Mistfall (31 page)

I didn’t find too much else I could conceal,
though I did find plenty of hiding places to stash weapons and
other necessities. They would also be useful for me to hide in as
well. As we continued our foray into the castle, I realized that I
would need a week or two to amass a small cache of weapons and
supplies.

Eventually we made it into Abel’s throne
room. All I can say is that this man was definitely compensating
for something. The room was ostentatious and extravagant. I swear
the room had more gilding than gold in Ft. Knox.

“Stay here,” Barra ordered. “I hafta go get
tha king.”

“I’ll be on my best behavior,” I promised
him. “Scouts honor,” I added trying to make a scout sign with my
fingers, but I really had no clue what I was doing. Neither did
Barra for that matter. He took off to find Abel, leaving me time to
snoop around.

There was a living tapestry that covered one
of the walls. The general theme of the whole picture was ‘How Cool
Is Abel.’ All of his conquests (most of them imaginary) were lined
up in living color. There was the one about Abel squashing the
Witch Uprising in Salem. I found that one a little amusing because
he was the jerk that started the entire ruckus.

Then there was the one of Abel as conqueror
of the Gypsy Rebellion. In reality, he talked (bullied) all the
Otherworlders into sending the Gypsy’s into the camps. Dark days
let me tell you. We’d like to forget that one, but if you forget
your past, you’re destined to repeat the mistakes, of which we
currently, though not as viciously, were.

One scene in particular bothered me most. It
wasn’t as evil and diabolical as the rest of Abel’s exploits, but
repugnant all the same. The tapestry pictured Abel’s destruction of
my kind. Of course there was a made up story on the artwork of how
the Iblian jinn tried to destroy the world or some bunkum. I was
taken aback at how he would fictionalize himself doing the work of
the gods.

In the last part of this particular scene
were two Iblian jinn. The one with white hair was being run through
with Abel’s sword while he stood one foot on the back of another in
conquest. Those two jinn? They were Willa and I. Needless to say,
by the time Abel showed up, I was full of snark and sarcasm, all
just for him.

“Ah Magdalene,” Abel greeted me like a
welcomed guest. “I have to admit, when the idiot guard told me he
left you here alone, I was just the teeniest bit worried. But I see
you’ve learned to behave considering you didn’t run off. I knew
you’d come around to my way of thinking at some point.”

He seemed pleased for the moment. Owen and
the other wolves had filed into the room with him. They were either
giving me dirty looks or leering at me.

“So,” Abel clapped his well-manicured hands
together, “let’s discuss the details of our new arrangement.”

I rolled my eyes. Whatever he had planned had
to be less of an arrangement and more of a forced servitude.

“Why Magdalene, don’t you want to hear how
you’ll be spending the rest of your life?” he admonished me.

I raised my arms and shook my wrists to show
him the cuffs that bound my magic. “Captive audience,” I
retorted.

Abel burst out in a raucous laugh, his chest
vibrating from it. “You do have a wit most would call an acquired
taste. I myself find it refreshing.”

Did this jackass think I’d break so
easily?
He was dumber than I thought. Barra had more sense than
that. “So what’s the plan?” I asked out of morbid curiosity.

“I like the eagerness.” Abel turned to
address the wolves. “See boys, I told you she’d come around without
too much of a fight.”

Grumblings of “Yes your Highness” were
elicited by the wolves.

Abel took a seat at his highly polished,
mahogany throne. Carvings of elves in various poses decorated the
seat of power. His wraiths, visible at the moment, surrounded him
like gauzy curtains of purple and grew smoke.

I still hadn’t moved. Abel thought I was
finally subservient. For the moment I was inclined to let him
continue believing the fallacy.

“May I step forward?” I asked politely. I
wasn’t sure what I was going to do yet. At the moment I was just
playing with Abel’s head.

“Of course, of course,” he replied, gesturing
me to come towards him.

The wraiths protection afforded Abel to give
my new found behavior the benefit of the doubt. “Normally you would
have to bow,” he informed me, “but there will be plenty of time to
teach you courtly manners.”

This guy and his manners.
Too bad he
didn’t have any of his own. Unfortunately for me, Abel dropped that
subject and picked up a whole new bag of crazy.

“You will become my consort,” he informed me
as if he was telling me tomorrow’s weather.

My mouth dropped to the floor. Was this moron
really serious?

Normally this is where I’d tell him something
terribly clever and immensely irritating to him. Still in shock, I
was unable to say anything. Genius boy took it as a symbol of awe
and not the total disbelief and revulsion I was currently
feeling.

He stood from his throne and made his way to
me, walking slow circles around me as if he were inspecting a horse
before he bought it. “You won’t have any power in my kingdom you
understand, he continued, “but you will be a powerful asset and
ally to me.”

It took such an effort not to laugh at him. I
could only nod my head in assent as he continued on.

“You will be required to conduct yourself in
the manner required of an Elven Queen. No matter what I decide
regarding my kingdom, you will support me. You will have no contact
with anyone from your previous life. Any alliances and friendships
will be brokered through me.”

He stopped walking around me and now stood in
front of me. Abel’s black Armani suit had not even a speck of dust
on it. His hair was gelled back, not a hair out of place. This is a
man that thought of everything down to every last detail. Except
for when it came to me.

“Also,” he added, finishing up my job
requirements, “as my consort you will be required to make yourself
readily available for wifely duties at my request. Do you
understand my terms?”

“Ba ha ha ha ha!” I couldn’t help it, the
laughter burst through my mouth. My composure was gone the minute
he said ‘wifely duties.’ I mean, come on, who says that?

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m
going to sleep with you,” I told Abel in-between giggles.

I still laughed even after he hit me. The man
had one hell of a right hook. Like I said, it didn’t deter me. As
hilarious as his sexual demands were, I kept laughing, intending to
irritate him some more. I think, though, that I may have really
crossed the line this time.

Abel lifted me up by the neck and slammed me
against one of the walls. “You filthy jinn bitch!” he shouted. “How
dare you continue to mock me?”

“I’ll quit being a smart ass if you’ll quit
being a dumb ass,” I managed to retort while gasping for air.

He slammed me back against the wall again
before dropping me. My head spun a little from being slammed so
hard this time.

“That’s the last time you’ll speak to me in
such a manner,” he threatened before turning to the wolves. “She’s
yours for now. Teach her to behave.”

Owen and his buddies seemed a little too
happy at the prospect. “Keep her alive,” Abel warned as he stormed
out of the room.

I’ve said it before that I can’t stand
werewolves. They’re too hairy, too smelly, and the machismo B.S.
gets old real quick. But, to watch them stalk their play is like
watching a professionally choreographed ballet. They’re swift and
silent. Every move they make is graceful and coordinated with the
rest of the pack.

Normally, I would admire this dance. However,
being the prey, it wasn’t such hot stuff. It was five of them
against one of me. I had no magic and no weapons. Clearly, I was at
a disadvantage. My only saving grace was that Abel wanted me alive.
Thought that thought wasn’t too comforting while awaiting a
werewolf beat down.

Elijah joined me once again after the wolves
threw me back in my cage.

“You should’ve seen the other guy, “I weakly
joked.

Elijah didn’t think it was funny. His mouth
was set in a grim line. “You are a mess Mags. I don’t even know if
Jess can fix all your injuries,” he said, pointing to all my
various injuries.

“Nothing’s broken,” I replied. “I’ll just
behave for a few days and will be as good as new,” I assured
him.

I was a little bloodied and bruised, but it
wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Next time I would make sure to
be prepared and have a weapon.

Elijah shook his grey haired head at me. “You
shouldn’t have said anything if you were unprepared to fight,” he
scolded. “But, I don’t think I would have been unable to laugh
either,” he said, his stern face breaking into a warm smile. Elijah
had a grandfatherly way about him that I was beginning to
endear.

Footsteps pounded their way down the hall.
Elijah disappeared in a flash, but not before promising to return.
I could smell the mangy mutts before I saw them.

I looked up at them when they entered my
cell. “Beating up a girl once today wasn’t cowardly enough for you?
Gotta do it twice?” I taunted them.

Something was off. The stares and movements
they were making were predatory, but not in a murderous type of
way. I felt a chill seep into my bones, snaking its way to my heart
where the cold grabbed my soul and held it in its icy cold
clutches.

Owen stepped in front of his men to address
me. “You don’t understand Mags.”

“Understand what?” I asked, wary of what I
feared was going to happen.

“Upstairs. That was your punishment. Do you
remember why you were punished?” Owen didn’t stop to let me answer.
“Well, now that your punishment is out of the way, we can begin
that lesson Abel wants you to learn.”

Hey, it’s Luca. Hailz and I are going to have
to finish the rest of the story because Mags doesn’t speak
anymore.

The day before Mags mouthed off for the last
time to my father, I had left the castle. I was in search of
Sergeant Whitmore. Since Mags has told this story thus far, I
should probably refer to him as Jack, my brother, John’s, best
friend.

It took me three weeks to track down the
sonofabitch because he was evading me. Granted, he had good reason
to, but I’ll get to that in a minute. I couldn’t be caught helping
my brother and his intended escape. That’s where Jack came in.

It turns out Jack had been doing some spy
work for John.

Let me just start by saying that I’m not my
father. I didn’t always agree with his policies and found his
justice cruel at times. But, I had always thought he was just.

I was wrong. I was so wrong.

I had been hunting Mags for the past six
years or so. I saw the result of the murders and gruesome melee
attributed to her. When the wolf turned up dead, I thought it was
just her latest victim. My job was to make her accountable for her
crimes, nothing more.

I had been at her house when her parents and
the other Iblian were killed. I didn’t order that. My father had,
unbeknownst to me. Again, I was there to make her and the other
accountable for their crimes. I found out later that my father had
sent his wolves there earlier in the day. By the time we got there,
everyone was dead. Owen told me that they fought back, that they
were defending themselves. At the time, I was inclined to believe
them.

We were in the process of cleaning up the
mess, so as not to attract any human attention, when Mags showed
up. I gave her a minute to grieve her dead. When I made my move to
apprehend her, one of the gas lines exploded. I was knocked out
from the blast and didn’t wake up for several days.

That is the truth, I swear to it.

I also didn’t set her up to be tortured. I
even tried to explain that to her the first time she was imprisoned
here. She obviously had other plans that day. As much as I wanted
her to pay for her crimes, I also wanted to keep her safe from some
of the horror stories the other prisoners had been telling me.

Jack explained everything to me about my
father and Mags. I didn’t believe it until he showed me photos of
that wolf being killed by his own pack and committing all the other
crimes attributed to Mags. Not just a light bulb, but an explosion
lit up in my head when I realized I was just another one of my
father’s pawns.

It was a lot to take in. Everything I had
been taught to believe in was a lie. Until now I had never
understood my brother’s rebellious nature. As the heir, I had been
raised by my father to toe the party line and to believe that we
were working towards the greater good. My brother, the spare, was
paid no attention by my father, allowing my mother to raise him as
she saw fit. That allowed him to see the world as it was instead of
having a puppet master pull your strings, like I had been.

Jack had a plan. Breaking John and Melissa
would be easy enough he told me. Then, they would travel to
Elemental Deep for the keys necessary to release John and Melissa’s
magic. After that they would seek transport to America. My job was
to protect Mags until I could get her the hell out of there.

I understand that one day I’ll have to stand
before the gods and be accountable for my actions. I’ll gladly pay
whatever price comes now. Before I go, even knowing it won’t save
me, I owe her the life I had a hand in taking away.

Once I returned to the castle, I headed into
the dungeon that held Mags. She wasn’t in her cell, which was
unusual this early in the day. My father didn’t bother to harass
prisoners until after he ate breakfast. I went to talk to Elijah to
see what he knew.