“I want to show you something,” he said.
I looked past him, searching for someone to save me from his presence.
“I want to apologize for yesterday.”
“Not now, Enoch,” I said and pushed past him to walk away, but I wasn’t quick enough. He grabbed my arm.
I caught Troy’s eye as he watched me leave with Enoch. My heart wrenched inside my chest. What did he want from me? Troy looked away, handed his father a bunch of keys and they bowed to each other – something was going down. Enoch pulled me through the crowd and past the tent, his once gentle stare now replaced by bitterness.
“Where are we going?” I asked, as he dragged me down toward the water’s edge, my feet almost sliding out from under me as we hit mud.
“Enoch, please! I want to get back to my friends.” I tugged my arm from his hand.
Unexpectedly, his hands were on my hips and he lifted me onto his shoulder.
“Put me down!” I screamed.
“This will only take a second.”
“I said no!” I shouted louder, hoping that someone would hear me.
As his iron grip tightened around my hips, I punched him between the shoulder blades as hard as I could, but he didn’t seem to feel it at all. The sound of both the drums and fireworks exploding simultaneously over the night sky, made it near impossible for anyone to hear my cries. I knew it was up to me to save myself. Enoch put me down on the ground near the river’s edge, my boots sinking into the swamp-like ground. I tried to find my balance, but my boots stubbornly stuck to the banks. I slowly squelched toward him, suddenly faked a right and tried to sprint past him to his left, but not only was his reach much longer than I had anticipated as he caught me right away, I was still semi-glued to the ground. My body smacked back into his.
“I like it when they fight back,” he said.
That confession just cleared it all for me; he was responsible for Sage’s disappearance. Fireworks streaked across the sky and lighted up his face. I could see the gaze in his eyes freeze over.
“Enoch,” I said painfully.
I looked around wildly and noticed dark figures emerging from the water.
“What’s going on?” I choked.
I tried my luck again, but he pushed me to the ground violently. My breath left me as I connected.
Standing over me, he said with hatred in his voice. “You should have said yes, Ava.”
When I smelled the all too familiar smell, I knew that he was handing me over to the Zulus. I screamed for help one last time. And from behind, a Zulu struck me across the face with the back of his spear. I felt the bones in my nose crack as I fell forward, face first into the mud.
“You’re going to regret this!” A voice said.
Troy was standing behind Enoch, and before Enoch could turn, Troy punched into Enoch’s kidneys. I wiped my face of blood and mud, watching with pleasure as Enoch fell to the ground. A spear whistled past me. I jumped up to warn Troy and was struck again. I fell back once more, into the cold, hard mud. Troy pulled a sword out of his belt in record time and deflected the screaming spear. Enoch managed to get one in by kicking Troy in the ribs while he was distracted by the spear. I screamed for them to stop as they rolled over each other. Troy flung himself on top of Enoch and started punching him with all his might. I could hear loud thumps, followed by the sound of bones cracking under Troy’s knuckles. I should have told him to stop, but I wanted him to pound his fists into Enoch’s skull until he stopped breathing. Troy’s head flung up and he shot me a startled look.
“Get down!” he yelled.
I flattened myself to the ground, throwing my hands into the freezing mud. A staff struck the ground next to me causing mud to splash across my face. My wounds stung as the mud seeped into the cuts. My nose began to throb as I struggled to breathe. I composed myself for a second, and on noticing that the Zulu was distracted by the fight, I hurled myself toward the sword Troy had dropped during his scuffle with Enoch. I launched it at Troy, calling his name. He caught it in one hand and turned, accurately striking another Zulu warrior coming at him from behind the tree. If it hadn’t been for all the lanterns hanging high up amongst the tree branches, we would have been totally submerged in blackness. The staff came at me once again. I rolled over onto my back, the spear missing me by nothing more than an inch. I screamed for Troy once again. We were surrounded from every angle. I tried to crawl over to him, but a splitting blow to the head left me unconscious.
I came round to the gentle rocking of a canoe and the slow rush of water passing by my ears. The cold, hard and wet surface I was lying on dug into my hips. My wrists were stinging. The dress’s enchantment had worn off and I was frozen right down to the bone. Gradually, I opened my eyes, dawn had already broken – the sky dark and in motion above me. We were moving downstream. We had traveled throughout the night. I looked around with difficulty; Troy’s face swam into focus across from me. His hands were tied and his face was bashed in, yet he still managed to smile at me.
“Hey,” I heard him say.
I tried to turn over to see where the hell we were.
“What’s going on?” I asked softly.
Two large boots came down hard in front of me, restricting my view. They were oxblood lace-ups.
“Enoch.” I spat.
“Glad to see you could join the party,” he sneered.
I closed my eyes. “I’m going to kill you,” I murmured.
He laughed loudly, almost manically.
“When we’re done with you, babe, you’ll kill everything, but me.”
He’d used the word babe again. I ground my teeth.
He bent down, stared into my eyes and stroked my cheek with the back of his hand. I flinched.
“Get your hands off her!” Troy demanded.
Enoch grabbed me by my arms, yanked me to my feet and shoved me into Troy’s lap.
“I kept him alive so you could watch me kill him.”
It was much warmer in Troy’s lap. I rested my head on his shoulder and looked at the rapids passing by. We were still heading downstream.
“Enoch,” I said. “Why?”
“There are a million reasons why, but I’m not going to get into it with you. You won’t understand until you’ve turned. You will thank me later.” He sat down across from us on a low bench.
“Turned?”
“Say your goodbyes, babe.” He bit on a twig, staring at us.
I caught the flash of a purple sparkle lying between his legs – my neck lace. A slow rage began to build up inside me. I shifted my weight on Troy’s lap so that I was huddled deeper into his body allowing my hands to fall behind his back. If I can just get to his wrists and untie the rope, I thought. Troy immediately picked up on what I was doing and raised his hands to meet mine.
“You’re a selfish prick, a coward and a little wimp with little sissy girl issues,” Troy said. “I knew it from the first moment I saw you.”
I knew what he was up to; he was trying to distract Enoch from me.
“You were seven when we met. How could you have known it?” Enoch grunted.
“I just knew it. You stank of it.” He laughed. “You stink of it right now.”
“You don’t scare me with your big talk.” Replied Enoch, his gaze on the water ahead.
“If I don’t scare you, then why am I tied up?” He shrugged and I lost my grip on the rope. Damn it!
“Nice try, cowboy. You’re a quick and cunning little boy.” Enoch retorted.
“Little boy?” Troy sniffed. “So little that I kick your ass every single time we have one of our little get-togethers.”
There was silence. I pushed my face into Troy’s shirt to wipe my damp hair from my eyes, and to get a closer look at the ropes. Through the coppery odor of blood and sweat, I could smell the sweet, warm scent that was Troy. My stomach flipped as I buried my face into his neck.
“Not for long.” The canoe rocked as Enoch stood up. “I was going to kill you slo
wly while your sweetheart watched me squeeze the life out of you.”
I could hear the smile in his voice. I had just managed to get my finger underneath one of the tight loops when Enoch plucked me into the air. I screamed.
Troy flung himself up, but was knocked down by a Zulu guard.
“Now, I’ll keep you alive,” he said to Troy, then lifted me into the air and crushed his lips against mine.
Troy jumped back up again, only to be struck to the floor once more. I spat in Enoch’s face.
“You’ll also watch as we turn her into the most powerful witch you have ever seen and then, I’ll let her kill you instead – after I have had my way with her in front of you.” He sneered.
I kicked him in the groin. He threw me down onto the wet, wooden floor of the canoe.
“Bitch,” he spat and kicked me in the face.
I laughed.
Troy swirled his body across the floor and kicked Enoch’s legs out from under him, but Enoch was up in no time. First, he glared at Troy and then he crouched over me.
“I almost had you.” He smiled.
Troy’s face drained of color.
“I almost believed you,” I said. “Everything about you is a lie, isn’t it? All lies… perfect little lies. I admit you had me for a while.” I grimaced. “But then you got greedy – a big turn off. Toward the end, your touch made me sick!” I spat.
Enoch’s face contorted. “Liar!” He grabbed my face between his fingers. “You loved every minute of it, admit it! I felt your body respond when I held it against mine. Every time my hands ran over you, I heard your moans of pleasure.”
“Not for you. The idea of you, maybe.”
“What?” He shook his head confused.
“I was using you to distract myself from everything that was going on.”
He pulled me toward him and I twisted my face away.
“Not everything I told you was a lie, Ava. If I had wanted them to take you earlier, they would have succeeded.”
I heard the Zulu rowing the canoe, grunt.
“You should have said yes. I could have protected you.”
“No,” I said, turning back toward his face, our lips almost touching. “Not in a million years would I have married you. You are a psychopath.”
Enoch sighed.
“I knew it, from the first day we met. I thought I could cure you,” I said, lowering my gaze. “I thought I could cure everything.”
Enoch let me go, yanked Troy off the floor and pushed him back into his seat. Turning, he grabbed and then shoved me next to Troy again. He was speechless. He sat across from us, keeping an eye on his captives. The only sound remaining was that of the dozen canoes rowing down the river. Trees curled over the river, giving the impression of a tunnel. They were really only dark, bleak, tree trunks. There didn’t seem to be any life on that side of the planet. The lack of forest noises unsettled my gut even more. Glitter shimmered off the water as the sun rose higher, yet a fine drizzle had begun again. My thin dress and favorite black boots were covered in blood and mud. I shivered. Troy huddled closer, his chin resting on my head. I curled my body into his. Even in these undesirable conditions, it felt nice. His body was generating a lot of heat. Through the stench of the Zulus black magic, the mud and blood that saturated Troy’s clothes, his sweet odor remained. It felt so right being near him. Why didn’t I see it before?
“Let us go, Enoch,” Troy said, his smooth voice vibrating against my cheek resting on his chest.
“It’s too late,” Enoch said bluntly. “We’re here.”
My heart came alive. I didn’t want to imagine what lay ahead for us. Every inch of my skin was numb from the cold air, my face raw and a dull pain remained in my legs from the Change.
“This is my fault entirely,” I confessed.
“It is.” Was all Troy said.
My heart sank as his words slashed through me. When I tried to pull my legs from under Troy’s where I had wedged them to keep warm, I felt a cold, smooth object slide against my shin. A ripple of excitement flowed through me. I realized that Maya had dropped a small knife into my boot before I had made my way out of the cottage the previous night. She must have felt something was off. Clever girl, I thought to myself, hope flooding back into me. I tilted my face so my lips met Troy’s ear.
“There’s a knife in my boot,” I whispered.
Troy nodded.
“So, what’s your plan, Enoch?” Troy asked.
Enoch didn’t answer.
“I’m going to move my legs behind you. Start undoing the laces of my right boot,” I ordered quietly.
Troy nodded once again.
I was trying not to think about any of this, because I knew Enoch would be trying to read my mind.
“You don’t have a plan do you? You have just leaped forward as usual. And, as usual, you’re going to fall short,” Troy said.
“We’ll see about that.” Enoch grunted.
I squeezed my legs behind Troy’s back as he shifted forward.
“You can’t trust him.” Troy murmured.
I kept my gaze on Enoch. He seemed to be in two minds as he stared into the distance. I felt the canoe’s pace increase. The speed of the rapids seemed to have increased. I knew this meant that there would be a waterfall coming up shortly. The gentle sound of the rapids transformed into a low rush of water. I felt the pressure of my boot slowly being released as Troy loosened the laces one by one from the top. He worked quickly and quietly.
“Look.” Troy motioned with his head in the direction of a rock tunnel that was coming up ahead.
Zulus stood on either side of the river bank, their spears rising high up into the air. Animal skin shields rested at their feet, large brown and white feathered hats rising high above their heads, intimidating and beautiful all at once.
“This must be the entrance,” Troy whispered.
He had finally loosened my laces just enough to slip his fingers into my boot. They were warm against my skin and I felt the knife slide out.
“We have to act now,” he whispered, “before we enter that tunnel.”
I nodded.
“Can you swim?”
I nodded again. The loud beating of drums and the Zulus’ howls rang out from the tunnel.
“Now,” he said softly.
I flung my body overboard, hitting the icy water face first. Troy pulled me under. We heard muffled voices followed by spears showering down around us, piercing the water. Troy held the knife out and started to cut me loose. He pulled me along as we swam in the opposite direction. Another spear sliced between us, blood rapidly darkening the water. Troy suddenly let go of me. I felt something stab me in the leg. Enoch jumped in, his heavy body knocking me deeper into the rapids. He began pulling me, but I pulled away and twisted out of his grip. With a hard kick I dove deeper, searching the water, but I couldn’t see Troy anywhere. A spear grazed my arm, and that’s when I saw Troy – floating face down in the water, drifting back toward the tunnel. My heart sank. I swam toward him as quickly as I could. Panic gripped me. He wasn’t moving. I tugged him before I broke through the surface of the water, holding his head in my arms.
“There! Grab her!”
I pulled Troy closer to me, frantically kicking away.
He stared to cough. “I’ll come for you,” he said before his body went limp.
“No!” I yelled.
Canoes surrounded us as I held onto his dead weight. I was hauled into a canoe kicking and screaming while I was pulled away from Troy.
“Tie him!” Enoch shouted.
“Enoch, no,” I pleaded, and managed to land a kick in Enoch’s ribs before a Zulu struck me across the face. The sting was almost unbearable. I looked up at the monstrous Zulu who had just hit me and glared at him. An evil smile crept across my face.
“You’re going to regret that.” I promised.
The Zulu grabbed me by the hair and threw me at Enoch’s feet.
“Enough!” Enoch said. “He wa
nts her clean for the ceremony.”
I swore at the Zulus as I watched them pull Troy out of the river. As they lifted his body out of the water, a stream of blood came gushing from a wound somewhere on his neck. I swore again.
“If you two had just cooperated,” Enoch began as he sat down beside me. “He wouldn’t have died, not today anyway.”
I had almost thought he cared. I am a fool, I thought. There was a cruel smirk on his face. I wanted to smash his face in, right then and there, but I couldn’t find it in me to fight. All of my strength had been drained from my body and from my mind. All of this was my fault. If I had listened to everyone, Troy would still be alive. Many people would still be alive. I also felt guilty about the Zulus’ deaths. No one deserves to die. How was I going to fix all that had gone so terribly wrong? The only answer I could come up with was that I couldn’t. Never would I be able to fix it. Deep down, I had always known Enoch was lying to me, but I had chosen to believe his lies for selfish reasons. I told myself that I had to deal with the fact that my actions had had the worst possible consequences. As we reached the bank, I knew I couldn’t afford to waste time feeling sorry for myself. Something within me changed as I watched them carry Troy’s body up the embankment; it was suddenly easier to hide my feelings. My life had hit a low point and I decided that it was time I made things right. It was time for me to do some real soul searching. I needed to fix things and fast. I would save Troy, find Sage and escape this place. It was time for drastic measures. I knew exactly how I was going to do it. This is going to be devastating. My lips morphed into a wicked smile as Enoch pulled me out of the canoe. My feet hit a muddy incline.
This is for you, Troy.
Part Three
Unfold
“She will become what she hates to save the ones she loves.”
You cannot know what light is
if you have not experienced darkness.
How could you know what happiness feels like
if you know not what it means to be sad?
Right does not exist without wrong.
Hate exists because there is love.
The Broken Destiny Page 25