by Ellie Margot
“In what way?”
“Help me get Zekariah.”
Samantha went silent. Then she laughed, and it was more like a barking burst of noise that melted into the giggles.
“Not the reaction I was looking for.”
Samantha wiped her eyes, but the remnants of a laughing fit were still present, keeping her from speaking for several moments. “I spend a lot of time thinking about you.”
“I don’t know how to respond to that,” Riette said, and she didn’t. She stole another look over her shoulder and wished that the group wouldn’t leave before she left the invisible prison.
“And every time I think I have you pegged, you do something different,” Samantha said. “You get another power source. You want the First Mage, the most dangerous mage that ever existed. Are you mad?”
“Isn’t that relative?” Riette asked.
“And existential. Why in this world would you want to be anywhere near Zekariah, other than a death wish?”
Riette looked through the haze at Cassian again. She knew he would tell her not to say anything about the letter.
“I need his help.”
Samantha laughed. “Don’t you know Zeke died three thousand years ago?”
Riette shook her head. “Nobody believes that.”
“And even if he were alive, he doesn’t do help.”
“How would you know?” asked Riette.
Samantha went silent. “He’s known as one of the most selfish beings that ever lived. He’s locked in a cage within a cage within a floating prison.” Riette opened her mouth, but Samantha continued. “He’s a fucking madman.”
Riette noticed from her inflection that Samantha calling Zeke a madman was the only complimentary thing she said about him, and that was more befuddling than anything else.
Riette took a step forward. “That’s why we came to you.”
Chapter 10
Samantha rolled her eyes. She whispered to Damian, and with a gesture of his hand, the veil was missing, and the others could see Riette again.
Trinity ran forward and hugged her. No energy was transferred. There needed to be intent for that to happen. Riette hugged her back, and she looked at Cassian, who, for the second time that she could remember, had his hair out of place from pulling at it in her absence.
Trinity released her, and Cassian walked past all of them until he was directly in front of Samantha.
“Don’t ever do that again,” he said, and his voice was barely above a whisper.
Damian made a noise behind her, and Cassian looked over her shoulder, which was easy at his height, and added, “You or your goon.”
Samantha laughed but stopped abruptly when Cassian shot her a look. She didn’t look intimidated, but she seemed to know enough to not provoke him further.
“You care about her,” she said finally.
Cassian cut her a look that Riette couldn’t see.
“To the point of insanity?” She stopped and looked at the rest of them. “All of you do?”
“What’s your point?” barked Mekhi.
“You all want Zeke? The most powerful mage in the history of Esper?”
“She told you,” Cassian said, looking over his shoulder to find Riette.
Riette shrugged, and she tried not to let guilt she could feel about it show on her face.
Samantha held up her fingers. “Potential issue number one: He’s in jail. Two: He’s out of his fucking mind. Three: he doesn’t play well with others. And four, and this is a big one for me: I’m not inclined to want to play with you all, considering how shit ended last time.”
“You don’t trust us?” Cassian asked. “You sadistic piece of—”
Riette cut in. “That’s why we need to make a deal. It can’t be like last time. It won’t be.”
“What would make you get us to Zeke?” asked Trinity. She had stayed mostly quiet as she watched the others talk.
Samantha looked at Riette with her arms crossed in front of her. “You. Access to Riette.” She looked over at Cassian. “And him as collateral.”
Chapter 11
“No fucking way,” said Riette. Her bones rattled with the finality of her words. She wouldn’t let Cassian risk himself more than he already had for a mission he didn’t believe in.
She couldn’t be sure of the last part, but his hesitance thus far was indication that he didn’t have the confidence in her that she did—the confidence that she lost more than she found. It happened as quickly as the changing of the wind that whipped around them, and thoughts ran through her head.
Riette would never let him sacrifice himself.
Her? She was damaged goods. She had nothing to return to. She had a mother who would welcome her to a jail cell quicker than she’d embrace her.
No, everything she had was in the people she traveled with and the bag on her back, and she couldn’t afford to lose Cassian or any part of the small family she had left.
Trinity stepped forward at the same time Riette’s words fell from her lips.
Samantha stood closest to Riette with Cassian by her side. There wasn’t enough space between Samantha and Cassian. If Trinity was anything like Riette, there would never be enough space to get the two of them apart, not with what was put on the table.
Trinity crowded in between Samantha and Cassian, severing the invisible force that she feared was bubbling up between them.
Cassian mirrored her stance, his hands clenched in fists at his sides. His face was pensive though, almost slack. A face that startled Riette. For a brief moment, she feared that Samantha had already gotten to him somehow. That she was in his head.
Riette knew that was impossible, but seeing the small smile gracing Samantha’s face, she knew that she was laughing at them, the whole group of them, at the fear of them being broken apart. In that moment, almost more than any moment before, Riette truly hated her.
More than that, she hated that she understood her in some base part of her psyche, the part that liked the dark and made her fight before thinking.
That part knew she, like Samantha, would stop at little to get what she wanted.
Trinity moved closer to Samantha. Her whole body was tense. A sneer shone at her lips. The humor left Samantha’s face. Damian, sensing a shift in his partner, their relationship still a source of confusion for Riette, stood taller behind her. He moved to his towering height above them all and cracked his knuckles with a force that seemed to echo off the walls.
“And who the fuck are you?” asked Samantha. She was far shorter than Trinity, but the fire in her eyes spoke of an unnatural knowledge and an age she couldn’t possibly have.
Riette shuddered at the sheer magnitude of what she didn’t know about the person she was entering into business with.
“The girlfriend,” said Trinity. It came out like a snarling bark that showed how rattled she was by the idea.
Samantha smiled again and nodded toward Riette. “She know that?” Riette opened her mouth to speak, but Samantha cut her off, continuing. “Are all Elves this incestuous, or is it just you guys?”
“For the last time, we are not fucking,” said Riette. “We just both have enough sense to know this is a bad fucking idea.”
“Princess,” Samantha started, as if she could make something insane sound reasonable. Can an insane person really know the difference? Riette doubted she ever knew.
“I’ll do it,” said Cassian. His voice rang out in the group.
Mekhi hissed a curse as Riette stepped forward to grab his arm and turn him away from the others.
“I’m not letting you do this,” she said.
“You don’t have a choice.”
“Cassian, this is my mess,” said Riette.
“No, this is our fight, and she’s our only way to Zeke. It has to be done.”
“Maybe she’s not.”
“Riette—”
“Cassian, we haven’t exhausted everything. Maybe Guy can get us in.”
“Guy i
sn’t capable of getting us across the street without six negotiations and a blood oath.”
Guy growled. “I’ll have you know that the only blood oath that was made was done in my absence, thank you very much.”
Cassian and Riette shared a look.
“Not the point,” said Riette.
“No, the point is you’re trying to commit suicide,” said Trinity. “I can’t let you do it.”
Cassian stepped out of Riette’s grasp. He moved to Trinity and placed his hand on her cheek. A moment passed, followed by another one that whisked by with no one saying anything. No one did anything but watch the moment pass like a physical thing between them.
Corin stepped forward behind Mekhi. “Brother, you can’t.”
Cassian looked back at his sister, his hand still on Trinity’s cheek.
Riette saw the tears forming in Trinity’s eyes. She took in the way she bit her lip. There was a fear on her face that Riette hadn’t seen since they left her grandmother, since she revealed only some of the horrors that she had endured there.
“It’s okay, Cor,” said Cassian. His hand started to fall from Trinity’s face, but she didn’t let it. Her hand rose up to keep his hand cupped on her cheek. She held him as if that could stop the events that the cold around them spoke were coming.
Mekhi put his hand on Corin. “Bro, you don’t even know what you’re signing up for.”
“He’s right, as much as that pains me to say,” said Guy. He gave Mekhi a look but sobered at the faces around him.
The only one that looked happy was Samantha.
Riette couldn’t say definitively. She didn’t know Damian well enough, but she would swear she even saw unease in him. It was the way his broad shoulders seemed taller, as if he were bracing for an impact.
She wondered yet again about the two of them. He was undoubtedly loyal to Sam, but what had gotten them there? What sealed them together?
“Cassian,” she started. “This is crazy and you know it.”
“If we judged every situation by how much sense it made, we wouldn’t be here,” said Cassian. That time, his hand did leave Trinity’s cheek, but only to take her shaking hand in his own.
“This is touching,” said Sam. “But I’m afraid, unnecessary.”
“How the fuck—” Mekhi started, but Corin slapped a hand over his mouth and kept him from walking forward just as Damian seemed to growl from his throat and make similar moves.
Samantha turned to still him. He leaned down, and she, wrapping a slender arm around his neck, whispered something in his ear.
Riette thought she saw his eye glow, but that wasn’t possible. Was it? How much power did Samantha hold? Was Damian a prisoner of hers?
Were they all about to be?
Riette turned toward Guy. “What does this mean? What would a blood tie do to him?”
Guy swallowed. “It’s not a hard process to enter into, but it’s almost impossible to sever.”
“It can be severed?” Riette asked, stepping forward. “There’s a chance if he does this, he can get out of it?”
“Don’t get your hopes up, princess,” said Samantha. “The only way to leave is to use a magic that none of us have access to.”
“Not even you?” asked Trinity. Her voice was quiet, but her cheeks were wet.
“Not even me,” said Samantha, a small frown on her face. “We all have our limitations.” Samantha looked at Riette. “Even if we don’t know them yet.”
“Go on, Guy,” said Riette. She kept eye contact with Sam. A challenge blazed between them, though neither of them had said it out loud. She knew things would come to a head eventually.
It was inevitable. Like the moon appearing in the sky. Like the rain eventually breaking the dry spells that ravished lands.
A weight thrown in the air will return to the earth. Whatever this thing was between them, it would do the same.
Guy cleared his throat. “It’s like a soul-tie. It’s a marriage. It’s putting two people together with invisible ropes, no matter the distance between them, until they leave this plane. There’s speculation about what happens even then.”
“Ties beyond death?” Trinity asked. Her voice cracked.
Cassian put his hand on her shoulder. “It can be broken.”
“Like I said, pretty boy,” said Samantha. “No one you know can do it.”
“You don’t know who I know,” he said.
“The puppy has fangs?” She laughed. “I just thought you’d be pretty. If you have a mouth on you, you might just prove yourself to be entertaining.”
“I’m not here to entertain you,” said Cassian.
“Happy side effect then,” said Samantha. Damian growled again.
Riette watched the volley between them. There did seem to be a current. But that didn’t make any sense. She couldn’t think of any two people so opposite.
Old fables of opposites attracting popped into her mind, but that wasn’t the case here.
There was Samantha. There was Damian.
There was the sheer differences between them. Their temperaments couldn’t have been more opposed.
“Guy.” Riette nodded, urging him to go on, but Cassian interrupted.
“You don’t know who I know,” he repeated.
“I’m eager to find out,” said Sam, and her eyes seemed to glow with the idea of owning Cassian. That thought flashed in Riette’s mind, and she couldn’t shake it. Cassian wouldn’t be fully his own anymore. Not really. She didn’t need Guy to tell her that.
“Zeke could do it,” said Guy, almost to himself. He seemed surprised that the words came from his lips, but he scratched his neck and didn’t offer anything else to go with it.
Samantha considered him for a second.
“Maybe,” she admitted. “But let’s not think of the end of what could be a beautiful thing before we have to.”
“It’s not beautiful,” barked Trinity. “It’s sick.”
“Girlie…” said Samantha.
But Trinity didn’t let her finish.
“You have someone. You have Damian. Is he worth so little to you that you would replace him like this?”
Damian shuddered and rose to his full height.
Samantha reached behind her to grab his hand. “Replace him? Darling, Damian and I are already one. We have a blood tie already. The fact that you think it can happen only once speaks to the sad life you must lead.”
“You know nothing of my life.”
“And I don’t care to, to be honest. You’re not my type.” Samantha snuck a glance at Riette. “No offense.”
“You mean every offense,” said Trinity.
Cassian took her arm. She looked into his face, and he made a slight shake of his head.
“It’s like a best-friend bracelet,” said Samantha. “Think of it as one of your little tattoos, but this one shows a bond between just two people.” She ended with her eyes on Cassian, and she didn’t look like she was laughing at him. There was a sobering edge to her glance, as if somewhere deep inside of her, she did want him in a genuine way, but the look was gone too soon for Riette to confirm it was real.
Samantha smoothed down her blonde-streaked hair. “And Zeke might be able to let you out. It’s not impossible. He’s the only one powerful enough to make it a possibility. He’s next level.”
Riette swallowed and pulled Cassian aside, hoping to appeal to his common sense in a way she hadn’t been able to before.
“Why are you doing this?” she whispered. “Cassian, seriously. Why risk this?”
“She can’t have you, and she won’t play any other way,” he said, his eyes searching hers. “It has to be done.”
Riette looked at the serious set of his jaw. She could feel him trying to urge her with this expression to let it go, as if his resolve were a tentative little thing and he knew if she kept pushing, it would all break to pieces.
Riette swallowed again. “I will get you out of this. I swear it.” She could feel her eyes
warm and burn, and she knew the flaming colors danced within them.
Cassian nodded, taking a moment to not speak before a broken voice left his lips. “I know you will.”
Chapter 12
Riette closed her eyes. She stilled her breath and tried to find the reins of the power that was surging through her.
She knew where it was coming from. Too many heightened emotions, most notably fear, roared her abilities to life, and she didn’t want them present when she didn’t know what she would need them for later.
She couldn’t afford weakness. A small part of her commented on the many new weaknesses that she had found in herself since they first started their trip to find Corin. She had seen parts of herself and her psyche, that she hadn’t liked. An edge that looked for risk and danger.
Pictures of her father flashed through her mind. He was always quiet but passionate.
Her mother was powerful, the most by far in all of Vitan, but her father had had something inside of him that brewed and dictated his decisions.
Her parents had hardly fought, but when they did, Riette knew her father’s passions were to blame. She knew her mother wasn’t easy to deal with, not if someone opposed her, but there was love there that she knew was genuine.
And in that moment, unlike so many moments before where she hadn’t let herself think too deeply, she felt the loss of her father as a physical pain inside of herself, and her powers reacted accordingly, trying to surge to newer heights despite her goal to clamp them down.
Riette opened her eyes. She knew time had passed. Although she had traveled deep inside of herself, she knew they hadn’t left the small alleyway where they had been when the decision was made.
She didn’t know how long she had closed her eyes, but when she opened them, Trinity was by her side, and her eyes were red with irritation from rubbing them and previous tears.
“Did you need me?” she whispered.
It took a second for Riette to catch on. The power that had surged between Trinity and herself had been unparalleled. She hadn’t felt anything like it before or since.
She looked at Trinity again before shaking her head. “I’m okay.”