by Sammie Joyce
“Snap out of it, Gavin!” Rose grabbed his shoulders and shook, trying to shake some sense into his stupid head. “This is Hellith we’re talking about! She is not on our side.”
“No one else is on my side, not even you. Hellith offered me help.”
“I am on your side, Gavin! You’ve fallen under some spell of Hellith’s. You’re not yourself.”
“You can’t be on my side and on theirs.” Gavin’s face darkened. “My brothers don’t understand. They are the true enemy, not Hellith.”
Rose stepped away from him. Arguing wasn’t going to do any good. She knew that Asher, Jagger, and Mace would arrive sooner or later to rescue her, but she worried about what Hellith might do to her and Gavin in the meantime.
Even though he had betrayed her, Rose still loved him and didn’t want to see him hurt. She had to get them both out of here. Gavin clearly wasn’t going to contribute to his own rescue.
“I need some time to think this over, Gavin. This is all happening very quickly. Please, just give me some time alone, to think. Come back in a couple of hours, and we can talk again.”
Had Gavin been in his right mind, he never would have fallen for it. Fortunately, this brainwashed version of him wasn’t nearly as smart as Rose knew him to be.
“Of course. Don’t take too long, though. I want to get started with our new lives as soon as possible.”
Had he forgotten that Hellith had threatened to strangle her with her own intestines, or was he just choosing to believe it wouldn’t happen? Rose was certain that Hellith would follow through with her threat, but if Gavin could keep her at bay for a few hours, they may have a chance.
“The door will close behind me, but you’ll be able to come out if you need food or anything. You won’t be able to leave the main cave, though.”
“Of course not.” Rose tried to dial back her sarcasm. Gavin wasn’t himself. Being angry with him wouldn’t help right now. When they escaped and got Hellith’s spell off him, she’d need to figure out exactly how many of his actions he was responsible for, before the spell took away his ability to think.
Gavin left, the door closing after him. Rose picked up the small lantern and used it to examine every inch of the cave. There wasn’t so much as a crack in one of the walls. She slapped and kicked at the stone, trying to find any weakness, but there was none.
The door wasn’t an option, not with Hellith waiting in the chamber beyond. Rose’s only option was to get Gavin in here, then escape from this room. He couldn’t shift in here without being crushed, which meant their escape was on her.
Rose knew that Asher and the others would come, but they may not get here before Hellith started to torture her. The thought made her hands tremble, and she went back to examining the cave.
There was no way to tell time in there, but Rose must have spent over an hour fruitlessly looking for some way out, but the place was impenetrable.
If she had magic, she could probably blast her way out, but her magic was blocked.
Rose turned her attention to the bracelet. She yanked and twisted it until her wrist was red and raw, but it wouldn’t break. There were no sharp pieces of stone lying about, and rubbing it against the stone walls did nothing except graze her wrist. Rose suspected that even if there had been a sharp rock, it wouldn’t have done any good.
She tried to pull the thing over her wrist, but it was impossible. The bracelet was already snug close to her skin. Her thumb bulged out to the side, impossible to get the leather over.
An idea came to her, but it was horrible to contemplate.
Rose dismissed it and renewed her attempts to drag the bracelet over her thumb.
Her nails were a bleeding mess by the time she gave up. She really had no other options. Gavin would come back sooner or later and expect an answer. She had to be prepared to get away then.
Rose knew she had to do it right the first time. She wouldn’t have the strength to do it twice.
She stood close to the wall and twisted her body away. She twisted back, using her entire body’s momentum to slam the side of her hand against the wall.
Her thumb broke with a sickening crunch.
Rose fell to her knees, pressing her good hand to her mouth to prevent herself from screaming. The world spun. She thought she’d throw up.
Her thumb was a pit of fiery agony. Gritting her teeth, Rose slid the bracelet off her wrist, over her hand, and tossed it away. Even the small pressure it caused on her broken thumb had her clamping her mouth shut to keep from screaming in agony.
Rose cradled her injured hand on her lap, whispering the words to a healing spell. She only knew the minor healing spells so far, not enough to heal broken bones, but her necklace contributed the difference. It glowed red, sending warm healing energy into her hand.
The bone mended. The pain vanished.
Had she not already been on the floor, Rose would have collapsed in relief. She sat there, panting, getting her bearings back.
She needed to try to escape, but first, she had to call for help.
Asher?
ROSE! We’ve been so worried! Where are you?
In Hellith’s lair.
She felt panic fill Asher’s mind, but he worked to focus past it. Are you hurt?
No, but Hellith isn’t going to keep it that way for long. We’re in a cave, under a mountain.
Cave, mountain, got it. That should narrow our search.
When you get here, Gavin isn’t going to come willingly. Hellith has him under a spell.
Fuck. Well, we’ll make a plan. Just hang in there, Rose. We’re coming for you.
I know.
Rose wanted to talk for longer, to hear the reassurance of his voice in her mind, but she knew Asher and the others needed to devote their full energy to finding her.
Now, she needed to figure a way out of there, in case they didn’t get there in time.
Gavin wasn’t going to come with her willingly, which meant she’d have to disable him before blasting her way out. Rose used a simple perception spell to give her an idea of what waited outside the cave.
She bit back a groan. They were surrounded by rock. The cave must be deep inside a mountain. Blasting her way out wasn’t an option. Getting past Hellith would be impossible, and Rose didn’t want to rely on her leaving or wait for her to fall asleep and hope she didn’t wake up to someone sneaking past her.
Okay, plan B.
If she couldn’t get out, then Rose could at least barricade herself and Gavin in here until rescue came. She didn’t know how long she’d be able to keep Hellith out, but she had to try. First, she had to prepare the room for a long siege.
Rose went to the door, which opened for her. She looked cautiously around. Gavin was nowhere to be seen. Hellith’s malevolent eyes were watching her, but Hellith didn’t make any move to stop her when Rose made her way over to a small pile of supplies.
She packed bottled water and canned food into a crate, pulling them into the small room. She even took a bucket, not happy about the prospect of using it as a toilet, but she may have no other option.
Rose went back to the room, examining it. The walls were secure. It was the door she needed to worry about. A holding spell, combined with a strengthening spell, might do it, but those would drain her energy as long as she maintained them.
Perhaps her best option was a melding spell. The door was made of stone anyway. If she could meld it with the surrounding stone, it would just become part of the wall. It was thick and strong, and would probably keep Hellith out for a while, at least.
Rose had to wait until the last moment. Only just before Hellith started torturing her would she seal the wall. Hellith would no doubt start trying to break through immediately. Waiting would give the rescue group the most possible time to find her.
She’d have to get Gavin in here with her and make sure he was in here when Hellith advanced. Then she could seal them inside. Once she did, Rose would send up a flame beacon, to fly high above t
he top of the mountain. She was fairly confident she could do it even through all this rock.
Doing it before then would tip Hellith off that she had use of her magic, and she couldn’t have that. She needed it to seal them in.
Satisfied with her plan, Rose sat down to wait.
Chapter Eleven
Rose picked up the bracelet, put it in her pocket, and shoved her hand in behind it. She didn’t want Gavin to see that she no longer had it on.
Just in time too, because the next moment, the door opened.
Gavin came inside, looking grim. “Don’t struggle, Rose.”
“What?”
“Let me do this, or Hellith will have to do it. Believe me, you don’t want that.”
“What are you talking about?”
Gavin lunged for her, holding something Rose couldn’t make out in his hands. She tried to leap back, but found herself pressed against the wall.
“Araivis!” The spell was enough to knock Gavin onto the ground, but then he was up again. Rose didn’t want to use lethal force against him, and she had to take a moment to consider what spell she might be able to use to disable him safely.
It was a moment too long.
Gavin grabbed both of her wrists in one hand and snapped a round metal collar around her neck. The seam vanished, just as the bracelet’s seam had done.
Rose shouted an incantation, but nothing happened. She tried to reach out to Asher, but she was blocked.
The collar must do the same thing as the bracelet. Except the only way she was getting this off was decapitation.
Rose screamed in frustration and beat her fists against Gavin’s chest.
“Just give up the necklace, Rose! This can all end, you just have to hand it over.”
With all her strength, Rose shoved him away. It had been a good plan, but she’d underestimated Hellith. Somehow, she’d been able to sense that Rose had gotten the bracelet off. She’d made a replacement that would prove impossible to remove while Rose was still living.
Gavin was staring at her as though he’d never seen her before. “Did you ever even really love me?”
That brought Rose up short, her anger replaced by confusion. “Of course I love you, Gavin. What kind of question is that?”
“If you really love me, then why is the idea of being with me so repulsive to you? Why, Rose?”
His questions would be infuriating if it wasn’t for the real hurt in his voice. “It’s not being with you I have a problem with, Gavin! It’s being without Asher, Jagger, and Mace. No, don’t look at me like that, just listen. When you were gone, I was more than miserable. I felt like I was dying, like one of my limbs was missing and I was slowly bleeding to death.”
Gavin’s face softened. “I felt the same.”
“Then how do you think I feel now? Three of my limbs are missing! I’m bleeding, suffering, dying, and here you are, making deals with our greatest enemy! Deals that will trap me in the living death of being without the men I love.”
His face hardened again. “I should be enough for you. You should love me enough that you don’t need them.”
Rose shook her head slowly, tears running down her cheeks. “I haven’t just lost them. I’ve lost all of you. Your betrayal is no worse than your absence. I should just let Hellith kill me.” In that moment of hopeless despair, Rose actually considered it.
She couldn’t, though. Her dragons needed her. If she died, it would destroy them.
“Rose, don’t you understand? I’m doing this FOR you, for us!”
“Us? Do you even know what you’re saying? Us—the five of us. You, me, Asher, Jagger, Mace… we’re a team, Gavin. They’re your brothers. They love you, just as I do.”
He seemed to hesitate, and Rose pressed her advantage. “I know things have been bad recently, but think about all you’ve been through together. I’ve only been here for a short part of it. You grew up with them, fought wars with them. They don’t want to take me away from you. They want to make me complete, and love me just as much as you do.”
Uncertainty flickered in his eyes.
“Don’t listen to her, Gavin. Your brothers want you gone.”
With Hellith’s voice came a shimmering red light, so faint it almost wasn’t there. It wormed its way into Gavin.
He shook himself, refocusing his gaze on Rose. “My brothers don’t love me. They want me gone, so that they can have you all to themselves.”
The fight went out of her. Rose slumped to the floor. What was the point? Even if she could convince Gavin, Hellith could just spell him into believing her. Without access to her own magic, Rose had no chance of stopping it.
“Just go away, Gavin.”
“Your time is running out, girl,” Hellith’s voice rang out. “I’m not going to be patient with you much longer. One way or another, I am going to get that necklace, even if I have to drain the power out of you first. Your dragons are not here to help you. You are defenseless against me.”
Rose didn’t reply. She wasn’t sure if she could, even if she wanted to. What if Hellith was right?
Her necklace had only started displaying powers after she’d met her dragons. Now, three of them were who knew where, and the other was under an enchantment, here in body, but in mind, just as distant.
Would her necklace work without them? Rose couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought to enquire about this before.
She tried to think past the fog of despair. Was Hellith enchanting her too, or was it just the hopeless situation getting to her?
One thing she was sure of: Hellith had no intention of letting her and Gavin go. Once Hellith had the necklace, she would probably kill them, or possibly hold them as hostages. Try as she might, Rose couldn’t think of a single way to defend herself, let alone escape.
Maybe Gavin would snap out of the spell once Hellith started torturing her, but even if he did, Rose didn’t see much hope there. She and Gavin together weren’t nearly strong enough to hold Hellith off long enough to escape, even if Rose did have access to her powers.
“Time is up, Rose. If you’re really the chosen one as they say, give me the necklace. I have no desire to harm your people. I simply want to live free of fear that I will be hunted down as I was in the past.”
“Liar! You killed the guards, you said you were coming for me!”
“For the necklace. Once that is gone, you will have no power to oppose me. I will go to another continent, if you like, somewhere deserted, far from human eyes. We need never see each other again.”
Rose wanted to believe her, but everything she had learned about Hellith told her otherwise. “I’ll never give it to you.”
“Then I will take it.”
Rose felt herself being pulled forward by an invisible arm of magic. She struggled, but she was no match for it.
“Gavin! Gavin, help me!”
“This is for the best, Rose.”
She was brought right up to Hellith. The glowing red eyes made Rose frantic with fear, but try as she might, she couldn’t break free.
“Give it to me.”
“Never!”
“Then I will take it.”
One of the scales on Hellith’s sides formed into an arm, grabbing the necklace around Rose’s neck and pulling.
It didn’t come off. The chain didn’t even bite into the back of her neck. The necklace was resisting being removed.
It started to glow. Rose jerked in surprise when she felt a drain on her own power. She wasn’t using magic—the collar she wore prevented that.
It was the necklace. It was pulling her own power to protect itself. Evidently, the collar didn’t prevent it. Rose didn’t know how much power she had to give before she was completely drained, but whatever she had to give, she would.
That necklace was one of their best chances against Hellith. Rose couldn’t let her get it.
She didn’t fight the pull of power from the necklace, though she was sure she could have. Unlike Gavin and Hellith, the necklace
respected her free will, even though it had a will of its own.
When it acted of its own accord, though, it never drained her power.
Rose supposed that no other situation had ever been this dire.
The room around her was flickering. Rose struggled to hold onto consciousness.
Could the necklace resist removal if Hellith first drained its magical energy, along with Rose’s? That magical energy would replenish itself, but probably not before Hellith took the necklace. It wouldn’t work for her, of course, but just keeping it from the witches and dragons allied against her would be a major blow.
“No… Gavin…”
If Gavin heard her, he did nothing to come to her rescue. Rose tried in vain to call out to Asher, Jagger, or Mace, but the collar was still blocking her.
As much as she fought against it, she couldn’t avoid the approaching unconsciousness. A body could only handle so much.
Rose felt a tear drip off her chin as she blacked out.
When she woke, Rose was back in the small cave room. She supposed she should be grateful that she had woken at all. Hellith must have decided to keep her alive, probably to threaten her life if the witches and dragons did anything against her.
She pressed a hand to her chest.
The necklace was gone.
Despair rose within her. How on earth were they supposed to fight Hellith without it? Had all of their efforts over the past nine months been for nothing?
Rose listened for the sound of breathing other than hers, but the cave was silent.
“Gavin?”
There was no response. Gavin wasn’t here. Someone had taken the lamp out of the room, so it was completely dark again. Rose got up and felt her way around the room. She could feel the slits in the stone where the door was, but it didn’t open.
That wasn’t entirely surprising. Hellith couldn’t have her wandering around the cave, possibly finding a way to escape. The collar was still locked around Rose’s neck. She tried fruitlessly to pull it over her head, but there was no way she was getting this one off.