23. TWENTY THREE
TWENTY THREE
ELYSIUM
F ionn rushed toward me. “Didn't I tell you to go to your room?”
“And didn't I say that I wasn't going to be ordered around by you?” My voice came out stronger than I felt, but I clung to that strength, hoping it would help me.
Without thinking, a rush of defiance pushed my fear aside. I slammed the door and latched it before Fionn's hand reached it.
The satisfying click of the lock echoed through the corridor, and I felt a surge of adrenaline.
For the first time, I had a barrier between us, a physical sign that I wouldn’t be controlled so easily.
A tremor ran through the wood with every strike, as if he could break it with his bare hands.
But I wasn’t going to let him threaten me like that.
“What are you doing, Tilly? His voice hardened. “Open the door.” Cillian said, stepping forward.
Panic seized me as Fionn began pounding on the door in a rage .
But in this moment, for one little split second, I felt like I was in control. “I’ll open it if you break the spell holding me to this house.”
Fionn’s voice cut through the chamber.
“This isn’t a negotiation, Tilly.”
Now I heard more footsteps approach the door.
“Open the door,” Seraphina said. “There's no place to run. You also don’t understand the nature of what we’re dealing with.
You are playing with a fire that has consumed realms, little earthling.
Do not think you can stop what has begun.
Vareth’s power is already reaching across the stars and poisoning your mind.
In time, you’ll see that there's a reason for what we must do.”
Though I felt a sense of victory that I had at least demonstrated to Seraphina and the brothers that I wasn't a child held to their beck and call, I also realised that I didn’t want to provoke their anger toward me.
Afraid of what I’d seen of Seraphina and the others, I was more afraid of what I had not yet seen.
“You shouldn't be here, Tilly,” Seraphina said. “This isn't for your eyes.”
“I shouldn’t do this; I shouldn’t do that. Why should I listen to anything you've to say?” I responded, feeling the anger and frustration that had been building up regarding Donte burst like a dam. “You know I don’t want any of this. I just want to go home!”
I yanked down a wooden spy-hole cover positioned in the centre of the door and peered through at each of their faces. My eyes eventually stopped at Cillian.
“Why have you done this to me? Do you have any idea of the hell I’ve been through? First, Donte, then you leave me here for days, and now this limbo. I don’t know who or what to believe anymore. All I know is that I’ve done nothing to deserve this!”
Torin approached the door with an ingratiating smirk.
“Such a fiery show of spirit. I always knew you had it in you. All it takes is a little... ”
“Shut up, Torin,” Fionn snapped. “For once, stop playing the fool? We don’t have time for the theatrics.”
I couldn’t help smiling inwardly at the way Fionn responded. Torin’s remarks were always ridiculous, and even his own brother saw him as an annoyance.
Torin shot his brother a resentful stare before stepping back. My gaze slid to the Elorium curled up on the floor.
“Who is this?” I asked. “I heard Seraphina call her an Elorium. Why did you bring her here? Is she going to be a captive like me?”
Though Cillian said nothing, I noticed the pain in his eyes.
Still trembling with rage, I stepped back as he approached the latch. He paused and gazed imploringly at me.
“I don’t expect you to believe anything I tell you. You’re angry, upset, and for that I apologise. The last thing I want to see is anger and mistrust in your lovely eyes.”
“How perceptive of you, considering it's you that created all the emotions you see in my eyes.”
“Tilly, I’ve been truthful about why you’re here. The reasons may not be what you wanted to hear, but those reasons are a reality that none of us can change.”
“I don’t even know what reality is anymore,” I said. “Everything I believed, everyone I thought I could trust, has betrayed me.”
Cillian bowed his head. “I don’t want you to think that I'd betray you, but as I said, there are realities that we have to accept, and that includes you.”
I tried to determine whether his eyes confirmed what his words conveyed. When he raised his head, I saw what appeared to be sincerity in his velvety eyes, but that could also have been a ruse to lull me into believing him. I had to remember that they were all master manipulators.
At that moment, I wished I were psychic, so I could determine whether he was telling the truth or if this was yet another ploy to deceive me .
“I wish I could believe you,” I said, “but I also believed Donte, and he shattered my heart into a thousand pieces.” I noticed Cillian flinch.
Perhaps I had finally touched a nerve. “I opened my soul to him, and all he did was lie to me.
The truth was the furthest thing from his mind.
Do you really think I'd make the same mistake again?”
Cillian’s eyes glittered with an emotion bordering on pain. His shoulders sagged from a burden I could barely imagine.
“We understand you’re trying to protect yourself,” he said, “but there’s no time to debate this. The Elorium feeds on the energy of others. You need to open the door and leave before she awakens and feeds on your energy. You are vulnerable and won't be able to withstand her.”
Fionn finally turned to me with a look capable of freezing fire. His cold eyes bore into me with such hostility that I felt weak beneath the onslaught.
“I don’t know how you tolerate this creature,” he said to Cillian. “She listens to no one despite her situation. You see before you the consequences of her thoughtless actions.”
Cillian glanced at me with a stricken expression. Confused, I didn’t know what to do, and with a weariness that engulfed my soul, I wanted nothing more than to put this nightmare behind me and be home with my family.
Fionn cocked his head as he regarded me.
“Perhaps we should ask Tilly if she knows how long she has left before she dies? Maybe that will focus her attention on what’s important.”
His words stabbed my heart. Seraphina and Torin now watched, as though finally acknowledging something important enough to divert their attention from the Elorium.
Cillian started to speak.
“Silence, brother,” Fionn said. “Your attention to Tilly is best left to singing romantic ballads beneath her window. ”
He approached the door. I stepped back as he leaned casually against it.
“The time you waste will be the minutes remaining of your human life. I wonder how death will take you. Maybe it will be as simple as peacefully falling asleep. Perhaps it will be something more frightening. You see, that’s the mystery about death.
We don’t know how or when it will come to claim us. ”
His words slithered under my skin, cold and merciless, as if he enjoyed watching me unravel.
“Enough, Fionn!” Cillian said.
“Silence!” Fionn snapped. “If it's the truth she wants, then the truth is what she’ll hear.” He turned his attention to me, clearly enjoying the effect his harsh words had on me.
“The difference for you, Tilly,” he continued, “Is that you only have months left to live. But your human nature still refuses to accept your fate, and because of that stubbornness, you will die. A shame, really, if you consider the wonders awaiting you.”
I blinked back tears and sagged against the door. I was exhausted with everything. I looked at Fionn, hoping for some understanding, but there was nothing to be found in his cold glare. He smiled without emotion.
“Why do you enjoy being so cruel? You don’t care for anything or anyone and fear is the only emotion you seem to understand. Then you ask why I’m fearful of my future and why I refuse to accept my fate. Is it any wonder, the way you look at me as I speak?”
For the briefest of moments, I saw something flicker in Fionn's eyes, something like sorrow, but it was gone so quickly I might have imagined it.
Whatever it was, it didn’t belong to the man standing before me .
The creature shifted, and only then did I notice her piercing green eyes open again and focus on me. Those emerald eyes glared at me with a hunger that made my blood run cold.
My hands started to shake uncontrollably, and my legs began to wobble.
Seraphina looked toward the door. I could see she was trying to conjure a spell to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. She turned to the others.
“The Elorium is channelling another spell to trap us! The door won't open”
Fionn’s expression shifted, though I had no idea if my words had affected him or not. He turned away and approached the dying Elorium.
She flapped her wings and snarled at Fionn.
I felt weak, my hands going numb.
“Tilly, the Elorium is keeping us here so she can drain your energy. This isn't any creature you know from your world, she’s powerful. Don't underestimate her power. Now open the door and go before she drains your life.” Fionn said.
My body tingled unpleasantly. I pressed myself against the door, exhausted beyond words and terrified of what would happen once the door opened. Would I be punished for my interference, or something even worse?
That was a chance I had to take. I lifted my hand to unlatch the door, but my trembling hands wouldn't cooperate. My vision blurred as I peered through the spyhole.
“I can’t,” I mumbled.
“Tilly, she’s draining your energy!” Seraphina cried. “Focus!”
“I’m…not strong enough…”
Fionn pulled a small blade from his pocket and seized the Elorium by her wings. She shrieked as he forced her still, the blade settling coldly against her throat .
He didn’t hesitate. “There's no choice now! Open the door, or she dies!”
The Elorium frantically flapped her wings in an attempt to get away, but that only incited Fionn’s rage. He nicked her neck with the blade, eliciting a trickle of purplish blood. The Elorium squirmed and glared hatefully at him.
He held the blade with the ease of someone who had ended many lives before. I couldn’t help wonder how many people he had killed simply because he didn’t like them.
“The choice is yours, Tilly.” His gaze never left mine. He wasn’t bluffing.
I knew if I didn’t open the door, Fionn would kill her.
I couldn't be responsible for her death. She’d been brought here against her will, just like me.
Feeling weaker by the moment, I could barely move my hands to unlatch the door.
Summoning every ounce of willpower left within me, I pulled the latch open.
Seraphina’s voice rose above the din as she chanted so rapidly that the words were nothing but a drone.
The room began to reek of ozone, and my hair haloed from static electricity.
Nauseated, I staggered away from the door as it exploded open with such violence that the wood cracked against the wall and splintered.
My jellied legs collapsed beneath me. Though I tried to breathe, an intense pressure compressed my lungs, and I felt myself blacking out.
Beneath whatever command Seraphina chanted, the battling energies subsided but still flared and whirled around the room. Noticing me, Cillian broke away and hurried toward me. He gathered me in his arms and carried me away from the cursed room. Almost immediately, I could breathe again.
He sat me up against the wall, but everything was a blur. Gripping my hand, his healing energy coursed through my me. Trying to focus, I saw the concern in his eyes, though there was also a hint of admonishment .
“Tilly, you must start to accept the truth before it destroys us all. What happened just now could have been even more dangerous than it already was.” “Foolish human Fionn muttered somewhere behind me.”
Cillian’s grip tightened around my hand.
Lights flashed before my eyes. Before I could utter a word, everything went dark.