Chapter 20
Nancy answers the call after the third ring and says, “Is it done?”
A breathy laugh escapes before I can rein in my emotions.
“Yes…but uh…” I eye the castle from above the shopping district.
Hidden among elemny, I sip the iced tea while grimacing at the blackened flames engulfing the castle.
Then my eyes roll toward the bar. “Dragonfire Bar is nothing but ash, and I have a bag filled with evidence I need to get rid of.”
“I saw their deaths televised earlier today. They must have cleared at least half of my workers within Flesh.”
Guards race past me and head towards the castle. I turn my back to them, cup my hand over the phone, and say, “What do I do? I can’t go back to Xavier, can I?”
“No. That would be the stupidest thing you could do, and you’d get caught within the day. You must leave the Kingdom of Flesh before the mutt sniffs you out.”
“So, I can finally go home?”
“Come here first. Knowing my luck, they’re likely onto me, too, and I don’t want to die yet. I’ll wait out the storm until it dies down.”
“Home…” My hand moves over my mouth at the vivid memories of charred, burned, and crisp bodies that usually haunt my nightmares. Memories wash over me as hands thirst for flesh, ripping me from my dignity until I’m scarred from the waist down.
I lean forward and press my hand over my mouth to keep the disgust from flowing. Hitching breaths break out of smoky lungs from inhaling too much of the Kingdom of Flesh’s dense and suffocating air.
“We will leave the same way that we came. I have a boat in the harbour waiting for us when you arrive.”
“Okay. I’m leaving now.”
Nancy breathes an easy sigh. “Good. I will send you a ticket back to Oceanview Harbour. Ensure those friends of yours don’t spot you.
We need as brief contact as possible. Unfortunately, it hasn’t gone as planned, and Prince Reen seems to keep surprising me with his mutt habits.
But cheer up, Pandora. King Ragan’s dead. You have done what you set out to do.”
A light flutter swirls in my stomach when I picture King Ragan’s lifeless body, riddled with ash, smoke, and blood, near the steps to his dead throne. The thrill of taking his life, like the others, lingers.
The last fire elemny is elusive, and I’ve come to terms with not knowing his location, even though he pinned me to the table while the other—
Deep breaths.
After a few more words with Nancy and thanking her for everything, I leave the iced coffee, move down the back streets, and hunt for the first taxi I can find.
While inside, I hand him the money and tell him about the café near the Ebon Hall entrance.
As we leave the curb, I overlook the flames and thick smoke engulfing the tower walls in the distance.
I thank the taxi driver, enter the café, and order a muffin and a chilled iced chocolate so it doesn’t seem too suspicious.
Moving through back streets, I ensure I’m the furthest away from Xavier’s home until I reach the entrance of Ebon Hall.
I go to the toilet, enter a cubicle, and then drop the satchel bag on the toilet seat lid.
Peeling off a layer of muck and disgust, I remove the wig, pinch the blue contact lenses until they’re out, and place the brown ones in.
I then change into a short dress, but mutter my complaints about the coffee stain.
No matter.
Black strands of hair twist into a bun as I glare at the mirror outside the toilet.
Cold water then splashes over my face to cool the heat and remove the smears of ash that stained me when it rained down while I was at the castle.
When I wash my arms, a woman enters the bathroom, eyes me, and says, “You too.”
I laugh at the ash covering her hair and arms. We chat for a minute. She goes into the toilet, and I leave for the entrance to Ebon Hall.
My focus drifts to elemny with suitcases as they leave Ebon Hall. I step behind them, daringly close to the group until it looks like I am with them and go through the exit doors. Security guards eye us, but their focus doesn’t linger.
A man stands on the deck, and I scan my phone across the tablet he provides to confirm my booking.
While on the ship, I head down the hallway until I find the room Nancy booked.
Inside, I lock the door, rummage around the kitchenette until I find a lighter, and then head to the bathroom.
I dump the evidence in the tub, light it on fire, and control it by twisting the tap so the flames don’t get too out of hand.
When they’re blackened ash, it washes down the drain, and I scrub it clean.
Then I shower and let the icy water remove the remnants of King Ragan touching me.
Sickness plagues me in the shower, and I lean down to throw up all that has happened to me.
My shoulders tremble at the recurring thought of those fire elemny and Xavier touching me in places no one should ever be touched without consent.
Pain shudders along my waist when those thoughts enter my mind.
The smell of sex makes me want to puke until there’s nothing left in my stomach to throw up.
Disgusting, putrid vermin—the lot of them.
I hate them! I hate them all because they are the reason for the constant nightmares that plague my dreams. It seeps in, and every time my eyes close, I’m on that office desk, and that fire elemny’s hand filled with fire grabs my waist until I cry out in agony.
Water drips when I turn off the shower. I step out, ignoring the mirror, and move into the living area with a towel wrapped around my body.
Sitting on the bed, I turn on the television.
Every news station stands outside the castle, and helicopters fly overhead.
Boats, ships, and minivans swarm in all directions, wondering what’s happening inside the castle.
Hundreds of guards flock to the walls and gates of the castle like an iron fortress, threatening anyone who gets too close.
No one outside the castle knows what happened. They speculate, but all speculation revolves around Queen Ji-Sun and why fire fills her room. Apart from everyone knowing Prince Reen is the only fire elemny with black fire, they don’t speak of death…yet.
A bubble of laughter bursts out of my mouth, and I collapse on the bed. I forgot about the tether. Through the hunger of his death, I killed an innocent bystander. Someone who didn’t deserve it, but she’s gone, too.
The laughter chokes in my lungs, and tears slip down my cheeks at the thought of killing someone who died who shouldn’t have died.
It’s hard to balance the two as my excitement soars at his death, but there’s a loss over Queen Ji-Sun’s death.
Guilt would not be piercing me if she were equally horrible.
But it was for a good cause, right? Aside from my revenge, killing one innocent saves thousands from torment for another thirty to forty years. It fucking sucks that she’s dead, but as much as I needed this, everyone in Eraminia needed this, too.
The phone rings, bringing me out of my funk. I answer, and Nancy says, “Get rid of your phone. They can trace it if your boyfriend gets sent in for questioning.”
Thick smoke oozes into the room as I open the window and toss the phone out into the grey, sloshing water.
Fake memories, forced conversations, and contact numbers I never cared about sweep away into the vast, open sea.
It sinks into the depths of darkness where no one can recover them.
I should have switched it off beforehand; maybe if I cared about anything on the phone, I would have held it long enough to think about it. But I couldn’t care less.
The friends I had at Oceanview Harbour were nothing but a ruse that I needed to look meek, cute, and a normal, unawakened elemny.
Xavier was a ticket I needed to gain access to the Kingdom of Flesh.
Without him, King Ragan would still be breathing, and the revenge I dreamt of would still be a desire out of my grasp.
Yawning, the exhaustion of today sweeps over me. I scramble onto the bed, slump against the pillows, and feel my body sagging into the mattress.
No boyfriend is pinning me to the bed, unbuckling the buttons on his jeans and forcing sex on me. No daydreams of me killing King Ragan repeatedly because they aren’t daydreams anymore. They are real.
Soon enough, the trauma of my sister locking the entryway to Elden Keep will fade, and the bitter, haunting memories of those fire elemny will burn like ash and wisp away in the wind.
Today, I will finally sleep peacefully without revenge clinging to my mind.
I close my eyes, and a slight smile plays on my skin until the searing heat ripples along my waist, and the trauma of pain plagues me once more.
I guess those nightmares don’t go away that fast.