by Karen Lynch
I caught a glimpse of a ceiling that told me we had to be in a garage. Before I could see more, one of the men leaned in and pulled a dark hood over my head. The two of them lifted me none too gently from the trunk and set me on my unsteady feet. One held me up while the other cut the tie from my ankles.
A door opened. The man holding my arm pulled me toward the door, and I tripped. He yanked me up hard, nearly tearing my arm from its socket, and I cried out against the tape over my mouth.
“Is that necessary, Barry?” asked a female voice.
“Yes.” My captor shook me. “Bitch punched me in the nuts.”
“And I bet you deserved it,” she retorted. “You and Glen take her to the basement. Then go up and see Rogin. He’s waiting for you.”
Barry pulled me through the door and down a short flight of stairs. At the bottom, cold hit me along with a damp, musty odor. We didn’t walk far before I heard the scrape of a metal cage door opening. I balked, and they snickered.
“Not so tough now, are you?” taunted Barry as he shoved me inside.
I stumbled and fell to my hands and knees on the cold concrete floor as the cage door clanged shut with an ominous click. It was followed by the men’s receding footsteps as they left me alone in the basement.
I grunted in pain as I pushed up off my bruised knees. Once I was back on my feet, I reached up with my bound hands to pull off the hood and rip the tape from my mouth.
I took in my surroundings. I was in a cage at one end of the open basement, and a single light bulb on this side of the space cast just enough light to see a dozen feet in front of me.
I grasped the cage bars. “Mom? Dad? Are you there?”
Someone moaned softly, but not from the other side of the basement. I spun and gasped when I realized I wasn’t alone in the cage. At the back corner, a tall man stood with thick iron chains wrapped around him from his bare shoulders to his feet.
My first thought was that it was my father, until I saw the bent head and the mop of matted blond hair that hung to his chest. I approached him slowly and stopped when I was two feet away.
“Can you hear me?” I asked softly.
He didn’t speak or move. I waited another minute, and then I reached out and put my hands under his chin to lift his head. My shocked eyes took in the finely chiseled cheekbones and perfect brow. His pallor was gray and he looked almost frail, but there was no mistaking a Court faerie when you saw one.
His eyelids flickered and slowly opened to reveal emerald green eyes that seemed strangely familiar, although I was certain I had never seen him before. We stared at each other in silence until his tongue darted out to wet his cracked lips.
“I was right,” he whispered in a voice that sounded hoarse from disuse.
“About what?”
“Angels do have fiery hair.” A cough racked his body, making his chains clink. “Have you come at last to take me into the arms of the Goddess?”
My chest squeezed at his words. I saw no fear in his eyes, only acceptance and peace. I wished with all my heart that I could ease his pain, but I was as much a prisoner here as he was.
I cupped his face tenderly. “I’m no angel, and the Goddess hasn’t sent for you yet.”
A ghost of a smile touched his lips. “Are you sure you aren’t an angel? You have the hands of one.”
“And you remind me of someone I know.” I smiled when I thought of Conlan’s flirting, but I quickly sobered when I remembered I’d probably never see him or any of the others again. Not unless I could figure out how to get us out of here.
“What is your name, my-angel-who-is-not-an-angel?” my companion rasped.
I sat on the floor with my back against the cage. “Jesse.”
“I am Faris.”
“Nice to meet you, but I wish it were under different circumstances.” I untied my boot laces, glad I’d worn my combat boots today instead of a pair without laces. With some difficulty, I slipped one lace through the plastic tie and knotted it with the other lace. I lifted my feet and used them to saw the laces across the tie until it broke.
Faris coughed. “Very creative.”
“Just something I picked up from YouTube.” I retied my laces and went to study the chains wrapped around him. They were tight enough to prevent movement, but not too tight to cut off circulation. I couldn’t find the ends until I peeked behind him and saw he was chained to the cage with large iron padlocks.
“I might be able to get these open if I had something to use as a pick.” I checked my pockets and came up empty.
“It’s okay. I’m just glad for your company.”
I moved back to look him in the face. “But you’re covered in iron.”
“Don’t fret, my angel,” Faris said weakly. “I’ve been like this so long I barely feel it anymore.”
“How long?” My stomach lurched. Iron in small doses didn’t harm faeries, but prolonged contact would eventually saturate their bodies and kill them. How long it took depended on the strength of the faerie and the purity of the iron.
His head lolled again. “I don’t know. Months, I think.”
“Months?” I stared at him, aghast. “Why would they do this to you?”
He croaked a laugh. “This is what comes from angering someone who likes to watch you die a slow death. I don’t think either of us expected me to live this long.”
I couldn’t conceive that level of malice. I knew there were evil people in the world, but to torture someone for months on end just to watch them suffer… A shudder went through me. I was now in the hands of that person. Would they kill me quickly or draw out my death in some horrible way, too?
Needing to focus on anything besides my death, I looked around the cage and spotted a small jug and a cup on the floor outside. I stretched my arm through the bars, and I pulled them to me. The jug wouldn’t fit between the bars, so I filled the cup with water and brought it to Faris. Gently, I lifted his head and put the cup to his lips. He sipped the water at first, and then he drank thirstily. I refilled the cup twice until he’d had enough.
“Thank you, my angel,” he said as I went to fill the cup for myself.
“Please, call me Jesse.” I took a long drink of the water.
“As you wish.” He rested his head against the bars, looking slightly better after drinking the water. “Tell me, Jesse, how did you end up in this place?”
“My parents are bounty hunters, and they were working on a job when they went missing over a month ago. I’ve been looking for them, and I guess I pissed off the wrong person.” I sucked in a shaky breath. “Someone told me they’re alive, but I have no idea if that’s true. Have…you seen a human couple here?”
“I haven’t seen them, but the female elf brings food to someone on the other side of the basement.”
My heart gave an excited flutter, and I called out again, louder this time. “Mom? Can you hear me?”
I held my breath and listened but heard nothing, not even the slightest movement. I rested my head against the bars and tried not to feel the despair threatening to crush me.
After a while, I began to shiver inside my jacket, and I noticed the basement had gotten colder. There were no windows, but I’d been here long enough for darkness to have fallen. It was going to be a miserable night without heat and nothing to sit on but the bare concrete floor.
“Are you cold?” I asked Faris. “We can take turns sharing my coat.” The most I could do was drape it over his shoulders, but that was better than nothing.
“You are very kind, Jesse, but I don’t feel the cold.”
I studied his face. “Are you only saying that to be noble?”
He closed his eyes. “I wasn’t lying when I said I could barely feel the iron anymore. The poison is starting to shut down my body, and I feel little pain. It won’t be much longer. A week maybe.”
I wasn’t expecting the anguish that welled inside me. Going to him, I laid my hand against his cheek. “Don’t give up. I’ll figure out a
way to get us out of here.”
“Thank you.” He leaned into my palm and sighed. “I thought I would leave this world without ever again feeling the warmth of another’s touch.”
We stayed like that until he fell asleep. When his head drooped forward, I sat on the floor beside him to wait for whatever came next.
I didn’t remember dozing off, but I awoke with my head resting against Faris’s chain-covered leg. I had no idea how much time had passed, but based on how cold and stiff I was, it had been hours.
I stood quietly, as to not wake Faris, whose only respite from this place was in sleep. I couldn’t imagine the extent of his suffering, a faerie covered in iron for months, and I vowed silently to find a way to help him.
Something on the floor outside the cage caught my eye, and I walked over for a closer look. My stomach growled loudly when I saw a chunk of bread and an apple on a paper napkin, and a new jug of water. It wasn’t much, but it was food and it looked edible.
Picking up the meager fare, I broke the bread into halves and ate one, washing it down with water. I ate half the apple, too. It wasn’t filling but enough to ease the gnawing hunger for now.
I was pacing the cage to stay warm when Faris said, “You’re still here. I hoped you were a dream.”
“You don’t like my company?” I asked in an attempt at humor.
He smiled sadly. “Not if it means you are trapped in this place with me.”
“If you forget the whole prisoner thing, there are worse places to be.” I picked up his half of the meal. “Someone brought food. I hope you don’t mind me feeding you.”
“I will endure,” he quipped and dissolved into a fit of coughing.
I filled a cup with water and gave him a drink before I began feeding him bits of bread. He’d barely eaten half of it before he said he was done.
“You finish it,” he said when I pressed him to eat more. “They brought it for you, not me.”
I wrapped the uneaten portion in the napkin and put it in my coat pocket for him to eat later. It was too cold to stand still, so I went back to pacing.
“Where have you been that is worse than this place?” Faris asked.
“A few weeks ago, I spent the night on North Brother Island, after almost drowning. Oh, and there was a kelpie.” I told him about that night, leaving out certain parts, such as who had found me the next morning. I had no idea who else might be listening, and I didn’t want to put Lukas in danger after all he’d done for me. “For my trouble, I got a cold and someone else got the bounty.”
“Aedhna was watching over you that night,” he said softly.
“Maybe.” I thought about the stone hidden beneath my hair, the one I’d removed at least half a dozen times until I’d given up. If it was a goddess stone and I was goddess-blessed, as Lukas had called it, then I must be doing something wrong. I could really use some divine intervention right now.
“Tell me more of your hunting stories.”
“Okay, but I don’t have that many.” I told him how I’d started as a hunter and about the jobs I’d done so far. After I’d related all my hunting tales, he asked about my family and my life. I spent hours talking, but when I asked about his family, he got very quiet. I didn’t press him because I could see it upset him.
“You should try to sleep,” he said when I yawned for the third time.
I rubbed my freezing hands together. “It’s too cold to lie down.” The least they could have done was give us blankets, but what did I expect from people who would torture a faerie like this.
I was falling asleep on my feet when a sharp voice demanded, “What is this?”
I started, not having heard anyone enter the room, and blinked at the male elf standing outside the cage. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and he wore black dress pants and a dark green silk shirt. His mouth was pressed into a severe line as his cold eyes looked at me like I was dirt beneath his expensive loafers.
He spun and walked to the foot of the stairs to yell for Barry and Glen. Within a minute, the two men hurried into the basement.
“Can you two get anything right?” the elf shouted. He pointed at Faris. “How many times have I said no one is allowed near him? Get her out of there.”
Barry pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the cage door. His eyes went from my free hands to the plastic tie on the floor, but he said nothing as he grabbed my wrist in a bruising grip and dragged me from the cage.
He pulled me past the irate elf and toward the darker part of the basement. We passed several smaller empty cages until we came to one at the end that was the same size as Faris’s cage. This one was shrouded in darkness, showing me nothing of what was waiting inside for me.
Barry opened the door and threw me inside with vicious glee, but I was able to catch myself before I hit the floor this time. There was no lock on this cage, so Glen wrapped a length of chain around the bars and secured it with a padlock.
As soon as they left me, I pressed my face to the bars and strained to see what was happening to Faris down at the other end. All I could make out were some moving shadows.
“I hope you enjoyed your little visitor,” the elf taunted Faris.
I could hear the smile in Faris’s voice when he said, “You mean my angel.”
Barry laughed. “He’s lost his mind. Had to happen sooner or later.”
The elf didn’t laugh with him. “Let’s go,” he barked. “We have a lot to do for tomorrow.”
They tramped up the stairs, and silence fell over the basement again. If I’d thought it was bad before, it was ten times worse being alone in the dark. I was half afraid to see what was in the cell with me this time.
“Angel?” Faris called hoarsely.
“I’m here.” I didn’t bother to correct him. He could call me whatever he wanted if it made him happy.
He had another fit of coughing, and I gripped the bars, feeling helpless. I couldn’t even give him water.
“Are you okay?” he managed to croak after the coughing had passed.
“Yes,” I lied. “If you’ve been in one cage, you’ve been in them all.”
He chuckled. “You have a spirit to match that hair.”
“I get it from my mom. I wish you could meet –”
I froze.
There was something in the cell with me.
I turned slowly and pressed my back against the bars as I squinted into the deeper shadows at the back of the cage. It wasn’t as dark now that my eyes had adjusted, but I still had trouble making out the shape on the floor.
Then I heard it again, a barely audible moan. And a single whispered word. “Jesse.”
My heart threatened to burst from my chest as I fell to my knees beside the man, who lay hidden beneath a dirty wool blanket. I pulled back the blanket, and a lump formed in my throat when I saw him. His face was thinner and covered in a scraggy beard, but I’d know him anywhere.
“Dad.” I shook him, but he just stared blankly at the ceiling. I threw myself across his chest, clinging to him like I was five years old again. “Daddy.”
Chapter 19
I hugged my father tightly, and for the first time in my life, he didn’t wrap his strong, protective arms around me. I felt the loss like a punch in the gut, but at the same time I was overcome with joy to be holding him again. I pressed my face against his chest, feeling his strong, steady heartbeat. He’d lost weight, and he smelled like he hadn’t bathed in a month, but he was alive.
I rose up to my knees and ran my hand from his forehead to his jaw. He didn’t react to my touch at all, and he kept staring at the ceiling with an odd little smile on his face.
“Dad, it’s Jesse. Can you hear me?” I shook him gently, trying to rouse him. “Where’s Mom?”
He didn’t answer, and I looked past him to a pile of dirty blankets in the corner of the cage. I crawled over him and grasped one of the foul-smelling blankets. “Please, God.”
My knees almost gave out when I pulled back the blanket
. My mother lay on her side, wearing the same creepy smile and staring right through me. Like Dad, she was filthy and thinner, but a quick check told me she was alive.
I sat on the cold floor and pulled her head onto my lap, covering her body with the ratty blankets. Stroking her dirty hair, I whispered, “I’m here, Mom.”
I had no idea how long I sat there like that before I realized Faris was calling to me.
“Angel…Jesse, speak to me.”
I lifted my head. “I’m here. I found my mom and dad. They’re alive, but there’s something wrong with them. It’s like they’re in some kind of trance.”
“It’s called rapture,” said a soft female voice.
I stiffened as a slender woman came into view on the other side of the bars. She walked over to the far wall and flipped a switch, and a light bulb came on overhead.
I blinked at the sudden brightness and stared at the female elf. She wore a simple green dress and ballet flats, and her long platinum hair was pulled back into a thick braid.
I gently slid out from beneath my mother and stood. “What’s rapture? Is it a glamour?”
“It’s a state that humans enter when they take goren,” she explained as she walked toward the cage.
“My parents would never take drugs,” I declared vehemently. I stared at the elf as she drew closer. “Hey, I’ve seen you before…at the cemetery. You had a little girl with you.”
She nodded and put a finger to her lips. “Please, keep your voice down. They don’t know I’m here.”
I moved closer to her and lowered my voice. “Who are you, and why would you do this to my parents?”
Her eyes were pools of emotion, mostly regret. “My name is Raisa, and I did this to save your parents. You must believe me. I never intended them harm.”
I waved an angry hand at my parents who lay in filth. “Look at them,” I bit out. “How is this saving them?”
Raisa gripped the bars of the cage. “I did what I could. If you let me explain, you will understand.”
I couldn’t think of any way that giving someone goren would save their lives, but I nodded. My life and my parents’ lives were in the hands of this person, and I needed to know what I was up against.