by Ciara Graves
Digging deep and thinking of the kiss I’d shared with Chas, the fire I’d felt warm my usually frozen veins, I crawled forward, through the agony, until I reached the bars. With cursing that turned into a shriek, I hauled myself upright and limped out of the cage, one step at a time. If I hadn’t been doing all I could just to keep myself standing, I would’ve smacked that smirk right off her face.
I considered snapping my fingers and summoning my staff or Merlin now that I was away from the electrical shocks, but the slight nod of her head toward the guards let me know that any move I made, I would regret. Plus, if I used any power, it’d probably knock me out, and the last thing I wanted was to wake up in that damned cage again. Not to mention, I doubted I was strong enough to summon anything at all. The shocks she’d been torturing me with continually had cut me off from my power. Even now, I hardly felt it inside me.
“Good. Follow me.” Tabitha made for the door. “And keep up, or you’ll be dragged.”
The floor looked like a great place to lie down, but instead, I put one foot in front of the other, following Tabitha’s white lab coat and tightly-pulled bun. Part of me screamed to pay attention to details, to search for a way out. But where was I going to go? Not like I’d get far in this shape. I staggered forward, cursing as I was just about to fall when two strong arms caught me and put me back on my feet.
“Careful,” the guard whispered, sounding a lot nicer than he looked. “Do what she says, and you’ll get through this alive.”
“Why do you care?” I snapped, yanking my arm free and glaring at him. Until I caught the tattoo on the back of his hand. “Shaman… but, what the hell are you doing working for her?” I hissed.
“Most of her guards are magic-users. It’s how they keep them in check.”
“But you could bust out. All of you could.”
He tilted his head subtly.
I caught a flash of silver embedded in his neck.
“Not so easy.” He grimaced.
“Keep up, Rori,” Tabitha snapped.
Clamming up, the guard gave me a helpful nudge forward.
I picked up the pace the best I could. Each time I stumbled, the shaman was there to set me right again. I chanced a glance at the other guard’s hand and spotted the marking of a druid. He nodded to me but said nothing at all. I thought simply being in the cage had been hell. But this—knowing who Tabitha was using to keep our own people locked up—that made me sick to my stomach.
We walked down halls, and more halls, but thankfully, no stairs. I would’ve wound up on my face if we had. When Tabitha stopped outside a white room with a change of clothes on a cot and what appeared to be a bathroom through another door, I frowned.
“What’s this?”
“Get cleaned up. Sleep. Food will be brought for you when you wake.”
“Why would I trust eating anything you serve me?” I asked with a frown.
“You will need your strength for what comes next.” She smiled like she was offering me the best gift in the world. “You will go in that room, or you will go back to the cage.”
I quickly stepped into the room, hating her grin. “Happy?”
“Soon, when we end this war I will be.” She reached in and pulled the door shut.
I tried the knob right away, but it was locked.
“Figures,” I muttered, turning around slowly.
The bed called to me, but a shower and a chance to clean my wounds sounded better. I turned the water on hot, stripped out of my dirty clothes, and stepped under the spray. At some point during my shower, I lost my will of steel and broke down, sinking to the floor of the shower as sobs left me shaking and hugging my knees to my chest. I stayed in there until the water started to grow cold and I washed myself off, being careful around my wrists and ankles. I stepped out and towel dried, staring at the stranger in the mirror. The bags under my eyes were beyond terrible. My face was gaunt and sickly looking. My hair somehow looked whiter. The last week replayed itself over and over in my head. Being given what Tabitha called supplements instead of actual food. Water twice a day, bathroom break once a day, though the cuffs never left my wrists or ankles. Never a chance to sit down or lay down. Never left alone, always a guard watching me in the cage. And the torture. I shuddered as my hands gripped the sink, trying and failing not to remember the crackling as it rushed through me. I thought those grenades had been bad, but this… this had been so much worse.
Eventually, I slipped into the clean black pants and t-shirt then fell into bed. The second my head hit the pillow, I slipped into oblivion and slept.
As promised, food was delivered, but I could hardly eat anything, too nervous and ticked off to stomach much.
I hadn’t seen Tabitha since she brought me to this nicer version of a cage. The guards would not tell me anything, no matter how many times I asked. I assumed there were others close by who were preventing them from giving me any information.
When I finished eating, I paced around the room, snapping my fingers every so often, waiting for a spark of magic to come back. Ice covered my fingertips by the time my door was being unlocked again, but that was all I managed. No staff. No Merlin. Nothing but cold fingertips.
“This way,” the guard said as he opened the door and stepped aside.
“Where are we going?” I asked, not making a move.
It was the same guard from before, the shaman. He frowned at me, whispering, “It’s better if you don’t fight. And trust me, you might want to see what Tabitha has to show you this time.”
How the hell did I know if I could trust him or not? I hesitated until another guard appeared in the doorway—this one was not a magic-user—and glared at me, a taser in his right hand. That got me moving, if only to avoid being jabbed with any more electricity, of any kind.
I left my cell behind, hoping it wasn’t the last time I’d get to sleep in a bed in this place.
I was marched between six guards, three in front and three behind. As if I had any idea how to escape, let alone the will to try, at that moment. Did I want to be here a minute longer than necessary? Hell no, but as long as I was, I would gather as much intel as I could for when I did finally escape.
At least that’s what I told myself. Hope. I had to hold on to hope.
We walked for what seemed like an hour. Suddenly, the guards stepped aside, and I was shoved through a set of glass doors and into another sterile white room.
This one was larger than the one where my cage had resided, but above it, the entire upper level was a viewing gallery.
Tabitha and the man I assumed was Simon stood in the center. Their smiles were dark.
My steps slowed to a crawl, but the guard with the taser gave me a small taste in the middle of my back, and I cursed, hurrying to reach the two psychopaths.
“Thank you, Viktor,” Tabitha said. “Rori, I trust your new accommodations are to your liking?”
“Better than being in a damned cage with bars, I guess,” I muttered.
Tabitha’s smile faltered slightly, but the man beside her smirked. “She does have a fiery attitude. Like someone else we know.”
“That she does, but I trust before long it will not be a problem.”
“What am I doing here?” I interrupted their conversation. “I won’t do anything for you, not against my friends, or the magic communities.”
“I think we may just have something to change your mind.” Tabitha snapped her fingers.
A door that had blended in with the white walls parted.
I took a scared step back, unsure of what to expect…
Until a man stepped out, garbed in black, sporting a long, white braid and a scowl.
I froze, then managed to get my mouth to work. “Dad?”
He walked toward us, no recognition on his face, then stopped beside Tabitha and Simon, a dead look in his pale blue eyes, hands clasped behind his back.
That man might have looked like Trevor Griffith, until Greyson’s words came back to me. My d
ad had not been in his right mind the last time he saw him. That was three years ago. The chances of the man I knew my father to be existing in this body were slim.
“Trevor, we have someone we would like you to train,” Simon told him. “Rori.”
Dad’s eyes flickered to me and his lip lifted in disgust. “She’s small.”
I bristled at that, wanting to yell at him that I was his damned daughter, but Tabitha was speaking before I could.
“She is, but she has fight in her, and she is exactly like you. Necromancer and frost mage run through her veins. We want you to turn her into a soldier, ready to fight. Ready to do whatever necessary to win this war. Understand?”
“What the hell are you doing?”
Dad’s eyes narrowed at my outburst.
I glared right back. “You seriously have no idea who I am? None at all?”
“He doesn’t, and he won’t remember you no matter what you say to him,” Simon warned.
“Best to accept it and move on.”
“This isn’t happening,” I muttered and walked right up to Dad, grabbing his shoulders even as his eyes widened. “You know me. You have to. Rori, your daughter? And what about Jodie, the wife you left behind? You have to remember something! We’re your family! Come on, Dad, snap out of it!”
He stiffened under my grip, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of recognition in his eyes. My heart broke as he grabbed my arms and set me back on my feet roughly.
“Enough, girl. I am no one’s father.”
I whirled around with a yell, ready to deck Simon or Tabitha, whichever one I could reach first, but the guard with the taser was there, and he jabbed me in the side.
I yelped at the shock and fell to my knees, panting. “What… what is this, huh? Why are you using us?”
“Oh, you want me to share our plan with you?” Tabitha knelt before me. “I’m afraid you will just have to wait and see for yourself when the show starts. Don’t worry; you’ll have a seat front and center. Necromancy really is the most dangerous path of magic, isn’t it? And to have two of you together, fighting side by side, this war will finally have the ending I’ve dreamt of for years.”
I spat in her face, and she backhanded me.
“You will do as you’re told, one way or another. How much pain you endure is up to you.”
With a yell, I threw myself at her. We rolled across the floor. I nailed her in the face at least twice, then an icy burst of air grabbed hold of me and threw me into the wall. I smacked my head hard enough to make my vision blur.
Dad was moving toward me, ice covering his hands. A dark look was in his now-violet eyes as he approached.
“Take her back to her room!” Simon snapped. “Clearly she is not ready to train today!”
The guard hauled me to my feet.
The hit to my head had been too much, and I went limp.
The last thing I saw before my eyes closed was Tabitha wiping blood from her face and Dad giving me the strangest look.
But I knew somewhere in those violet depths I saw a hint of confusion.
That, I could work with.
Then, darkness.
Chapter 4
Chas
Cold air brushed across my skin, but thanks to the bear in me, I was perfectly fine.
Brogan and Brunie were shaking, moving closer to each other to try and keep warm as the sun slowly rose above the horizon, not lending any warmth to the day. Up ahead along a wide, winding gravel drive was what appeared to be an old mansion, set back in the rocky landscape. It was at least four stories tall, guarded by a fifteen-foot wall and two watchtowers. A gate blocked any entrance, but I wasn’t worried about getting inside, not if Rori was in there.
“You think this is going to work?” Brunie asked.
“It better,” I growled, wanting to shift already.
Moran wanted me to wait.
So I would wait, at least for now.
Blade and a few others were nearby. Moran said he had a way to get inside, but neglected to share it.
“Where are you?” I whispered, searching the rocks and trees for any sign of Moran.
“Is that him?” Brogan nodded toward the road. “Seriously? He’s just going to drive up to the gate?”
But as a truck rolled past, we saw there was no driver, and it was being pushed by a force of wind.
Moran and two other shamans were not far from the gate, staying out of sight as they maneuvered the truck up the drive to the gate. When it hit the metal, they dove to the side.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing, man?” the guard in the watchtower yelled and motioned for another guard to check it out. “You can’t park here, and you just hit my gate!”
There was no reply since there was no one actually inside the truck.
“Are we expecting another shipment?” The guard at the gate yelled up to the one in the watchtower.
“Let me call it in! You go check it out.”
The gate slid open soundlessly.
I crouched down, waiting for the signal to attack, but it never came.
The guard walked out, already yelling at the man he thought was driving until he peered inside the cab, then paused. “Hey, Rob?”
“What?” the guard in the tower yelled back, the crackling of his radio as loud as his shouting.
“There’s no driver.”
“What do you mean there’s no driver? What the hell is this?”
The guard at the door opened it, aiming his gun in the cab, then shrugged. “No driver!”
“Check the back!”
He continued toward the back, flipped open the canvas, and poked his head back around. “Looks like supplies from the warehouse!”
“Damn it. They’re supposed to tell us when they’re coming!”
“But Rob, there’s no freaking driver!” the guard yelled again.
Just when I was ready to find a way to get to Moran and ask him what the hell we were waiting for, a gust of tornadic wind gave the truck a helpful shove into the gate.
The guard shouted.
The wind picked him up and tossed him about, then slammed him into the courtyard beyond the wall.
Rob was yelling orders, and more guards poured out of two towers.
Suddenly, the truck ignited in a burst of electric energy, shocking them all in. Their bodies jerked and danced as ours had after they’d done the same to us.
When the last man fell to the ground, twitching, Moran stepped onto the road, glanced back at his hidden forces, and nodded. That was the sign we needed.
Our small army stepped onto the road, following Moran and Agnes to the gate.
With a swipe of his hand, Moran kicked up a wind to move the truck out of our way, dumping it to the side.
The guards grunted and cursed as we walked past them, but they wouldn’t be able to move for a long while.
Blade ordered those in the back to begin binding their hands.
Brogan, Brunie, and I walked as a single unit toward the main entrance.
Moran sent soldiers to surround the place.
We weren’t sneaking in. Oh no. Not at all. We were busting down the damned front door.
I shifted, and the porch groaned beneath my weight.
Brogan’s hands crackled with lightning as he drew on my connection to nature. Brunie bolstered her light magic with our powers. Her staff glimmered with power.
“Who wants to do the honors?”
Brogan motioned to me, and I rose up on my hind legs, my head brushing the ceiling of the porch. From inside, came the sound of panicked yells, and I huffed. Just wait ‘til they saw what was about to come busting in.
I threw myself into the doors. They buckled and split instantly. More screams sounded as I walked right on in, expecting to be met with a hail of gunfire. No such thing though. People were rushing around looking scared.
Until a guard appeared. I slammed into him, sending him down the hall and his gun flying the opposite direction.
Br
ogan and Brunie charged in after me.
An elevator dinged at the end of the long stretch of the hall.
A busload of guards came around the corner.
I ducked as lightning streaked through the air, striking the front line. Bullets came flying toward us, but Brunie knocked them away with a swipe of her staff, golden light bursting through the hall.
I shifted back and pressed my hands to the wall. Tangled moss and vines spread, shooting out to snatch enemy soldiers.
Moran shouted orders at his team on the far end of the house.
A few minutes later, Blade joined in, his men attacking from the rear.
I searched for another way down other than the elevator. Anxiety filled me with the need to get to Rori.
A bullet grazed my side.
Damn it!
I roared, and I aimed the vines at those men and tangled them up. I yanked my hands back, and the vines dragged them out, flattening them to the ceiling.
The house was in chaos, but from the looks of it, Moran brought more than enough people to take it over. I started for the elevator.
Brunie stopped me. She pressed her hand to my wounded side, and a warmth spread over my body.
“There, that’ll at least stop the bleeding,” she said after she sealed the wound.
“Thanks.”
“It’s my job.” She nodded toward the elevator. “You want to check it out?”
“Where would you hide your lab and prisoners in a place like this?”
Brogan hustled past both of us. “Then what are we waiting for?”
We marched into the elevator, but paused. There crouched in the corner, hiding, was another guard. He was our age, maybe a few years young. He didn’t even have his gun anymore. Wild eyes looked at us each in turn, yelped and scrambled to get away.
“There’s probably more guards,” Brunie warned.
“Counting on it.”
Brogan pressed the button for the basement, and the doors slid closed. Cheery music filled the space as the three of us glared at the speaker overhead.
“Really?” I grunted.