by Rana Demiriz
I breathed the air in like I was never going to be able to breathe again. I filled my lungs. I felt the crisp air fill me up to the core. This breath also symbolized the new decisions I made. I kept taking deep breaths till I felt dizzy.
“You had your time out here. We’re leaving,” said Alejandro behind me.
“No, please, give me two more minutes,” I murmured. I kept breathing in and out for a long while. I felt alive for the first time, and at the same time, I realized how suffocating it was down there, both physically and emotionally. I collapsed on the floor, or rather, my legs gave out. I let myself fall on my knees -in my leather pants.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I laughed. “What would it matter? Do you even care?”
He sat beside me on the floor. “Would I bring you up here if I didn’t care?” he said kindly.
Good answer! I didn’t have anything more to say. “I’m tired of being treated as your prisoner!” I meant to sound angry, but my voice came out tired, even weary.
“You’re right. I haven’t been nice to you.” I was puzzled. “I wasn’t exactly a great host, was I?” He smiled.
“But you’re really good at being the Master of Darkness. You’re pretty good at swordfight.” I wasn’t looking at him, but he was surely smiling.
“Pretty good? Is that the only thing you have to say? Do you really think ‘pretty good’ is enough?”
I laughed. “All right, I admit. No one can compete with you. Are you happy now?”
“Yes, my lady,” he said politely. Was I melting? I had to gather myself up.
“What do you want from me?”
He was a little surprised by the sudden subject change and my tone's seriousness, but he answered after thinking for a while. “I want you not to suffer.”
I turned and looked into his eyes. “But you’re holding me here against my will! So at least let me make my own decisions.”
He kept his voice calm.“You can’t think straight! Who would believe you could make healthy decisions?”
I thought about that for a while, then nodded. “You’re right. But there has to be another way. I’m not happy like this here and not comfortable at all.”
“None of us are happy or comfortable where we are.” He’s gotten more serious. He locked his shadow grey eyes with me. “I can make you happy. You will be comfortable as long as you stay here, and if you still want to stay here after the war, you can, otherwise… I won’t force you to stay.”
“How is it going to work? How can I be happy here, even when you are not?”
“Just don’t be stubborn, go with the flow,” he said.
I looked right into his eyes to let him see my sincerity. “This morning… I thought… I was going to die.”
Maybe my words weren’t smooth, but my tone made it clear how scared I was. He cupped my chin between his hands raised my head to his.
“How could you think that I would kill you?” he said with a soft, velvet voice. He lowered his hands and got a little closer. He wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me to himself.
“You’re frightening me,” I said. His eyes held regret. “Don’t expect me to give in while you’re freaking me out like that.”
“But I know you want to stay with me,” he whispered.
I gulped noisily.“What made you think that?”
“I know what you feel whenever you see me. I know how you feel for me.”
My face was burning up. He got closer without giving me a chance to say anything. It was intriguing and enchanting. There was a perfect being standing before my eyes. Besides, it was hard to think straight with him this close to me. It’s okay said my inner voice. Give in. The voice came straight from my heart. No, said another. Don’t make the same mistake your mother did; don’t endanger your sisters, it said. What did Rio do to protect your sisters anyway? That were the voice of my reason.
While Alejandro closed the tiny distance between us, a voice which I couldn’t suppress inside me kept screaming: Don’t make the same mistake your mother did!
I flinched when I heard the rattle of shoes. I turned my head towards the elevator. Eva was there. “Excuse me, master. Ms. Riley has a phone call.”
A phone call? Who’d call me here? I looked at Alejandro. His slightly darkened eyes were on Eva.
“Who?” he asked before I could say anything.
Eva started to talk without hesitation. “It’s Ms. Riley’s sister. She says she is going to come over herself if she doesn’t hear from her sister. She was told Ms. Riley was on vacation and somebody had given her the hotel’s number.”
“Who gave her the number?” Alejandro asked. I, on the other hand, was in no state to speak. I wondered which one of them called. Thank god someone told her that I was on vacation, but by whom?
“Unfortunately, I don’t know, master. That’s all I know,” Eva answered. Her voice came out pretty angry. Was she mad at Alejandro?
Alejandro jumped to his feet. He held my hands, and despite being angry, he politely helped me up. We quickly walked towards the elevator. Eva inserted the key and pushed the button: Basement, Alejandro’s residence. I didn’t want to go back there, but I was also eager to find out who was waiting for me on the other side of the phone. Besides, I didn’t have the luxury to object anyway.
We quietly went down in the elevator. For some reason, nobody got on the elevator. I neither saw anyone from the Darkness Group nor a tourist. Nobody was around. You would think we were the only inhabitants of the hotel: The Master of Darkness, his attractive right hand Eva and me as The Divine Being.
When the elevator’s door opened, the familiar decoration welcomed us. Windowless, wine-red walls, black doors, and black or red armchairs… Everywhere I looked was either black or red. It was the exact opposite of Rio’s sanctuary.
I took a deep breath like I was already choking. Alejandro looked at me, worriedly. I nodded as if I meant to say I was fine. Eva opened the door for us. This was Alejandro’s study room. The black phone’s receiver was lying on the table. I gave a frightened look at Alejandro.
“Can I speak? Please, I’m not going to say anything that I shouldn’t. I swear. Please, I just missed them so much,” I whispered. Alejandro hesitated for a moment, but then he nodded.
“Don’t give away anything,” he said angrily. He sat on his comfy office chair, which matched perfectly to the table. He handed me the phone receiver. I took it with shaking hands. How was I going to lie? They would immediately know I was lying.
I brought the receiver to my ear. “Hello?” I whispered to the phone.
“Mia!” The voice sent shivers down my spine. I was numb from every particle of my brain to my toes. All of my cells were filled with shock. This couldn’t be real. It just didn’t make sense. Was it courage or stupidity? “Don’t let him know it’s me. Just answer me with a simple yes or no, okay?
“Y-yes,”
“Is he with you? Did he do something to you? Ah, you can’t imagine how sorry I am!”
I looked at Alejandro. He was watching me with squinted eyes. “Uh-uh, yeah.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll rescue you.”
Adrenaline was running through my veins like fine champagne. Everything was so weird. I was so desperate. I didn’t know how to answer his question.
“Mia, I’m going to rescue you, okay?” I would like to keep talking, but I didn’t have an answer to his question. “Mia,” said the voice through the receiver.
“Do you want me to come? Do you want to be rescued?
And then I hit rock bottom. The man on the phone was the Master of Light, Rio. And the man who had been looking at me with eyes as dark as night with hidden stars on them was Alejandro, the Master of Darkness.
And I didn’t have an answer to give Rio, the Master of Light. And even if I did, I couldn’t find my words. The chaos I was in was inexpressible.
I ran out of words. Completely.
CHAPTER 21
I didn’t realize
I was holding my breath while thinking about what to say to the person on the other side of the phone or rather how to answer him. I could not decide which to listen to: Either my emotions or reason. I still haven’t decided which would be more beneficial. One of them was Light, and the other was Darkness. While one of them was polite, the other was, well… not so much. However, he could still justify most of his actions. He had to maintain his authority. Even though he was evil, he tried to be polite to me as much as he could. He may have slit my throat with a sword or tried to strangle me, but I wasn’t exactly cooperative either. But I was a prisoner here. How else could I react? I wasn’t submissive by nature. Was this the reason why I did nothing but fight against these strange feelings I got for him since the moment our eyes met? Was everything a result of the overbearing situation I was in? Maybe I was just overthinking this. I was not exactly in my right mind these days. I listened to my inner voice. That selfish little voice told me that deep down inside; he also had those ‘strange’ feelings for me. The way he looked at me with softness and affection… I never saw that in Rio’s eyes.
On the other side, there was this person who was so determined to rescue me that he risked everything for a phone call. He would still come even if I didn’t want him to. But…
What if everything the man sitting across me told -or claimed- yesterday was true? What if he only wanted me because of my title? What if everything he told from the beginning was a big fat lie? What if he was the one who threw me into the fire for his own benefits? But after all, the same was also applied to the man before me. How would I know if he was telling the truth? Besides, he was the Master of Darkness. He was supposed to be the less dependable of the two.
Nothing seemed right like everything was a lie, and I could take it all back, only to wake up one day and find my happiness once again… But unfortunately, all of these were true. The room I was standing in, the person I had been talking to, the questions which he asked, what I had been through the whole week, the tanned Spanish Master of Darkness standing before me as the embodiment of perfection with his long beautiful hair, everything was as real as it could possibly get.
Ah, and then there was this little issue of my true identity. Yes, I was The Divine Being, and I was sure of that. All of my doubts disappeared when I saw the wall with the prophecy on and the throne embellished with my symbol all over it. Of course, I was surely the Divine Being; the lightning bolt was my symbol, and I saw one on the wall. I didn’t tell that to the others because they were already convinced that I was the Divine Being. And those damn words were written right beside that damn lightning bolt: With this sign, you will conquer.Actually, when you think about it…
“Mia, are you there?” Rio interrupted my thoughts. I gulped. I was back in the real world. My thoughts scattered around like dry leaves blown by the wind. I was distracted, and my thoughts were disoriented lately.
“Uh-uh,” I said to Rio, nodding like he could see me.
“Mia, I don’t have any time to waste. I’ll come and get you. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I’m asking you once again; Mia, sweetie, do you want me to come?”
But when I heard his question once again, everything changed. I was still holding my breath, but Alejandro lifted his head and looked at me, right into my eyes. With his darkened eyes. It was a bad, really bad look. It was a look that could pierce my soul and leave acid marks on the wooden furniture behind me.
Right when I was about to say something to the man on the other side of the line, the door opened wide. A woman in a maid apron I didn’t see before looked at us with a tray in her hands. The wide-open door hit one of the vases standing next to it, and it fell onto the floor with a loud crash. At the same time, I also dropped the phone receiver. I gave a loud shriek as the receiver hung from the table. I guess that was the result of the past two minutes on pins and needles.
The maid gave us a panicked look. “I’m so sorry, sir. I meant to push the door slowly, but I was carrying the tray…”
“Why are you here?” Eva asked. I forgot that she was in the room.
“Dinner,” the woman said.
“Who told you to bring that here?” Eva’s aggressive tone staggered her, and she was obviously afraid.
“I… My master always eats his dinner in the study room. I’m so…”
“How dare you not apologize? Can’t you see Ms. Riley is on the phone?”
“That’s enough, Eva!” said Alejandro with an authoritative voice. Eva stopped talking immediately. Alejandro got up and picked up the phone, which was still dangling down from the desk. He didn’t take his eyes off me. My heart was about to stop. What if he puts the receiver on his ear? What if he figures out who was on the other side of the phone? I was screaming internally. Idiot, I said to myself. Like he didn’t already know!
“I think that’s enough for today,” he said. His attitude made it clear that it was an order. I gulped and nodded.
A couple of deadly seconds passed. But fortunately, he put the receiver back to its place.
The maid cleared her throat. “Where do you wish me to put the tray?”
“I’m not going to eat. You may take it back. Eva, you can go to eat. Also, check the kitchen.”
He ordered everyone around in just ten seconds. The maid nodded, but Eva didn’t seem convinced. No, I wasn’t convinced either. Eva shouldn’t have left. She was my rock and my only protector here. We had a silent bond.
“I can stay if you…“
“You may leave Eva,” said Alejandro. This was his last warning. Eva left the room obediently and closed the door behind her. I was once again alone with Alejandro.
My heart was pounding in my mouth, probably because of fear. Yeah, to be honest, he seemed kind of scary and intimidating. “Would you like to sit,” he said. I couldn’t answer him. Instead, I just went ahead and sat on one of the leather couches. When my leather pants touched the couch, a weird sound came out, but that didn’t interest any of us. Instead of sitting on his chair behind the desk, he sat right across me, just like I guessed.
“You couldn’t talk to your sister, eh?” he said mysteriously. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. I gulped.
“No, actually, it went pretty well.”
He looked at his desk, thoughtfully. His mind was obviously not on any of the stuff on his desk. Then his eyes met mine again. “Which one of them called?”
Could you forget your sister’s names? I did. Right at that moment, I felt like I knew nothing about my own life. My mind was as blank as a newborn baby.
“C-Carmela,” I muttered. He laughed, but it was horrible. Angry, dark, authoritarian.
“No, I didn’t mean that. My little Divine Being,” he said with a voice as dark as night itself. And then he said what I feared most.
“Which goddess called you? Was it Egeria or Freyja?”
A chill ran down my back. Was I cold? I wasn’t sure, but my hands were definitely shaking. Come on! Think of a good answer!
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I wish I weren’t stammering. I could sound much more believable. He leaned back nervously. “Okay, let’s get this game going!”
“W-What?”
“I’ll try to pretend like I couldn’t taste your fear and confusion, and you pretend like you had a chat with your sister. Tell me how she’s been doing like you just spoke to Carmela so we wouldn’t fight.”
He gave me an unfriendly smile. I was trying to get my head together and of course, thinking about what answer to give him. “Believe me. I have no idea what you’re talking about, Alejandro!”
He got to his feet, screaming. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No, I-I wasn’t…”
His voice thundered around the room. “I know who it was! I know you spoke to Rio!”
If there was a window in the room, it would shatter into pieces. I wasn’t going to tolerate being put upon any longer, so I got up and stood tall in front of him. “Yes, it
was Rio.” I deliberately emphasized his name.
“Don’t start to dream because he is never going to be able to get you!”
I crossed my arms. “Are you sure?”
“Do you think you can leave with that sniveling bastard? Never. You’re going to stay on my side to serve Darkness.”
I shifted all my weight to one leg and answered him calmly. “No, I won’t. I’m not a servant.”
“You will, either voluntarily or by force! But in any case, you’re staying here.”
I raised one eyebrow and looked straight at his face to make him understand how serious I was. “You know what? I won’t stay here.”
“Why do you even want to go with him?”
“Do you really want to know?” I asked.
“Ah, please go ahead. If you would grant me that favor…”
I raised my hands and pointed at him from head to toe. “The biggest reason is standing right across me.”
“Oh, come on! Surely you can do better than that.”
“Do you need another reason? Very well. You kidnapped me by dragging me around and slit my throat. But at least Rio has the courtesy to call and ask my opinion. Besides, he must be really brave to risk calling here.”
He rolled his eyes. “Good grief, Mia! Don’t be an instrument to his games! You’re not the check on his game; you’re just a pawn.”
“Am I? I don’t think so.”
“I see my brother play his cards well. Why do you insist on believing him?”