by L. J. Stock
He reached for the bars of the cell as his hand moved to his pocket.
Adrenaline flowed through my body like fire. My heart hammered in my chest and my body moved into the attack stance. I could feel the tremble of nerves in my hands, but fisted them to mask my fear. Even knowing I had a snowball’s chance in hell at winning, I wasn't going down without a fight. My muscles bunched and released in anticipation, my body rolling onto my toes preparing for the charge.
“Harker!” Grigori's voice bounced off the walls with more power and anger than I'd ever heard from him, and as relief settled inside of me, I heard the gentle sigh of the same from the other cell. Shannon had obviously been keeping Rasmus quiet. “You were forbidden to enter the dungeons. Do you wish me to go to Sentarka about your insolence and insubordination.”
“I was just leaving,” spat Harker, his eyes still on me. I could see the hunger behind his gray eyes as he moved to pull the key from the lock.
“Leave the key and remove yourself.”
“Until we meet again,” Harker directed at me coldly, dropping his key into Grigori’s open hand and pushing past him roughly.
I held my breath where I was until the footfalls faded and the key turned in the lock of the cell door. My eyes flashed to the small gap that Grigori was slipping through. His eyes were still on the stone passage, but as soon as a slam emitted down the hall, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned to me.
“Are you hurt?”
I shook my head, unable to say a word as the adrenaline stole my voice. Physically, I was fine, but mentally, I wasn't sure how much more I could stand of this. If I ever decided I needed an adventure I was going to remind myself of this moment.
“Tjótja?”
“We are fine, but it would ease Rasmus to hear Cassandra's voice.”
I swallowed compulsively, hoping I wasn't going to lose the contents of my stomach. I wanted to reassure him. I wanted to reassure all of them, but the fear and panic that were mingling inside of me made my throat constrict, and I was certain it wouldn't reassure anyone.
“Cass?” Rasmus finally called out frantically.
“I'm...” My voice cracked, and I had to clear my throat. “I'm okay, just a little freaked out.”
“I told you I should have—” Rasmus started, but I cut him off, my voice stronger.
“No, she was right to keep you quiet. Whether I like it or not, to them you're expendable. If you'd taunted him he would have killed you.”
“That's my job.”
“And as honorable as that is, it would have done nothing to help us or our situation.”
“Smart girl,” Shannon said, and Rasmus groaned.
“Do you have to hit me?” he complained, and Shannon squeaked.
I finally got my body to relax as I listened to their banter, and took a step toward Grigori. “They're having far too much fun in there together.”
“Would you prefer I move Shannon early?”
“No, I wasn't complaining.” I smiled, hoping he would understand. “Believe me, it's nice to hear laughter.”
Nodding, Grigori paced back to where some of the water was still in the bowl. It wasn't full, and I hoped he wouldn't assume I'd had some success, because I really hadn't. I had enough guilt from omitting the nifty trick I'd managed. I didn't need a lie on top of that making it worse.
It was then I realized that my intention of holding him at arm’s length was already changing. I'd convinced myself as he comforted me that he was nothing but a thug turned peacekeeper. I'd let myself believe the lie as well. No matter what I told myself, things like guilt continued to contradict my decision. As much as I wanted to look at him with objectivity, he'd become my friend. Alexa would have called it Stockholm Syndrome but I wasn't convinced. I didn't identify with my captor. I identified with my would-be liberator.
I nodded toward the water to distract myself from that line of thought. Now wasn't the time to mull over the illusion I'd sold to myself. If what Grigori and Shannon had said was true, we didn't have long before we would be used as bait and murdered.
“I suck at this.”
“It takes a lot of concentration. Would you like me to explain once again?”
“Yes, please.”
He swept his hand in front of him and I moved toward the cell door that was still sat cracked open. He no longer locked it behind himself since my mental breakdown. We both seemed to understand that I wasn't going anywhere, especially not without Rasmus.
Sitting cross-legged at the opening, I folded myself into a position where I could see the water and be comfortable enough to concentrate on the task at hand. I couldn’t take as long with this as I had with translocation. This was life or death and I needed to master the process. Grigori sat down beside me, his brown eyes lingering on the side of my head while I studied the water.
“Try now, and I will watch,” he said quietly.
I nodded, and visualized the water again, knowing I couldn't be as invested as I had been when I'd moved it. I focused on watching it evaporate. I used steam as an example, visualizing the edges of the cloud rising as the water was filtered slowly into the ether and pushed my mind as I stared at the bowl.
“Take what you see and bring it into your mind. Ignore the physical water and force your mind to see it dissolve.”
I did as he asked and tried to focus on the picture my mind had fabricated. I watched the water in my mind disappear into the air. I felt the vapors on my skin and the dryness in my mouth as the fluids in the room all rose into the atmosphere. I tried for almost two hours until I succeeded, but through trial and error, I figured out what I should be doing.
Each time I pushed a little harder and mentally made the water dissolve over and over again. It wasn't until I was sure I felt the beads of water in the air around me that I actually managed to make it happen.
“You see? I knew you could do this.”
I let my eyes flicker open and found that there was no water in the bowl at all. It was completely dried out. I was stunned at my progress. I had tried to translocate weeks before I'd succeeded. There had been so many mistrials and frustrating failures. This had been much the same, but the period of frustration was much smaller. There were still accidents as I tried several times, but my desperation to escape had pushed me harder and faster. It seemed pressure did wonders for training me in the ways of nymph magic.
“Try with the flame,” Grigori said with excitement after I’d successfully emptied the bowl for a third time.
“You mean...”
He nodded with a smile. “You will be able to manipulate most elements to do your bidding, but those in your genes will always be easier to control for you.”
I took his advice, and continued to practice with the torches on the wall beyond my cell. I couldn't create fire or water yet, but manipulating it was enough for now. The more I practiced, the more control I would have. The more control I had would, hopefully, make it easier to reverse the process. Before leaving my cell, Grigori had explained my limitations. I would be able to create and remove elements, I could even manipulate them into growing or shrinking, but I would not be able move them.
Or so he thought.
Grigori truly had no idea what I was capable of, and rightly or wrongly, I planned on keeping it that way.
Chapter Ten
The days moved by faster now I had something to aim toward. I tried to block out the constant flirting between Shannon and Rasmus but it was impossible. Neither of them was particularly subtle about it. As happy as I was for them both, it did nothing but make me miss Damon more. The closer they edged to actually doing something about their flirtatious behavior, the more hollow I began to feel.
I didn't begrudge Rasmus this small piece of happiness. My own internal battle of jealousy and indignation was for me alone to deal with. It was not a reflection on the two in the other cell or their continued attraction. It was simply my own regret and resentment at the stipulations put on my relationship with Damon.
I was almost thankful for the days I didn't have time to think at all. I threw myself into training my mind for the exercises Grigori had set.
Grigori still spent a lot of time with me in my cell, and I found myself enjoying his company more and more as my bitterness and fear fled, but I was always conscious of how I regarded him. I didn't want him to see something that wasn't there. Shannon had convinced me not to set anything in stone, but as the time passed, the guilt began enveloping me until I was stuck knee deep in a vortex of emotions I wasn't sure what to do with.
As aggressive and masculine as he was, Grigori had a softer side to him when he was with me. I found myself looking past parentage and what he was choosing to accept him for the person he was beyond his uncontrollable faults. He was fearless and strong, and on the occasions there were other guards too close by, he would stand on the other side of the bars and question me about what we were planning, the angry edge to his voice a little too real at times. Although he wasn’t the only one who could act well. I'd even managed to start crying on demand, and we worked as a team, some of the benefits of friendship paying off.
I was growing stronger with my magic. When Grigori was teaching me, I was able to work more with the water and the flames, and when he was gone, I worked on moving them with my mind. The whole thing felt almost surreal, but then being stuck in a dungeon without natural light for weeks on end hadn't really helped either. I ached for open skies and rolling fields almost as much as I longed for Damon's arms. Some days the only thing that kept me going was the hope of seeing him again.
The one thing that could never be taken from me was my memories, and the strongest one I had was of the two of us together the night before I'd left. I'd never wished I'd shirked the rules more than I wished I'd broken that one. If I failed and we died, I would never know what it was like to be with him the way I truly wanted to be. It seemed like a selfish thought to have considering what my death would mean for humanity across all of the dimensions, but it was all I could think about on my long nights alone.
I allowed myself to wallow in my own self-pity as I lay on the mattress in the shadows furthest from the torches on the wall. Most nights I dimmed them to stop the nefarious shadows dancing around the stone walls of my cells. I could hear the hushed tones of conversation going on in the cell next to mine, but blocked them out to give them privacy. If we ever got out of here, I had a feeling there was a chance for the two of them to actually have a life together. When they thought I wasn't listening or believed I was sleeping, their tenderness with one another was enough to make anyone hope for a connection like that.
Unfortunately for me—and them—I wasn't asleep, and when the gentle sigh of contentment reached me in my cell, followed by the shifting of bodies, I knew I had to make my consciousness known, so I coughed.
“Cass?” Rasmus called, a little out of breath and hoarse.
“Hmm?” I hummed in response, hoping they wouldn't realize how much I'd heard. In all honesty it was like catching your parents having sex, and I didn't like the feeling at all. I didn't think they'd made it that far, but I was pretty certain that whatever they were doing was heading quickly in that direction.
“You all right? You're not getting sick, are you?”
“Seriously, Ras?” I laughed, sitting up. I could hear Shannon laughing along with me.
“She was subtly reminding us she was within hearing distance.” Shannon snorted.
“Why would she do that?” Rasmus teased. I could hear him growl as if Shannon had once again done something to reprimand him. I stopped myself from connecting the dots and smiled.
“Oh, shut up.” Sitting up, I made the light flare to life on the other side of the bars.
“Now that's better.” Ras chuckled, which was followed by what I assumed was another slap from Shannon.
I was tempted to extinguish the lights altogether, but I left them as they were, burning bright and casting shadows even in my dark corner of the cell. The more days that seemed to pass in this hole the more difficult I found it to sleep. I couldn't help feeling like I was getting closer and closer to my execution, and that thought brought the walls in on me until I found it hard to breathe. I was suffocating, and wilting like a flower starved of sun and water.
“Are you having trouble sleeping?” Shannon asked down the hall, her voice softening for my benefit.
“Yeah, I can't help feeling like we're running out of time.”
“He won't let you down.” I didn't need any clarification on who 'he' was. I knew she was referring to Grigori. I didn't doubt him, but he was only one veneficus amidst an army of them, and he was risking everything to help us get out. I didn’t doubt him, not even a little anymore. Now, I was more worried about Harker and whether he suspected something was going on. After the night he'd tried to come in my cell, I'd had nightmares of him trying again—and succeeding.
“I know.” I sighed.
“I'm going to ask him to move me into your cell tomorrow,” Shannon said gently. “I think you need some company, and it's about time you learned some of these damnable secrets, too.”
I wanted to argue because I knew Rasmus had grown attached to her, but at the same time maybe she would be able to help me perfect what we were trying to accomplish. Rasmus had learned a lot from her about our shared element, but most of it I had already learned from Acantha. It was my other element I knew nothing about. There was so much we didn't know about the fire element, and underground nymphs were known for keeping their legacies close to their chests.
If she was going to ask to be moved, I needed to give them their privacy for the night. I wasn't wild about the idea of listening to them get intimate, but it seemed only fair. She was making a sacrifice to leave him. The least I could do was pretend I didn't exist for one night.
“If you're sure,” I said quietly.
“Completely,” she sang in her usual happy tone.
“Thank you.”
“You're welcome.”
“I'm going to try and get some sleep,” I said, forcing a yawn.
“Subtle, Cass.” Rasmus laughed as I took the torches down as far as they would go. “You think you could hum some of your music, too?”
“No! I plan on actually trying to sleep. Never fancied myself a voyeur.”
The two of them laughed as I curled up in a ball and rested my head on my arm. I tried to think happy thoughts and shut down my mind enough to let me sleep, and by some divine intervention I managed it without having to hear a thing.
“Rise and shine, sleepy head,” Shannon sang, and I almost jumped out of my skin when I opened my eyes and saw her next to me, her fiery hair draped over her shoulders and pooling between us on the tiny mattress. I was stunned. She was even more beautiful this close up, and I suddenly understood why Rasmus couldn’t help himself. Not that he wasn’t handsome himself. With his good looks and her ethereal beauty, the two of them would create some beautiful children one day, and that thought alone made my stomach roll in pain, the panic shaking up the urgency in my body. I had to get us out of here.
“You don't do anything in halves, do you?” I forced a smile up at her.
“Too much to do, lyubimaya. How did you sleep?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows playfully.
“Like a rock, thankfully,” I teased with a grin. “How about you?”
“Me, sleep? Lets just say I didn't.” She winked.
“I don't want to know.” I laughed, rolling away from her and landing on my back. She followed until she was on her stomach beside me, propped up on her elbows with her ankles crossed. Her hair was raining down around her in its own form of chaos.
“I will say only one word on the subject... Wow!”
“One word, and yet still far too much information.”
She laughed and hid her face in her hands with a girly giggle. I had no idea how old she was but she looked so young in her joy. Judging by Acantha's age and how it was emphatically not reflected in her looks, I woul
d assume Shannon was a couple of centuries old at best, though I wasn't going to ask. I believed the glow she wore now was helping her look even younger than she was. Nudging me with her elbow, she smiled even brighter, her cheeks a perfect pink color.
“Oh man, you got it bad,” I whispered, grinning at her.
She smiled and placed her fingers on her lips, eyeing the wall between cells. Understanding that she didn't want him to know, I gave her a nod of understanding, but rolled my eyes regardless. I was pretty sure he was feeling that same buzz of something for her.
“How'd you get in here so early?” I asked, changing the subject.
“Grigori came by,” she whispered, her voice so quiet I had to lean in to hear her properly. “The natives are getting restless. A group of vis liberi managed to get close enough to liberate a group of underground nymphs last night. They were looking for you in the upper levels of the dungeons, and when they didn't find you they were able to at least help them escape.”
I felt the sudden panic rise in me. It was a dangerous move to send troops to latros strongholds without any intel. It was great that they'd managed to help the underworld nymphs escape, but I could only assume that with that close of a call, the enemy would guard me with more forces, and I would put money on the fact that it would be veneficus rather than the latros who had been down here so far. The king's men had got too close to us. There was no way we could escape when the security over us was made larger and strengthened.
I couldn't understand how she could be so jovial when the danger had amplified so much in one night.
“But...”
She put a finger on my lips and pointed to the corridor. I'd spoken too loud.
“Harker is out for blood,” she said in the same quiet way she'd spoken before. “His favorite woman was amongst those who were liberated. Grigori has been doing damage control, but after most of their women have been stolen, he's losing backup quickly. The two of us are sitting ducks. If he gets a chance, he's moving Rasmus in with us today. He wants us protected. He's going to try to get us out tonight, but with the guard so tight and on high alert, he's going to be implicated.”