11

Escape

MENA

I feel it all around me, the fear, the resentment, the rage. It fills the room, clawing me, choking me, making it hard to breathe, making it hard to think.

Everyone is so angry.

They are angry at me for jumping out of the window. Upset with Asher for following me. Livid that Olivia was poisoned right under their noses and no one noticed. The room is empty except for my sister and Cam. Olivia is being tended to, and I can’t imagine what this room would feel like if even one more person were here. Aurelia is screaming at me, Cam and Asher are at each other’s throats like they are three seconds from having a death match in the middle of the King’s bedroom, and I'm finding it difficult to be in a room with so much hostility. I wish I’d never set another toe into this room. I wish I hadn’t phased back. I wish I hadn’t broken that last kiss.

I should have just kept kissing him.

I haven’t let go of Asher’s hand since he appeared next to me at the broken window, the wind whipping around us in the maelstrom of voices screaming at the tops of their lungs – their words lost as they tumble over each other. I’d already felt lambasted by Aurelia’s tongue by the time he got there, and it only got worse when he showed up. My Aegis keeps spiking, and the louder Cam yells at Asher, the more agitated I become. I can’t explain why, but someone threatening Asher makes me territorial and so angry, a thick, red film covers my eyes. I feel my body heating up, and without letting him go, I somehow find myself in front of Asher, my teeth bared, and I can hear an ugly hissing sound – the first real sound to break through the thick buzzing in my ears. It takes me a second to realize the hissing is coming from me.

Cam’s expression goes from murderous to wary in a second, and Aurelia’s eyebrows shoot up her forehead so hard I think her face will break. In unison, they both take a generous step back.

“Stop. Yelling,” I snarl, and they both nod. I turn to Aurelia and growl, “What, exactly, would you have had me do? You said it was poisonous. I took care of it. Stop bitching at me. And you,” I say as I look at Cam, “Stop acting like an asshole. For all anyone else knew, my wings could have been clipped or cut off entirely by Iva. I could have gone splat protecting you all, so excuse me if someone gave a shit about my fucking life. I didn’t see anyone else at the bottom of that damn gorge, so if you have a problem with Ash making sure I lived, you can kiss my ass. Now, we all know my abilities are volatile at freaking best. I’m holding on by a thread here, so I would appreciate a moderate tone of voice from here on out. Is that understood?”

Aurelia nods, appearing appropriately chastised, and Cam looks like I slapped him across the face.

“I’m sorry, Mena,” he says, contrite and the change in his tone is remarkable. “You did us a kindness, and I… I am proud my cousin was brave enough to make sure you were safe.”

I nod in acceptance, deciding I’ve said enough, but it isn’t until Asher whispers in my ear do I realize my fingers are sparking like downed power lines.

“Princess,” he says as his hands find their way to my waist, “Everyone is calm, you can drop your shield.”

His warm hands on my body when no one should be able to touch me turns a key in my chest. I have to fight the urge to run my fingertips over my lips. I want to run away with him, I want to get out of this room and this house and just go.

Even if that is the worst plan I’ve ever had.

I want to get away from all these people and hostility and death. Because I feel death coming, I feel it in my bones that something awful is just around the corner and I want to grab Asher’s hand and run.

“Right,” I mumble and try to focus on calming down. Before it drops, though, Aurelia catches my sparking fingers. She’s just as immune to my Aegis as Asher is, and it feels strange to have such gentleness after so long without it. I don’t know what to do with it.

“I’m sorry I yelled. I was worried and felt useless because I couldn’t get to you. You did the right thing, even if I yelled at you for doing it.”

“It’s okay,” I say with a small wan smile and pull my fingers from her hands. “How is Olivia?” I ask, changing the subject from apologies and my shortcomings to something we should actually be worried about.

“She’s awake,” Aurelia murmurs, but I can see on her face that isn’t the good news we were hoping for. Their anger and fear make more sense now, and I can’t help but feel an unexplained clawing sadness for this woman I don’t know.

“Do you know who poisoned her?”

Aurelia’s face screws up as she closes her eyes, reviewing whatever hell she saw. “I see blackness as an entity in my mind, but it keeps changing shape. They flicker and morph into someone else every few seconds; their faces are covered in black smoke. I think it could be several people, but I feel Iva’s footprint here in the magic. It might be a group, but Iva was at the helm, and that scares the shit out of me.”

That scares the shit out of me too, and I can’t stay in that room. I can’t be in that house. I can’t be anywhere near here. I bolt from the room, through the tree of life door and hit a warm wall of a chest. When Asher’s strong arms wrap around me, it is a war in my body over whether to run from or relax into his embrace. My brain says run, but my heart is driving this train and my shoulders go slack.

“She’s dead, Princess. She’s not coming for you. You’re safe,” he murmurs soothingly into my ear, but he doesn’t know. He couldn’t have any idea what she’s like. He’s only heard the stories, but he hasn’t seen.

“She’ll come back. She always comes back. You think she’s done, but no. She’ll poke and prod and needle. She’ll tie you in knots only to unravel you and start all over again. She is the master of torture. And the worst agony in the world is making someone think they’re free only to steal the rug right out from underneath them. You don’t know. You don’t. You think you do…” I end on a shriek when I know I started with a whisper. His hands are gently holding my wrists, forcing them away from my face, and it’s only now that I realize he’s been trying to keep me from gouging my skin with my nails. My chest tightens and I can’t breathe.

I can’t breathe.

“Shh, Princess. Breathe, baby,” he murmurs trying to calm me, but all it does is make me want to get as far away as fast as I can. She’ll come. She’ll take everything away from me again and then I’ll kill him just like I killed my parents. I can’t be with him. I can’t be with anyone. I can’t stay.

“Let me go. Let me GO!” I scream, yanking out of his arms, my body vibrating with fear.

“Mena-girl, I need you to calm down,” Aurelia says at my left, and I have no idea when she got there. She sidles in next to Asher and somehow the room is filling up with people, and I can’t breathe. I’m surrounded, and that flips a switch in me turning me from terrified to livid.

“I’m leaving this room and this house, and you’re not stopping me. Get out of my way or I’m going through you. All of you,” I growl, shaking.

The circle around me loosens, and I make my escape down a rustic spiral staircase, my feet going so fast I have to grip the railing so I don’t bust my ass on the wood. Asher smokes in at the bottom of the staircase, and the growl that erupts from my chest makes him step back.

“I’m not stopping you. I just want to take you back to the lake house,” he almost pleads, holding his hands up to stop me. His eyes very nearly beg me, and in their sadness, I can’t seem to tell him no.

“Okay,” I whisper as I take the last few steps into his arms. He doesn’t wait for me to change my mind and cups my face, dropping his mouth to mine, rubbing his soft lips against my mouth startling a gasp from me. The traveling doesn’t hurt this time, and I am uncertain if it is because I’m used to it or if his tongue dancing with mine kills the pain of every ailment I’ve ever had. It isn’t until our mouths part that I realize we’re back where we started at the door to the room I woke up in.

“I know you’re thinking about leaving. I feel it. Don’t… just don’t, okay?” he implores as his arms band around my back, pulling me into the best hug I’ve ever had. I can’t help but rest my forehead on his shoulder and breathe him in. He smells like fabric softener and soft leather and the subtle, clean scent of man. The natural scent of his skin makes me want to run my teeth over his pulse point and nibble the skin there. It makes me want to bury my nose in his neck and breathe him in. It makes me forget, and forgetting is a luxury I’ve never had.

“Leave this house and this fight if you have to, but… please don’t leave without me. I’ll go with you. I’ll make sure you’re safe,” he murmurs against my temple, his fingers burrow under my hair, and that sobers me.

He can’t go with me.

He shouldn’t be anywhere near me. How long can I possibly go without hurting him? Without killing him? Sure, he seems immune now, but what happens when I lose it again? I know I’m just a time bomb ticking down to my eventual end. The best I can hope for is to reduce the collateral damage.

No, he can’t come, but I nod anyway. Lying with my body so I don’t have to with my mouth, praying that when I leave this world, he forgives me for my dishonesty.

When I return to the safety of my room, I pull off my clothes for another shower. The fear and bitter stain at the thought of Iva making me itch. I need to wash her away. I step under the still warming spray, and my mind drifts away to my time in that cell.


Mena,” I hear my voice whispered in the blackness. I have been here so long, hearing my name when no one is there isn’t new. I hear lots of things in the dark.

None of the things I hear are good.

But this voice is louder than my thoughts and the whispers of the dead that scream in my ears for vengeance. Louder than the echoes of Iva’s taunts and my mother’s screams of agony.

“Mena. I need you to listen to me. I need you to understand,” the voice says. “I have done horrible things. I have neglected you, and for that I am sorry. But I will do anything to save this Legion. I will manipulate, and sacrifice, and I will kill to save them. I will sacrifice a few to save many. I will do horrible things for the greater good. And you can hate me for that. I hate me for that. And after all I’ve done, I will probably go straight to hell once this life is finished. And I will accept it because in this life I was given, I did not choose my path, but I accept my destiny. So, you can dislike me, even hate me, all you want. I accept that. But I will save them. I will make sure that they are on the right path. I will bring them back from the darkness. But I need your help. I need you to stay here. I need you to endure this hell, and I will help you when I can. Your sister is coming. Not for a while, but she is. I need you to stay here until she gets you out. And when you get out, I need you to leave her and hide. People will come for you. They will try and steal you and make you a slave to feed their thirst for power. I need you to hide until Evangeline Marie Black has been made the Wraith Queen. When she’s made Queen, go to her and help her. She will make sure Iva dies and stays dead. Do whatever you can to help her. And once Iva is gone, make sure you live. Live for all the time we stole from you and all the pain we caused. Stay strong, cousin.”

I don’t realize it at first, but that voice isn’t mine, and it isn’t the tortured screams of my parents. This voice is real. Someone is in this barren room with me, and it is from the one person who I thought of as neutral, if a little evil.

I guess my cousin, Nicola, isn’t as bad as I thought.


I need to leave. I have to leave them all. I have to. I shouldn’t have stayed this long. As these thoughts roll unbidden through my head, I allow myself just these few minutes to grieve.