by Teresa Roman
Devin,
He had Katy. He was going to hurt her. Zoran only wants to talk. Everything will be fine and I’ll find my way back to you.
Before I had a chance to finish my letter a man appeared in front of me. He stood at least a foot taller than I did and was built like a football player. His head was shaved, which added to his menacing appearance. I was so startled by his sudden arrival that I almost screamed.
“So we finally meet,” he said.
Chapter 26
Fear tightened its grip around my throat making it impossible to speak. The hulking man standing in front of me wasn’t a demon. No black eyes. Although that wasn’t the only difference. Even the demons that looked mostly normal exuded an aura that made me feel ill.
The man glanced around the room. “You’re alone?”
I nodded, feeling hopeful for the first time since I’d answered Katy’s call. Maybe Zoran didn’t know Devin had been helping me, and, if I kept my mouth shut, I could protect him. That thought gave me some peace despite everything that was happening.
The man took a few steps closer, grabbed me by my wrist and wrapped his hand tightly around it. I offered no resistance. Even if there were a way to escape, Zoran would just send someone else.
“It’s time to go,” he said. “Close your eyes.”
I did as he commanded, knowing what was coming next. I wasn’t looking forward to it, either. Despite my attempt to convince myself that everything was going to be okay, I was still terrified. A moment later, the same sick sensation I’d felt when Devin teleported me out of the Wilds returned. I felt like my entire body was being shredded into a million pieces.
A voice echoed in my head—Devin’s. “Lilli, what have you done?” it said.
My skull felt like it would explode, a feeling that quickly spread to the rest of my body. Even when it was over, I didn’t have enough strength in my legs to stay upright, and I fell on the floor in a heap, panting, and dry-heaving.
“Open your eyes,” a voice commanded.
I tried, but couldn’t, sure that if I did I would throw up or pass out.
My eyes were closed, so I didn’t see the kick coming. Someone’s shoe struck me in the shins. I cried out as I grabbed my legs. The pain forced my eyelids open. As I lay there on the ground, clutching my legs, I looked up at two men towering over me.
“Why did you have to kick her, Sabin? She’s on the ground already, and she’s just a girl.”
“You have no idea how hard this girl made it to find her. Besides, I doubt Zoran would mind.”
So the one who’d brought me here from Kansas City was named Sabin. Not that knowing his name made much of a difference. The man next to him didn’t look nearly as unpleasant. Maybe it was his slighter build, or the fact that a permanent sneer wasn’t painted on his face.
Slowly, I pulled myself upright, and surveyed my surroundings. There was not much in the way of lighting so it was hard to see where I was. The only light in the room came from a few candle sconces that hung on the walls. Craggy rock surrounded me on all sides. It looked like I was in a cave, and instinctively I knew that was a bad, bad thing.
“Does Zoran know you found her?” Sabin’s companion asked. In the dimly lit cave he looked ashen. His blond hair, which was pulled back off his face and tied into a ponytail, was almost as pale as his skin.
“No.” Sabin shook his head. “Do you know where he is now? I should find him and let him know his visitor has arrived.”
“No need, I’m here.” I turned toward the voice, but it was too dark to see much. My heart pounded as Zoran approached. As he inched closer I noticed a smile on his face, but it wasn’t the kind that made him look any less frightening. He looked like a tiger about to devour his prey. His shirtless, muscled torso was covered with tattoos that appeared to be some sort of ancient symbols.
“It took you long enough to find her, Sabin,” Zoran muttered. “Was she alone?”
“Yes, she was.”
“Hmmm. I’ll just have to find the half-breed later and deal with him then.”
At the mention of Devin, my heart pounded fiercely. I should have known better than to hope Zoran wouldn’t have figured out he’d been protecting me.
Zoran stopped in front of me and held his hand out to touch my face. His fingertips rested on one of my cheeks. “Naiara’s daughter.” His voice was cold and bitter.
I turned my face and he dropped his hand.
“What do you want from me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“So many things,” he said. “But first things first. I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.” He turned toward the two other men in the room. “What was it again that humankind do to greet each other? Shake hands, isn’t it?”
He didn’t wait for them to reply before sticking his hand out towards me. I didn’t want to shake it, but I was too intimidated to refuse.
“I am Zoran.”
My tongue froze in my mouth.
“Well?” he said with a slight hint of irritation in his voice. “I’ve introduced myself; now it’s your turn.”
“I’m Lilli,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. I still felt disoriented from the teleporting, and nervous. It hadn’t taken long for me to realize that Sabin’s assertion that Zoran only wanted to talk was dead wrong. When he’d made that claim I’d clung to a sliver of hope that it would be true, but I knew better now.
“Like the flower. I wonder who chose that name for you. Was it your mother or your father?”
“Lilies were my dad’s favorite flower,” I replied.
“Your dad . . . isn’t that sweet.” Zoran was so close to me I could practically feel his breath on my skin. Everything about him felt dark and dangerous. His long black hair was pulled back from his face, highlighting his broad forehead and high cheekbones. I wondered if my mother, at one time, before she’d met my dad, had loved him. He terrified me, but, at the same time, I could recognize that he was a man many women would consider handsome.
Zoran turned to face the two men in the room with us. “Sabin, Kees. I need to talk to my guest in private. Leave us now.”
As if Zoran were their master, both men did as he commanded and disappeared. It was still strange for me to see a person suddenly vanish. It took me a minute to find my voice.
“Where am I?” I asked.
“We’re . . . nowhere,” Zoran replied with a mischievous smile.
“Why can’t I know where I am? It’s not like there’s anyone here for me to tell.”
“You’re here to answer my questions, not the other way around.”
As I stared into the darkness, it truly did feel like we were nowhere. I choked back the fear that crawled up my throat. “You didn’t have to bring me all the way out here. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. I don’t have any secrets.”
“But apparently your mother did. Lots of them. You see, I never knew that she had a child until just a short time ago. You can imagine my surprise.”
I shrugged. “Lots of people have children, there’s nothing special about that. Why do you even care?” I asked, before catching myself. I didn’t want to let on that I knew about his and my mother’s story.
“I care because I love your mother,” Zoran replied through gritted teeth. “She is supposed to be mine, and mine alone.”
“My mother’s dead, so what does it matter?”
Zoran laughed. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
I did my best to appear confused and clueless. “Are you going to tell me what you’re getting at, because I really have no idea?”
“What I’m getting at is that I know you are lying to me.” He stared into my eyes as if he dared me to deny it.
“How did you find out about me?” I asked. It was a question that had been gnawing at me ever since Devin killed the tracker demon Zoran had sent after me.
He laughed. “That’s an interesting question.” He laced his fingers together and held them just unde
r his chin as if he were praying. “Your mother has always been a rather moody woman. That’s not so unusual for a seer, so I understood. And then a few weeks ago she became even more withdrawn. More than once I caught her with tears in her eyes staring at the walls with a blank look on her face. I asked her to tell me what was wrong, but your mother is a master at lies.” Zoran shook his head in disapproval. “I knew she was hiding something from me, so I used a spell to find out what.”
“What kind of spell?”
“Let me see through her eyes what she hides when she lies.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m surprised your mother wasn’t more careful. It’s really a very basic spell. One that makes it so you can see what someone else is seeing, even if you’re not with them. Every night after she went to bed I watched what she had been doing all day, what she’d been seeing,” Zoran explained. “You can only imagine how shocked I was to see you.”
I felt the blood drain from my face as Zoran explained what he had done.
“But . . . the only thing the spell enabled me to do was see. I couldn’t hear a word of your conversation with her. So that is why I needed you—to give me the answers I want; to tell me the truth that your mother surely won’t.”
“I don’t know what truth you think you know, but I’ll tell you my truth. My mother died when I was a few months old, and my father raised me alone. I don’t remember anything about my mother. She doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“We both know she’s not dead. At some point you may have thought that, but remember, I watched her speak with you and that half-breed friend of her cousin,” Zoran said, not buying the version of events I was trying to sell him. “And despite your claim that your mother means nothing to you, it’s clear that she doesn’t feel that way about you. She kept you a secret for all these years to protect you.”
“Dead, alive, why does it matter?”
“I’ll tell you why it matters.” Zoran turned his back to me. “Naiara left me days before we were to be married. For a year I lived in torment, worried that she was out there somewhere, hurt or afraid, maybe even dead. I scoured the Wilds searching for her, I even entered the fairy lands, but there was no trace of her anywhere. I was sure I’d lost her for good. And then she returned to me with no explanation. Our reunion wasn’t the joyous occasion it should have been, though. Naira came back to me a different person. She was quiet, withdrawn, her passion for me nothing like it had been. All these years I assumed she’d been through some sort of trauma she didn’t want to relive by telling me. I treated her like glass, always careful not to break her. And then I found out about you and realized what a fool I’ve been.”
He didn’t seem to know about his very own mother forcing mine to return to him.
“You should just let this go. My father is dead, and my mother is married to you. Why can’t you forget you ever found out about me and let us both go back to our lives?”
Zoran glared at me, his face a mask of anger. “Are you always this simple?”
“I don’t know what you want from me. It’s not like I asked to be a part of this stupid love triangle of yours. I’m not the one who betrayed you and broke your heart.”
“You’re right. You may not have asked to be a part of this, but still, you are,” he said. “You know the funny thing is, if your father hadn’t died, I probably would’ve never uncovered her secrets. It was her mourning for him that roused my suspicion and caused me to cast the spell that led me to you.”
Zoran took a step towards me and studied my face. When he spoke again, his voice sounded sad. “You look so much like your mother. It makes it almost hard to hate you. Almost.”
“You have no reason to hate me. I haven’t done anything to you.”
“You were born,” Zoran said, his words laced with anger. “Your mother was supposed to be mine. The child she gave birth to was supposed to be ours. In all these years we’ve been together, she never bore me a child, because she already had one with another man. You are all she wanted.”
“You hate me just for being born? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Picture your half-breed with another woman. Your enemy, no less. Picture him kissing her, touching her, loving her. See his woman with a baby in her arms, their baby. How does that make you feel?”
I gritted my teeth. Just the thought of it made me feel like someone was tearing my heart into tiny little pieces.
Zoran saw my response and laughed. “Not so hard to understand my anger after all, is it?”
“I would be angry, but I wouldn’t . . .”
“The woman I have loved, for as long as I can remember, bore another man’s child. And not just any man, she chose our enemy, a human whose ancestors were responsible for torturing and murdering our kind,” Zoran said, cutting me off. His voice boomed, and within the walls of the cave, an eerie echo made his tone even more intimidating. “She didn’t just deceive me, she broke the Council’s rules and betrayed our whole kind. I bet she never told your father what she really is. He wouldn’t have laid a finger on her if knew. Humankind hate witches almost as much as we hate them.”
“Don’t speak about my father as if you knew him, because you didn’t.”
“Naiara has spent a very long time protecting you and your father instead of telling me the truth. It appears that she loved the two of you more than she ever loved me.” There was a bitter edge to his voice. “I cannot simply forget that not only did she choose someone else over me, but she also had his child.”
“I’m sorry for what she did to you,” I said, sincerely. I could see that he was brokenhearted, and a part of me understood. “You say she chose my father and me over you, but that’s not true. She left us behind. I grew up without a mother, and my dad never got over her.”
“She left you to save you. If I would have found her, and one way or another I would have, I would have broken your father and left him in pieces on the side of the road for the crows to eat. And surely you understand, but I could not have helped your mother raise another man’s child.”
“So what now?” My sympathy toward him evaporated. Devin was right, I needed to stop looking at things the way I used to. The rules here were different. Devin had tried explaining things to me as best he could, but being told something and seeing it with your own eyes were two different things.
“What now? You should not even exist!” Zoran shouted. “Your father took advantage of Naiara, seducing her and forcing her to have an unnatural child. You are an abomination.”
“No, she loved my father,” I said, without even trying to hide my outrage. “He did not take advantage of her.”
“And you know this how?”
“Because my father was a kind and gentle person, not a monster, like you. If my mother ran away from you, it’s because you chased her off.”
“If I’m a monster, it’s because Naiara turned me into one.” Zoran gripped my chin in his hand. I tried to shake myself loose, but he was too strong. “You must get your fire from the human. Naiara is a lot more timid than you. It’s one of the things I’ve always loved about her.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said, folding my arms across my chest and taking a step back. “You got your answers. Now let me go.”
“We’re not finished yet.”
“What else do you want from me?”
“Is all humankind in such a rush?” Zoran taunted. “You will know what I intend when I am ready. For now, sit, relax, I’m sorry this place isn’t more inviting, but Kees will return with some food for you. I wouldn’t want to be accused of being a less than gracious host.”
He was gone as soon as the words left his mouth, and I found myself alone. I stumbled backwards, using the wall behind me to brace myself. There had to be a way out. But even if I found it, what then? I had no idea how to navigate my way around wherever it was Sabin had brought me. I knew my cell phone would be useless. But sitting around waiting for Zoran to come back seemed like t
he worst of all plans.
Slowly, I put one foot in front of the other and started walking, hoping that eventually I’d find a way to escape. The farther I headed away from where I’d started, the more the light dimmed. Eventually, I stepped into complete darkness and had to walk with my arms in front of me to make sure I didn’t bump into anything.
Exhaustion chipped away at my resolve. It seemed like no matter which direction I headed in, I always wound up back in the same dimly lit room I had been brought to by Sabin. It occurred to me that perhaps the only way out was the same way I’d gotten in. Problem was I’d never tried to teleport on my own.
But what was the worst that could happen?
I closed my eyes and pictured myself in Devin’s arms, hoping that that’s where I’d wind up. Nothing happened at all. I tried picturing something else—my bedroom—but I’d barely begun to focus on it when I heard soft laughter.
“That’s not going to work, you know.”
I opened my eyes to find Kees standing in front of me with his arms folded across his chest.
“What do you mean?”
“You may only be half-witch, but do you really think Zoran would have left you without making certain you couldn’t teleport out of here?”
“How did he do that?”
“With a blocking spell.”
“Just great,” I muttered under my breath. “What do you want? If you came back to gloat, then you can just leave.”
“Don’t be so rude,” he replied. “I brought you something to eat.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Suit yourself.” He sat down in front of me on the ground, crossed his legs and put the plate he’d brought with him on his lap. As he began to eat, the smell of spiced meat made my stomach grumble. I glanced at the food, meat and potatoes glistening with gravy, and realized that the reason my stomach was making so much noise was because I hadn’t eaten since the day before.
I stared at Kees while he enjoyed the meal that was meant for me.