Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
BELLAMY
I gasped, eyes shooting open as I stood in the middle of the prison cell.
“What?” Driscoll asked, coming to a stand. “What happened?” He bit his nails. “What am I saying? We’re not free, which means...” He ran a hand over his tight curls. “You failed, didn’t you?”
“Is that true?” Leoni pushed herself to a stand. Her bun was now fully lopsided, sweat sticking pieces of her red hair to her forehead.
I swallowed. “It worked. I got into his dreams.”
“Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’?” Leoni asked.
I signed my next words slowly, carefully. “But I couldn’t sway him to free us. I think I angered him for attempting to manipulate his mind.”
Driscoll looked between us. “She’s saying all bad things, right?” Leoni nodded, and Driscoll swore. “So now instead of losing our shadows and having a chance at surviving all this, we’re going to die and fail miserably.” His gaze flicked down to my side, and he lowered his voice to a whisper. “And where is your satchel?”
My hands automatically went to where it would be strapped across my body. In the midst of everything that had happened, I’d completely forgotten about it. “It’s safe. In the garden. I stashed it under some brush.”
“It’s hidden,” Leoni told Driscoll. “It’s safe.”
He rolled his eyes. “You don’t think Spirit Shadow sniffed it out and found it already?”
I hoped not. I’d already messed this up so badly. I didn’t need to give him another weapon he was searching for.
“I don’t want to say I told you so...” Driscoll started.
Leoni planted her hands on her hips. “You literally told us you would revel in saying exactly that.”
“Fine!” Driscoll burst out. “I do want to say I told you so. I told you. I told you both this would happen. I told you this was a terrible idea. I was right. You were wrong!”
I sighed.
“Do you feel better now?” Leoni asked.
“No, not really. In fact, I could keep going.”
“Please don’t,” I signed.
“You’re the one who wanted to help her,” Leoni said. “You volunteered us to come with her.”
“So we could make sure she didn’t use the bolt!”
I winced, and Leoni shushed him.
“Oh do not shush me,” Driscoll said.
I’d never seen him so worked up. He talked a lot, yes, but he usually kept his calm, punctuating every situation with his sarcasm and opinions. Right now, he genuinely seemed angry.
A door creaked somewhere in the distance, and rustling echoed outside our prison cell.
He was here. He’d come for us.
We all quieted and backed toward the wall until we couldn’t go any further. I tipped my head up to see the stars twinkling above in the black sky. I could try to put him to sleep again, but what would be the point? No one had ever been able to fight back against my magic. But he wasn’t just anybody. Driscoll was right. It had been foolish. I’d been desperate, and now I’d pay the price for my actions. All of us would.
I glanced over at Driscoll and Leoni as the rustling grew louder, closer. I wondered if it was his shadows scraping against the walls.
“What did he look like?” Driscoll asked.
My head snapped over to him. “What?” I signed.
“Yeah, what?” Leoni echoed.
Driscoll whimpered as the rustling got louder. He was almost to our cell. “I just want to be prepared. If he’s terrifying, I want to know now.”
I thought about when I’d seen him in the garden. The beast. He hadn’t terrified me. Not at all. And in his dream... I hadn’t thought about it until now. But I’d seen him. Sort of. Shadows had covered him, almost like a shield. As they moved around his torso, head, arms, I’d caught peeks of the god. Glimpses of his golden skin. Of his amber eyes. Of his thick black hair that fell in waves. Of scars riddling his face. He’d been... powerful. Deadly. Beautiful.
“He’s covered in shadows,” I signed, and Leoni translated with a shaky voice. “They’re in constant movement around him, slithering over his skin, almost like they’re a part of him. When his shadows are with him, his eyes glow red, and that’s all you can see through their wispy forms.”
Driscoll gulped. “Really reassuring, thank you.”
The door blasted open, dust swirling up from the force. The beast flew in, swiping its long claws through the air. It cornered Driscoll and Leoni, its jaws snapping at them as they both screamed.
I ran at the beast, but it jutted out its back leg, kicking me against the wall. My back cracked as I hit the stone and fell to the floor.
The sound of ripping parchment filled the air, and the beast tearing Driscoll’s and Leoni’s shadows from them.
No.
Their shadows flew up and melted in between the bars of the prison cell, floating out into the night sky.
And with that, the beast disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Leoni and Driscoll whimpered, both looking dazed after that horrific scene.
When the smoke dissipated, a pixie floated in the doorway, shooting us a bored glance. “Now that that’s done,” she said. “Are you ready to see your rooms?”
The pixie was shorter, maybe a little taller than Leoni, only coming up to my shoulders. Her translucent wings fluttered behind her, and she wore a short brown skirt with a single green band covering her breasts, her toned midriff on display. Her blonde hair was piled in a bun on top of her head, pink lips pursed as she surveyed us.
Driscoll patted his body, looking around as if expecting to see his shadow. “Blood and earth, that hurt.”
Leoni looked out the window at her shadow flying away. “So now we’re trapped here. And we can’t use our magic.” She sighed as Driscoll glared at me.
“I knew that was a bad idea!” He shook a finger. “And you didn’t warn me he was going to look like a beast.”
“Am I a ghost?” The pixie flicked a piece of lint off her short skirt. “Did you hear me?” She had an accent that I couldn’t place, lilting and thick, but beautiful. “Come on, then.”
All of us stayed rooted to our spots, gaping at this pixie with her arms crossed, staring at us like we were an inconvenience.
“Come where?” I signed.
She studied me with interest, some of her annoyance melting away. “You don’t speak?”
“I speak fine.” My movements were sharp and punctuated as I glared. “It’s not my fault if you don’t understand me.”
“Please don’t piss off the fairy,” Driscoll said out of the edge of his mouth.
“I’m not a fairy,” the pixie snapped, then her gaze turned back to me. “And I understand you just fine, dear. You use an old language that has been around far longer than you have.”
The pixie would know. They were created by the Seven Spirits.
She tapped her long glittering nails on her arm. “Well? Do you want out of this prison or are you three going to stand there and stare at me all day?”
Leoni shot me and Driscoll confused looks. “You’re going to help us escape?” she asked the pixie slowly.
“What?” Fear flashed in the pixie’s eyes. “No, I am not helping you escape. Don’t say such things.”
She emphasized the E so that it sounded more like ee-scape, her accent growing thicker as she grew more agitated.
“And keep your voices down,” she snapped. “I’m simply following orders.”
“Whose orders?” I signed.
The pixie crossed her arms. “Who do you think?”
Driscoll gulped.
“Why do all of you look like I just ordered your executions?” She wrinkled her nose. “This is becoming tiresome. Do I have to beg you to step out of the prison cell? You’re staying here as guests in his castle.”
I started at that, not sure I heard her correctly.
“He took our shadows,” Leoni said. “That doesn’t make us guests.” She gestured to herself and Driscoll. “We can’t leave here. We’re bound to this place until we get our shadows back.”
The pixie waved her hand. “Semantics.”
“And why didn’t he take her shadow?” Leoni jabbed a thumb at me.
Driscoll’s gaze swung to me. “What in the spirits below did you do in his dream?”
“Dream?” the pixie echoed. “Master does not dream.” She scoffed. “We don’t have time for this. Or, more accurately, I do not have time for this. You either follow me now or I shut this door and tell Master Kairoth that you wish to remain in the prison cell.”
Kairoth. Just the name exuded strength. Driscoll and Leoni both shuddered at the pixie’s use of it, and I wondered if they felt it too. The power behind it. The wonder. No one knew the gods’ actual names.
Driscoll rubbed his hands together. “Are the beds comfy? Are they stuffed with feathers or straw? Can I get my clothes washed?” He held up his stained green tunic and gestured to his trousers, also covered with mud.
“Does it really matter?” Leoni shoved past him toward the pixie. “It’s better than a stone floor with rats crawling over us.”
“That’s actually a fair point,” Driscoll said as they both walked up to the pixie, her blonde brows pinched together in annoyance.
They turned as I stayed rooted to my spot.
“Why would he want us to stay here as guests? This makes no sense.”
“Like I said, I just follow orders.” The pixie studied her nails. “You’ll have to ask him when you see him for dinner.”
“Dinner?” Driscoll squeaked. Then his brown eyes turned dreamy. “Dinner. Is the food good here?”
The pixie didn’t answer. “Are you coming or not?” she gritted out.
“Yes,” Leoni answered. She stomped over and grabbed my arm, yanking me toward the entrance. “She is coming.”
I clenched my jaw, annoyed that she was making this decision for me. He was playing with us. Making us feel comfortable before he slaughtered us. But maybe this would give me the chance I needed to get that nettle weed and escape, or at the very least, delay my death.
I gave a stiff nod, and the pixie blew out a relieved breath. “Finally. I’ve never had to work so hard in my life to convince prisoners they were free.”
“Not free without our shadows,” Leoni reminded her.
The pixie rolled her eyes and spun in the air, fluttering down the dark stone corridor, leaving us with no choice but to follow.