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“What time does the sun come up?”
“Five years, give or take a week or two.”
“Five years?” I turned to look back at him, and he didn’t appear to be joking.
He walked over and leaned on the dresser. “Don’t mind Antionette if she was a bit abrasive. She can get territorial with new people, but she doesn’t mean any harm.”
Okay, so he knew she’d be a bitch and also expected me to take it on the chin. Got it. Didn’tlikeit, but message received.
It wasn’t a secret that I ranked low on the totem pole around here, but having to suck up abuse from his girlfriend was the icing on the cake. The sooner I learned the ropes, the quicker I got my footing, the faster I’d get out of this situation. And I would. I’d get out of here and back to my life if it was the last thing I did.
“I should be able to move around now without an issue?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
“If you mean going back Topside and living there, this doesn’t change anything. You’ll be a ghost to those people. Even if they see you every day, they won’t remember you.”
Then how did this ever end? In essence, I was stuck in this world as thoroughly as I had been before.
No, that wasn’t completely true. Kaden said there was no return. That didn’t mean there wasn’t a way he wouldn’t tell me about, or he didn’t know of.
“Yes, but before you go, we need to set up some ground rules.”
Ground rules? On top of taking crap from his girlfriend whenever she wanted to dish it out? Great. Just heap it on. I’d stash it away in my I-don’t-give-a-shit folder and do what I wanted anyway.
“Sure,” I said, smiling and leaning on the windowsill.
“Is there a problem, Wilhelmina?” he asked, crossing his arms and tilting his head slightly.
It was as if he somehow knew I hated my given name. He probably did. There was probably a folder on me around here, with a list of all my dislikes that he was planning on using against me. Maybe that was how he knew I liked Harry Potter.
“Not at all. I have some ground rules I’d like to discuss as well.” I kept my smile in place, even as I feared my face would crack from the strain.
He waved a hand. “Go first, please.”
I thought back to the very first time he’d tinkered me, making me sit. Last night was the second, and although sleeping through some of the pain hadn’t been a bad thing, a line needed to be drawn now. No one was controlling me like that, ever. I didn’t willingly relinquish control, not to anyone. You didn’t grow up the way I had without knowing what harm could come from doing that.
“Don’t tinker me again,” I said.
“I was trying to save you a few more minutes of pain if I could. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“I understand why you did it, thesecondtime. Don’t do it again.”
“Next time, I’ll run it past you before I do anything,” he said.
It was a win on paper only, but he’d left himself an opening. He hadn’t said he wouldn’t, only that he’d tell me first.
I nodded, as if I believed I’d gotten a true win. It was easier than fighting for a win I wasn’t going to get. Not yet, anyway.
“Now for my rules. You aren’t to come here alone.” His voice hadn’t changed, but his eyes had grown hard, chilling almost.
“Why is that? No one else seems to have that restriction on them. Am I special for some reason?” What was here that I wasn’t allowed to have access to? Whatever it was, I hoped he’d spell it out so I knew right where to go.
“You’re not ready for the things that dwell here.Theyare.” His tone was hard.
“I thought I was waiting to transition, and now that I have, I could move here, have a little more freedom. Was that all a lie?” Or was that why they’d kept me from the door?
“Eventually you will. But you’re not ready.” His gaze wandered over me. “You wouldn’t last two minutes here right now, or at least I don’t believe so, and until I’m sure of where you stand, we’re going to leave it as is.”
Burning adrenaline fueled by one insult too many drove me to straighten. There was a limit to the amount of crap I’d take in a day. “What do you think I am? Some sort of spy?”
