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I remembered Meredith telling me that Ash Nevra was after my power. She had told me that if I surrendered it, it would likely kill me. Of the two options Kieran had given me, there wasn’t much of a choice.
I thought of Clair battling her own father in the park to protect me from him. I didn’t know what had happened to her, Conrad or Meredith. All I knew, was that if they had given their lives for me, it had to mean something. I would not bend.
I didn’t have it in me to give a sarcastic smile, as Rycon would have, or pull a nonchalant Conrad shrug. I had never been one to play games. I spat in his face and flipped him off simultaneously. It said something about his arrogance that he did not expect me to deny his offer enough to block such a pedestrian assault.
“Go to hell,” I hissed. My aura tried to respond to my rage, but the stifling force of the triquetra was now backed by the dampening wards they must have placed on the walls of my cell.
Kieran wiped the spit from his face with a look of disgust.
“Primitive, and vial. Just like your mother.” I wasn’t sure if he was talking about Clair or my birth mother, maybe both. “So be it. No need to tell me to go to hell Raven. You’ll soon find, that this is hell.” He said softly, before disappearing. I screamed and spun, banging my fists against the steel door that kept me from the starlight. The sting of steel reverberated against my bones, and that pain was the only thing that kept me sane.
48
I had no idea how much time had passed before Kieran came back. It could have been hours or days. All I knew was I had given up attacking the steel door, and my wrists were covered in greenish-black bruises from the pounding. I switched tactics and focused on the triquetra .
I was determined to get the thing off my neck. It was preventing Amon from finding me and it was dampening my power. It wasn’t that I trusted Amon any more than I trusted Kieran. I was just hoping that whatever plans he had for me required me to be alive. If I could get the charm off, I was sure I could get out of this awful place.
It didn't matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t hold onto it long enough to pry it from my neck. Every time I tried to touch it, it burned white hot and buried its magical fingers deeper into my aura. By the time Kieran returned, I had curled up into one of the corners and had cried myself to sleep more than once.
As Kieran materialized in his usual swarm, it became apparent that he was not here to bring me food, which I had been hoping for. He did, however, bring me water. He passed me the bottle as Maria entered my cell. I ripped the top off of the bottle and chugged back the life-sustaining fluid faster than I should have.
I ignored Maria’s sneer at my desperation. How long had I been down here? It must have been at least a day for me to be this thirsty. However, it was hard to tell as I had never been deprived of water before. How long could a human go without water? Three days? A week? I couldn’t remember. All I knew was it felt like bliss on my tongue, though it did nothing to diminish the chill that had seeped into my bones.
“Hello again, Raven,” Kieran said, looking down his nose at where I crouched in the corner, trying to conserve my own body heat. I said nothing.
“Maria here is going to begin a series of...sessions that you will be undertaking, as a means of your conversion.”
What did that mean? Still, I said nothing. ‘It will only give him ammunition.’ Clair had said that to me when he had first attacked us in the park.
“Alright,” Kieran said, leaning back on his heels with his hands in his pockets. “I’ll leave you to it then,” he disappeared. Maria stood silently against the wall and...did nothing.
I frowned but stayed where I was. If her strategy was to get me to investigate, she would be waiting a long time. I had seen every horror movie in the book. No way was I going to go poking at the bad guy.
So we sat in silence, well, Maria stood. I crouched in the corner clutching my empty water bottle, fighting the urge to stick my tongue inside it to get every last drop. My stomach felt like it was eating itself, and I found myself endlessly scanning the barren room for something edible, knowing each time that there was nothing.
Finally, something happened. The steel door swung open, and I leap to my feet. I was slow even by my standards. If my plan had been to rush the door, I never would have made it. Be that as it was, the reaction had been involuntary, and I quickly sank to my knees as soon as I realized who it was that had walked in. It was Jeremy.
“Dad?” I asked, my voice catching in my throat. “Dad? Is that you?” He looked just like he always did. His soft weathered trench coat was folded up at the sleeves on his forearms. He had crinkles in the corners of his eyes that deepened when he smiled, and his hair was that charcoal grey that only came from men who had been born with dark hair.
I crawled toward him, delirious with hunger and hypothermia.
“Dad, you need to get out of here, she’ll kill you.” I choked, referring to Maria, but something was wrong. He didn’t acknowledge Maria in her corner, and the way he looked at me was strange.
“Raven,” he said, though there was no warmth to it. “Do you know how many nights I have laid awake, wishing we had never adopted you?” The comment was a blow I hadn’t been expecting. I physically buckled, sinking further into the floor.
“What?” I gasped. Tears welled to my eyes for the first time since I had been captured.
“Do you have any idea how much of a burden you have been? The constant fighting. Pulling your mother and I away from work. Your mother was up from a promotion before she had to start leaving mid-shift to come and get
you. ” He was glaring at me and I was nearly sobbing. I had always known these things, but they had never blamed me for them. They had never made me feel worthless. I had always done a good enough job of that myself.
Jeremy had been my soldier, my beacon, my anchor. To hear him, of all people, confirm the worst of what I had always thought of myself... it was excruciating.
“Dad?”
“You’re always getting into fights. None of those other kids have to go to therapy. Did you ever wonder if the problem might be you?” Jeremy sneered at me, his face twisting into something I didn’t recognize.
“Dad. Please . I didn’t mean it, I’m so sorry... I-I-love you so much.” I was choking on my own words. I couldn’t believe he was saying these things to me. I was a broken little girl, and no one wanted me.
