Rolling onto my back, one wolf snapped its jaws, almost catching Aidan’s foot as he fell through. Before he hit the ground Read moved to jump.
I saw Read’s body fling back so violently that I screamed.
The door above our heads slammed shut, sealing out the wolves and Read Wallace.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Aidan landed between Cody and I.
One flailing arm almost caught the side of my face when the door above slammed shut.
Stunned and panting, we sprawled on the floor staring at the ceiling.
Did we just lose Read? I knew what I’d seen but it haunted me, replaying in my mind in a loop until I could convince myself of what had just happened.
Slow, I pressed my palms into the carpet behind my shoulders and eased into a sitting position. My gaze never shifting from the door embedded in the ceiling. It had a tribal wolf carved into the wood.
I wiggled my limbs. I didn’t seem to be hurt beyond scratches and bruises. I glanced at my companions who seemed no worse for wear. “Think we can get back up there?”
“Where’s Read?” Cody looked around the room.
Aidan pointed to the door above while staggering to his feet. Baring gritted teeth, he limped a few steps, catching his balance against a grey wall.
Cody stood up too fast and wobbled back a few steps. His focus was above our heads and he reached for the doorknob—being the only one tall enough to do so—just as it evaporated inches from his fingertips.
Rolling, I started to stand, but found my legs too weak to attempt such a feat. “Maybe the wolves didn’t get him. I just saw him pulled back,” I said.
I looked around the small square room with grey walls and green carpet, which was very similar to the one we first fell into here.
“She’s right,” Aidan’s glassy gaze shattered. “I didn’t see a wolf behind him.”
Cody stared at the empty ceiling where the door had once been. “What if it did?” His eyes rolled to Aidan and me, hardening. “I heard those teeth before the door shut.”
Then he’s dead. The harsh words itched in the back of my mind until I pushed them away.
“Nora…”
The haunting voice didn’t belong to either of the guys with me.
Jumping with a start, I twisted my head back hard enough to crack my neck.
Standing behind us was our elusive Master of Nightmares. The shock of seeing something so perfect froze me in place.
I wasn’t in the tower room this time and wasn’t alone either.
Damien gazed down at me, his obsidian hair framing his shocking pallor. Hands were clasped behind his back and shoulders squared, he could have passed for a gentleman, though that didn’t suit what he was. He wasn’t smiling, but his eyes were bright, making my stomach flip.
It was easier to try and stand the second time.
Rubbing the crick in my neck, I heard Aidan limping up behind me while Cody edged closer to my side.
“How did you like the wolves?” Damien’s intense gaze never left me. His voice didn’t echo inside my head like before.
I waited for a clever quip from Aidan, but when he didn’t say anything, I looked down, trying to sound nonchalant when I muttered, “Challenging, I suppose.”
Straightening my damp camisole and shorts, I made sure Aidan and Cody’s feet were in my peripherals.
The silence stretched, forcing me to look back up to see the demon still watching me, unblinking.
He must have liked the answer. Damien flashed a charming smile that was almost as jarring as it was foreign on him.
Aidan brushed up against my shoulder and gooseflesh prickled my arm.
“I began simply, didn’t I?” The demon asked, serious all over again. Without waiting for an answer he continued, his eyes not straying far from me. “And now we’re working our way up to difficult. Kind of like those…er,” he twirled his fingers searching for the word. “Console games I saw in that one’s head.” He motioned to Cody.
Cody’s voice barely squeaked above a whisper. “Where’s Robin?”
“And Phoebe?” I added.
“And Read?” Aidan finished.
Damien blinked as if the questions were shockingly idiotic. “They lost,” he said, finally sweeping his glossy black eyes to the others. “They’re trapped. I explained all of this.” Then seemingly to himself he muttered, “Perhaps I didn’t start out simple enough.”
The swell of frustration closed my hands into fists. “What do you mean they lost? They were taken.”
At the same time, Aidan’s voice melted with mine. “They weren’t even given a chance! Are they dead?”
A shadow stretched across Damien’s sculptured features before he growled as if speaking to an antagonizing child. “I said trapped.”
I felt my shoulders start to sink, feeling the strain in my muscles relax just a little. He didn’t say dead. This meant we could save them, right? I thought about the sacrifice the Others referred to.
To Cody I tried to sound positive, “see, they’re okay.”
Cody didn’t look at me. “Then where are they?”
Damien obliged, “they submitted to Challenges, the same as you.”
Eyes wide, I looked to the demon. “Meaning they could still die? They’re not safe?” Frustration was beginning to boil upward, a warmth in my stomach expanding like a balloon.
Damien’s mouth twitched as if to hide a smirk. “I explained the rules clearly. If you cannot win against the Challenge you end up dead or trapped here.”
The smug tone must have triggered something. The next thing I knew, I was shouting. Heat radiated off my skin where it had once been covered in goosebumps. “There wasn’t a fighting chance. You just took them! Now they’re stuck in Challenges? That’s basically a death sentence.”
“It is the Challenge.” Damien didn’t waver at my aggression. “Cody wandered off and ended up in a Challenge not directed for him. He skipped ahead and had to face the consequences. I’m following protocol.”
Protocol? This is the word he used to sum up the terror, the fear and the pain. It was so cold in comparison that I knew this demon had no idea what we were going through.
“He could have died in a Challenge not meant for him.” It took all I had not to launch myself at him. My hatred for him went beyond glaring, I wanted to hurt him. I knew I couldn’t, but the idea was deliciously inviting. If I can find a way, I will. I let the anger carry me just a few feet from the demon, just out of reach.
“Nothing is fair, Nora. I thought that you of all people should know that.” Damien lowered his voice, letting his raven-jeweled eyes bore into me as if we shared a secret.
Our eyes locked for longer than a few seconds and I realized my mistake. I was trying to piss off a demon. What the hell was I thinking?
“What does that mean?” I forced myself to simmer the heated emotions. It was harder than I thought.
“What is your age on your world?” Damien asked.
At first I didn’t know how to respond. The simple question was about as effective as a slap. Straightening my spine I plucked at my shirt, tugging it down. “What does that have to do with anything?” Neither Cody or Aidan spoke.
“I was curious how long it’s been for you,” he said and released one arm from behind his back.
Feeling the warmth rise in my cheeks I didn’t answer, too afraid of his goal.
Aidan betrayed me by saying, “Just answer the question.”
I glanced at Aidan annoyed. He wavered under the snap of my gaze, electric eyes flickering away before whispering. “What if it’s a clue?”
Turning back to Damien I answered honestly—I could have lied but didn’t, at least not yet. “I’m twenty-one.”
“Sixteen of your years then? Is that correct in how you gauge time?” The way he said it meant he already knew the answer.
The hairs on the back of my neck bristled. The pent up anger began to evaporate, replaced with drea
d.
“Sixteen years?” Aidan asked doubtfully. “What does that mean?”
I wasn’t sure who he was asking, but lied to drown the silence. “I’m not sure.”
Perhaps Aidan sensed the trembling in my voice but I could see it in his face that the wheels upstairs were turning in a new direction.
My hands wrenched on my shirt, straightening and twisting to keep them moving.
“Is there something wrong?” Damien asked, feigning innocence.
I didn’t answer the question. Instead I caved to Damien’s first assessment in a grumble. “You’re right, nothing’s fair.”
“Nora?” Aidan whispered from behind. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cody nudge Aidan to keep quiet.
I wanted to spin around and tell Aidan it wasn’t his business.
In my family we hid most of the family pictures from when I was young. Locked away the past, the questions and the pain. It wasn’t until five years ago that Mom put up one picture in the back hallway where no guest would see.
Aidan ignored Cody’s nudge and said to Damien. “What do you mean, ‘It’s been sixteen years’?”
“Since we’ve met,” Damien answered coolly. “I admit, I didn’t recognize her at first. It’s peculiar how the exposed always come back.”
“What are you…” It wasn’t until the words started leaving my lips that I absorbed what he had said and staggered back, knocking into Aidan first. “Met? We’ve…what?” Oh crap, his angle. He was going to turn them against me. I felt the panic seize in my chest the moment Aidan backed away from my touch, hands up. Cody wouldn’t look at me.
Damien’s eyes sparked at my reaction. I was giving him exactly what he wanted.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to control the mixed emotions that sang through my blood. He had no right to butcher me through my past. “You’re lying,” I accused.
Cody stepped in front of me, almost blocking my view of Damien. “Look, if this isn’t a clue then it’s not important.”
I tried to give Cody a grateful smile, but couldn’t muster the strength. All my energy poured into controlling myself before I could do something stupid.
“But, I know,” Damien spoke up. His voice quiet, but carried throughout the whole room, ringing in my head as if it were its own megaphone. “I know everything.”
If he could see into our minds then he knew about me. He knew about my twin sister’s death sixteen years ago. I had to wonder how he’d twist a lie into that story. Not everyone was privy to my family’s loss. We were careful to avoid questions, always. It wasn’t that we couldn’t talk about Neive. It was that we couldn’t talk about her death.
I wanted to ask Damien what he knew, but not with Aidan and Cody around. He was talking about the night of the murder but I would have remembered a demon. I remembered scattered images from a five-year-old’s perspective but there’d just been the five of us that night.
The silence stretched during my contemplation and I realized everyone was staring at me.
Cody had moved to the side to touch my shoulder and I flinched. If Damien wanted to tell my family secret, what would stop him? And what would it matter at this point? I’d seen Aidan’s worst nightmare after all. Secrets were falling fast.
Shifting from foot to foot beside me, Aidan asked. “You remember him?”
“No.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
Damien’s eyes reflected a devilish shine. “If you truly believe that, then there could be problems ahead.”
“What sort of problems?” Aidan asked leaning away from me. It was an unconscious gesture, but it revealed what he was thinking all too clearly.
I felt sick to my stomach.
I hadn’t met Damien before, of this I was certain. “He’s lying.” I held my chin high. “What are you up to, Damien? Do you need to embarrass me? Maybe loosen their trust so we’ll separate again? What the hell does this have to do with getting our friends back?” I managed to keep my tone low and thought I sounded damn smooth.
The rage was starting to twitch again, building and twisting with the warmth. I had to clench my fists, fingernails biting into my palm to hold it from overtaking me.
Stepping forward, Damien made the hairs on my arms stand on end and sent a shudder through the air that buzzed in my head. Closing the gap between us I saw Aidan limp back, his eyes wide.
I’m not sure what held me in place. Perhaps it was fear. I’d like to think it was a shot of bravery, though I’d be lying to myself. My insides were vibrating into liquid and my skin crawled.
Aidan grabbed my shoulder to pull me back.
“Birket,” Cody hissed a warning, sounding surprisingly like Phoebe.
The demon’s cold, inimical gaze shifted to Aidan. I tried to step back and realized I couldn’t. Damien leaned in so close I thought for an instant he was going to kiss me.
Flinching, Damien stopped inches from my face, eyes alight.
Lips lingering just over the bridge of my nose, he whispered, still not looking at me. “Don’t move.” With a flick of his hand, Damien sent a sudden force through the room that spread outward in a gust of wind.
Aidan’s hand jerked from my shoulder and I heard two thuds followed by muffled shouts.
My body teetered at the impact but I didn’t step back, determined to stay still as I strangely felt more relaxed. The buzzing irritation I felt earlier was receding.
Turning my head, I saw Aidan and Cody suctioned to the wall, like they had been in the tower, and jerked my eyes back to Damien. I took a ragged breath to focus.
The warmth in my chest and stomach had vanished. I didn’t want to let him know he was making me nervous, though it proved impossible.
To me in a voice too low for the others to hear he hissed, “Your past has everything to do with why you’re still alive.”
Swallowing hard, I shook my head and moved numbing lips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you?” He raised his eyebrows at me unbelieving. “Don’t you wish for justice for your sister?”
I snapped. “You only know about her from rooting through my head.”
“I did,” he said, “but it was buried deep. I didn’t see it until you showed me when you were covered in spiders. Still hopping back and forth between worlds?”
In the house and when I was with the spiders. I remembered the wooden chairs back to back. How could I have forgotten? Breathing through my nose I tried to wrap my mind around what he said—about what it meant.
“Am I going crazy?” I asked. “Is this all made up?”
Damien’s stony expression revealed nothing.
“You—you saw what happened, you don’t know me,” I said to fill the quiet. “What do you want?”
“To see what you can do,” he answered. “To see what Nell promised.”
Of course he’d remember her name. “And what can I do?”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t have to test you.”
“Test me for what exactly?”
An apprehending smirk twitched at the corner of his mouth. “You called Nell insane.”
“She is.”
“What about you? You believe you suffer from the same delusions?”
My heart twisted. “That’s not funny.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.” The smirk fell and he reached up one hand, palm cupped as if to touch my cheek, but he didn’t touch me. His hand hovered close enough that it shadowed my peripheral but didn’t give off a heat. “Perhaps what you perceive as crazy isn’t necessarily the truth.”
“What is it called, then?”
Damien canted his head. “To some it is gifted, to others, cursed.”
“And you call it?”
“A threat.”
The words ran my blood cold and I took the step back.
So many questions—insane questions—raced through my head that I wasn’t sure what to ask, or where to start. I tried to push aside the cloudy images that clogg
ed my memory. I recalled the two men Nell had with her; one a bulky blonde and the other a thin redhead with the initials JWD on his jacket. Both were sadists, but they were human, and despite their hazy faces in my memory, I was positive neither could have been Damien. “Which one were you?”
“Which?”
“Of the men who helped Nell abduct us? Neither of them was found.” Only Nell had been locked up, found naked on the side of the road two days after I had been recovered.
Damien shook his head at me. “I wasn’t one of the men.”
“Nora,” Aidan’s voice wheezed behind me.
His voice sent a jolt through me.
I had forgotten about them!
I started to turn to my companions when Damien’s cupped hand forced me to look at him. His hand was cold, smooth and distressingly strong. He had my attention.
“We’re not through,” he said it as if it were a threat. “I know of your past, but he doesn’t.” Damien’s eyes flickered over my shoulder and I knew he was looking at Aidan.
“He doesn’t know,” I confirmed.
“Keep it that way for now.”
“What? You already told them you met me.”
His fingertips buried in my hair above my temple and I bit my lips together.
“Don’t tell the Birket about Nell,” he said. “Haven’t you ever wondered if he felt strange around you too?”
Bullseye.
“Start to,” he slipped his hand away, tracing fingers that buzzed with electricity down my cheek.
I stepped away, leaving a fair gap between us.
Ignoring me, Damien said louder for everyone to hear, “Time’s wasting.”
A black door materialized behind the demon. His supernatural gaze fixed on me as I backed away. I had wanted to ask him about Aidan, about Nell, questions whistled past but instead I pivoted toward my friends, toward safety.
I had to remember who was more important here. My friends were alive, unlike my past, which was long dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Cody and Aidan stepped away from the wall, brushing themselves as if they’d been coated with spiderwebs.
Aidan’s electric eyes were seething. “What did he say?”
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