Chapter 5 Where Bargains Are Made
Ikept my face as neutral as possible, thinking back to all those nights I spent bluffing my ass off with a fan of cards in my hand and a pile of candy spread out on an upturned crate, like a sugar addict's wet dream.
“Information?” he repeated the word as if I was wasting my breath. “And you think I’m about to give it to you, do you?” he jeered.
“In return for what you want, yes, I think you will,” I tested with every ounce of fake confidence I knew he had started to fall for.
“Freedom?” He laughed. “Do you think I’m stupid? You expect me to believe you’d simply open the door after I gave you what you want?”
“Obviously not,” I replied, slipping some honesty in there for good measure because, like he said, he wasn’t stupid and pretending he was would get me nowhere.
“But we both want the same thing. I want my friend back. And you want a new vessel, seeing as this one is going to expire sooner rather than later,” I said, winging this part as I really had no clue if it was true or not.
But making assumptions and reading his facial expressions had gotten me this far, so it was worth a shot.
“I cannot die,” he stated with an air of arrogance.
“Maybe not,” I said with a shrug. “But you can be weakened. And I’m guessing that wouldn’t be useful to your master right now.” Oh yeah, now that struck a nerve.
“What do you suggest?” he asked, his jaw ticking.
“We have powerful mages. There may be a way to extract you.” I didn’t know much about the mages, nothing in fact, but I at least knew enough that they had been able to strengthen his cell.
So, not wanting to break the habit of all this bluffing I had going on, I decided to roll with the assumption.
“All I need is information,” I said, but he huffed.
“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t give it to you,” he admitted in a bitter tone, as if hating the weakness shown by telling me there was something he was powerless to fight against.
“Why not?” I asked making a tick in his jaw jump in annoyance.
“I am forbidden,” he gritted out.
“Forbidden how?”
“We are forbidden from speaking his name or what he has planned. So even if I wished to make this bargain with you, you would gain nothing.”
“You’re lying.”
“I do not lie,” he practically growled and, unfortunately, while I knew that was false, I could tell that what he said about being forbidden was true. I turned away, running a hand through my hair as I thought about it, when it finally hit me. He was forbidden, but someone else wasn’t.
“No, but he can,” I stated, making him raise a brow.
“Who do you speak of?”
“Riley. He can tell me,” I said firmly, making his lip curl.
“No, he can’t.” And there it was, that little tell. That twitch in his left eye. The bluff I had been looking out for again.
“Now I know you're lying because if you can access his memories, then it goes both ways. He has access to your thoughts, too, doesn’t he?” His silence was proof enough.
“Fine. Just what exactly are you proposing?” he asked with a snarl.
“Let Riley through, let me speak to him. Ask him what you can’t tell me, and then we will extract you safely from him.
” I didn’t know exactly how we were going to do that.
Because, well, I wasn’t about to drag some poor unsuspecting fool in here and exchange their life for Riley’s, no matter how much I wanted him back.
Thankfully, his next words filled me with relief.
“I have a body.”
“What do you mean?”
“My body is where I left it when I entered this one,” he affirmed with ease, as if we were talking about the weather and not some rotting corpse left to decompose somewhere that he wanted dragged in here.
“Okay, we can go and retrieve your body and put you back in it.” Those were words I never thought I would be speaking out loud. “How about that?”
“And you can promise that, can you?” he said, his eyes widening like he was really thinking about this.
“We want the same thing here, so yes, I can give you my word.” Then, finally, after a long moment that felt like a lifetime, he nodded.
“Fine. I accept your terms. I will release his mind, but only briefly, so you'd better be quick with your questions.”
“So, we have a deal?” I asserted, making him nod.
“We do.”
“I’d shake on it, but I remember what happened the last time you touched me,” I said wryly, making him grin.
“Very well, I will release his mind.”
My heart started to hammer in my chest, knowing this was it, I was getting my friend back… or at least a piece of him, for a short time. Something that started when his head suddenly dropped, making me gasp.
My heartbeat continued to speed up at the shift in him, but I tried to keep my composure, not wanting to show the effect he had on me.
Not yet, not until I was sure this wasn’t just a ploy on his part to hurt me.
But then his eyes snapped open and darted around the cell before landing back on me.
I couldn’t stop the emotion that flooded my body the second I saw those clear hazel eyes staring back at me.
Riley’s eyes.
He was alive.
He was really here.
My Riley.
“Alex.” The sound of his voice pushed me over the edge. The tears came, and this time, I let them. I let them burn my eyes as they we first held suspended before they ran down my cheeks.
“Riley!” I cried before I did what I promised Aster I wouldn’t do. I threw myself against the mesh, the solid cell bars digging into my torso, but I didn’t care. His face held so much pain, so much suffering.
“Alex… God, how could I have let…” His voice broke as he looked away, and suddenly I realized what this was.
It was shame.
Shame for what his hands had done to me.
I started shaking my head in small, rabid motions before telling him, “No, no, please, Riley, don’t think about that now,” I pleaded.
“How can’t I think about it, Alex? It's all I can fucking think about, trapped in this fucking hell that is my own body!” he snapped angrily, the tears there but refusing to fall, unlike mine.
“Riley, no, don’t do that to yourself, okay? Look, we don’t have much time here,” I tried again, sniffing back the sob that threatened to burst out of me.
“I’m so sorry, Alex. I… I… don’t deserve…”
“Don’t you dare fucking say it! Do you hear me?
I am going to get you out of this! I am going to save you if it’s the last thing I do, but right now, you have to help me,” I said, rubbing my sleeve under my nose, catching the tears clinging to my skin.
And finally, he started nodding, as if I had shaken him out of what looked like an apology that was ready to burst from him any second.
“If you tell me everything you know, it could end all of this. End everything to do with that fucking Rift, and we will be able to help you, Riley. We can get whatever it is out of you. We can help you fight it, I promise you.” My voice was high-pitched and raw with emotion.
Half of me had expected to see Aster come racing in, but he didn’t, and I appreciated the space he was giving me.
“But if you can’t, Alex… if you have a chance… please, promise me you will take it. Don’t risk it all for me… not after… what I did to you.” His pained voice felt like a vice seizing my lungs.
Which was why I let my head rest against the bars and told him, “God, you’re breaking my heart here… there is so much I want to tell you… but…”
He placed his head where mine was resting, and he was so close yet so far away when he finished my sentence…
“We don’t have the time.”
I shook my head in a hopeless motion, telling him that we didn’t, but then he made a pained sound and jerked his head back.
“I can already feel him pulling me back. He knows what I want to show you. Quick, Alex, touch me, take my hand!” He reached out, and though Aster told me not to let him touch me, I knew the real Riley wouldn’t hurt me.
So, I decided to trust him one last time, and in doing so, all I could hope for was that…
It wouldn’t kill me.