Chapter 15
All things considered, Poppy thought she was handling the situation remarkably well.
First of all: she’d managed to make what she considered a reasonably impressive entrance.
At the very least, she hadn’t stumbled when she’d kicked at the door, and the door had been unlocked to begin with, so she hadn’t had to call out and ask for someone to please kindly unlock it so that she could come in and threaten them with a knife.
Second of all: she hadn’t screamed or passed out when she’d seen Max lying bloody and motionless on the ground, bound to the wall with long, heavy-duty chains.
Granted, that was probably at least partially due to the fact that all of the breath had left her lungs at the sight, so she couldn’t have screamed if she’d tried – but still, she was fairly sure she would’ve kept her cool and not screamed even if she’d been able to.
Part of why she’d managed to remain relatively calm, she knew, was that she’d heard Max calling out a warning to her as she’d entered, so at least she knew he was still alive.
More than that, though, had been the strange feeling in her head just a minute before – it had almost been like Max was inside her thoughts, telling her to stay away.
She knew that it was just her mind rationalizing what was happening and trying to reassure her, but it had been so convincing that, strangely, she had just known that he was still alive. Or let herself believe it, anyway.
Third of all: that creepy guy from the woods was here, apparently having kidnapped Max, and yet she was standing her ground, knife at the ready. Her accountancy degree really hadn’t prepared her for that, but her fingers were firm around the handle, her hand barely shaking.
There was just one thing – one thing – that was rattling her. One thing that she couldn’t get her head around. One thing that threatened to send this situation from surreally terrifying to just plain ridiculous, and loosen the perilous grip she currently had on her sense of control.
Unable to help herself, she blurted out, “Aubrey Z.?!” And then, “The hell?!”
“Oh, don’t be so modest,” the creepy man cooed. “I’ve been following your work for a long time.”
“You’ve got it wrong!” Max yelled weakly, dragging himself to his knees. “I’m Aubrey Z.”
“What?” Poppy exclaimed. “No, you’re not!” She paused, bewildered, before she added, “You hate Aubrey Z.! You said they had a pencil moustache!”
What does a restaurant reviewer have to do with literally any of this? Did Aubrey Z. slander this guy’s bolognese one time and now he needs revenge?!
The mysterious man rolled his eyes, sighing in irritation. “What you are,” he said to Max, “is an extremely annoying piece of bait. And do you know what happens to bait?”
The man’s oddly green eyes almost seemed to glow with malicious intent as he raised his arm, and suddenly Max jerked upright, his eyes widening.
The man smiled – a cruel, cold-blooded smile.
“It gets devoured.”
He twisted his fingers in a grasping motion, and in a movement so fast that Poppy could barely comprehend it, one of the chains flew up and wrapped itself around Max’s neck.
She watched, aghast, as Max gasped, eyes bulging, fingers clawing and scrabbling fruitlessly against the chain.
“Stop!!” she screamed – but the man didn’t stop whatever it was that he was doing, and Poppy stared in horror as Max gasped for breath.
Could Margot have been telling the truth? Was magic real? Because there was literally no other explanation she could think of for what was happening.
Her heart sank as she realized that she had potentially cast off the only people who could help her in this situation… but now was not the time for self-recrimination. That could come later. Because right now, Max needed her.
Poppy tightened her grip around the knife’s handle, and swallowed hard.
I wonder if there are any good defense attorneys in Girdwood Springs.
Lunging forward, she raised the knife…
And suddenly found herself suspended in mid-air, the knife flying across the room to clatter against the wall.
“Wha… what?!”
She struggled and thrashed as much as she could, but her limbs remained stubbornly still. The only part of her that she could move was her eyes – but that was enough for her to see that the chain had loosened around Max’s throat, and that he was taking shallow, rasping breaths.
Relief rushed through her body. As long as Max was okay, that was the only thing that mattered for now. Everything else could wait.
The strange man approached her, and she felt her head turning irresistibly toward him.
“Tut tut, Ms. Z.,” he said, shaking his head with oily condescension. “Is that any way to treat your liberator?”
“L… liberator?” she couldn’t help but ask, struggling against the invisible grip. On the one hand, she knew she shouldn’t humor him… but on the other, she was desperate to know what the hell it was that he wanted.
“Oh, yes.” His smile widened, and the knife was suddenly hovering in front of her face – and then the edge of the blade was running along her jaw. “I’m going to liberate you from your powers.”
“My powers?!”
Poppy really wished that she could keep from repeating everything that this guy said, but every word that came out of his mouth was so incomprehensible that she just couldn’t help herself.
Powers? I don’t have any powers. If I had powers, do you think I would’ve been sitting at home on my unemployed ass and feeling sorry for myself while eating shitty ice cream?!
She could hear Max yelling behind her – something about I’m Aubrey Z. and Take my powers, I don’t want them, but her attention couldn’t help but be drawn toward the knife as it did a lazy twirl in front of her face.
None of this made any sense whatsoever. She’d seen enough episodes of Hell’s Kitchen to know that restaurants could be pretty unpleasant places, but she’d never in a million years imagined that someone could get this angry at a reviewer.
And, more to the point – why on earth did this guy think that she was Aubrey Z.?!
“I have been tracking you via your reviews for years, trying to predict your next move,” the man said with what seemed like genuine enthusiasm.
“So many times I have tried to capture you, but you had always slipped away to the next town before I could get there. Not this time, though. Oh, no. You made the mistake of lingering too long with your pathetic little companion here, and now your powers shall be mine.”
Poppy stared at him, completely baffled.
Was this guy some sort of Aubrey Z. fanboy?
She could almost imagine him staring feverishly at a giant map on a wall, covered with photos and pins connected by red strings.
There was a crazed energy to him now that had been well disguised when they had first met in the woods.
“Your father should have taken better precautions to protect you,” he went on, leaning in close and leering at her. “He thought you would be safe if he left you here, but he did not count on my perseverance.”
“My father?” Poppy said faintly, feeling like her brain was about to explode from all the information this guy kept bombarding her with. “My dad lives in Florida! He’s a retired boilermaker! What have you done to him?!”
“I have done nothing to your father, never you fear,” the man said. “But the idea that he lives in your ‘Florida’ is a convenient fiction. He lives in the fae realm, as you well know.”
Poppy just managed to keep herself from saying The fae realm?
!, which she thought was quite the achievement at this point.
But she had no idea what to make of any of this.
The only thing she could think was that hopefully her dad was safe, since this guy seemed to be fixated on her in particular.
And given that her mom saw fit to message her if she so much as bought a new potted plant, she knew that she definitely would’ve heard if anything had happened to her dad.
Or if he’d decided to move house to the fae realm.
Max’s voice, in amongst all this insanity, came almost as a shock. It was weirdly calm and clear, despite the pain in it.
“She isn’t Aubrey Z. It’s not her father who hid a child away in this realm.”
Poppy turned her eyes to look at Max, and her heart did a little lurch. He looked awful… but his gaze was crystal clear. Like he had just made some kind of realization about the situation.
“What?” laughed the man, and his tone was so patronizing that Poppy wanted to slap him.
“Are you saying that your father hid you away in this realm to protect you from those who wished to acquire your supposed powers? I admire your attempts to protect her, feeble though they may be, but you should concede defeat.”
He grabbed Poppy’s face suddenly – with his actual hand, this time – and pulled her so close to him that she could smell his strange, unearthly scent.
“You have your father’s eyes,” he hissed, and Poppy stared at him, her whole body rigid with terror.
This is it. This is where I die. And I’ve dragged Max down with me.
… Geri, I’m going to haunt you forever for sending me on this vacation. Dammit.
Poppy had always heard the old cliché about your life passing before your eyes when you were about to die, but this wasn’t quite it.
There were flashes, yes, but mostly just of the people she loved, rather than specific events.
There was regret about leaving them behind.
Regret, too, about leaving Geri behind, maddening as she could be.