Persephone’s Curse

by Sandra Bats

  “I’m giving her ten more minutes, then I’m cutting in and getting her out. No matter what.”

  Cam called the waitress over. He made small talk with her. When he asked if she’d ever seen Rowan around here, I paid attention to her.

  “Yeah, I actually know who you’re talking about. He’s been here maybe twice. Months ago, though. Met with another guy. Maybe about five feet seven, fair hair. That’s all I remember.”

  “Well, thanks anyway,” Cam said.

  I turned back around to Elin and Bram. Well, to their empty table.

  “Shit, she’s gone!”

  I was on my feet in seconds, adrenaline flooded my body. She knew better than to have left with Bram. I rushed outside, frantically scanning my surroundings. Cam stopped next to me. I heard her voice.

  “Asshole! Stop it!”

  I ran around the side of the building. She was causing quite a ruckus. We rounded that corner just in time to see her throw up on Bram’s shoes. He stopped tugging at her shirt and called her a bitch. I grabbed his wrist when he lifted his hand to slap her.

  I wasn’t thinking clearly. I wasn’t thinking, at all. White-hot rage consumed me, and I threw punch after punch. Cam eventually got ahold of my arm.

  “Stop! He’s had enough.” Cam held me back by my shoulders. “Better take a look at Elin.”

  I turned. Her wellbeing was more important than beating the shit out of Bram. She was slumped against the wall. I carefully grabbed her shoulders to help her stay upright.

  “Sweetheart, are you ok?”

  “I don’t think so,” she slurred.

  Her pupils were dilated, and she leaned heavily on my arms for support. That was what had been off about her inside. She’d seemed dizzy, intoxicated even, after just one drink.

  “He drugged her!” I glanced behind me but found that Bram had scrambled off.

  “Why’d you let him go,” I cussed out Cam, moving to better steady Elin.

  “We said we wouldn’t hold him. Besides, what you wanna do? Punch him a bit more? Right now, you should worry about getting her home to Jane.”

  Part of me knew he was right, but at that moment I longed to cause Bram more pain. Elin was only half conscious, which made riding the motorcycle a lot more difficult. She sat in front of me but it was difficult to keep her steady. The bike drifted around each turn, as her weight shifted from one side to the other. Keeping the bike in a straight line was virtually impossible, but I was relentless on getting her home.

  ◆◆◆

  “It was Rohypnol. A rather small dose, so she’ll be fine once she sleeps it off. She might have minor amnesia, but she’ll be fine. She wasn’t alone for an extended period of time?” Jane asked.

  “No,” I uttered, heaving a sigh. “A minute or two at the most.” I buried my face in my hands. Just the implication of her question had me shaking with anger and residual shock.

  “Jayden, she’ll be fine. Nothing happened,” Jane reassured me.

  “I know,” I lied. I felt responsible. I scooped Elin up from the couch. By now she’d completely fallen asleep. Or unconscious.

  Cam waited in the hallway and held the doors for me as I carried Elin’s body towards our room. Must have seen the look of guilt all over my face too.

  “Hey Jay, you know she’s fine, right? We were right there and got her out.”

  “He shouldn’t even have been able to leave the bar with her,” I barked at him. I shifted my hold on her, held her a little firmer.

  “Jay …”

  I shook my head. “Don’t tell me I shouldn’t feel bad for this. I’ve got no energy to argue. Just let it be. I’ll deal with it. I’ll be fine.”

  Cam exhaled heavily but then opened the door to our room and left, wishing me a good night. I didn’t expect I’d have one.

  I watched over Elin as she slept peacefully. I knew the things Cam and Jane had told me. That she hadn’t been with Bram long enough for anything to happen. Didn’t mean my mind wasn’t reeling with all the things that could have happened if we hadn’t found her right away. And it wasn’t just that. It was every wrong decision I’d made lately. All the times I’d endangered anyone. That night I truly started to doubt my judgment.

  I settled down beside Elin and draped my arm over her stomach. Every breath and movement she made was a reassurance. I closed my eyes and listened to her soft snoring, which she always denied even existed. That night I realized I could spend the rest of my life doing just that. I could imagine spending that amount of time with her.

  I’d never planned for a future in which I’d grow very old, but that night I found myself imagining it. I could see myself growing old with Elin. Help her with her sisters. Be happy with her. Spend days and nights with her until we were old and gray. I was ready to really believe that was possible.

  I watched when Elin’s eyes fluttered open about nine hours later. I wasn’t sure I’d slept at all or just lain awake the last hours. When she smiled sluggishly though, I was instantly awake.

  “Hey, how are you feeling?”

  She squinted at the light. Carefully moved her head. “Ok, I guess. Bit nauseous.”

  “You remember what happened?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Blurry, though. He must’ve slipped something in my drink. My mouth tastes all weird.”

  “You threw up on Bram’s shoes,” I told her.

  She frowned and then squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh shoot. I remember something. About where they hide.” She pressed her hands to her eyes in agony, trying to grasp the memory. “About shoes. Ah, this sucks. It’s all blurry. He said if I ever were to visit him I was wearing the wrong shoes. Where he was it was cold and wet, and it ruined his shoes. They were covered in this brown-yellowish goo.”

  “Yellowish? You mean like sulfur yellow?”

  I had a vague clue what she might be talking about.

  “I think so,” Elin said. I hurried to excitedly kiss her cheek.

  “I think I might know where they are. I gotta check a few maps, but they might be hiding somewhere in the old drains coming from the electricity plants.” I glanced at her face. “Think I can leave you alone for a while?”

  “Of course. Stop worrying,” she instructed and kissed my cheek.

  Thirty-Three

  Elin

  Lying in bed didn’t make the nausea go away so I decided to get a shower and grab a bite. My hair was still wet when I got to Jayden’s office after breakfast. Jayden and Cam were bent over maps, scattered across his desk. Jayden’s eyes wandered over me and he smiled, which turned out soppier than he’d likely intended.

  “Feel better?” he asked and brushed his lips along my jaw, then kissed there and inhaled deeply. He even made an appreciative sound that made me giggle and blush because it had Cam clearing his throat.

  “Seriously guys, people are trying to work here. If you could save it for the bedroom …”

  “Did you figure out where they’re at?” I asked, leaning closer to get a better look. Jayden pointed out a spot on the map.

  “It’s a warehouse that used to be connected to the electricity plant downtown. Seems abandoned now, sealed off from the outside. But they should be able to gain access through the drain pipes. Back when the plant was still working it had these huge drains that led the sulfur polluted water to the water treatment facility. The drains are empty now, not used but they never got all the sulfur residue out. It’d explain the yellow stains on Bram’s shoes.”

  “Ok. Well, what’s your idea for getting in? I mean you can’t just walk in there and expect Rowan to talk to you, right?” Cam asked.

  “Do I look like an idiot?” Jayden asked, but when he looked first at Cam and then at me he added: “Don’t answer that.”

  “Then what’s your plan?” Cam asked.

  “I was sort of thinking they’d bring me to Rowan if they found out who I was. Rowan might hate me, but at the end of the day, he’s still interested in hiring me.”

  Cam scoffed. “You know, I’
m really glad you said you weren’t gonna just walk in there because what you just described sounds a lot like just walking in there. Have you lost your damn mind? You tried killing him, do you really think he’s gonna just look past that?”

  Cam sounded almost as aggravated as I felt. Once again, Jayden seemed completely blinded by his confidence.

  “I’ve tried killing Rowan half a dozen times in the last few years. He expects it. What he really wants is to have me owe him something. Besides, if Rowan wanted me dead, Bram wouldn’t have been so worried about his job. He’d have simply handed me over and that would’ve been it. But I’ll use that. Rowan expects nothing more from his troops than loyalty. I’ll tell him Bram saw us the last few weeks, but never reported it.”

  “That plan does not sound very foolproof. You know there’s no way I’m letting you go and do this on your own, right?” I blustered. Jayden straightened up a little, crossed his arms in front of his chest and it was obvious he was preparing to object but I didn’t let him. I squared my shoulders and shook my head. “There is no way you’re going to stop me.”

  Jayden shook his head. “You can’t seriously expect to shadow me if you think it’s too dangerous for me to go alone. I’m not even discussing this. You’re not coming with me!”

  “Is that so? Because the last time I checked, I was a grown woman and could do what I very well please.”

  I crossed my arms in front of my chest for emphasis, but I knew it wouldn’t be easy to convince him to let me tag along.

  “Last time I checked I was still commander-in-chief here. And you’re not coming.”

  I snorted at that. Did he think that would work on me? He was only riling me up more.

  “Last I checked, I’m not military so I don’t obey commands. If you want to stop me from coming with you, you’d better lock me in our room, because that’s the only way I’m staying here. And trust me, if you do that, you’ll have a whole new set of issues on your hands.” His jaw was set, and his arms were crossed over his chest, mimicking me. I exhaled and tried to speak softer as I took a step closer. “Come on, don’t make me stay behind worrying about you. Please, you know what it’s like. Don’t make me go through that.”

  His stance softened a bit and he sighed. “Worrying about you is exactly why I don’t want you to come,” he said carefully.

  “I know. But please, Jayden. I can’t just sit around doing nothing. Please trust me.”

  I knew I had won when he squeezed his eyes shut for a second.

  “Fine. But I’m the one calling the shots, you understand? If at any point I tell you to run, you run.”

  We both knew it was an empty promise. If I was ever going to run I’d only do so with Jayden by my side.

  “So, Rowan might kill Bram if you tell him about the double-dealing, right?” Cam broke the silence.

  “Not my problem. I just need something to offer Rowan. If I can do that by pointing out a security breech within his rows, that’s fine by me.”

  “Are you sure it’ll be enough to get Rowan’s help?” Cam asked.

  “I think so.”

  “How are you so sure?” I urged, because I agreed with Cam. I didn’t think simply ratting out Bram would be much of an incentive. Jayden met my eyes then sighed.

  “Rowan was my instructor. Back in the labs. When I was in sniper training. I know how he thinks. He’s about strategy, about holding something over people. It’s why I know he doesn’t want me dead and prefers that I owe him a favor. He thinks of himself as my mentor I think. If someone were lying to me, I’d surely want to know about it.”

  I stared at Jayden, completely speechless and a little taken aback that he’d never thought to mention that Rowan was his instructor. Rowan was the prototype of evil. Picturing him in any way similar to Jayden or thinking that Jayden embodied the things Rowan had taught him, was almost too difficult to imagine. With that in mind, Jayden not caring about Bram’s life made him seem a whole lot more like Rowan than I would have liked to admit. I swallowed.

  “You can’t just let Bram get killed and not care about it,” I sputtered.

  Jayden seemed deaf to my reasoning. “Well, I won’t give up any chance of finding my sister to protect him. This guy drugged you, planning to do who knows what to you. Forgive me, but I really don’t see why I should be concerned with his life.”

  Jayden’s voice was level now, but underneath he was simmering with anger. So was I. I almost forgot that Cam was in the room as well when I got up into Jayden’s face.

  “Don’t you think I know the danger I was in? Do you think I’m that naive? You can’t just decide he’s worthy of death for that. That would be like putting his blood on my hands. I’ll remember him drugging me, and Rowan almost killing me every night, but I don’t want to live with someone else’s life on my conscience.”

  Jayden’s arms dropped to his sides; he ran a hand through his hair. He looked tired and defeated, I hadn’t meant to be so harsh on him. I couldn’t imagine what it was like to be caught between what I wanted and what he thought would be best for his sister. When I’d been as close to finding Maddy as he was to finding Abby, I’d lost all common sense and gotten angry with him for not letting me get to her.

  “I know you remember, ok? I’m there when you wake from nightmares. Every time I promise myself you won’t have more nightmares to live with, but now it seems like I’m putting more on you. I really don’t want that, it’s just — I’m all out of ideas here. It isn’t easy to watch you toss and turn in your sleep, or to watch you cry when I wake you. But I can’t just let my chance of finding Abby go. This sucks either way but if you have a better idea, I’ll gladly take it. If you don’t, Bram is my only chance.”

  He sounded so exhausted. I shook my head. I was out of ideas, too. He ran his hand through his hair again, this time tugging at it in frustration.

  “Look, Elin, it’s not like I’ll hand Rowan the gun to shoot Bram or even put that idea in his head. All I’ll do is point out that Bram met with us. What Rowan does with that information is up to him. Bram’s his right-hand man, he might just demote him or something.”

  I sighed. While I still didn’t like the idea of either of us possibly involved in Bram dying — no matter how much I despised him — I understood where Jayden’s desperation came from. “Well, when did you want to head out?” I asked.

  Jayden smiled a little, then glanced at the map and back at Cam for confirmation. “I was thinking ASAP. I want to get this over with.”

  ◆◆◆

  We stood against a wall in an older part of downtown. It was still close to the labs but had long since lost some of its downtown glamor. As this area was close to the river, it mostly consisted of large warehouses for storing cargo brought in by ship. Mostly military and mercenaries frequented this area and we stuck out like a sore thumb. If Rowan was truly hiding there, it was brilliant; sneaking through right under their noses while his armed soldiers would blend right in.

  We’d taken the motorcycle into town but then walked the last few blocks and were about a block from Rowan’s presumed entrance to the drain pipes. We’d decided that it would just be Jayden and me, trusting that Rowan would be more likely to consider Jayden’s offer if we didn’t seem like too much of a threat — being just the two of us and me, a girl, seeming even less dangerous. Jayden looked at me for what must’ve been the dozenth time in the last few seconds.

  “I really wish you weren’t here,” he muttered.

  “Well, thanks. I feel loved.”

  He gave me a withering look and brushed the back of his hand against my cheek. I gripped his hand and kissed his knuckles. He laced his fingers between mine and pulled me from the shadows. We didn’t need to walk very far before we ran into two guys guarding an open manhole and staring at us when we approached them. Jayden simply grinned and inclined his head in greeting as they raised their guns.

  “Hi boys. I’m Jayden Quinn. I believe Rowan would like to see me.”

  One of
the guys scoffed and the other shook his head before he found his voice.

  “Dude, you must be completely insane to show up here.”

  The other guy motioned for us to go ahead and climb down into the manhole. Jayden went first and when I climbed down after him, the disgusting smell of sulfur immediately invaded my senses. My boots made squishy noises when they hit the slushy ground. The guard who was yet to utter a word climbed down after me, holding a small flashlight. It was just enough to slightly illuminate the walls on either side, but not enough that I could see my feet. I was thankful to not see what I was walking in.

  I followed Jayden’s dark silhouette, fully aware the man behind me likely had his gun trained on us. Jayden had to duck because of the low ceiling but seemed calm otherwise. He confidently moved towards the end of the tunnel where we stepped through a door into a surprisingly large room, dotted with more armed rebels. I squinted against the bright lights as I stepped inside. One of the men, apparently the one in command, stepped forward.

  “What do we have here?” he asked.

  “Boone, that’s Jayden Quinn. And his acquaintance, I suppose,” the guard behind us responded.

  “Acquaintance? Looks more like he came bearing a gift to Rowan,” Boone answered. “I’m going to pat you guys down. And I’ll be taking my sweet time with you, honey.”

  He took a step towards me as I pulled my knife from my pocket, holding it in his direction. “Lay a finger on me and you’ll lose it,” I snarled. At the same moment Jayden’s icy voice cut through the room.

  “I’ll raise that. Touch her and you die.”

  I turned my head just enough to make him out from the corner of my eye. He pointed his gun at Boone, causing everyone in the room to train their guns on Jayden. Tension had skyrocketed, and I feared for Jayden’s life, even though he didn’t seem worried.