Chapter 3 #5
I forced myself to breathe through the panic threatening to drown me and did the only thing I could think of.
I called for her, my voice trembling.
“Zaheera.”
Nothing.
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat and tried again, pouring every drop of will into her name.
“Zaheera.”
A brush of warmth swept over me. The hairs on my arms stood on end as her smooth voice whispered gently into my mind.
“Do not panic.”
I dragged my hand over my face. How could I not panic? What a stupid thing to say.
“Where am I? Where is Theo? Tavrik?”
A heartbeat of silence stretched between us.
“You are beyond the Veil. They caught you all, right as you entered. You are within their prison.”
Prison.
The word slammed into me like a fist to the face. “Where are they? Are they—”
“Alive,” she confirmed, almost sympathetically.
Relief crashed over me. I sagged against the wall, closing my eyes in a silent prayer of gratitude.
Zaheera spoke again, her voice a steady current in the chaos of my mind.
“They will question you all. You must stay strong. Play this correctly and you will see your friends again.”
Then she was gone. Her warmth vanished. The silence was unbearable.
And I was all alone.
I forced myself upright on unsteady legs, weak from exhaustion. Every muscle screamed in protest, but I still hauled myself forward until my fingers curled around the iron bars.
Beyond the gate, a torchlight flickered, its glow painting the rough walls in amber.
The darkness beyond was suffocating, an abyss that devoured everything within its reach.
Nothing was visible past the shifting light—no hint of an escape.
I pressed my forehead against the cold bars, the solid metal steadying me.
The stillness shattered.
A shape materialised from the darkness, a face appearing mere inches from mine. I recoiled with a strangled cry, stumbling backwards until my heel caught on uneven stone. I crashed into the jagged wall. Pain seared through my back as the rough surface tore my skin.
Then she stepped forward.
A Jinn.
She stood just beyond the gate, bathed in golden firelight that caressed her deep, burnished skin. Dark waves of hair framed her unnaturally beautiful face like midnight silk, but it was her eyes that transfixed me—black and bottomless, absorbing the glow without reflection.
Her full lips curling into a sneer, as if my very existence offended her. The hinges groaned as she pushed the gate open, stepping inside with slow, measured grace. Despite the ornate bangles adorning her ankles, her movements were eerily soundless.
The weight of her presence alone was unbearable. I flattened myself against the cold rock at my back, wishing I could dissolve into it.
Her voice was like smoke—smooth, yet abrasive. Beautiful, yet terrible.
“To enter the lands of Jinn does not come without consequence.”
She narrowed her obsidian gaze and advanced another step. “What brings you here, mortal?”
She spat the last word, her disgust twisting around it like poison.
My pulse pounded in my ears. My carefully rehearsed explanations unravelled, slipping through my grasp like grains of sand in the wind.
I didn’t want to meet her gaze. Those eyes promised depths of cruelty I couldn’t fathom. But I needed to. To look away would be a weakness, and weakness here would surely be fatal.
“My friends and I were travelling. We passed the Veil and… we got curious.”
“LIES!”
The walls trembled with her fury. My breath caught, but I held it together, refusing to shatter.
“I’m telling the truth,” I lied, forcing steel into my voice despite my terror. “Why would I lie when my fate hangs in the balance?”
She curled her lips upward but there was no amusement in it. Hatred poured off her in waves. She took another step. It felt as though the walls of the cell shrank inward.
“All mortals are liars!” she hissed.
I nodded. “I agree.”
She faltered, uncertainty flashing across her eyes.
“But I am not lying to you now.” Unexpected confidence steadied my voice.
Her gaze bore into me as if peeling back my very skin, searching for deceit. She slowly sniffed the air. I stood rigid, fighting the urge to recoil.
Whatever she was looking for, she seemed unsatisfied. Without another word, she sharply turned toward the gate.
Panic flared inside me. I couldn’t let her leave. I almost lunged after her but stopped myself, forcing my hands to remain at my sides. “Please.” I cried. “Let me go. Let us go, and we will return to the mortal realm. I swear it.”
She was silent for a moment before laughing. The sound sent ice through my veins. Her smile transformed into something wicked.
“Even if you do leave this prison—” she gestured around us with a slow sweep of her hand, “you will never leave this realm.”
The words sank like a stone in my gut. She stepped through the gate and slammed it shut. The metal clanged, the sound ringing through the small space.
Her laughter echoed as she walked away, each fading chuckle scraping against my fraying nerves.
I was trapped.
Pain anchored me into staying awake. Both physical and emotional. Hours had crawled by while I huddled in the corner, knees drawn to my chest. Silent tears traced glistening paths through the grime on my face.
No one had come to question me like Zaheera had warned. I didn’t know if that was a blessing or a curse.
My legs had gone numb from sitting for so long. I slowly unfurled myself, lowering to lie onto my side against the cold floor. My ragged breath mixed with the rhythmic drip, drip, drip of water striking stone somewhere in the darkness.
My thoughts drifted like fallen leaves. My mother’s face filled my vision, and a fresh pain bloomed inside my chest. She must have been terrified. I didn’t even get the chance to tell her goodbye. Now I suspected I never would.
A sob swelled in my throat, but I bit down on it, swallowing the sound—pressing my bruised knuckles against my lips to keep it in.
My fingers twitched, seeking something familiar. Something comforting. I reached beneath the tattered fabric at my chest, searching for the cool metal of my father’s pendant and found nothing.
No.
I searched again, growing more frantic. Pulling at my collar and patting desperately, as if the pendant might somehow materialise if I wished hard enough.
But it wasn’t there. Gone. I brushed the hollow space where it should’ve rested, revealing bare skin and the rapid flutter of my pulse.
I hummed—a song my father had sung whenever I was afraid. The melody cracked, each note breaking under the weight of sorrow. Memories of him flooded my mind—his laughter, his voice, the warmth of his strong embrace—images so painfully clear, they felt like a cruel trick.
A sad ghost of a smile touched my lips as fresh tears fell, disappearing soundlessly into the stone beneath me. I wiped them away with the heel of my palm, the salt stinging a cut on my cheek.
I couldn’t have said how long I lay there—how many broken notes I hummed into the darkness. How many tears I had shed when exhaustion finally dragged me under, the cool ground seeping into my skin as I curled tighter around myself. Time had lost all meaning.
A scream tore from my throat, shattering the fragile silence as I jolted awake. A figure loomed over me, silhouetted against the dancing torchlight.
The Jinn woman.
Her coal-black eyes studied me as if I were nothing more than an insect beneath her foot. I clutched my chest as she took a slow step forward, her voice slicing through the air like a blade.
“Why are you here?”
I repeated the lie.
Her lips curled into a grin, like she knew something I didn’t. Without another word, she turned away.
A desperate urge to beg seized me—to crawl on my knees and plead for my freedom.
I didn’t. I forced myself to stay still and kept my face blank.
She paused for a moment before tossing something across the cell—a small leather pouch that sloshed before landing with a thud. Before I could brace myself for what I knew was coming, she slammed the iron gate shut.
I flinched, the sound rattling my skull. The pouch sat on the ground like a silent offering, or a cruel trick. My body screamed as I crawled to it, every muscle aching as I inched closer, pushing through the pain. I fumbled with the leather ties before finally managing to open it.
Water.
I brought it to my cracked lips and drank.
It could’ve been poisoned, but I didn’t care.
The liquid was warm and earthy—not pleasant, almost too thick.
It soothed my parched throat as it slid down, coating my insides with blessed moisture.
In that moment, I would’ve welcomed death if it meant quenching my thirst.
I’d barely swallowed the water when an invisible force slammed me against the rough ground. My head cracked against the stone. Stars exploded behind my eyes as agony tore through me, spreading from my core to my fingertips.
My lungs seized. The weight of someone, or something, pressed down on me, crushing my chest.
But nothing was there. Only empty air.
The pressure began to build, an invisible hand winding around my throat.
Tightening with bone-crushing strength. Something cold and wet like a tongue slithered across my face, but there was nothing to see.
I thrashed my head from side to side, hair matted with blood where my skull had struck the ground.
My hands flew to my neck, nails digging into my own flesh as I clawed at empty air, desperately seeking purchase on whatever was strangling me.
Skin tore beneath my frantic scratching, warm blood welling under my fingernails.
Every attempted breath was like swallowing fire.
The vessels in my eyes began to burst as my vision blurred, darkness closing in from all sides.
I convulsed, my back arching unnaturally, heels digging in the ground as my body fought against the crushing force. A strangled cry died in my throat, trapped with the last precious bubbles of air.
This is it. I’m going to die.
Then, as suddenly as a candle being snuffed out, the weight vanished. I collapsed, boneless. A ragged, awful sound tore from my throat as air flooded back into my lungs with painful force, each inhale a knife between my ribs. Bile rose, burning my throat as I retched onto the ground.
I trembled violently, muscles spasming as I tried to lift myself onto my knees. My hair hung in filthy strands around my face as I fought to stay upright.
I didn’t have time to register my own survival before a force yanked my head back. Before I could cry out, I was slammed face-first into the ground.
White-hot pain exploded across my vision, my mouth filling with the sharp tang of blood. The metallic taste spread over my tongue as dizziness swallowed me whole.
I winced, squeezing my eyes shut. A broken cry croaked from my mouth, my hand clutching at the emptiness where my pendant should’ve been.
“Elira.”
My heart stuttered to a stop before lurching back into a panicked rhythm.
Theo.
I sprung upright, screaming as pain ripped through every fibre of my being.
Blood poured freely down my chin, dripping in a steady patter onto the floor.
I staggered around the small cell on unsteady legs, one arm wrapped protectively around my middle, the other outstretched, fingers splayed as I frantically searched for the source of his voice.
“Theo,” I called, my voice nothing more than a rasp. “Where are you?”
“They’re going to kill me.” His voice was hollow, distant—but unmistakably his. “Tell them the truth.”
I pressed my ear against the damp wall, straining to hear beyond it, desperate for any sign of him.
“Where are you?”
“Tell them the truth.” He pleaded, his voice breaking. “Save me, Elira.”
“Theo, please,” I begged. “Tell me where you are!”
The silence that followed was unbearable.
I waited. Listened.
And then, somewhere in the dark—