now churning in the girl’s deep-set eyes. "Though I do find it odd you didn't have such a visceral reaction when I killed Nandalia right down the hall from where you slept."
Ariana could see the realization of Kellen's claim wash over Alec's face, though she had no idea what any of this meant. Kellen left him to his thoughts while she dragged Ariana down the hallway, leading to the prisoners' cells. A curt nod had one of the guards fumbling with a set of keys to open the one they stood before. The door was thick wood with no windows or bars to allow any light. The hinges groaned as if in protest, allowing the putrid smell of death to waft out.
Ariana began gagging, and even the guards showed their distaste for the acrid air, but Kellen remained unmoved.
"Look," she ordered the girl. When Ariana didn't respond, Kellen made a clucking noise with her tongue before pushing her inside. "I will lock you in here if I must, but you will look."
Ariana turned to the corner of the cell, where the flies were buzzing around what she thought was just a pile of clothes.
"Turn her over," Kellen commanded the girl once more.
"That's a person?" Ariana asked weakly, fighting the nausea as she wrapped her arms around her stomach.
"Yes, now turn her over," Kellen repeated with impatience.
Ariana turned her head from side to side and backed away, her every movement felt like slow motion. She clutched her abdomen as the contents of her stomach flipped. She noticed she felt warmer, too, and realized the warmth was isolated to her arms. She tentatively touched her wrist, yelping in shock at the heat. Crying out as the sweltering grew more and more intense, she fell to her knees and steam began to rise from her skin.
"I will not ask you again," Kellen said. Ariana looked up at her, wide-eyed and full of fear, and Kellen met her eyes with a challenging stare, daring the girl to defy her again. "Do not enter into a battle of wills with me, child. I am far more adept at my gifts than you are, and I can do far worse than give you a sunburn."
Ariana's skin cooled back to normal temperature, but there were little welts and blisters beginning to appear in a ring around each wrist, as though she had been placed in a burning set of cuffs. She resisted the urge to rub them and instead did as she was told, reaching out with a tentative hand and pulling on what looked to be the sleeve of a green dress. The body turned over onto its back, revealing it to be an older woman of maybe her mid-forties.
"Do you know who this woman was?" Kellen asked as she walked over. She nudged the body with her foot.
Ariana scooted herself away from the corpse in front of her, covering her mouth with the back of her hand as she tried not to be sick. Flinching at the threatening step Kellen took toward her, she frantically shook her head. "No, I've never seen her before," she breathed.
"She was Nandalia. One of the Duillaine. One of the most powerful people in all the worlds," she clarified. "And I killed her. Do you know why I killed her?" Kellen knelt down in front of the frightened young girl. "Because she wouldn't listen to reason. That's all I ask, you see. For you to be reasonable. If you are reasonable, then you are useful to me. The moment you fail to be useful to me. Well...." she trailed off, gesturing to the lifeless figure beside them.
Ariana stifled a whimper at this, feeling very lost and alone. She just wanted to go home. She had no idea what this vile woman wanted from her, but she understood the lengths her captor was willing to go in order to reach her goal. For the first time since waking up in this hellhole, Ariana was beyond scared. She was downright terrified.
Kellen stood with a grace not at all befitting the monster Ariana now saw her as, and gestured to the dead woman. "You might also like to know Nandalia was your real mother."
"What?" Ariana asked as she let out a breath, immediately regretting it as she pulled more putrid air into her lungs. The scent of death touched her tongue and she choked on her words. "No. My mother—“
"Isn't who you think she is," Kellen finished. "You were taken from your true home when you were just a baby and raised in a different world by a family of Estridians. This piece of filth at my feet gave birth to you and then sent you away so your power could not threaten her rule. Before you go choosing sides, ask yourself what kind of a mother would send her child away like that. If you had still been in Anscombe yesterday, my people would have never been able to get to you."
Ariana hardly paid attention to Kellen as she stared at the dead woman a few feet away from her. She could
see the resemblance, even though Nandalia's features were disguised by the pallor of death. She didn't have her mother's freckles, but they shared the same eyes and the same heart-shaped face. She had always tried to find the same similarities between herself and the two people back home she had thought were her parents, but the hard truth had been that she didn't resemble them at all. Could it be because she wasn't their daughter? That she really belonged to this dead woman beside her?
She fought against this idea at first, and then she remembered something her father had always told her: the simplest explanation is usually where the truth can be found. What would be the simplest explanation here? She asked herself. Was all of this true, and she really was being held prisoner by a magic-wielding sociopath who had already killed her true birth mother? A mother who had sent her far away to live in a land obviously cut off from this one?
She stared off into the distance, trying to think of what else might explain this. If this was a dream, she should be able to wake up. Unless she was hallucinating. Or had a head injury. That would make the most sense, she thought to herself with excitement as she sucked in another putrid breath. If whoever killed Emma attacked her too, she could have bumped her head, and this could all be one big concussion-induced delusion.
Her fingers probed her skull for a lump, but her hands frantically searching her scalp for the injury. She did, however, cry out as a few strands of hair brushed against the welts on her wrists. She dropped her arms, her elbows resting on her lap as she stared at the blisters. The pain felt more real than anything, which told her this must not be a dream. She felt herself go numb with acceptance as the guards lifted her to her feet and frog marched her from the cell.
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