“Move that dreadful thing.” I indicated the candelabra. “Other than that, it’s perfect.”
“Yes, sire.” He jumped into action, climbing onto a chair and crawling across the table to slide it to the edge into the awaiting arms of another goblin.
I clasped my hands behind my back and left them to finish, but my thoughts remained lost, jumping from one concern to another as I ambled the quiet hall. Everyone was busy with something, whether cooking, cleaning, or helping with Calista’s special gift we would present her with when I deemed her ready for the ceremony.
Jessandra’s clomping down the stairs destroyed my peace. As she approached, she said, “She refused to bathe, so I held her under until she changed her mind.”
“You did what?!”
“She ranked of spoiled meat and despair,” she tossed over her shoulder as she passed. “Not a great combination.”
“Calista will not be swayed with that treatment.”
Her voice bounced off the walls back to me. “Your request was to guard her, not persuade or coddle her.”
A shadow began to spin at the foot of the stairs as I thought of Calista’s room and emerged in front of her door. I would deal with Jessandra’s deliberate disobedience later.
Calista
I gripped the blanket tighter around me to quell the violent shakes wracking my body. Jessandra was not who I remembered her to be. There was an anger raging inside her that she unleashed on me. Or maybe she was always this way, and I was just a naïve child that couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Regardless, I didn’t want to see that side of her again, and I was certain those creepy little monsters didn’t either. They scared me, and, in turn, I scared them. Then she terrified and traumatized all of us. It was a horrifying scene all around. How was I supposed to make allies if they ran away when I looked at them now?
“Go away,” I said when a quiet knock came upon the door.
Astaroth entered anyway and stood in the doorway like he was waiting to be announced or for me to jump up and be excited about his intrusive visit.
My teeth chattered from the lingering adrenaline. “Do you plan to waterboard me into submission, too?”
“Jessandra’s tactics were purely her own. She will be disciplined accordingly.”
Great, another reason for her to hate me and punish me for later. “Please don’t. I’m going through enough as it is.”
Astaroth’s fingers curled slightly before he relaxed and looked around the room. He went to the window and pulled back the curtain. Next to him, it seemed normal sized. Everything was built to accommodate him. It made me feel so small.
“Do you like it?”
Confused, I asked, “The view?”
He dropped the curtain and turned around. “Your room.”
“Why would I like this?”
“It’s your home.”
My heart wrenched. My home was gone. I feared I’d never see it again. Grief overwhelmed me. I tried to push it down and remind myself I could find a way out if I could play the part, but he made it impossible. Everything he said and did set me off.
The smile melted off his face as I flung an arm out encompassing the room. “This isn’t real! You took me from it—” I snatched the picture of me and Kaiden off the table and held it up. “From the people who make it home!” Astaroth stood still when I charged him. “You want me to suffer, don’t you? Why? Because I beat your little puzzle once?”
His jaw ticked, but he didn’t answer me.
Frustrated, I screamed and threw the frame at the wall by his head. The glass broke, shattering the illusion along with it, but Astaroth didn’t so much as flinch. His reality came into focus around us. The stone walls stood behind him with tall arched windows interspersed across. That eerie twilight seeped back in.
“I thought,” his voice came out a touch softer than his hard exterior.
Defeated, I sat on the edge of the bed and dropped my head into my hands. “You twisted your words, yet again, and then planned to trap me in a prison of false hope.”
“Not a prison.” The bed dipped beside me. “A gift.” He lowered his chin and took a deep breath. “My assumptions were wrong.”
“You know what they say about assuming….” I bit the inside of my cheek. “Well, I guess you don’t know.”
