5. Chapter 5
Chapter five
I eyed Dey suspiciously. Something about his statement shifted the tide of the war within my mind, and the unfettered trust began to bow under the weight of my unease.
“And how exactly is it your fault?”
Every aspect of his body—from his face to his shoulders, right down to his massive thighs—slumped in resignation. “It is my magic that is affecting you so,” he confessed. “I am, among other things, a mental caster. I can influence the emotions of others when I touch them.” He lifted his chin to look at me. “You were terrified, and I meant only to ease your suffering. That is what I do. I ease the sorrow of those burdened by emotions they cannot control. I promise you it will fade. The alteration of one's mind tends to lessen once they have been made aware of the change.”
I blinked twice as the comforting feeling receded from my brain. Slowly at first, the reality settled in, eventually picking up steam as a deluge of thoughts raced through my mind, threatening to drown me. Magic wasn’t real. But neither should this place be real, yet it clearly was. And if this place was real, then that meant… he had actually messed with my brain. My brain that never worked quite right and caused me untold grief, but at least I knew my fucked-up thoughts and uncontrolled emotions were my own. He just waltzed in and tinkered with everything, changing me to suit his needs. I felt dirty. I felt violated. I felt… angry.
Without thinking, I hauled my arm back and punched him in the face with the full weight of my fury.
“Motherfucker!” I screamed, partly at Dey for invading my mind and partly at the stinging pain now coursing through my right hand. Was his face made of granite?
The asshole didn’t even have the decency to pretend he was injured, to give me that small satisfaction. He opened his mouth, but I cut him off before he got a single word out.
“No!” I shouted, getting in his face. “You don’t get to speak right now.”
My anger burned under my skin like a living entity, forcing me to my feet. Pacing back and forth behind the bench, I clenched and unclenched my fists. I wasn’t dumb enough to hit him again, but I needed something, an outlet for my wrath. Lifting my face to the sky, I screamed with everything I had left, letting my pure primal rage escape into this new world.
A flock of birds scattered from a nearby oak tree, shrieking their indignation.
“How dare you,” I demanded, stalking closer to him. “Who the hell do you think you are, kidnapping me to some fucked-up dimension and violating my mind? What gives you the right to play with my emotions like I’m a goddamned toy?”
“I am sorry,” Dey whispered. “My ability here is widely regarded as something beneficial. I honestly believed that I was helping you. I did not consider that it might be viewed as a violation.” His head dipped low, and a small piece of my anger faded, recognizing that he truly didn’t realize the extent of what he had done. Not that I was in any rush to forgive him.
I sat stiffly on the opposite side of the bench, in no hurry to be within touching distance again. “You owe me answers,” I gritted out. “A lot of them.”
“Of course, Princess.”
“Ah! That, right there. Great place to start. Back in… in my world,” I said, still struggling with the concept that other worlds existed, “you said I was a princess. Explain.”
Dey hesitated for so long I feared I might have to punch him again to get some damn answers. My aching hand throbbed dully at the thought.
“I do want to tell you everything,” he admitted. “But there are some things that perhaps you would be better off hearing from your father. You are likely to have many more questions that only he can answer, and it is not…”
I didn’t hear a word Dey said after 'father.' The word hammered through my brain on repeat. Father. I had a father. One who was alive, and here, apparently. Wait, if I had a father, did that mean…
“Do I have a mother?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. I was trying, and failing, to keep hope from seeping into my heart, terrified of what he might say.
But hope, that constantly useless emotion, lasted mere seconds before I saw the sympathy cloud Dey’s eyes.
It shouldn’t have ached as badly as it did. I spent twenty-five years without a mother. I shouldn’t be mourning the loss of something I never had.
“Come,” Dey said, rising to his feet. “Let us go speak with your father. He will explain everything.”
“Okay,” I agreed, pulling myself back together. “This day literally cannot get any weirder so let’s throw in a long lost parent. Why not?” I took a step forward, indicating for him to lead the way.
He strode off through the rose bushes, navigating the maze of twists and turns with ease. I followed a few steps behind, trying to decide if the butterflies in my stomach were nerves, fear, or possibly excitement.
“So where exactly are we going to find my father?” I asked as we made one last turn, the garden exit looming up ahead.
We passed beyond the grassy walls of the maze, and Dey simply lifted a hand toward the intimidating structure of glittering stone that I had somehow forgotten about.
I don’t know why I didn’t put it together sooner. If I was somehow a princess, that meant my father had to be a king.
Which meant my dad lived in a freaking castle.
My head still swirled from the implications of my potential princesshood as Dey led me across the drawbridge toward the portcullis.
“This river is beautiful,” I remarked absently, pausing on the bridge to take in the crystal clear, slow-moving water running beneath. Leaning over, I could make out schools of pale blue and green fish swimming against the current. They were massive, twice the size of the largest koi fish I had ever seen. The bright sun glittered off their pearlescent scales, and the dancing light was so hypnotizing I wondered if I could dip my hand in the water and touch one…
“That is a very bad idea,” Dey interrupted, grabbing my hand inches before it broke the surface of the water.
“Why?” I glanced back at the beautiful creatures just as one opened its mouth wide and snapped at me, revealing two rows of razor sharp teeth.
“Because those are stiroi,” he explained. “This moat is fed by an underground river that flows into the castle, providing us with water for drinking and bathing. The stiroi act as a filter, eating anything that comes near them. I have been told their bite is quite painful.”
“Damn,” I whispered as one nipped at another that had gotten too close. Those were some seriously vicious fishy fangs.
“Shall we continue on?” Dey asked, tugging me away from the river. “Perhaps with a bit more focus? At this pace, I fear I will be old and gray before I present you to the king.”
Rolling my eyes, I followed after him, crossing under the portcullis to enter the courtyard. I stumbled a bit as the dazzling brilliance struck me, my eyes watering and my pupils shrinking to pinpricks. Glittering swirls of light ran through the stones beneath my feet and across the walls. The patterns intertwined among one another in bursts of greens, purples, yellows, pinks, and brilliant white, reminding me of oil drops swirling on water. In the center of the courtyard, a trio of fountains fractured the light a million times over into tiny rainbows that danced and skittered among the stone figures and splashing geysers.
I threw up a hand to block the intense display. Why was everything so damned sparkly? And where was everyone?
“Shouldn’t a castle have like, I don’t know, people running around? This place is dead.”
“I believe your father is currently holding council with the majority of his courtiers in the throne room,” Dey explained. “Also, most know to avoid the courtyard when the suns are still high in the sky.”
“Yeah, I can see why,” I muttered, still holding my hand up to ward off the dazzling assault. I walked over to the nearest wall to examine the stones, trying to figure out exactly why everything here was wreaking such havoc on my retinas.
“Is that…?” I leaned closer to the stone, inspecting the strange veins of glass-like minerals running through every brick in the courtyard. My mouth dropped open, and I spun to look at Dey.
He grinned.
“Welcome, Princess, to the Diamond Palace.”