by Teresa Roman
“Of course,” Zoran replied, bowing his head. “As long as you keep up your end of our bargain.”
“What do you need Zoran for?” I said. “Use the power for yourself to get what you want; just leave me out of this.”
“Witches and demons are both powerful creatures, but it’s when we combine our magic that we are truly unstoppable. Our magic will feed off each other. Together, Zoran and I will rule the Wilds unchallenged,” Andras said.
“Zoran, please.” I turned to him. “I’m begging you. Don’t do this to me.” I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
He ignored me.
“I’ll need some time to prepare,” Andras said. “Have the girl ready for me by tomorrow. After our ceremony, you’ll get what you want. Not a minute before.”
“She’ll be ready.”
“I can hardly wait.” Andras left us, tossing a satisfied smile our way before vanishing.
“I have some preparations of my own to make,” Zoran said. “I’ll send Sabin back later with some dinner for you. Be sure to get some rest. Tomorrow is a big day for both of us.”
Before I had a chance to reply, Zoran was gone. I turned and let my forehead fall forward against the wall in front of me. Tears I could no longer control sprang from my eyes and ran down my face. I felt like I was choking. What did being a wife to a demon even mean? There was no way I was going to let him touch me. I would rather die.
Die. Perhaps death was my best option, my only way out of this situation. If I died, Andras wouldn’t get the bride he wanted. Maybe that would be enough to make him back out of his deal with Zoran, especially if it was Zoran who killed me.
A plan began to form in my mind. When Zoran returned, I’d find a way to provoke him. I would make him so angry that he wouldn’t be able to control himself. It was obvious he had temper issues—all I needed to do was push him over the edge. But how?
Time passed slowly, painfully. My head began to hurt again and with the pain came whispers that made me wonder if I got a concussion from hitting my head when Zoran had thrown me across the room. I curled into a ball on the floor, wrapping my arms over my head in the hope that it would help.
Sometime later, Sabin returned with food, the same heavenly smelling meat that Kees had brought earlier. It made my mouth water, but again, I couldn’t bring myself to eat. Sabin placed the plate on the floor and left without saying a word.
As minutes turned into hours, my grumbling stomach made the dinner Sabin brought impossible to ignore. I picked at the food, savoring the flavor despite the fact that it had gotten cold. After my hunger abated, I took the plate and hurled it across the room in a fit of anger and frustration.
I sat back down and lowered my head onto my bent knees. I thought about Devin and my mother and wondered where they were. I was beginning to lose hope that they’d be able to find me. If Zoran had gotten to them, there was no way out of this cave.
The pain in my head got worse, and so did the whispering. I cried out and clasped my arms around my head. The pain I could deal with, but the noise was unsettling as it gradually increased in volume. Eventually, the whispering turned into an actual voice and then words. Someone was saying my name. I panicked, even more convinced I had some sort of brain injury, not that it mattered. Nothing mattered anymore.
“Lilli, listen to me.”
“Stop it, stop it,” I cried. But the noise in my head only got louder. Desperate to drown it out, I was about to scream, when I recognized the voice. I sat perfectly still and listened.
“Tell me where you are.”
“Mother?”
“Lilli, listen to me. You’re not imaging things. I’m going to find you, but I need your help.”
How was I having a conversation with my mother? For almost a week Devin had tried to teach me how to reach her, but I’d never been able to. “I don’t know where I am.”
“Speak with your mind, not your lips. I can hear you better that way,” my mother said. “Now tell me, did Zoran say anything about where he has you, did he give you any clues?”
“No. I asked him, but he wouldn’t say. I think he’s keeping me in a cave.”
“Think, Lilli. Did he give you any clues that might help me figure out how to find you?”
Zoran hadn’t, but Kees may have. “One of the men that are helping Zoran said I was in the Void. Is that even a real place?”
A long silence followed and I worried that whatever connection my mother managed to establish had been cut off somehow.
“Good girl,” my mother finally said. “It is a real place. Don’t be scared. I’ll figure out how to find you there. Only . . .”
“Only what?”
“It may take some time to locate you. The Void is a rather big place and enchanted with all sorts of magic. Its paths change at will. But Devin is with me, his ability will help us track you.”
“What if you can’t?” I asked, hearing the desperation in my voice.
“We will, I promise.”
And then the noise in my head went silent.
Chapter 28
Not having any one to talk to or anything to do started to drive me crazy after a while. Hours passed. The cave was cold and dark—I badly wanted a shower and a warm bed. I felt hopeless and desperate. My mother promised she’d find me, but what if it was too late by the time she did?
Eventually, my exhaustion overrode everything else and I fell asleep on the cold, hard ground.
I awoke to find Zoran hovering over me. “You look dreadful,” he said as I sat up. “Lucky for you, I’ve brought something that will help.”
A white dress was draped over one of his arms. The fabric shimmered in the candlelight. Zoran held it up, as if proud that he’d managed to find me something so nice.
“You don’t honestly think I’ll wear that, do you?”
“You can’t get married in those clothes,” he said, pointing to what I was wearing.
“I’m not getting married to anyone,” I hissed at him. “And you can’t force me into that dress.”
“Maybe Andras will get you to change your mind.”
“No. He won’t.”
“A word of advice, Lilli. You can make things hard for yourself or you can make them easy. You are no match for Andras. He’s been around for hundreds of years. He may be infatuated with you now, but force his hand and he will lose his patience and you will see his bad side.”
“He’s a demon; aren’t all his sides bad?”
Zoran held the dress out to me as if he expected me to change my mind. I took it from him and held it up, pretending to admire it. Zoran seemed pleased until I bunched up the fabric in my hands, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it over and over again. His eyes flashed with anger as he struck me across my cheek.
My face stung, but it was worth it to see how angry I’d made Zoran. It would be easier than I thought to push him to his limit if the time came. I didn’t want it to come to that, though. I wanted to see Devin again. I wanted his arms around me, and I wanted to feel his lips on mine. But the hope I’d felt earlier was beginning to fade. It had been hours since I’d told my mother about the Void, but she still hadn’t found me.
“You ungrateful . . .”
“I told you I wasn’t going to wear it,” I shouted.
“What is all the fuss about in here?”
I recognized the voice. Andras was back, dressed in his finest clothing.
“Zoran just attacked me,” I said, pointing an accusatory finger at him.
“She is not yours to touch, Zoran. You promised her to me. Lay another finger on my bride and I will be very unhappy with you.”
Stooping to pick up the dress, Zoran didn’t respond. The white fabric had a few streaks of dirt on it, but otherwise it looked fine.
“I brought your bride a dress to wear for your ceremony, but she doesn’t seem interested in it.”
“There’s no need for a fancy dress,” Andras said simply. “She looks perfectly lovely the way she is now.”
He turned toward me. “Are you ready, beautiful one?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m not ready. I’ll never be ready. I’m not marrying you, not now, not ever.”
“You don’t want me?” He sounded offended.
“What she wants isn’t important,” Zoran said. “And I’m tired of wasting time listening to her complaints. I say we get this over with so we can get on with our plans.”
Ignoring Zoran’s comment, Andras took a few steps toward me. I backed away, but eventually there was nowhere to go. Trapped against the wall of the cave, I couldn’t escape his approach. He stopped and studied me before reaching for my face, brushing his fingers over my lips. I turned my head away, trembling. He smiled, and I realized he enjoyed my fear and revulsion.
“So pretty,” he whispered.
I darted under his arm to try and get away. He spun around and grabbed my wrists. His grip was so strong that it felt like he would break my bones. He pulled me toward him, crushing my body against his, and held both of my hands behind my back with one of his. No amount of squirming helped. With his other hand he reached behind my head and drew me close, intending to kiss me. My stomach coiled into a knot and my heart raced in terror at the thought.
“Let go of me,” I pleaded. Tears streamed down my face.
Andras laughed. He clearly enjoyed my discomfort. “You’re a wild one, aren’t you?”
“If anyone can tame her, you can,” Zoran said, sounding bored.
His voice made my blood boil. I will kill him. In my entire life I’d never hated anyone as much as I hated Zoran.
I struggled to free myself from Andras’s grip, but it was impossible. He was far too strong. He moved his hand away from the back of my head and a surge of relief ran through me until he began to trace his fingertips over my cheek. His hand moved slowly down the side of my face, then my neck, and across my shoulder. His hand crept lower and lower until it was almost on my breast. I wanted to scream, to cry, to beg him to stop, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. If anything, he liked to watch me struggle.
I closed my eyes and tried to block his face from my mind, but it didn’t help because I could still feel him touching me. I needed to find a way to make him release me from his grip—then I could run; I could get Zoran to chase me until he lost his temper, until I made him angry enough to finally end this horrible nightmare. I let out a cry I didn’t even realize I had in me.
A moment later, I felt the pressure on my wrists release. Run, my mind told me. I couldn’t though; my legs felt too weak. Instead, I backed away from Andras slowly, too consumed in my own terror to notice that something about him had changed.
Andras cried out and I recognized the agony in his voice as my own. He doubled over and fell to his knees as if someone had sucker-punched him.
“What did you do to him?” Zoran said, rushing to his side.
I kept backing away until I hit the wall behind me, and nearly collapsed the same way Andras had. I watched as he slowly uncurled his body. Pure fright filled his eyes. With his hands off me and some distance between us, my panic subsided and I felt like I could take a breath again.
“What did you do?” Zoran roared.
I was as clueless as he was. “Nothing,” I shouted, sure that whatever was going on had nothing to do with me. “I didn’t do anything to him.”
Andras made it back on his feet. He still seemed shaken, but not like he had a few moments earlier. He didn’t look at me, instead he wiped the sweat from his brow, adjusted his tie, and then, as quick as a cat, pounced on Zoran, grabbing him by his neck. “How dare you double cross me?” he asked, his voice as cold as ice.
Zoran couldn’t talk. He tried and failed to pry Andras’s hands from his neck until somehow, using his power, he was able to force him off.
The demon stumbled over his feet, allowing Zoran to breathe again.
“If you ever try to summon me again, I will kill you,” Andras said, his voice full of rage. I watched in disbelief as a ball of flames formed in one of his palms. He hurled it at Zoran, who ducked to avoid being hit.
“I haven’t double crossed you,” Zoran said. “I swear it.”
“You said she had no powers.”
“She doesn’t!”
“Liar!” Andras’s voice boomed. He marched over to Zoran and pushed him against the wall. “How dare you try to make a fool of me?”
“Wait a minute,” Zoran pleaded. “Whatever you think she did, you are mistaken. The girl has no powers.”
Andras let out a wicked laugh. “You really believe that, don’t you?” The look on Zoran’s face seemed to answer his question. “A word of advice, keep that girl away from me, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay away from her as well.” He vanished without waiting for Zoran’s response.
A sense of relief flooded through me, but the feeling didn’t last long. Zoran’s face contorted in anger. His eyes blazed and he clenched his jaw. Andras may have left, but my nightmare was far from over.
“What have you done?” he said, his eyes narrowing to slits.
I, too, was beginning to wonder. “I don’t know. Maybe your demon friend just realized what you’re doing is wrong.”
“I can assure you Andras came to no such realization,” Zoran scoffed. “He doesn’t care about wrong or right—or you, for that matter. You did something to him, and you’re going to tell me what.”
“I already told you, I didn’t do anything.”
“You’ve just ruined everything for me,” Zoran said. His murderous gaze locked on me. “Which means I have no more use for you.”
With a flick of his hand, he sent me flying across the room like a rag doll. When my body hit the ground it felt like my ribs had shattered. I gasped for air, but before I could catch my breath, Zoran stalked over to me. He knelt beside me, grabbed me by my hair and lifted my head off the ground so he could force me to stare into his cruel face. “I should leave you here to starve to death,” he said. “But I’m afraid that Kees will return and rescue you. He likes you, you know, but your pretty face won’t be enough to save you.”
I was in too much pain to speak. I closed my eyes to block out Zoran’s face. He shook my head, and I cried out as I felt strands of my hair being torn from my scalp. “Open your eyes,” he demanded.
I refused to obey. My defiance made me feel stronger, even though I knew I stood no chance against Zoran. One more toss across the room would probably mean the end of me.
“I said open your eyes!” he yelled. He let go of my hair and grabbed my neck. His hands tightened. Instinctively, I clutched at them as he choked the life out of me. My time had run out. Everything became hazy except for the pain.
And then it began to ease. I heard screams and muffled voices in the distance, but I couldn’t make out any words. The pressure around my neck was gone, and I knew then it was over. I was dead. I heard voices, but whose? My neck felt battered and bruised. I gulped for air and opened my eyes, but something seemed wrong.
I was still in the cave. This isn’t right. I wasn’t sure what happened after a person died, but I liked the idea of Heaven and hoped to wind up there. Except Heaven wasn’t supposed to look like this.
“She’s ruined everything,” someone yelled. It took me a minute to register whose voice it was. Zoran’s. But if he was here that meant I wasn’t dead. How was that possible? I’d felt him squeezing my life away. Something or someone must have stopped him before he could finish me off.
“No, you’re the one who’s ruined everything. You ruin everything you touch.”
I turned on my side and scanned the room, looking for the person who had saved my life. And then I saw her—my mother, standing a few feet away with Devin beside her. Zoran stood between them and me.
“Lilli.” I would have known that voice anywhere.
I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and managed to use my arms to prop myself up. “Devin.”
He darted from my mother’s side and ran toward me. I’d ne
ver been so happy to see anyone in my life.
But then Zoran spun around.
“I don’t think so,” he muttered.
Devin’s body went flying away from me, too far away to stop Zoran as he pulled me off the floor. “I wasn’t finished with you yet.”
“Let her go!” my mother demanded.
“Why should I? This girl will cause you nothing but trouble. When the Council finds out about all the rules you’ve broken . . .”
“I don’t care about the Council. I’ll take my punishment, but I won’t lose my child.”
“One day you’ll thank me for this.”
“No, never!”
Zoran pinned my back against the wall.
My mother screamed as he began to strangle me.
This time my neck would snap, and I had no resistance to offer.
My mother ran over to him and tried to pry him off of me, but he was too strong. “You can’t do this!”
“Who’s going to stop me?” Zoran’s grip around my neck grew tighter. I couldn’t yell, I couldn’t even talk. For a few precious moments I’d believed I was saved, but I was wrong.
“No, Zoran, you don’t know what you’re doing,” my mother pleaded again, her voice desperate. She dropped to her knees. “She’s . . . she’s your daughter. You cannot kill our child.”
Chapter 29
For the second time that day, I was sure I was dead. I heard more voices, more yelling in the background. Hands reached for me. I kicked them away and screamed.
“Lilli, it’s me. It’s me.” Devin’s voice penetrated my panic. My screams turned into sobs as he knelt beside me and reached around me to lift me into his arms.
“What’s happening?” I was still disoriented and in pain as it began to dawn on me that for some reason Zoran had let me go, again. But why? Then the answer came to me—the last words that spilled from my mother’s mouth before I blacked out. It seemed impossible that Zoran would believe them. There was no truth to them, so why had Zoran let me go? “We need to get out of here before he comes for me again.” I doubted I’d survive a third attempt on my life.