Mistfall (32 page)

I know what goes on in these dungeons. The
gypsies roam free and only let us believe they’re suffering. I
never agreed to their imprisonment and tried to look out for
them.

“Elijah,” I greeted the old man as I reached
his cell. He looked haggard, as if he hadn’t slept in weeks. I was
a bit concerned that my father’s goons had been down here. “Are you
okay?” I asked. “Have the wolves been giving you problems?”

The old man looked up at me. “No. The wolves
don’t like the taste of us gypsies,” he weakly joked. “I’m just
mourning the loss of a friend,” he informed me.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I offered in
condolence. I looked around to see if Seamus or Barra were around.
I didn’t need those two eavesdropping. Finding neither, I turned
back to Elijah. “I hate to interrupt your grieving, but I’m looking
for Mags. Do you know where she is?”

Elijah’s face turned ashen at my question. A
sick feeling was growing in the pit of my stomach as I assumed the
worst. Turns out, there are worse things than death.

“Magdalene lives in the castle, but I fear
Mags is no longer with us,” Elijah said ominously.

I asked the old man what he meant.

When I blinked, I found him standing next to
me.

“Let’s walk,” he said. “I don’t want any of
the children to hear this story.”

Elijah and I headed towards the one end of
the corridor where no prisoners were currently being held. My
stomach acid was churning as I flashed upon every horrifying thing
I thought had happened to Mags.

Elijah looked as if he had aged overnight.
There was more white in his hair since the last time I saw him,
around three weeks ago. He had been a strong and sprightly man in
his sixties. Now he hobbled when he walked and was stooped
over.

We stopped in front of one of the empty
cells. Elijah leaned upon the bars for support, too weakened by his
grief.

“After the beasts beat her they returned,”
Elijah began as he battled to maintain his composure. “They raped
her. All five of them. She screamed and cried out, begging for them
to stop. She even called out to the gods, praying for them to kill
her. Once they left, I went to help her. I don’t know whether the
blood was from the beating they gave her or the rape, but she
should’ve been dead with that much blood loss.

They did that for two weeks straight. If they
weren’t beating her they were forcing themselves upon her.”
Elijah’s eyes were welled up with tears as he relived the
horrifying tale. “My people will carry the sound of her crying to
our graves, the attack being so brutal.”

Elijah wiped his face with a rag as he
finished his story. “A little over a week ago, Mags grew silent,
even through the assaults. She did not cry or speak anymore.

That’s when she was taken to live up in the
castle. Even now I cannot hear her in my mind. She’s not there
anymore Luca. What remains is merely a shell. I guess your father
followed through with his promise of breaking her after all.”

Elijah was openly weeping now, unable to hold
back anymore. I found myself on my knees with my head on the
ground, my own face wet. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t speak, and
I couldn’t think. It was impossible to conceive such
atrocities.

It was the wrong time for one of those
fucking wolves to come down here.

Bertram, I think it was, came up behind me.
“Hey man, you okay?” He pointed to Elijah. “Did this gypsy asshole
hurt you?”

Rage burned through me, white hot, as I
jumped up and grabbed the filthy animal. I threw him into the bars
of one of the empty cells.

“What the fuck did you do to her?” I
yelled.

“Hey, Prince Luca, relax,” he said putting
his hands out in front of him defensively. “The stupid bitch needed
to learn to give it up. Besides, it was your father that ordered
it.”

Those were Bertram’s last words. I barely
noticed myself holding my sword until Bertram was skewered upon it,
shish kabob style.

I ran. I ran and wasn’t going to stop until I
found her.

I was in one of the main hallways when I
spotted one of the wolves. He had just finished with Mags in a nook
behind one of the many tapestries in the castle. He didn’t notice
me yet when he pushed her to the ground.

“Good for nothing jinn whore,” he sneered as
he spit in her face. “I liked it better when you screamed.

The wolf had lifted his hand to hit her when
I snuck up behind him. I grabbed him in a choke hold as I held a
knife to his throat. “Where’s my father,” I demanded.

The wolf whined. “He, he w-w-went to the
P-P-Powers That Buh-Be. Please don’t-.”

I dropped his carcass to the ground, his
throat split ear to ear.

I wiped the spit off of Mags’s face with my
shirt and picked her up. Her eyes were open, but there was no one
home. It was eerie, the way she looked at me. It was like she was
looking through me, not at me. Wherever her mind was, it was gone
from this body.

I used my magic and called upon the wind to
send a message to my two most trusted men as I made my way out of
the castle. They caught up with me as I neared an exit.

“My lord,” Will and Caric addressed me.

“We’re leaving. NOW!” I ordered.

“Yes my lord,” they replied in unison.

These were good men. My men. They would
follow me into the fires of Hades and that was the kind of help I
needed right now.

We met no resistance as we fled the castle on
horse. We made good time to the Fae village. Thankfully it was
early enough in the day, so the Fae would allow us entry.

I know of Hailz’s marriage to the Fae Queen’s
daughter. Hailz had some kind of twisted arrangement with Mags for
help and I was calling it in. I could only hope that she would do
what she had agreed to.

My men and I flew like the wind to the
doorstep of the small palace and were met by Hailz.

“Please, she needs our help,” I begged.

Can’t a girl get a honeymoon? I’m not gone a
month and that Elf shows up on my doorstep with Mags all bloodied
and beaten. I should have killed the fucker when I had a chance to
in the Wildwood.

Damn you Mags. You never see the evil in
people until it’s too late. See where being good and trusting gets
you. I swear, if you survive this, I’m going to kill you.

“Bring her in,” I ordered. I led Luca and his
men through the palace to Fiona’s and my chamber. Fiona was
horrified by the state Mags was in.

“Who did this?” she demanded of the
Elves.

Luca’s head hung low as he answered her. “My
father and his men, but I’m responsible.”

I attacked him. Of course he was responsible.
If he hadn’t been such a daddy’s boy and been more like his
delinquent brother, Mags wouldn’t be in such a state.

The Elf was a good fighter. We’ve fought
before. When he can see me coming, he’s adaptable to my shape
shifting. Unfortunately that meant we’d have to play this game all
day if I was going to kill him. I wasn’t sure if Mags had that kind
of time.

After a few minutes and well placed jabs I
stopped my assault, mid-transformation. All girl except the fangs,
which were precariously close to his throat. His sword was pinching
me in the stomach, but since this is my story, I win.

“Get out of here,” I demanded. “I will kill
you after I’ve looked her over.”

Luca backed away towards the door and his
face contorted into one of the weirdest looks. It was like sorrow,
shame, and remorse, all mixed into one. Ah shit. He went soft on
me.

“I’ll fall on my own sword if need be,” he
offered, his voice raspy. I thought he was going to start crying.
I’d definitely kill him if he was going to act like a girl about
it.

Let me stop you right there. I do NOT have a
soft spot in my heart or anything for Mags. Actually, I’m not even
sure if I do have a heart. The simple fact is that my master tasked
me to protect her. If I fail, Hade’s won’t be too much fun for me
anymore. I don’t need any incompetent assholes trying to fuck it up
anymore for me.

The elves left the room, leaving Fiona and I
to see about Mags. We undressed her to assess the damage.

“Fuck,” I swore.

Normally, Fiona’s after me about my language,
but this time she mirrored my sentiments exactly.

My Fiona has a heart of gold. She’s
constantly picking up stray humans. They get lost and injured,
stumbling around near the Mistfall. Fiona would nurse them back to
health like Florence Nightingale. Of course she’d have to wipe
their memories, but she sent them home better than they were before
they stumbled in.

Right now, the love of my life was shaking
all over, her mind trying to fathom why someone would to this to
another being. The sad thing is that, whatever she thought, the
reality was probably ten times worse.

Oh, b-t-dubs, I will sever your fucking heads
and make a totem pole out of them if any, and I repeat, ANY of you
humans repeat a single word of the previous two paragraphs. If you
think I’m kidding ask Mags. Well, that is, you can if she comes
back or survives this. She’s seen my handiwork.

“Pull it together Fi, I need you on this,” I
told her.

“Okay,” she whispered. Fiona took a few deep
breaths and bolstered her resolve. She went into nurse mode and
became all business after that.

I looked down at Mags. Bad idea. Even my
stomach was turning a little at the carnage that lay before me.

Disclaimer: Yeah, I wouldn’t read the next
couple of paragraphs if you’re squeamish or a wuss. Just warning
you, it’s not pretty.

There isn’t an inch of Mags that isn’t black,
blue, or purple and that’s not even the worst of it. Lacerations
covered her body, some infected and some still bleeding freely.

“Fi, turn around. I don’t want you seeing
this,” I warned her before I examined Mags any further.

The Fae don’t concern themselves with matters
outside of their own little world. They know how corrupt The Powers
were. Their thought was that the rest of us needed to learn our
lessons on our own. Every so often I understand why they do what
they do. This was one of those times. If Fiona saw what I was about
to, she would have personally led a Fae crusade against all the
Otherworld.

I had to vomit. Me. Iron stomach and master
of the gruesome, even I was sickened by the trauma from the
multiple sexual assaults. She was torn through and it looked like
it had been done repeatedly.

Iblis, my master, is one of the nine Kings of
Hades. He is cruel and demented, a trait I admire, but the one
thing he isn’t is a monster. Monsters did this to Mags.

I covered Mags’s lower half up. Wherever her
head was, she still deserved a little dignity here.

“Fi, you can turn around now,” I rasped,
shocked by the inhumane handiwork before me.

“How bad is it?” she asked, worry lines
etched across her face.

“You don’t want to know. Let’s leave it at
that,” I suggested, shaking my head.

Fiona and I did our best on the physical
injuries, working through most of the day. We mended the bones,
infections, and lacerations. The damage was so bad that we were
exhausted from the effort. It was unimaginable that a Fae and Ifrit
jinn could be depleted on something as simple as healing. Whatever
you’re currently picturing, it was worse than that.

Fiona wanted to get Mags cleaned up and
tucked away for the night. I, on the other hand, wanted that
fucking piece of shit Elf to see the damage he caused. I tore off a
few swaths of the already ruined bed linen and covered her across
the chest and hips before I let Luca back in.

I opened the door and pointed to Mags. “Look
at what you’ve done, asshole,” I demanded.

Luca turned his head when he saw how
extensive the damage was. Fiona had the foresight to bring him a
pail when I told him about the injuries he hadn’t seen.

After he was done emptying the contents of
his stomach, he kneeled by Mags’s side and told her how sorry he
was and begged for her forgiveness. Pacing around the room, I tried
very hard to fight the urge to disembowel and hang Luca by his own
intestines (I planned to tie part of his intestines in pretty
little bows too).

If I couldn’t murder him I was sure as hell
going to torment his soul. “You know,” I finally broke the silence,
“I get it. You led a sheltered life and a lot of the truth was
hidden from you, but Mags lived the same kind of life. At least her
ignorance didn’t cause this kind of butchery.”

“You’re right Hailz,” he replied, lifting his
head from the bed. “This is all my fault. I don’t know what she
wants or needs, but I’ll spend the rest of my life doing it. I’ll
be her slave.”

I rolled my eyes. “How melodramatic of
you.”

Apparently he wasn’t going to argue with me.
I could tell that he meant what he said, regardless of the flowery
overtones. If Mags does come back and doesn’t kill him, at least
she’ll have a loyal bodyguard.

“Will she make it?” he asked though his eyes
remained trained on Mags and her thousand yard stare.

“She’s a mess,” I answered honestly. “Fiona
and I did everything possible to help her. We’ll have to wait and
see over the next day or two. As for her mind, it’s even beyond the
magic of the Fae.”

His face turned grey at my last comment. I
let him stew in the misery for a minute before I finished the
explanation.

“Fiona’s going to try and find the
Dreamweavers,” I relented. “They can get inside her head, but there
are only two of them left. One died outside a house in the Wildwood
from an Aelfadl explosion. So, you better hope they’re fit and in
excellent health.”

I kicked him back out while Fiona and I
cleaned up Mags. We put her under fresh sheets and tucked her in
for the night. Fiona left to hunt down the Dreamweavers and I was
left with Luca for company. I spent the next half hour explaining
Dreamweavers to Luca. I tried to get rid of him after that, but he
wasn’t going to be moved from Mags’s side. They boy was going to
try my patience with his presence alone.