2 Hungry, Hungry Hoodoo (21 page)

“No. I was here on time. I didn’t know where you were.”

He ran his hand vigorously through his hair. “I wish you stayed last night.”

“I needed to talk to Sy. He’s probably a target too, so I wanted to warn him and tell him everything that happened.”

Cheney took me by both shoulders and gazed down with earnest eyes. “I don’t care if you have to move every person you have ever known in here. I want you where I can get to you.”

“You’ll never get Sy here. He’s attached to the bar.” I touched Cheney’s cheek, and he released his breath. “But thank you for the offer.” I went over to the mats and sat down. “Now tell me what you know.”

Cheney sat in front of me. “Are you sure it’s a good idea?”

“Damn it, Cheney, you promised.”

“I don’t care about you remembering it. I don’t want to spark another memory. The woman last night said they could kill you.”

“Would you rather I go to Jaron?” He frowned and looked down. I waited a moment, but I wasn’t feeling particularly patient. “Cheney?”

“I’m considering,” he said.

I leaned back, resting my hands on the floor behind me.

“Fine. I’ll tell you. You went to see my father without me knowing about it, but luckily Sebastian saw you before you met with him.”

The room felt like it was spinning, but I didn’t mention it. I didn’t want Cheney to stop. I needed to know.

“He tried to talk you out of seeing the king, but you insisted. You said you had information for him, something he had to know.”

The room went black, starting at the edges, then fading in. Cheney’s voice sounded hollow and far, far away.

I walked through the doors like I belonged there, ignoring the fact that the king hated me. I was vaguely familiar with the castle from the few times Cheney had brought me there. The king wasn’t in the great room, so I went through the door to the private chambers where I promptly ran into Sebastian.

His eyebrows pulled together. “Selene? What are you doing here?”He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me toward the door. “Does Cheney know you’re here?”

“This has nothing to do with Cheney. I need to see the Erlking. Where is he? I have information he needs, Sebastian.”

Sebastian tilted his head and a knowing look spread over his face. “Don’t do this. You chose Jaron and that’s fine. We’ll manage. Don’t try to insert yourself again. You will only hurt Cheney.” Concern filled his eyes.

“It’s not what you think. I’m protecting Cheney. Jaron isn’t who you think he is. He doesn’t care about our cause, Sebastian. You can’t trust him.” My eyes filled with tears. Everything I had believed was tainted. I was disillusioned, but I couldn’t stop now. I had to make things right.

Sebastian nodded. “I believe you, but you still cannot see the king. He will imprison you, Selene.”

“That’s absurd.” I pulled out of his grasp and headed down the hallway with Sebastian hot on my heels. I opened the first door I heard talking behind, Sebastian’s fingers just missing catching the back of my dress.

The Erlking looked over from his finely crafted leather chair, and my father’s eyes turned to me from the chair across from him.

I steeled my spine. The speech I had practiced a thousand times in my head was nowhere to be found. “I-uh-I’m leaving.” The king looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. I clenched my fists and tried to force out the words I wanted to say. “After today I will no longer be a part of the fae community. I was born a half-elf and lived in the shadows of your kingdom all of my life. I once naively thought if my father met me, he could love me, but you would never allow that. I thought if I could win the love of your son, you would have to see me and my kind as more than inferior, but you hated us more for my effort. I thought if I could speak to you, I could make you hear, but your ears are deaf to my voice. I cannot change your mind and I no longer have it in my heart to fight against you so I am leaving.

“But I cannot leave things as they are. I may have been part of the revolution, but I never wanted this. You and Cheney are both in danger—” I was about to tell him they had to stop Jaron, but the king interrupted me.

“That was a fine speech, Selene, but do you know what else it was?”

My eyes met his.

“Treason. And treason is punishable by death. However, death is far too lenient for you. You are sentenced to the pit where you can think about your crimes.”

I turned to flee—Sebastian was right. I shouldn’t have come—but two guards took me by the arms. I struggled and yanked away from them, but they were unfazed. I bit one and was met with a firm fist in my kidney. I unleashed energy and waited for the room to shake and crumble around us, but at the first tremor, the guard smashed something hard against the back of my head.

When I awoke, the room was blacker than black. Even my sensitive eyes couldn’t pick up enough light to give me any sort of bearings. It could have been the size of a closet or the size of a stadium for all I knew. I felt my way to the wall and waited. Sebastian knew I was in here, he had to. He wouldn’t let me rot down here.

Days, months, perhaps years passed. I had no concept of time. No one spoke to me, and I never saw any light. I was beaten and brutalized in every possible manner. Time blurred together in misery. I quickly discovered my magic was worse than useless. The room was warded and the door was made of solid iron. Any chance of escaping on my own was gone. I couldn’t even protect myself from the guards. I ran over all the mistakes I’d made in my life, all the choices I should have made differently. But eventually even my regret gave way. I had nothing. I was locked away, forgotten in a dark, empty room with no contact other than to receive pain and nothing but my thoughts, rats, and whoever came down to my cell to fight off. My mind weakened and cracked until Selene died and only anger existed. I no longer cared why Jaron was doing it. He was right. The king had to die.

Hands gripped my shoulders and pulled me off the floor and out of my own squalor. I fought like a wild animal, the animal the king had turned me into, and I hated him. That was the only piece of me left—a burning, consuming rage toward the Erlking. He would die, and he would die by my hands. I clawed and growled at the person trying to take me from my cell as if I could get to the king through him. My fingernails sank deep into his flesh, but still he said nothing. What new, horrible punishment had the king dreamed up this time? A hand covered my mouth and I bit at it, but it only pressed tighter as I was carried from my dark seclusion. The night sky seemed so bright that my eyes watered, and I squeezed my eyelids shut. I didn’t want to see the moon if it would be taken away from me again.

A moment later I was released. My legs gave out and I landed in a heap on the floor. I tried to see where I was, but the light was too bright. Tears streamed from my eyes. I curled into a ball. A soft hand brushed my hair back from my face. “It’s okay,” the familiar voice whispered. “I have you. You’re okay.”

The following days were a blur. As long as no one touched me, I lay on the couch quietly, drifting in and out of consciousness. Bits of conversations drifted into my thoughts.

“You want to bond with her? Cheney, have you lost your mind?”

“It’s the only way. It will bring Selene back.”

“She left you.”

“She came back, Sebastian.”

“She won’t even let you touch her. How do you plan on bonding with her?”

“She’s getting better. Watch.” A hand ran down my cheek. I flinched away but didn’t attack him.

“This is a waste of time.” Hands grabbed me and jerked up. My eyes opened, no longer sensitive to the light. My fists beat against the man with short brown hair and silvery skin. “Are you mad, Selene? Good and mad,” he yelled in my face as I hit him.

“Then fight back. Save yourself.” Sebastian took a swing at me and I blocked him, parts of my mind slipping back into place. “No one can break you unless you let them.”

“I’ll kill him,” I growled, lunging for a sword.

“No, you don’t.” Cheney wrapped an arm around my waist, holding me back.

“Let. Go.”

Sebastian stepped in front of me. “This isn’t the way, Selene.”

They spent hours talking at me. Cheney tried to convince me to bond with him and Sebastian argued against it. I didn’t care what they said. I knew exactly what I was going to do. I wasn’t going to hurt Cheney, but the King had to go. I considered telling Cheney what I knew about Jaron, but I didn’t do it. It would only strengthen the King’s position, and I had Cheney where I needed him. I knew what I had to do. It was the only way to fix this.

When I was strong enough, I transported to Jaron. Shocked doused his face and he stood. “I thought you were dead.”

“I’ll do it. I’ll become a changeling.”

A slow smile spread over his face. “You see that I was right all along, don’t you? Your peaceful solutions will never work, not with people like that.”

I nodded. “I do.”

“You’ll kill the king and his son? No deviations, Selene.”

I swallowed. “Yes.”

“If you fail again or get in my way…” He didn’t have to finish the threat. I knew what he would do.

“I won’t fail.”

“We’ll perform the ceremony tomorrow.”

I walked through the rain one last time, the cold drops pelting against my skin. I wasn’t going to hurt Cheney. Despite everything Jaron had drilled into me, he wasn’t my enemy. I fought against the darkness inside of me and didn’t allow myself to forget the good. If I were being honest, I loved him. My time imprisoned taught me one thing. When I was alone and aching and hurt, I didn’t think about Jaron coming to rescue me. It was always Cheney on my mind. I would sooner die than hurt him and there was only one way to make sure that happened. I banged my fist against Cheney’s door. He opened it, wearing worn jeans and nothing else. He leaned his forearm against the frame and gave me a crooked smile.

“I knew you’d come back.”

“I’ll do the bond, but only under one condition.”

He stood back, letting me inside, softly shutting the door behind me. “You have conditions?”

I faced him full on, water dripping from my hair onto his floor. “Make me into a changeling.”

He shook his head. “What? Why?”

I concocted a story he would believe about the rebels needing me to do it for power. It was true in a way. I told Cheney what I needed to, produced tears in all the right places, until he bent to my will. He tried to talk me out of it, describing how I would have to be sacrificed on an altar and the magic required, but I was unmoved. He said he didn’t have the power to do what I was asking, but I knew if he put his mind to it, we would find a way.

“It has to be tonight or I am going to run, and this time, I’m not coming back.”

Cheney agreed. I was a wedding and an execution away from the beginning of the end.

Killing the Erlking and Jaron was the only thing that mattered. It would fix everything that was wrong. And if all went well, Cheney would never need to know
.

“Wake up, Selene. Wake up.” Cheney’s persistent voice kept after me.

“It’s not working,” Sy said.

“You think I don’t know that?” Cheney snapped. “Selene, love, open your eyes.”

I peeled back one eyelid to look at him so he’d stop shaking me so hard my brain rattled. He crushed me into a hug. “I thought you were dying. Are you okay?”

My mouth was dry and pasty. “It was just a memory, don’t flip out. Happens all the time.” I fell limp against him. At least I wasn’t bleeding.

“It wasn’t ‘just’ a memory. You had a seizure and nearly scared the crap out of the Erlking,” Sy said, and I could hear the smile in his voice, but hearing “Erlking” made me remember.