Chapter Nineteen

Rolling over, I realized it was still black. Not that the color told me much. There weren’t any windows in the prison for a reason. It drove the prisoners to complete hysteria never knowing what time or day it was. I stood up, willing my tattoo to light up even for a second, so I could gain my bearings. I saw a diamond talisman faintly blinking in front of me and got excited.

“Madison? Daniel?” I asked, hoping they would magically appear in my cell. Jade hadn’t confirmed or denied they were in Cadiza.

“It’s me,” Xander said, his voice hoarse. I heard him shuffle. The only indication he had been sitting was his blinking talisman rising to hip height.

“Oh.” Disappointment emanated in my reply. I watched his light talisman rise to his chest level. He rested his hands on the jail bars in front of him.

“You probably want to kill me.” He was trying to joke. There was no way I was going to let him make light of what he had done to me. Humor was definitely not going to repair the damage done.

“You’re the reason I’m here right now. You aren’t even worthy of the breath it takes to speak right now, because heaven only knows how many actual breaths I have left.” I sighed loudly and walked toward the bars.

I wiped my eyes on my sleeves, trying to hide the remnants of my horrible sleep. I approached the bars, my talisman now barely lighting the way, and stood in front of him.

From the bits and pieces of what I could see with the golden blinks of our tattoos, his face looked haggard. The tortured look on his perfect features struck me as scary. I flinched. His face darkened even further when he realized I was frightened of him.

I slowly raised my hands to put them on the bars opposite his.

“Just tell me why,” I whispered. Our talismans were now blinking in unison, lighting the opposite sides of our faces.

His breathing was heavy. He held back tears. “You have to know I didn’t mean for it to end up this way. She tricked me into this.”

He met my gaze. Our lights were now beaming steady, due to our proximity, and we could see each other clearly. What I thought he had done and what I saw in front of me were contradicting each other.

“I never expected that the undefined Bruxa I was supposed to lure back to Cadiza would be someone like you.” He caught his breath. “You’re perfect.” He shut his eyes and rested his head against the bars, defeated. I just stared and waited for him to finish.

“You had to know. I had to tell you that for me, it was real. It just started out with a different agenda.” This would have been the way to win his way back into my heart had his intentions been pure from the beginning. They hadn’t, which made me wonder what else he would do for Jade, given the right incentive. The old Sam would have fawned all over him and told him it was okay, but I had already made up my mind that I was going this road alone. I was going to take a dark witch’s advice and not trust anyone.

I breathed out, he breathed in, and our magic strengthened with each passing second we stayed together in the moment.

“I can’t be with you. I think you knew I never could. I’d always wonder if it was meant to be because we wanted it, or because the Elders said it was so. I know you understand that. I want more.” I rested my head against the bars to meet his, our faces so close together that if given a few more inches, we could kiss. After getting lost in his perfectly blue, glassy eyes for a few seconds, he closed them. His thick, black lashes were wet and clung to each other in bunches. I gathered what will I had left.

“You can help me, now. Do you feel that?” I asked.

He nodded without saying a word, perhaps concentrating. Jade may have matched us with the intentions of getting me back there, which I had to admit she did successfully, but she never anticipated the strength that two undefined Bruxas could create if given the chance.

The bars grew hot and with a slight pull from each of us, they started to separate open. A minute later, the metal bars bent wide enough for me to slide through. I sighed loudly. Xander pulled me into a hug as soon as I was free. It was not so loud that any of the other prisoners around me could hear. It was the perfect escape. I put both hands on the sides of his face.

He brought his hands up to grab my wrists. “I can’t forgive you for what you did,” I whispered, “but I can thank you for trying to make it right, tonight.”

I lightly brushed my thumb across his lips and accepted the quick kiss he placed on my cheek before we went our separate ways in the dark. I shut my eyes and let out a long breath I didn’t know I held. His remorse was evident. I felt myself feeling sorry for his part in the mess. I knew in that moment I would forgive Xander, eventually.

Sneaking down the hallway undetected was easier said than done. The other prisoners held there were very aware of their surroundings. The slightest bump or trip would have alerted them to an intruder, or in my case, an escapee. I was almost to the end of the hallway when the main door—my goal—opened, blinding me with bright daylight. I saw three figures.

It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to see that it was Jade with two people behind her. She looked angry and put off. When she saw me, she became alarmed and frightened.

“How did you get out?” she screeched into the dark.

I took a slight, wobbly step back and threw up my hands in defense. “I just want to talk.” I was too worried about being tossed into another cell to come up with anything cleverer. I only hoped Xander escaped the prison before she figured it out.

Although he did deserve a little punishment, the last thing I wanted to find out was what Jade thought would be a fair punishment. The two people overshadowed by Jade finally peeked out from behind her.

“Daniel, is that you?” I asked. “Madison?” My heart swelled at least three times its size in that moment. Seeing their faces made everything okay―almost.

“What are you doing here?” I was confused and becoming more concerned every second it took them to answer. A small, happy tear escaped my eye. I quickly brushed it away. When Daniel replied instead of Madison I knew something was wrong. Her face was all wrong. She wasn’t happy to see me.

“We were coming to see you,” he said flatly, without emotion.

“Let’s take this into the hallway. I don’t want to get the rest of the prisoners all riled up. You’ll behave, won’t you?” Jade grabbed my wrist. I felt what weak power I had moments ago subside immediately.

She let go. I knew I was powerless again and wondered how long it would be for this time. “I should have done that the second you walked into my door.” She moved out of my way, so I could enter into the large hall. “You undefined with all of your power excesses.”

“We wanted to make sure you were alive, Sam,” Daniel said. “That’s all.” He pointed at Madison standing with her back to us. “Madison wanted to see with her own eyes. Jade was going to let us peek in.” That explained why Jade looked so irritated. Madison wouldn’t look at me. Dan acted cold and utterly detached. I hadn’t seen them in so long. He said that’s all, like they wouldn’t have helped me escape when they found me there.

“Go on, tell her,” Jade said, her slit eyes like a cat’s. She looked amused. “Get it out of the way. We don’t have all day. I need to figure out how I’m going to keep her contained for longer periods of time.” Madison winced when Jade spoke of my imprisonment. She spun to look at me with a red face. She’d been crying. If I thought Xander’s betrayal was hurtful, I didn’t have a clue what was about to hit me.

“Jade sent us with you when you ran away three years ago,” Madison said. She felt responsible, so she blurted it out first. She was my best friend, after all. “Jade knew of your plan to run away. She ordered Dan and I along to make sure you didn’t get hurt or into too much trouble.” My face grew hot. I started having trouble catching my breath. My world starting spinning on an alternate axis, different from the one everyone else was on. Daniel anticipated my next question.

“Yes, we told Jade where we were going. That’s how the Patrol kept tabs on us and why they were at every location we traveled to. She was informed every step of the way,” he said.

“Rebekah?” I spat out, so upset I could barely speak.

“Yes, she was working with us as well. This was the plan all along. The wheels just started spinning faster when you wanted to find Malakai.” He looked down at his feet as if embarrassed by his actions. When he looked up, he looked proud, stoic, and cocky.

“Madison, how could you do this to me?” The tears were pouring down my face quicker than I could wipe.

“Because I care about you.” Madison’s high-pitched voice raised, making it even more difficult to see her as a traitor. It was my Mad. “Don’t you see? You would have been taken down immediately, maybe even killed, if we didn’t play by their rules. Our friendship doesn’t change, because she told us to go with you. I would have, anyway.”

Daniel was looking at his fingernails, completely uninterested. I knew he wouldn’t have gone if given the choice. Jade was sitting in a chair in the hallway, leaving us to our conversation.

“That’s why you left me in that motel room,” I choked out. “It was part of the plan.” Madison looked pained but made no movement to approach me. She stared at me with a face full of grief. Grief was what I felt for a life of lies for three years. No truths or real friends—just hired help and lies. I wanted invisibility right then. I wanted to be as far away from that place as I could get.

With Daniel watching my every move, I wouldn’t get very far. His Bruxa speed would catch me before I was fully invisible, even if I had my powers to use. I heard about how in really bad, traumatic situations you leave your body and that it’s like watching the scene unfold in front of you instead of being part of it. It was the brain’s coping mechanism of sorts. It separated the emotions from the situation. In that moment, that was exactly what happened to me.

I watched as Malakai blasted through the doorway from the prison cells with Xander in tow. Jade quickly made her way over to Xander with a barrage of questions. Daniel looked alert but didn’t make a move to help Malakai. Malakai looked at my crumpled form crying on the floor and then to Madison and Daniel.

“She knows, then,” he stated angrily. It wasn’t a question. He released Xander into Jade’s watch and approached. He bent down over me.

“Are you okay?” He shook my shoulder a little to get me to notice him, but it was useless. I was already too far in shock and despair.

“We had to tell her,” Madison blasted at Kai. “She saw us.” So, they weren’t planning on telling me. I wasn’t sure if that would have been better.

“You knew this might happen. It was hard enough to keep simple things a secret from her.” Malakai was speaking to Daniel. Xander was glaring with obvious jealousy at Kai, who kept his hand on my shoulder while he spoke to them. I raised my head and snapped back into my body. I knew what I had to do next. It was the only way to save my sanity and my life. The curse from the grimoire I would place on Jade; I just needed to remember it. Xander was in the room, so my magic would be strong enough, even inside the building and within Jade’s block. Nothing could quell the power of two undefined Bruxas. The curse was already set. I had to speak the words to bind it.

“Her lies have me bound and all those who surround, my truth is askew, show me hearts that are true, the rest of stone will remain until they atone.” I spoke the curse that would turn anyone loyal to Jade to brick-hard stone. If the curse proved true, they would take that form until their loyalties to Jade were broken. I understood that by enacting this curse, I would be standing in a hallway full of stone figures. “Trust no one,” Kellan had said. I repeated it again to will myself to stay strong. Jade’s face proved the most shocked of all the surprised faces I saw in the room. A beam of gray magic shot out of my talisman, aiming first at Jade’s heart.

The misty-gray beam wrapped around her body, freezing her into stone, leaving her mouth last to freeze in a shrieking, horrified grimace. I squeezed my eyes tight to block out the last, disturbing image I saw of her. The slithering magic worked its way to Daniel next. Madison’s scream rang out so loudly that I covered my ears.

“No, Sam! No! Stay, Daniel!” I vaguely remembered it was what I heard her screaming when I entered the portal; at least the beginning part was—a glimpse into a false future. I covered my mouth as I watched Madison clinging onto Daniel in eerie stone form, not moving. Watching Madison’s panicked attempts to cling onto him while she wailed like she lost part of herself made my remorse unbearable.

“I had to,” I whispered, not expecting her to hear me. She turned to face me with a look of pure hurt, not anger as I would have expected. When the curse seeped into her heart and froze her, clinging to Daniel, the sadness on her face remained immortalized. It was a face sure to haunt my dreams for the rest of time.

Xander walked over to stand next to Madison’s statuesque form, anticipating his turn next. I broke free of Malakai’s grip and ran to stand in front of Xander. His betrayal was the least hurtful of all. I trusted he had a heart willing to break free of Jade’s hold.

It surprised me that I wished he would be saved from the curse, that it would be him who was never truly loyal to the Elders. The gray magic swirled thickly around his body, forcing me to step back and watch in horror as his heart proved loyal to Jade. His form hardened into stone. The tears came heavy now as I realized I didn’t have anyone left.

I glanced back at Malakai briefly as the gray stream wrapped his body. My huge tears blurred my vision. I turned to run haphazardly for the door, because I couldn’t watch my dark, dismal curse take Kai―it would kill me.

As I reached the door, out of breath and panting, I realized it was light outside. The sun was shining down on me, begging me to control it. I didn’t feel like it should be a sunny day. It contradicted everything I was feeling. My tattoo, now unfettered, was blazing so brightly, it would be the most natural thing in the world to perform a natural cast. I focused on that instead of my weak, ruined heart and the tears raining down without promise of halting. They wouldn’t stop for days. I was sure of it. I knew when they stopped, I would be a different person. Sometimes, you had to be stripped of everything to truly understand who you were and where you stood.

I looked up to the sky, willing clouds to form without using a cast. I felt strong. I’d always heard that with loss came unending strength. Dark thunderheads formed above me. I walked to the middle of the deserted square and raised my arms up to the sky, willing the rain to come, and come it did. I took my jacket off and dropped it on the ground by my feet.

The raindrops mixed with my tears. I felt concealed and safe. The awful three years washed off me. The morbid scene I just bore witness to was drowning within me―not buried to relive again, but dead in a watery grave. I made the decision right then to start again, to try to be the very best I could be.

I watched as crystal-clear raindrops beat down on me. I turned my hand over and watched as they rolled down my arm and turned gold as they hit my tattoo. It morphed the water into something it wasn’t meant to be, just like the tattoo morphed me into something else entirely. The juxtaposition of watching the clear, pure water turning into golden liquid calmed me.

I urged the rain to come stronger and stronger until I was drenched completely. My black tank top and already too-tight jeans clung to me. I pulled my hair out of my eyes just in time to hear a door slam behind me. My mouth dropped open in shock when I turned around.

As I stood in my own personal, cleansing rainstorm, I watched Kai walk out the door and down the steps of the building. He was indeed a solid man, but not made of stone.