4
“What exactly is it you think you’ll get from me?” I grumbled. By now my thoughts were swimming and I was barely holding them together. “I’ll never give you Ren!”
Leon scoffed. “You won’t have to. If he’s still alive, he won’t let you rot at the hands of the Syndicate and he’ll come crawling here to rescue you. But it’ll take a while for word to travel. By the time he gets here, he’ll be too late.”
My steps faltered as we stopped in front of a building.
At first glance, there was nothing remarkable about it.
It sat wedged between a business office and a clinic, just three stories of concrete and dark, trimmed windows that reflected only shadow.
There was no sign, no guards, no indications of life at all from inside the building.
“We’re here.”
A laugh slipped out of me.
“What’s wrong with you?” Leon sniffed.
“It’s just …” I trailed off as I stared at the concrete structure through my hazy vision.
“Is this the Syndicate’s headquarters? This dumpy little building?
” I glanced at Leon, waiting for him to smack me over the head.
“For an evil organization hell-bent on controlling magic, I expected a little more … flair. You know, creaky gates, towering spires, maybe some dramatic lighting.”
“It doesn’t need to look dangerous to be dangerous.
” With an exaggerated eye roll, Leon yanked on my arm and tugged me up the short flight of stairs into the building.
Despite the jest, I knew Leon was right.
We only lingered in the lobby long enough to glimpse a receptionist with a blank stare and a practiced smile, but she was more than a pretty face.
There was a quiet strength about her, the kind that didn’t announce itself but radiated from every controlled movement.
Leon and I stepped inside an elevator, and I was a bit surprised when we started descending …
seven floors. We exited into a maze of corridors, doorways leading to unknown rooms in the deepest part of this damp underground.
Faint cries echoed from behind a closed door, ringing louder as it opened, and a man with a clipboard slipped out and passed by us.
The Syndicate’s true heart wasn’t the office upstairs; it was a maze of laboratories and holding cells, each one designed to extract, contain, and break.
With a sense of familiarity, Leon stopped in front of a nondescript door. His expression was calm but deliberate, as if he were about to walk into a room where even the walls demanded obedience. My stomach tightened as he turned the handle.
What first came into view was a man sitting behind a large wooden desk, his presence impossible to ignore.
Pure white hair framed his face, and the faint points of his ears hinted at fae lineage.
His tailored light gray suit, crisp and immaculate, stood out sharply against the shadows that clung to the corners of the office.
He put down the paper he was reading and glanced at us. If Leon was alarmed him by barging into his office, he didn’t show it. “Can I help you with something?”
Leon stiffened his shoulders and pushed me in front of him. The sudden movement had me spinning and falling to the carpet with a soft thud. “I have something you’ve been looking for. Does the name Theodore Kingston ring a bell to you?”
“Oh?” The man’s piercing gray eyes flickered with flecks of blue. He stood up from his desk, walking around it to approach me. Leon stepped in between me and the fae man, blocking him from reaching me.
Leon pulled the amber bottle of my magic out of his pocket and gave it to Alistair.
“This is a death potion he created. You think he’s balanced?
Look at how his magic is corrupting him.
Imagine if he turns to creating an endless supply of these?
He needs to be stopped now. Give him to me.
Make him my puppet like you did with Orren and I’ll make sure that never happens. ”
I ground my teeth together. I would never plan to use that potion on anyone, living or ghost, but of course that’s probably not what it looked like to Alistair.
“Give him to you?” the man scoffed, a sharp edge cutting through the calm in his voice. He eyed the bottle with mischievous curiosity. “And why would I do that? This man is a gold mine for the Syndicate, both his body and his magic.”
“Look, Alistair,” Leon said in a low, gravelly voice.
“I mean, Sir, with all due respect, I know you believe he’s perfectly balanced or whatever.
That he’s the Syndicate’s savior. But there’s …
something off about him. He’s evaded the rift wardens for months now, and despite being a living person in the underworld, he’s barely affected by the difference in magic.
I think his magic is still adapting and growing. He’s just like—”
“Orren is a pathetic beast,” Alistair cut in.
“How many times have you failed to control that pathetic beast of yours, and you think you’re going to control a human?
” Alistair thought about it for about half a second before he flung out his hand.
Although I didn’t see a black ring, his fingertips glistened with silver magic and glowing chains shot out to coil around Leon’s neck.
He started choking, clawing for release as he gasped for air.
“You’re not wrong. There is something special about this man, and it’s far too valuable to waste on the likes of you.” Alistair tossed Leon aside. His magic loosened its grip and dissolved. Leon sat there, crumpled on the floor.
“Y-you’re just going to give him up? After all that trouble of getting him here?” Leon rubbed his neck.
A sinister smirk curved across Alistair’s lips; the kind that suggested he already knew the ending to a story no one else had realized had begun.
“I’ll reward you for bringing him in. We’ll study this sample of magic, but he goes to auction.
He’ll fetch a high price for sure. Any ghost would love a chance to live again, and any living person would surely jump at the opportunity to evade death.
If you want his magic that badly, pay for it. ”
I clumsily rose to my feet, clenching my fists as I boldly claimed, “You’ll never get away with this.”
Both Leon and Alistair burst out laughing.
Alistair approached me, and I could feel it settle deep in my chest, cold and heavy; a weight that made my stomach knot with fear.
“And what do you plan on doing to stop me? No one even knows you’re here, Theo.
And even if you escaped this building, how are you getting back?
I control the veil around this place. Without my permission to leave, you’re stuck here. ”
Silver flared through the veins in his face and neck, bright and vital rather than tainted. Was this corrupted magic connected to him somehow?
I had no response to Alistair. Jacob knew I had been taken, but he had no idea where that doorway went, not that he could even travel through it. But I held my ground, keeping eye contact as I locked into a staring contest with Alistair.
“We’re done here.” He glanced at Leon, waving a dismissive hand in the air as he turned around to return to his desk. “Lock him up with the others. And if I see you messing with my merchandise, there will be consequences.”
The silver chains vanished, and Alistair winked at me as Leon grumbled, forcefully grabbing my arm to drag me out of the room.
“I look forward to seeing what you’re capable of, witch!” Alistair’s chuckle followed me into the hall as Leon dragged me away. He led me down the maze of hallways, back toward the elevator, and we descended another three floors before exiting.
The Syndicate’s basement prison was a carefully constructed nightmare enveloped in fear, the air smelling faintly like mildew and something sour.
There were about a dozen holding cells lined with metal bars, most appearing to be empty but lived in.
The walls were rough concrete, cracked in places where moisture had crept through, and the dim fluorescent lights overhead cast everything in a sickly yellow hue.
“One way or another, I will make you mine!” Leon waved his hand in front of an empty cell. The glow of the metal bars dulled, the gate opened, and he shoved me inside.
I turned around to face him as the metal bars buzzed with magic again. “Careful there, Leon. That almost sounded like you’re trying to stake a romantic claim on me. Ren might not be happy about that.”
Frustrated and embarrassed, his lips pressed into a thin line and he stormed away.
With nothing left but my thoughts and a thin mattress pad with a spring poking out of it, I laid down and let the lingering effects of the drug pull me under.