Chapter 4
“Thanks to the foolish key he made fall in love with him.”
Those words, fuck, they felt like a physical lash against my heart.
Of course, the rational part of my brain screamed at me that this was all just a trick, a tool to use from a dark mind that preyed on a person’s fears.
But I also couldn’t deny that small part of me that asked, what if he spoke the truth?
No. I couldn’t think that of Atlas.
I wouldn’t.
And what’s more, I wouldn’t give whatever dark entity had taken possession of Riley the power over me.
So, I forced myself to ask the difficult question.
To ask why it was easier to believe the evil that fed doubt, than it was to trust the fragile possibility that Atlas could truly love me.
Regardless of what I could give him, even though the only thing I had to offer him was opening the Rift and returning him home.
Because the bad is always easier to believe, a small voice whispered in my mind.
A voice I crushed a second later when I heard Riley’s satisfied laughter echo in the empty room. A sick trick that I was letting work and weave around me, and my head snapped up as I gritted out, “Who are you?”
His smile grew wider.
“Your worst nightmare.”
I still couldn’t get used to that voice.
It was Riley’s, but if he were the lead villain in a horror movie, full of evil and downright demonic.
I hated it, but what I hated more was that I was already forgetting how his real voice sounded.
The one that had reassured me things would be okay when I didn’t think I could handle anything else the Rift was throwing at us.
The one who had called me cute girl. The first person to help me after the Rift.
The man I once knew had disappeared in front of my eyes.
Worse still, the Riley in my memories had begun to change, transforming to look like this and sound like this.
But I pushed all that aside and decided to play him at his own game.
A game of doubt.
“Ha. You don’t even know me, let alone what you think my nightmares are.”
“Don’t be so sure,” he tested.
I grinned, faking my calm and nonchalant persona when I was anything but.
“And exactly what is it that you think I’m so afraid of?” I asked, testing a theory.
“I know all the boy has seen. All his memories,” he replied, and it was exactly as I thought.
His knowledge about me was simply what his stolen vessel knew.
“If that’s the case,” I said calmly, “then you’ll know exactly how I’ve never let fear claim me. You’ll know every one of your kind that I have fought and defeated.” I tilted my head slightly, studying him. “Just how many of those dark souls of yours were friends, I wonder?”
I watched his expression darken as I continued to taunt him.
“I’ve always been curious what happens exactly after I decapitate one of you, burn one of you to a crisp, or blow you apart in the many ways I’ve made you bleed.
It always fascinated me, the way I saw the mist of darkness rise from the vessel you stole before evaporating.
Does that mean each time I killed one of you, a little piece of you dies with it? ”
When he slammed his fist against the mesh, rattling not just the metal, but the calm persona he had not long ago portrayed, satisfaction rolled through me at the knowledge I had won this round.
“And you will pay for each and every one of those deaths you took, you bitch!”
“Ah,” I replied softly. “So that’s a yes then.” Gratification dripped from every word.
He snarled but even as I pressed him, I knew this wasn’t getting me what I came here for. I wasn’t here to argue with the dark entity that had stolen my friend.
No, I was here to see if even a piece of him remained.
For long moments, we simply stared at one another, both of us weighing up our next move, a battle of wits neither of us wanted to back down from.
“Tell me,” I said quietly. “Is there anything you fear?”
He laughed mockingly.
“There is nothing we fear. And if you think being captured and caught in this little cage of yours was ever going to break me, then you’re in for disappointment,” he said, sneering at his minimal surroundings.
His lie didn’t faze me because, despite his claim, I knew there was one thing he feared, so I took a moment, letting the silence stretch before I asked,
“And what about failure?”
His head snapped up, surprise flickering across my friend’s face before he could hide it, but he had confirmed what I already knew.
“Your master must have been planning this for quite some time,” I went on. “Using the king’s brother as just another pawn in this game you play.”
“You hear a few whispered names, catch a few seconds of a vision, and you think you know everything.” He scoffed, but I shrugged my shoulders, still playing the part.
“Enlighten me then, because you’re right. I don’t know everything. Hence why I’m here now.”
“You’re more foolish than I thought if you believe I would give you anything,” he hissed. I took a deep breath, watching him, his head centered down but his eyes up, holding my gaze.
“What makes you think I’m relying on you to give me anything?” I countered. He frowned and, for the first time, I knew I had him and realization hit a moment later.
“Ha. You think you’ll be able to reach him? Your friend is my prisoner now, a slave to my needs. Nothing more than an empty husk, filled for as long as I require him.” I noted the twitch in one eye and took it for what it was… a bluff.
“I don’t believe that,” I stated.
“You can believe what you want. It is of little matter to me,” he replied, waving a hand dismissively.
“You know I was never really one for playing poker… I’m sorry, do you know what that is? Oh, wait, of course you do, silly me, you already expressed knowing all of Riley’s memories,” I said, making him narrow his eyes at me.
“And your point?” he snapped.
I smirked. “Poker… that’s my point. You see, I got quite good at it, and well, when you live for rations, I found out pretty quickly that winning is a sure way of getting a candy fix.”
“Why are you telling me this?” he barked.
“Oh, no reason, really, just thought I would give a little context as to why I know that you are bluffing.”
He scoffed, but for once it was laced with something else. A little drop of doubt. “You can think that.”
“Oh, I do, and you know why, because you may have control of his body, but right now, it's betraying you. Because the Riley I know, his left eye twitches ever so slightly when he bluffs. And as for me, I ended up stealing a lot of candy from him,” I said, ending this story of mine with a confident wink, making him snarl at me.
“You can think what you want!”
I nodded without getting riled up as it seemed the calmer I was, the more irate he was getting. Triggering his anger could end up being the key to helping Riley push back. Of course, I had no proof, but at this point, anything was worth a shot.
“You call him an empty husk, nothing but a body you’re using. The person gone, untouchable. Am I right?”
“You are,” he gritted out, and again, I couldn’t help but smile when catching him in his lie.
“But if that were true, why would he still have his memories?” I pressed. “Memories you admitted you’ve delved into. Memories you wouldn’t have access to if my friend were as dead or as useless as you claim.”
Now that did something.
He staggered back a step, as if I had accomplished something impossible by besting him with logic, using his own arrogance as proof.
“He’s still there, isn’t he?” I said, holding the relief back so he couldn’t see it. “And if I know anything about my friend, he’s pushing like hell against the restraints you’ve put him under. Can you hear him? Can you hear him screaming in your head, trying to break free?”
I pushed harder.
“Riley,” I spoke his name softly at first before getting more urgent. “Riley, if you can hear me, push. Push harder. He’s not as strong as you think. He’s weak. Just another tool under a master’s foot!”
He growled and shrugged his shoulders, like the words I was saying made him uncomfortable. So, I drove it deeper, hunting for more.
“Riley, we’ve gone through this shitshow together, you and me.
Let’s not end it now. Not here. Not this way.
” The words seemed to break through as he began to shake violently.
It started in his hands and then through his body until he was nearly convulsing.
His arms moved almost painfully until his fists found themselves curled in his hair.
He tugged at it, ripping strands from the roots as if he was trying to rip Riley’s voice out.
Then his convulsions stopped, and his hands dropped.
His hair was sticking out at all angles, making him look even more wild than when I first saw him in the cell.
His head snapped up, and for the first time since that bridge, I saw Riley looking back at me, just a glimpse, just a hint, but it was him.
“Alex, I’m… here…” he whispered desperately.
And then he was gone.
I cried out as he was at the door in an instant, screaming, his demonic roar rattling the metal far harder than his fists ever could.
I stepped back instinctively, cautious now of pushing him too far as his chest heaved, breath coming fast while he fought for control.
Then his hand slid through his hair in one sharp motion, and he grinned.
“A clever little mortal,” he tutted. “I see you called my bluff. Fine. Your friend is still in here.” He rolled his head in a circular motion, holding my gaze as he did.
“He’s a strong one, isn’t he? This military hero of yours.
He’s locked away, and he will remain that way until I have no further use for him. ”
“So, what you’re saying is that you need him right now,” I said, trying to look calm though my heart hammered against my chest.
His eyes narrowed as he stopped the strange head movements. Yet he had no response. No argument.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” I continued, the hope in my voice easy to hear.
“You’re a prisoner just as much as he is.
Stuck in that cage, trapped in a mortal body because there is no other vessel for you to move into,” I said, shaking my head as I started to piece it together.
Started to see that he didn’t have quite as much power as he was trying to portray.
“You need a host, and right now you only have one… considering I was able to break through to Riley and give him hope, the longer you stay in it, the weaker you’ll become. Because he’s fighting back now, isn’t he? He’s fighting hard.”
He gritted his teeth and sneered at me, but didn’t say anything. In fact, his eyes just scanned the walls, and suddenly another thought hit me.
“And I just bet that the spell they cast to keep you locked in there isn’t helping either, is it?
” Another sneer was my only answer, telling me I had guessed right yet again.
It was like all the puzzle pieces were raining down around me, and one by one, I was now able to fit them into place.
I was starting to understand how this all worked.
Which meant I might actually figure out a way to save Riley.
His face told me all I needed to know because every time his expression twisted with rage, it was even more proof that I was on the right track.
That he was just as much a prisoner as Riley was, and that gave me more hope than I had felt in days.
Hope that built inside me so strong I had to push the tears away before they formed. Hope that immediately created an idea.
“It seems you and I have something in common,” I told him, making him scoff.
“There is nothing I have in common with a useless mortal,” he gritted out as if insulted by my comment.
“Well, that’s not entirely true now, is it?” I mocked. “Considering you’re stuck in the body of one.”
He snarled, but I shrugged my shoulders, unaffected by his furious display.
“Which means there is something we both want.”
“I only want to see you suffer once more by my hands!” he roared, but this time I didn’t even flinch, having already expected it.
“Perhaps, but I’m guessing that right now you want out of that body even more,” I said, and for a moment, he took pause, telling me that he was at least intrigued enough to let me continue without any more threats. “And the spell on this cell is preventing that.”
“And you want the boy released from my grasp, I suppose?” he asked, making me shake my head, telling him he was wrong.
As now, it was time to win.
It was time for my bluff as I told him,
“No, right now…”
“…I want information.”