12. CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER TWELVE
Calista
H ead spinning and stomach swirling, I gripped my head and fought the urge to vomit. The familiar taste of stagnant air, and something else I couldn’t put my finger on, coated my tongue as my lungs sucked in a greedy breath. This was my nightmare. Only this one I couldn’t wake up from. I pushed against Astaroth, but he held me tighter as I acclimated from our trip through the portal.
“I’m going to be sick.” Served him right to be puked on.
His fingertip touched the middle of my forehead. A peaceful sensation chased away the pain and nausea, leaving me refreshed.
“Better?” His intense gaze flicked over my face.
Something about his expression seemed oddly familiar, but I couldn’t pinpoint it. I did feel better. Better than better, if there was a word for it. I forced myself to look away and take in my surroundings. Worn, stone walls with tall ceilings encased us. Massive open windows lined the far wall with an archway leading onto a balcony between them.
My pulse raced. “Where are we?”
“You know where we are,” Astaroth responded.
I began to panic. “We need to go back. He’s going to hurt them.”
Jessandra’s voice came from behind us. “Now that you are here, they will be safe.”
“You don’t understand. That giant killed my father. I need to be with my brother.” Astaroth’s arms stiffened around me, making it difficult to breathe. “Put. Me. Down.”
He set me on my feet. His body stayed pressed to mine as he held me up. I shoved him away and took a step back to put some distance between us. The clenched fists he hid behind his back were a good indication he didn’t like it one bit.
“Who was that man? Why was he there?”
Jessandra moved to Astaroth’s side. Hair escaped her disheveled braid around her scratched face, and blood seeped through her ripped clothing. She fought hard to protect us while we all watched.
A shadow formed in the room. “I need to speak with Jessandra, then I will return and explain.”
I followed them toward it. “You will not leave me here!”
But they didn’t listen. They vanished within the dark mass, and I couldn’t bring myself to follow. Once they were gone, I checked the door, but it was locked. He trapped me here in this sparce but elegant dungeon. Fear ran rampant as I thought of Kaiden and Gina. Did that man disappear and leave them alone? Was Kaiden okay after he was knocked unconscious?
I gripped the stone in my sweaty palm. If Gina could bring Jessandra over with a wish, then it could also take me home. “I wish to go home to Kaiden.”
The stone hummed lightly, and I searched the room for any sign of that shadowy cloud forming before it went silent.
“I wish to go home.”
It hummed again but did nothing.
Panicked, I screamed, “I want to be home right now!”
A sad yet peaceful pulse throbbed through my hand. The air around me electrified, and the flash that usually flickered on the stone encompassed the entire room. Hope fluttered wildly in my stomach as my surroundings changed into that of my apartment.
“Kaiden?” I shouted.
When he didn’t respond, I ran to the door to go find him. The locks turned, but it wouldn’t open.
“No, no, no,” I whimpered and looked around.
Everything I owned was in the right place, even the stain on the carpet where I spilled nail polish. I peeked through the doorway into my kitchen. Dirty dishes in the sink were where I left them this morning. I glanced the other way and went to the hall. The bathroom door was closed, as usual, and the bedroom door was wide open.
I swiped at my wet cheeks and approached the only other exit. The sliding glass door didn’t give me my usual view. The normal sounds of the city didn’t meet my ears when I slid it open and took hesitant steps onto the cement balcony. Cloudless, deep lavender skies surrounded me. The labyrinth stretched below as far as I could see in all directions. Had I not been here before and experienced the horror that rested inside those walls, it would have been an amazing, fantastical view. One people would pay greatly to see. I would give anything not to be here or ever see this wynorrific view again.
I gripped the chest-high balustrade with shaky hands as the distance to the ground registered. There was no escape from the balcony. Not one I would survive from. I ran inside and went straight to my bedroom to find an unmade bed, clothes on the floor, and the picture of my brother and me on my nightstand. I picked up the frame and hugged it to my chest.
Reality washed over me and seized my lungs. I may never see my brother again. Every breath I took pierced a little deeper. The weight of each one pulled my shoulders in as the ache spread through my tense body. It wound tight, ready to spring at a moment’s notice. I curled onto the bed with the same poky spring in the same place, feeling life was coming to an end, and clutched the frame to my chest until the corners dug into my flesh and threatened to finish the work my labored breaths had started.
Astaroth
The torches lining the throne room created infinite reflections in the mirrors spaced between them. Ever patient, Mergle waited by my throne and lowered his chin a hair to acknowledge my arrival. I returned it before focusing on a mirror to adjust my shirt and jacket. My velvet, ashen skin disappeared beneath the collar, allowing only a bit of my throat to be seen. I tugged at the cloth gloves, thin from wear, until they were tight around my fingers. They quelled the reminder I was different from my brethren who had darker, leathery skin. Even humans didn’t have the pallor I possessed.
Jessandra’s reflection appeared behind mine. But she did, I thought. She didn’t shrivel into a husk of a fae like the others when she entered this realm, either. Although no one could tell, there was a large gap in our ages. We adorned the same grayish skin with the perfect complexion and long dark-gray hair that she always wore in a braid. I wondered how long Jessandra had lived in the labyrinth or if she retained any memories of who she was before she came to be here. It was one topic she would never broach with anyone.
She blipped into my space when I turned toward her. Nearly nose to nose, she opened her mouth to speak, and I snatched her off the ground by her throat.
“You would do best to watch the way you approach me.” My long fingers squeezed the column of her throat. “We are not equals. Stitch that to memory.”
Jessandra behaved as if I weren’t choking her. This was why I needed her. We needed her. All the others quaked in their boots in my presence. She did not. Even now, as my fingertips dug deep around her windpipe and the fabric of my gloves rubbed her skin to the point of burning it. Not that she couldn’t heal quickly. Didn’t mean it didn’t hurt her. It was the fact that the pain didn’t faze her.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Her croak made me smile. I lowered my arm until her feet touched the ground. We stared at one another for a beat longer until I released her.
Mergle punched Jessandra in the back of the knee, and it caved. “Kneel before our king or I’ll turn your legs to nubs, and you’ll never get off them.”
Jessandra snarled at him, but Mergle wasn’t scared of her. He stood against her with nothing but his fists. It was unfortunate the others weren’t like him. They needed to be when the time came. Otherwise, we were doomed.
“It’s fine, Mergle. You may wait outside.”
He bowed. “Anything for your majesty.” Uncertain, he jerked to standing and looked between us.
“I will be fine. Won’t I, Jess ?”
Her narrowed gaze lifted. Through gritted teeth she said, “Yes.”
Wary and ready to pounce, Mergle backed toward the door, keeping a studious eye on her. Jessandra remained on her knees but never lowered her gaze. I would accept it. For now.
“You may stand.”
She didn’t budge and continued to glare at me.
“Unless you would rather have this conversation on your knees.” I smiled at her. “Do you enjoy that position?”
Jessandra bared her straight, white teeth and shot to her feet. “What were you thinking sending the realm’s power to Earth with a child?”
Many things. I was also young, selfish, and naive at the time. “You, of all fae, question my actions?”
“Calista could have destroyed us all! Both our worlds! You are an ignorant fool!”
“There wasn’t enough power for her to do that. Magic doesn’t run in her veins, so she can’t wield it. I approved and denied every wish.”
“And the fact that someone from Faery sensed it?”
I didn’t have an answer for that because I hadn’t thought of it when I sent it with her.
“You should have known that if you can cross into her world, so can they.”
“They didn’t before today.”
“By the luck of a Roth ball hair they didn’t.”
I tilted my head to the side at her comment, but she ignored me and began pacing.
“This is why the others continue to wither at a slow rate. Why the realm is decaying.” She looked at me. “Why it is hungrier.”
“Our brethren are fine. Now that Calista has returned, the withering will halt again.”
Jessandra stopped pacing. “We don’t need Calista for that to happen. Only your power. Or dare I say, the realm’s power.”
The realm’s power was my power. If it weren’t for me feeding it, they’d all be dead. Not even Mergle knew the extent of what flowed through my being. I was certain I didn’t either, with no one to guide me and nurture my developing gifts. Jessandra needed to decide whose side she was on; otherwise, all that power could come down upon her head.
My nostrils flared. “Calista will remain. She owes a debt, same as you, and she will pay it. Same. As. You.”
“She owes you nothing. Calista beat you.”
“With your assistance.”
“I did nothing, and you know it!”
I smirked. “I say otherwise, and Calista accepted the agreement. We’re not debating this again.”
“What was your ‘agreement’?”
“That is none of your concern.”
A sarcastic laugh bubbled from deep inside her. “Now is not the time to bring love interests over.”
“They have a king and queen. We will have a king and queen. We need to emerge as a united front, same as them.”
“I find it hard to believe that Calista would agree to such a role when she didn’t want to be here.”
I dropped onto my throne, already exhausted by our conversation, and muttered, “The things we do for love.”
Jessandra cocked her head at my utterance. “And when she begins to wither like the others?”
I would tie myself to her to prevent that from happening, and to prevent her from ever leaving me. “I will deal with that when it comes about.”
“Astaroth—”
“It is time to pay your debt, Jessandra.”
“I assumed as much. Answer the question.”
I stared at her in warning. “You are to move to the castle.”
“No.” She spun around and marched to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I refuse your request.”
“This is not a request!” My voice boomed through the room, shaking loose the dust between the stone slabs surrounding us. “You will do as you are told!”
Her slitted gaze turned over her shoulder. I had the mind to toss her in the pit with the others who denied me, but that would get us nowhere. We needed Jessandra to succeed and survive. She knew it by the challenge glinting in her eyes.
“You will move to the castle and prepare for your new role.”
“What will that be?”
“Guard to your new queen.”
Fury emanated from her.
“You want to go home? We need her to do so.”
“I’ll say it again, we do not need a human child to get us home,” she spat.
I raised a brow and mumbled, “She is far from childhood now.”
“Get your mind off your cock, Astaroth.”
“You act as though my cock makes decisions for me on a regular basis. Does your cunt?”
Her eyes squinted with rage.
“I didn’t think so. You and I, we are doomed to a life of celibacy. Unless we choose to fuck each other, and—”
“That’s not ever happening.” She crossed her arms and looked away.
“And having relations with a mother figure who abandoned me sounds about as much fun as having a goblin suck me off.”
She whipped around to face me. “I am not a mother. And you are far from virginal.”
Ignoring how she knew about my sexual trysts, I said, “Thank goodness for that because the babe would never survive.”
Her voice dropped to a serious octave. “I will not play babysitter. You want to win? I will help with that. On the battlefield only.”
“You should be grateful for the lax punishment. It could be so much more… severe.” I raised my hand and shooed her. “Leave. Mergle will show you to your quarters.”
She remained statue still. I turned my head in her direction and locked gazes with her. The teeniest muscle next to her eye twitched when a shadow spun to life beside her.
“Unless you would like to visit with your friends for a while?” She covered a flinch by going to the door. Before she opened it, I said, “And Jessandra?”
Her fingers turned white as she strangled the knob. I wondered if they were as white when she strangled the life from our messengers.
“Your gifts were unacceptable. Every life is precious and necessary to meet our end goal. You now owe me a boon for each head you left on my doorstep in our search for you.”
The door swung open and slammed shut behind her. A fissure of a crack formed in the wood from the force. If she kept that up, she’d owe me for her defiance, too.