83. Zeina
ZEINA
The Defenders had tried to take out the first Firebringer. But even injured, one wing torn, its black blood splattered all over the Great Hall, it managed to escape. Once it launched into the sky, the rest of the Firebringers fled as well.
Now that Zeina’s magic had grown stronger, she could better decipher what she was feeling. The Firebringers gave off an energy of protection, fighting to save its kind. Its family. Now she knew why. The Academy housed an underground farm of infant creatures. The Academy was stealing magic.
And now it was in ruins.
Zeina snuck away when no one was watching. Creeping silently through the greenhouse, she descended through the trap door and walked along the underground tunnel that they had taken to the spice shop.
She knew the way because she had been back many times since, exploring the tunnels, following twists and turns, not knowing where she would end up. She turned left, then right, then left, before finally approaching an enclave with five, equally distributed jail cells.
His cries were low, pained. He could never be loud, not with the potion she gave him. But it didn’t prevent him from speaking entirely. As she approached the bars, she could only make out half of his face, the other half hidden behind matted auburn hair.
His lips were dry, cracked, and parted, moving slightly as he slipped in and out of consciousness.
The poisonous potion had worn him down, she could tell, and he had lost what strength he had left from his battle with Lennox and Ahmina. Even if he managed to escape, he wouldn’t make it far without collapsing.
Spying on Barrow had started out of self-preservation.
If he attacked Ahmina, he attacked Zeina’s fake identity, and therefore her safety at the Academy.
Zeina never questioned it. Karma’s a bitch and she felt no remorse.
But as her relationships grew, and her magic awakened, so did her empathy.
Not for Barrow, but for Ahmina. Then, she became vengeful.
She could feel his sexual intention toward Ahmina.
It was so obvious. But it wasn’t just that—he wanted to control her, because if he could control her, he could steal her magic.
So, so easily. It wouldn’t have been difficult.
He almost did.
Zeina had always been someone who worked alone. And she liked it that way. But now, things were different. Now she had sisters, she had friends, she had a family.
She swallowed hard. It had been so long since she felt the love of a family. And even though it scared her, she’d do anything not to lose it.
Anything.
Including tracking Barrow down and locking him up to deal with later.
She knew he couldn’t have gone far after his battle with Lennox and Ahmina, and that he would collapse eventually.
The creatures whispered about it. They were always whispering, and Zeina was one of few who listened.
Everyone thought he had disappeared. But she knew otherwise.
She just had to be patient. It didn’t take long for the creatures to show her the way.
The creatures.
She had learned to trust them, somehow. They had also become her family. Maybe even more so than her own sisters.
“Amhinhaaa,” Barrow mumbled.
Zeina glared but didn’t say anything.
Barrow spoke again, still a mumble, but this time more clearly. “Ahmina.”
Zeina unlocked the cell and bent down to face Barrow, their faces inches apart. “Drink up, you shitbag.” She poured more potion into his mouth, and he immediately seized, cracking his head against the wall. He moaned in pain.
She didn’t need to, but power and loyalty surged through her, and she kicked him in the ribs, so hard it left a sharp pain in her big toe. He tried to scream, but it came out as a breathy sob.
“I am Zeina Veloria, and if you touch my sister again, I will slice you open and pull out each of your organs with my bare hands, but not before I give you a life prolonging potion, so that not even death can relieve you of your pain.”
With that, she locked the jail cell.
But she wasn’t done yet.
Beside him, in the next cell over, a man her age slept hunched over, his arms bound in his lap.
When Zeina had found Barrow in the forest, weak and half unconscious, Park was there, feeding him a potion to heal him.
Neither of them expected her, and all it took was a few drops of anesthetic potion on the palm of her hand to send Park to the ground in a heavy heap.
She dragged both of the men down to the cells in the cover of the night, which had left her so sore she could barely walk the next day.
The forest was easy, the creatures helped her, but once inside the grounds, moving their bodies was torture.
Since that night a week ago, she had kept Park unconscious until she could decide what to do with him.
There was a moment, before he dropped, when he saw her and something flashed in his eyes. But as long as he was under Barrow’s spell, he couldn’t be trusted.
He was Loveleena’s Park—a man she had apparently spent the entire school year looking for. A man who had joined the Astorians in their fight to restore magic to its natural state.
What she still couldn’t figure out was why Ash would use him to aid Barrow. Surely it was risky to keep him at a location where everyone knew who he was? Weren’t there other captives that Barrow could use to do his dirty work? Something didn’t add up.
She wouldn’t get the truth until he was out of his catatonic state. And until his intentions didn’t smell like wretched rot, he would remain locked up.
And a secret.
She couldn’t tell Loveleena. Not with how emotional Loveleena had been.
While Lennox, and perhaps her sisters, were the only people who had gained her trust, she still wasn’t sure what, if anything, she should tell them. If Loveleena knew Zeina had found him and kept him captive, she would be down here in an instant.
But it wasn’t safe.
Not for her and not for Park.
Not until she figured out what Park was doing here with such dark energy surrounding him. Until then, he would have to stay in the cell, tucked away next to Barrow.
The potion she used for him was much more tolerable. A simple sedative kept him in a prolonged sleep.
He was unharmed, for now.
Zeina’s loyalty was to the creatures, and to her newfound family. She wouldn’t hesitate to take down anything that threatened that, including him.
She watched him for a moment, his chest rising and falling in slow even breaths, before descending the long, cool stone tunnel. Barrow’s muffled cries died down to a whimper in the background.
His suffering felt like music to her ears.
— END —
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