by Anna Hill
“Casual like what?” he asked in a quiet, serious voice.
Man, it felt good to have this much power over him.
“Like… why did you watch me for all those years?” I said. “What was in it for you?”
He looked confused. “What do you even mean? Serving my king, of course. I don’t need to benefit as an individual to do work for my king.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But I mean… why do you care about doing anything for him at all? I mean, let’s be real. He’s everyone’s king, but most of the kingdom couldn’t give less of a shit about him. They’re living in poverty, they’re barely surviving, they have no loyalty to the government or to politics… So why would you? Especially as a teenager?”
He rolled his eyes. “You really still think I’m some average human? I care because I’m not like most of Elderan. I’m not a nobody. I come from a very long line of humans that are loyal to the crown, Annabelle. My family has been spies for the crown ever since humans overthrew your disgusting ancestors.”
I don’t know why I hadn’t considered this as a possibility. “So there’s like, what, secret families that are spying on the rest of us?”
“Basically. And we’re not in poverty. I had all the money I ever needed. My family faked that because of the task they’d been given. That task was mainly for me, since I’m the only one in the inner circle that was your age. We moved to your school district specifically so I could keep an eye on you, befriend you, even date you.”
“So… even your parents knew?” I don’t know why, but that thought disgusted me even more.
I had previously thought of Jacob as a lone wolf. Some weird guy that had an obsession with royalty and was acting on his own volition. I guess my theory made way less sense than the reality. Why would a teenager ever become so involved with the king?
But still, it was gross to me that other grown adults were in on this. I could see how a teenager could be brainwashed. But his parents should have known better. They watched me, they knew me, as adults they should have had empathy for me.
“Of course they knew. Why do you think they never liked you?”
It was something I always used to say… that his parents hated me. And he’d mostly brush it off, say they didn’t, that I was overthinking things, and that they liked me just fine.
I had to laugh. “So you always knew I was right.”
“Absolutely. But that fault lies on my parents. They weren’t ever supposed to make it known that they hated you. But they were so bothered by the presence of a witch in their home, that regardless of how hard they tried to hide it, it always showed. They were bad actors. I had to cover their tracks.”
“Where are they now?” I asked.
“They’ve moved from that shitfest neighborhood back into the nice home we owned in the capital. Actually, they moved away right after I got my own place with you. They didn’t feel as honored with our family’s task as I did. They like living their luxurious life. I love my parents, but they’re not great servants. I, on the other hand, have made it my life’s work to keep the crown safe. I have no interest in luxury. My only interest is in my destiny.”
I rolled my eyes. “So great that you’ve found destiny in keeping me hostage. What a big, strong man you are… tricking a teenage girl by being nice to her. What a success! You should be so proud.”
I could see the skin between his eyebrows wrinkle up in frustration. “You had your questions. Eat now.”
He placed the bowl on my bed.
I looked at the oatmeal, then back at him, then back at the oatmeal.
Normally, I took my promises very seriously. If I made a deal, I’d honor it. That was how my parents raised me.
But I was staring at the man who had spent years lying to me, so I didn’t feel morally bound to keep my end of the deal in this situation.
I very slowly pushed the bowl off my bed, and once again, it shattered on the floor.
He flew into a rage, kicking his chair back against the floor. He didn’t come any closer to me, though. He knew how I was itching to get my hands on him.
“How dare you!” he screamed at me.
I actually was hungry at this point, but I was enjoying my power too much. This may have been my only opportunity to ever bother him. I wanted to make his life as hard as possible. I knew that my eating was just a small irritation, but to him it clearly meant so much more.
“Aw, can poor baby Jacob not go back to his boss and say he got me to eat food? How sad for him.”
“Sad for me? Oh, no, Annabelle. Trust me, this is sad for you. You have no idea what you’ve done. You’re going to regret this.”
“I'm sure,” I said nonchalantly. “Bring your worst.”
I actually was fairly scared to be tortured, but I wasn’t going to let him know that.
He kicked the metal chair again on his way out before slamming the door.
My heart was pounding, but I couldn't control the smile on my face. I was irritating him! I was affecting him!
It was the only thing that could possibly make me feel good right now.
But that feeling wasn’t going to last.
It wasn’t long until Jacob came back, probably less than an hour. I was still riding my high of getting under his skin when he waltzed back in.
But it dissipated when I saw that he had brought smaller chains, multiple people, and a medical-looking contraption that I could not identify.
He threw the chains to one of the men that walked behind him. “Get these on her, we can’t have her moving.”
The guy who now had the chains, a stout, brunette man with a double chin, looked skeptical about doing so. I’m sure he was scared to get near me. I would have been too.
But apparently Jacob was fairly high up in command because he took his orders and started moving toward me.
I started thrashing around. I definitely did not make it easy for him. Punching him with whatever hand he wasn’t grabbing, kicking at him… It had to have hurt. But he stuck to the plan.
And no matter how much I fought against him, there wasn’t much I could do. I was already chained up. He never even bothered to take the old chains off, he just doubled up and put the new ones on me and then the bed.
They were pretty damn tight. I could shift my hands and feet about an inch when all was said and done. I had forgotten how much I hated the short chains they gave me the first week.
It made me feel incredibly vulnerable, not being able to move. It meant I couldn’t fight back in any way. Maybe thrashing was ineffective, but at least it was something. But this?
“So, what’s the plan, Jacob? We’re making it so you have to spoon-feed me again?”
He laughed. “Oh, no. I don’t think that would work anymore, right? You’d probably spit it back in my face. You made it clear you refuse to eat. There’s only one way to fight that, right?” He held up a long thin tube. “So, I’m going to stick this down your nose, down your throat, and force-feed you. And it absolutely is going to hurt. And it’s going to be uncomfortable. And we’re going to do this three times a day.”
I felt like I was going to be sick.
Part of me wanted to yell out, “Never mind! I’ll eat! I’ll eat right now, just don’t stick that in me!”
But I couldn’t do that. My pride wouldn’t allow it. No matter how painful or torturous this was going to be, I would not grovel at Jacob’s feet. He could take what he wanted from me, he could torture me, but I would not turn into his little bitch.
“Delicious,” I said in a fake-happy voice.
I knew that in a second, when he actually moved to put that thing in me, I was going to look pathetic. I’d be thrashing around in pain and choking, and there would be nothing prideful about it.
But I’d stand my ground until that very moment.
He smiled, knowing that this time, he was the one with the upper hand. “Well then, let’s begin, shall we?”
Every step that he took toward me felt like it was s
low motion. My heart was beating so fast, I really thought I was going to puke… even though I knew I had nothing in my stomach to throw up. But that wouldn’t be true for much longer.
When he reached me, he put his hand on my chin and forced my head down. I wasn’t going to thrash this time. I’d look more dignified if I just let it happen…
But just as he began inserting the tube into my nose, there was a crash down the hall. I didn’t know what it could have possibly been, since I had yet to hear any loud noises in my time here. In fact, it was usually dead silent.
It caught the attention of Jacob, though. As well as the other men in the room.
Jacob looked at them both. “What the fuck was that?”
The stout man who had chained me down just shrugged.
“Well, go find out!” Jacob yelled.
“Yes sir.” He nodded, though once again, it was obvious he didn’t want to do it.
He stepped out into the hall. I could see through the open door and was watching just as intently as they were.
But almost as immediately as he stepped out the door, he stepped back in and slammed it behind him.
Jacob gasped. “What the hell? What are you doing? What’s going on?”
“There’s a… a creature! A black creature!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jacob screamed.
I was just as scared as they were, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t enjoying Jacob’s fear. Good, now you can feel confused and vulnerable too.
He deserved it.
“I don’t know what it is! I just saw it and I think it saw me, so I shut the door!”
Just as he finished his sentence, there was a pounding on the door. It echoed through the metal walls of the room.
There was no lock on the door. They didn’t need one since I was always chained up. So the stout man had to lean his entire weight against it in an effort to get the door to stay shut.
But it was clear that whatever was on the other side of that door, this man was no match for. The door kept opening slightly, a little more slightly with every pounding. He was not going to be able to keep it shut for long.
Jacob instinctively began to step backward and look around the room. What he was looking for, I had no clue. A weapon? An exit? Either way, there was nothing helpful to him in here. I knew this empty room intimately.
He was screwed.
We were probably all screwed, but I honestly didn’t care about that. If I was going to go down, I was just happy this scumbag was going down with me. I hoped whatever this creature was would take King Robert down too.
The door was finally forced open, throwing the man backwards and down to the ground.
And in entered a large, dark wolf.
Angelo.
I was in shock. It took me a second to even process what was happening. Could this really be happening? Was this another dream? How on earth did he find me?
I knew it wasn’t a dream, though. I had gotten to know my dreams pretty intimately lately. They were fuzzy, confusing, not quite right…
This was reality.
I had never felt joy like this in my entire life. Never had I been so happy to see anyone.
Angelo came in with a growl and leapt directly for Jacob, who was now backed up against the wall. He sank his teeth into his arm, and Jacob screamed in agony. Angelo, his teeth still in him, whipped him against the wall and across the room. He fell like a ragdoll.
Anglo could kill him so easily and, frankly, I didn’t care if he did.
“Angelo!” I called out to him. “My neck… you have to get this thing off my neck.”
In an instant, he had transformed from a wolf into a human, his naked body before me. He needed his hands for this.
He rushed across the room, going straight for my neck as soon as he got to me, tearing at the lace to get it off of me.
But before he could, he was thrust backwards by a force I didn’t even see coming.
“No!” I screamed.
I quickly looked up to where it had come from, and standing in the doorway was a furious King Robert. In his hand was some kind of large, wooden staff. I had never seen him hold anything like it before, but as he slammed it down, another yellowish ball of energy came flying out of it and hit Angelo, making him groan in pain.
I felt fear like I’d never known it. More fear than the moment I was captured, more fear than when I was about to be force-fed. Every inch of my body screamed out in horror at the thought that I might lose Angelo, here and now.
I couldn’t fathom it. I couldn’t see him die. It felt like losing him would be like losing a limb. The thought of him gone…
“Leave him the fuck alone!” I screamed out as Robert came into the room, stomping toward Angelo.
No, no, no, fuck… he’s going to kill him.
I had to think fast.
I could feel the little area where Angelo had gotten a tear in the fabric. I knew I couldn’t take it off myself, but maybe with it already being torn, I could rub it off.
Which was what I did. I began to rub my neck furiously against the sharp edge of my bedpost. I could feel the seams getting looser and looser, so it was working… I would be able to rub it away.
But would I be able to do it in time?
Robert didn’t even notice what I was doing, he was so focused on Angelo. And Jacob appeared to be knocked out cold. The other men in the room had fled the moment Angelo broke in, so there was nobody else to out me.
I continued to rub furiously.
“You disgusting shifter scum!” Robert bellowed out at Angelo, who was still sprawled out on the floor. Whatever that energy was, it was powerful, because Anglo could take a hit. “Did you really think it was going to be that easy? If it was, you shifter trash would’ve taken back Elderan a long time ago! You should have known you were no match for me."
He began to raise his staff, but as he did, I felt the lace break away.
I felt a flood of power like I’d never felt before.
My magic was restored.
My hands were still chained up, but I needed to act fast. I picked Robert up and threw him against the wall with a toss of my finger.
He looked completely shocked. As he realized what was happening, I transmutated all the chains off my body, tossing them too against the wall of the room.
I was going to destroy Robert.
Except, I wasn’t… because as those chains fell to the ground, I felt a large pull of wind fill the entire room. It only pulled me slightly forward, but I realized quickly what it was when Robert and Jacob had both vanished.
He had transported them out of here.
I had no idea how, I didn’t know he was capable of that, but I immediately leaped out of the bed and ran to the door to see if there was anyone in the hall. Were there still humans here I could grab and interrogate?
No. Whatever Robert had done, he must have taken everyone with him. The halls and all the nearby rooms I ran to were all empty.
Goddammit.
The second he could see I had my power back, he ran like a fucking coward.
Whatever. I couldn’t worry about that right now. I transported myself instantly back to Angelo’s side, where he was still curled up in pain.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“Here, let me heal you—” I began to say, but he grabbed my hand and shook his head violently.
“No... Get us… out of here,” he mumbled.
“Where?” I asked. “Where am I taking us?”
“I’ll… imagine. You… focus in on me.”
I had never done that before, but I knew what he wanted. I was supposed to focus in on his thoughts and he would tell me where to go. Wherever he wanted me to take us, it was clearly a place I had never been or he’d have just told me.
That must have meant we weren't going back to the shifter island.
I did as he said, and in seconds we were travelling in a whirlwind and landing in a
room I did not recognize.
It was dark, dusty, damp… but not metal. They were wooden walls.
I had never been so glad to see wooden walls.
As soon as we landed on the dusty floor, I heard the voice I had been missing for so long.
“Annabelle!” Lio yelled.
I glanced up to see both Lio and Rhyion running my way.
I couldn’t focus on either of them, though. Angelo was still hurting in front of me.
Maybe more than hurting. I had no idea what the hell Robert had done to him, and he was gasping for air now.
“I’ll fix this, I promise!” I told him, focusing all my energy on healing him.
Normally, it took only a minute or so to heal the boys’ injuries after we had a training session.
But five minutes passed by, then ten, and Angelo was still groaning.
I began to panic.
“He’s… not okay!" I yelled out, tears welling up in my eyes. “I don't know what’s happening! I really don’t think he’s okay! Is he dying?”
I looked over at Rhyion, not Lio. Lio was my comfort, but Rhyion was my wisdom. He was the one to give me answers. He was the one who guided me.
“What exactly happened?” Rhyion asked, bending down on the floor next to me, also sitting over a groaning Angelo.
“King Robert had this… staff. I don’t know. It had magic in it, and he threw this yellow ball type of thing at Angelo. I don’t know what it was, but it had to have hurt because Angelo never fought back.”
Rhyion looked immediately worried. “That’s black magic, Annabelle. Using another vessel like a staff to control magic… it’s unnatural. I don’t know what exactly he did, but I know how deadly dark magic can get. It’s not like your magic, Annabelle. There are no mild punches with black magic. Most spells are set up to be lethal.”
Tears were streaming down my face. “No... No.” I looked at Angelo, my tears drenching my cheeks. “You can’t die,” I told him. “Please. Please, Angelo. I can’t lose you.”
Rhyion grabbed both my hands and forced me to look at him. “Annabelle, you’re just going to have to continue to try to heal him. It could very well be fixable. It might take a lot longer than it normally does, but… you have to keep trying. Keep trying until it works.”