by Sarah Noffke
I swallow hard. That feels like true romance.
Shaking my head I withdraw from these thoughts, remembering I can never be fooled by the immediate actions of this man. In the end he’s only after one thing and it isn’t me. This is the man who had my mother killed. Who forged the way my life unfolded. This is the man who killed Pearl and countless others, including Aiden’s parents. I remind myself why I’m here. Why I made the decisions I did. This is about choices and right now I’m choosing not to fight, but rather to let those who like to, face each other. Their selfish hate has overwhelmed them so much that they don’t even know who they’re fighting anymore.
A sound so awful it makes my stomach turn explodes from Zhuang. It isn’t words, but still I interpret the hoarse sound exploding from his mouth as a plea. If Joseph’s theory is correct, based on what he’d seen in his flash, then Chase is using his mind control to force Zhuang to send the power that he sucked from dreamers back into the ether. Like moisture in the air, it will be absorbed by some cloud of consciousness, where it will build until one day all this power rains back down onto the Earth and its dreamers.
Zhuang’s pointy fingers recede from his face. The red streaks start at his cheekbones and slash down his sunken cheeks. Before my eyes his skin wrinkles like a damaged piece of leather. It goes from being taut against his bony frame to dripping from his features. Sunken eyes stare unblinkingly at Chase and then they land on me. The wheezing in his chest is the first signal that he’s trying to speak and therefore abandoning the power he’s been trying to use to fight.
“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” he hisses at me and blood leaks from the corner of his mouth.
Zhuang is using his last breaths of other people’s lives for hate, which makes everything I’ve done and will do easier to digest. “Don’t delude yourself,” I say evenly. “You never could have killed me because I’ve always been the means to your end.”
“I’ll haunt your dreams, little girl. I’ll be there…every…time…you…sleep,” Zhuang says, blood spurting from his mouth with each word.
“Go to hell where you belong,” I say behind my barrier of protection.
Zhuang eyes flutter like he’s on the verge of passing out. He easily weighs twenty pounds less than he did moments prior, his robes slipping off his scrawny shoulders. His greasy black ponytail is now silver and wiry and drapes from his almost sunken head.
Chase casually drops his hands to his side. Instantly, Zhuang falls dully to the ground at his feet in a heap of silk and disillusions. This is the first time I consider stepping out from behind Chase and watching from his side as my adversary wretches in pain and agony. My eyes flicker momentarily to Chase, who’s oozing with pride as the man at his feet heaves in a breath and spurts out blood. “That’s it. Go ahead and die,” Chase says, his voice a welcome sound after all the noises of pain from Zhuang that filled the lobby.
In a quick motion Chase shoots one hand through the air and rips it back like he’s pulling something out of Zhuang. A howl bursts from Zhuang’s mouth, sending a volcano of blood into the air. Geysers of thick red liquid shoot up and sink back over his face filling in his wrinkles and drenching his silver hair. Instantly the flesh and bones twitch violently and when I think I can’t watch any more he grows smaller and smaller and every part of him dries up into itself. Within seconds Zhuang disappears into a pile of ashes and bones and silk. The sight is vile.
However, there’s something that isn’t despicable and it’s that Zhuang is gone. He’s dead and that means a new reign. Dream Travelers and Middlings are now safe. I should be happy. Relieved. Grateful. But I know my fate is not as safe as the people I’ve bargained to protect.
Chase spins around to face me. I take in the electric blue eyes that have just sucked the evilness out of the world and know they’re coming for me next. However, my death will be much, much slower.
Chapter Forty-Six
Irrefutably he’s the most attractive person who’s ever existed. He such a beautiful composition of a man it makes me want to cry. I’m not sure if this is part of his mind control, but it’s one of the most useful of any of the talents I’ve encountered since learning I was a Dream Traveler. Attractive people hold so much power that they don’t deserve. People lavish the beautiful with unearned praise, riches, and fame. If you’re gorgeous and know how to use it to your favor then you can part a person’s consciousness, deceive a reality, or seduce someone into slavery.
Feeling the poisoned-tipped weapon stashed in my pants I ready myself for what must come next. I need him to come close. I need to prepare myself to fake it again. I need to finish him before he realizes this has all been a trap.
Standing three feet from me Chase pulls his wrist up to his chest. He’s weakened, but still a power exudes in every one of his movements. I don’t doubt for one moment that he’s a force I need to fear and also extinguish. Fluidly he taps his wrist like he wants the time. “Take off your bracelet, Roya,” he says through his soft pink lips.
Doom crashes down on me.
The confusion and fear wash over Joseph and Trey’s faces. I pretend not to notice them, to have eyes only for Chase. “What?” I say like I misheard.
“Take. It. Off.”
Stepping forward two feet, I act as if being close to him is all I’ve longed for. I make my eyes tell him that I misunderstand and just need him to hold me. Chase steps back several feet, keeping distance between us.
“I’ve done what you asked,” Chase says, gesturing at the pitiful pile of Zhuang’s remains. “I’ve killed a powerful man to protect you. I’ve proven that I love you. That’s what you wanted. That’s what you needed in order to become my wife, right?” His electric blue eyes pierce me and although I’m being battered by a shower of cold water overhead I’m on fire with fear.
I swallow hard, and again step forward a few paces hoping he won’t notice when I close the space between us. As if we’re doing a rehearsed dance Chase steps to the side, keeping himself a safe distance from me.
“Why?” I ask, injecting grief into my voice.
“You must know I’m not your fool. I’ve played your game, but that doesn’t mean for one minute I believed that poor act you tried to pull off at the Parthenon. I know you can shield yourself from me. My wife will not be protected from me in this way and you will be my wife.” He points to my bracelet. “Take it off.”
“But, I…I…”
“Take it off or your father dies.” Chase’s voice is even, full of promises.
I consider challenging the threat, but I catch Joseph’s gesture. He’s inconspicuously pointing to something. With a tiny flick of my eyes I look in that direction. Every hope I have of escaping Chase withers away with that single glance. Trey’s medallion, his protective charm, lies in the corner by the far wall. How had I not noticed that Trey had his charm ripped from him? Now it’s easy for Chase to overpower my father, make him do whatever he pleases. He can make him kill himself or anyone left in this room. Trey sits beside Joseph, his face crazed with worry even though he looks close to passing out. This man may not have earned much of my respect in the past, but that doesn’t mean I want him to fall victim to Chase’s mind control. I don’t need to weigh my options because I already know what I have to do. Zhuang is gone. The next danger stands right in front of me. I have to get him far away from everyone I love. I think I knew it would always go this way. Had prepared myself for this inevitability.
The pin to my bracelet pinches my fingertip when I press it, releasing the hinge immediately.
“No! Roya, don’t! Please!” Trey’s voice is panicked.
“It’s all right, Trey,” I say, dropping the charm to the ground, abandoning a piece of me in search of redemption. I believe without the charm I’ll still be able to hold strong against the beautiful man before me. Not only that, but I think that I’ll be able to plunge the poisoned-tipped knife into his chest, ending his life and thereby securing my fate.
I�
��m wrong.
As soon my bracelet disconnects from my wrist, an unstoppable force wrangles into my mind and heart, reading them and taking control of my body. A satisfied grin, so elegantly perfect and wrong, spreads across Chase’s face. “That’s it, mon amour. I knew you’d see it my way,”
“Yes, your way.” My mind startles at the sound of my voice.
“Good girl,” he purrs, taking a step closer to me. He eyes me with a deliberate focus. “Oh, yes, I believe this is a match made by the gods. You have a mind that’s equal to mine in many respects.” His eyes shift over me, but I sense he’s not looking at my physical body. “Oh, and a quick read of your emotions tells me you’ve been extremely disloyal to me, loving another. Tsk tsk tsk. You will be punished for this, but not now.” He leans into me, his cold breath biting my skin. “Now it’s time to see if the woman to be my wife can comply with my demands. Let’s see how well you respond, shall we?”
I want to move. To take the blade in my waistband and plunge it into him, but I don’t budge. My muscles don’t respond to the orders from my brain. My heart. Both are locked behind bars. Imprisoned.
“Roya,” Chase says, his voice filled with amusement, “take off your clothes.”
Almost before he finishes his sentence, my hands grip the hem of my shirt, tugging it over my head in one swift movement, and I hand it to Chase. No! I scream in my mind. What are you doing?
“Stop this,” Trey begs, clenching his eyes shut.
“Look at how well she minds. Her brain so beautifully constructed and easy to control.” He tosses my shirt into the flames in the display case. It ignites immediately. “You can wait to take off the rest of your clothes when we return home.” Snatching my hand, Chase glides a diamond ring I didn’t see until now onto my finger. It fits perfectly, like it’s made for me. A large pear-shaped diamond sits in the center, a row of small diamonds accenting the band. “You will marry me. Tonight. I cannot wait a moment longer to conceive our children.”
Chase eyes the ring, triumph delighting his facial features. “It looks perfect on you. It was my mother’s. She’ll die when she learns I have it. Literally.” He drops my hand and leans into me, grazing his lips against mine. Bile rises in my throat, but my hands don’t care. They grab the sides of his face and yank him into me, my mouth kissing him hungrily. I hike my leg up and wrap it around him. It feels grotesquely wrong, which doesn’t explain why I turn my head and make eye contact with Trey. A gratified smile unfurls on my face, while Chase trails kisses down my throat. I need to stop this but my hands aren’t my own. My lips make satisfied expressions that I don’t feel. I’m locked inside my heart unable to do anything, only watch myself operate like a stupid robot.
Chase withdraws from me, a heat in his electric blue eyes. “Oh, and Trey,” he says, keeping his gaze on me. I pant, stupidly. “Please don’t worry about your daughter. I won’t hurt her. Not until the day I kill her, the day after she delivers me my third child. You’ll know when that is, because I’ll ship you her body.”
“No!” Trey yells so loudly it rings in my ears. I want to look at him. To witness the pain in his eyes, but Chase keeps my gaze pinned on his beautiful frame.
“Don’t, Roya! This isn’t you. Fight this,” Joseph begs.
I’m trying, I want to tell him. Every part of my being is battling Chase. And losing.
“Hmmm…” Chase says, sounding pleased. “Does it make you feel better to know she’s trying to fight me? She’s actually quite the fighter, but she’s still losing. Oh, what’s happening to her is really brutal,” he says, almost laughing with glee. “She can’t stand this,” he says, wiping his finger up and down my arm.
“Stop it!” Trey says, his voice straining.
“I’m afraid that’s not going to happen. I have so much more to say on this matter,” Chase says, sounding almost rehearsed. “You see, your daughter is going to fulfill my demands, giving me the pureblooded children I ask for. Then she’s going to pay for her parents’ transgressions. How does that all sound, mon amour?” Chase says, looking at me directly, like he’s sincerely interested in my answer.
“Lovely,” I reply.
“No!” Trey yells, a raw ache in the one word. “Don’t do this to her! Just punish me!”
“Don’t you see,” Chase says with a sickly smile. “This is your punishment. The worst I could envision for you.”
“It’s okay, Dad,” I say in a voice that sounds too childish to be mine. “I deserve this. You deserve this. Chase has made me see that. It’s really so just,” I say, stroking my fingers up and down his lapels.
“You’re going to make a fine wife. I might even miss you after I kill you. But I’ll have my children. My power. My vengeance. And that will keep me warm once you’re cold in the ground. And just so you know, Trey, until the day your daughter dies she will suffer.” His cool breath wisps against my cheeks. With whirlwind speed he yanks the knife out from behind my back. “She will suffer for trying to betray me today. For thinking that was even a possibility. She suffers now, locked in her mind with a sickening aversion to me. You did an extraordinary job making her hate me, and it’s worked in my favor because your daughter is so repulsed by me that I know the things I’m going to do to her and make her do to me will torture her consciousness. For example…” He runs his lips over the contours of my jaw. Tremble inside. “She hates every single minute of this. It’s completely tearing her apart inside, which is actually turning me on,” he says, biting at my jaw.
“How does that feel, Roya?”
Revolting. Horrid. Unbearably awful. “Like heaven,” I say, gripping his jacket.
His cold hand grips my shoulder. He squeezes so tight I wince, physically and inside. His fingers press into the wound on my shoulder, opening it back up. “Never wrinkle my suits. Is that clear?” he says, a look of cold contempt in his eyes.
“Yes,” the robot in me answers.
He pulls his hand away, blood from my reopened wound on it. Dragging a handkerchief from his pocket he nonchalantly wipes off my blood from his hand. “I guess we have more work to do finessing the controls on her,” Chase says, rolling his eyes and looking at Trey like I’m a defective piece of equipment. “This mistake was my fault, but your daughter will pay the price for my mistakes as well as yo––” His voice turns into a hoarse scream. Horror rips through Chase’s eyes. He clenches them shut like an unsightly pain is tearing him into pieces. His hands seize my forearms, fingernails pierce my skin. A yell of distress tears out of his mouth. I want to search the space for what’s causing this reaction, but he has me frozen, only allowed to stare into his sharp eyes, raked with pain. Fear splits through me, capturing my breath, abducting all peace within my being. My arms scream from the force he’s pressing into them.
Chase shoves me away haphazardly, pushing me so hard I trip and land on my backside. Then I see what I tripped over. Urgently I shuffle back, my chest caving in with sharp breaths. I scramble to my feet, my calf screaming from the many altercations, blood dripping down, sprinkling the pit of snakes that tangle my feet. They swarm around my legs and hands. The snakes are all headed in one direction. To Chase. There has to be a hundred of them.
Still stumbling, crushing the rubbery creatures under my feet, I move backwards. The snakes hiss, but don’t strike at me. However, attached to various places on Chase’s legs are snakes with their fangs stuck sharply through his pants and into his flesh. Violently he strikes at them, deflecting the snakes. He rips them off and throws them across the room. Kicks them away from him. Chase staggers, almost falling to the ground. He recovers just as his attention darts to Trey, who’s hunched against the wall, half alive. “And to think I was going to let you live. Now you’re dead,” he says through winded breaths. Trey’s face arranges itself into a sea of pain as he stands, the effort looking like enough to kill him. Slow, arduous steps take him to the knife lying on the ground. My knife with the poison-tipped blade. He reaches for it, every action not his own.
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No! I scream in my mind, but the words stay trapped inside me. And then I flex my fingers. Feel the ability to control my body awaken inside my being. It’s minuscule, but starting to stir.
The hilt of the knife is against Trey’s throat. All my efforts work to move my muscles, to take back what belongs to me. To stop Trey from killing himself.
Fire from the display case shoots through the air like it’s riding on an arrow and lands on Chase’s back. It snakes up to his shoulder, but it’s slow to spread. Shock and anger blare across his eyes. He slaps at the flames. Slams his back up against the wall. And like a lock unbolting an urge inside me unlatches. It stirs with the greatest intensity. A lifesaving one. The wind surges with tiny puffs, encouraging the flames on him to grow. My wind. From across the smoky room, Joseph almost vibrates with redemption. “That’s it, Roya!” he screams, a raw need in his voice. “Help me!”
And just like that I almost break through. And then I’m also still Chase’s puppet, one that reaches to him, even though he’s coated in fire. My body lunges, intent on smothering the flames.
“NO!” Joseph dives at me, pulling me away from Chase. He tugs me backward, and Chase continues to erupt in a blanket of flames and venom. I’m half charging toward him and half urging Joseph’s arms around me, protecting me.
And then a cold, delicate metal wraps around my wrist. Shuman’s eyes are in my face, pleading for me to stop resisting. Pleading for me to stay still. And all at once I wither until I hear the click and slip back into the person I used to be.
Exhausted and completely skewed by my experience, I slip into another consciousness where I watch everything from a different realm. And still the currents of wind are my constructions. They encourage the flames that burn the dying man. Winds from inside me whisper against Joseph’s flames, stoking them until Chase is covered completely in orange and black fire.