Chapter 3
I had absolutely no idea what I was thinking.
I just acted.
When I first saw the girl in that store, I thought, Maybe her.
Maybe she would finally be the one to fix everything.
And when that song played from what humans called a phone, I had a valid excuse to talk to her. Of course, I had no idea what it was, but she didn’t need to know that. I was a master at blending in, at faking it.
But then she ran from me the second she saw my eyes.
My gold-ringed eyes that had no place in this world.
I came here so infrequently that I forgot what they did to the humans.
And then she was gone so fast that I thought my chance was over.
Oh well, I had thought. She wasn’t my usual target anyway.
That had just been wishful thinking on my part.
I’d searched for so long now, I’d learned to accept that it was hopeless.
At least until I saw her again on the street, saw the panic in her eyes. And when I saw the man roughly pulling her along, keeping his face covered, I knew something was wrong.
Before I could register what I was doing, I reacted. I moved.
And now a human was dead.
And she had seen my magic.
You’re a fool, Rhydian.
The kidnapper’s emotions were like an open book, easily distinguished and his thoughts easily inferred—every evil and pitiful one. She might have been a stranger to me, but I couldn’t let him take the girl. So I attacked.
What I hadn’t counted on was my magic being so quick to kill.
I had intended on just knocking him out so I could get her to safety, explaining away the use of my magic somehow, and then leave her in her car.
But my magic sought his heart out, silencing it before he could even utter a scream, before I could stop it.
What was the point in spending endless years mastering the pitiful remains of my magic if it still did what it wanted, if I couldn’t control it?
It doesn’t matter, I kept telling myself. I had long ago lost the ability to regret killing.
I didn’t even know why I bothered to save her.
She was just another human—nothing special in the grand scheme of things.
Sure, she had intrigued me when she was perusing that store, the interesting reddish-brown shade of her hair and the tiny freckles on her face, so different from the females in my world.
Then there was that brutal-looking bruise covering her wrist that she had tried to hide.
I had silently wondered how she got it, but I had decided not to pursue her. I had planned to leave her alone.
At least until my magic killed that man.
And now she’d seen my magic. I ran a frustrated hand over my face.
With one moment of losing my control, I had doomed the girl.
Now, I had no choice.
From one kidnapper to another. I was a fool.
With a tight grip on her upper arm, I led her back up the street toward the car I used whenever I came to this world. Her breath escaped in quick gasps, but she neither said anything nor fought my grasp. Her wide eyes told me she was in shock.
The heat of the day had sweat sliding down my temples, making my shirt stick to my back. I had to get her out of there before the shock wore off—before she fully understood what I had done and what I was now doing to her.
Opening the car door, I pushed her up into the seat. The hot leather creaked and crunched beneath her weight, and I buckled the belt for her since she still wasn’t responding, only blinking out the window.
“What just happened?” she finally asked, holding the sides of her head with her hands as I was about to shut the door.
I winced but didn’t respond as I slammed it closed and jogged around the car, jumped into my seat, and turned the key. The engine rumbled to life, filling the interior with cool air that made me shiver.
The humans’ way of transportation was so inconvenient. It was loud, and it smelled, and there was no way to sneak anywhere.
“What just happened?” she repeated, lowering her hands and slowly turning her head to look at me. Her breaths were getting deeper, those gray eyes losing their fogged-over look and instead piercing straight through me. “Where are you taking me?”
What did I even say? I’d never been such a fool to get myself into a mess like this before.
My knuckles turned white as I strangled the steering wheel, teeth threatening to crack as I clenched my jaw.
“Hello?” She waved a hand in front of my face when I didn’t look at her. Her breaths were starting to come faster, and I could feel her panic rising again. I didn’t need my magic to feel the fear filling every part of her mind.
I couldn’t answer her. My tongue sat like a heavy weight in my mouth, unable to utter a single word in explanation.
“Quiet,” I finally said between clenched teeth. “I’m trying to think.”
“You’re trying to think?” the girl exclaimed, before slamming her lips together.
Her eyes grew wide, as if her outburst was unexpected.
She shrank back into her seat, leaning away from me.
She lowered her voice, draining any emotion from it as she continued.
“You can shoot golden death rays out of your hands, and you just killed my would-be kidnapper without touching him.”
“You have an overactive imagination,” I replied.
This girl was way too perceptive. Humans were usually unobservant, easily swayed to believe they had imagined things that didn’t make sense in this world, but this girl had already snapped out of her shock enough to understand what I’d done.
Golden death rays is a new one though. Haven’t heard that before.
“What—”
“Quiet,” I repeated, scrubbing a hand over my face.
There must have been something in my voice because she went silent, crossing her arms over her chest as she sank into the seat.
She absentmindedly rubbed the bruise on her wrist, and I again dismissed the curiosity regarding its cause. It didn’t matter.
Her breath shook as she exhaled.
The sound caught my attention, and I met her eyes for a second before returning to the road. My heart pounded in my chest, and my hands were slippery on the steering wheel. Why was this girl’s fear affecting me like this? None of the others’ had.
I turned down Sycamore Street, the road turning to gravel.
The car filled with white noise from the sound of the tires on rough road, and I was thankful for a reprieve from her questions.
At least until I made it to the very end where it dead-ended at a dilapidated house.
It was a small, run-down cottage with a sagging porch and broken windows.
It had been abandoned decades ago, which was the only reason why I utilized it at all.
No one ever came here. There were no other buildings or people.
Just too-long weeds swaying in the sweltering breeze.
The car jerked as it came to a stop. A pulse of silence settled between us.
“Where are we?” she dared to ask again. “Why are we here?”
I shook my head, the words escaping before I could stop them. “You’ve seen too much.”
The blood drained from her face, those gray eyes widening. “What?”
I shook my head again, a lock of dark hair falling onto my forehead.
“Is this where you kill me?” she asked.
I couldn’t help but snort. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
She studied me for a moment before staring out the windshield again. Her hands were clasped tightly together in her lap. “Then where are we?”
Let’s just get this over with.
Before she could ask again, I was out of the car and at her side, about to haul her toward the cottage.
“You’ve seen too much,” I repeated.
Her lips turned down into a scowl, and it looked like perhaps she would put up a fight after all, but then she…shut down. The expression wiped from her face, and I watched as she forced her hands apart, her palms settling over her knees.
It struck me as odd that this girl was being kidnapped, brought to a strange place against her will, and yet had the ability to act completely indifferent. How was that even possible?
I grit my teeth, shaking the questions from my mind.
It didn’t matter anyway. The sooner we got out of here, the sooner I could get away from her.
I quickened my pace, pulling her along with me, a quiet grunt escaping her as she struggled to keep up with my long strides.
The tall weeds overgrowing the walkway up to the house tickled my ankles, rocks grating beneath my feet as I hurried us both toward the house.
Just as my shoe thudded on the wooden porch, her arm slipped out of my grip.
I opened my mouth to scold her, prepared to carry her inside if I had to, but the panic in her eyes stopped me in my tracks.
“Please tell me where you’re taking me,” she said, taking another step away from me. I hoped she didn’t make a run for it. It was far too hot to chase her down, and I wasn’t above using my magic to stop her from escaping.
Hopefully it wouldn’t kill this time.
The thought had me running a frustrated hand through my hair before fixing my eyes on hers.
“You saw what I did.” It wasn’t a question.
The girl hesitated. “I don’t know what I saw,” she replied.
“You can’t stay here after seeing…that. You’ve seen too much, and I can’t risk you sharing what happened.”
Her brow twisted in confusion, head angling to the side. “I can’t stay here? What do you mean? If you’re worried about me telling people about your golden death rays, I won’t—”
“Stop talking,” I snapped, cutting her off. “You’re coming with me, and that’s the end of it.”
“Please, my family, they need me—”
Crossing the distance between us, I grabbed her arm and led her inside the cottage, her words dying in her throat.
Inside it was dark and musty, dust covering every surface in a thick layer.
The few pieces of furniture were so rotten that it was a wonder they could even be recognized.
A strange sensation began building in my stomach as I dragged her into the house.
We rounded a corner and found the stairs that led beneath the house.
“What—”
The girl cringed as I sent a warning glare her way, which effectively shut her up. I led her down the stairs, careful of rotten boards. The overwhelming scent of mold and damp stone filled the air as we descended into the dark basement.
When we had creaked our way to the bottom, I felt more than heard the sudden intake of her breath, her steps faltering when she saw what awaited her.
In a place like this, she probably expected to see a mess, moldy boxes that had been abandoned years ago or junk piled in the corner, like the rest of the cottage above us. But it was utterly empty aside from a giant silver arch on the far wall. An arch I had left there nearly a century ago.
If anyone were to accidentally stumble across this place and find it, the arch would simply appear as some sort of decoration.
Utterly plain and without access to magic, it was only that: decoration.
I stalked closer to it, and it instantly responded to my magic, the inside of it beginning to glow.
Instead of a stained, disgusting wall inside of it, a swath of silver filled the opening, rippling like small waves.
The girl gaped at it for a moment before she turned away like she was going to make a run for it. I acted before she could move, grabbing her upper arms and thrusting her toward the portal.
Panic filled her expression as she lost her balance and fell toward the arch. “No—”
She didn’t get to finish as I shoved her through, falling in behind her, and we tumbled into a void of darkness.