“Not yet,” he said. “But I’m working on perfecting the technique. Until then, I need something else from you. Don’t look at me like that,” he said, swatting the air and rolling his eyes. “Do you honestly think I’d go to all the trouble of retrieving you if I was going to hurt you?”
“Where are the others?” I asked. “Haley, Reva—”
“Why do you care about those witches? We have everything we need now that you’re here.”
“Are they even… alive?” I whispered.
“That’s what you’re worried about?” He rolled his eyes. “Yes, they’re alive, Rayanne. Probably not at their personal best at the moment, given that they’re sleeping on wet rock and haven’t seen the sun in quite awhile, but they’re being fed and watered and you really have nothing to worry about there.”
“Can I see them?”
He pursed his lips. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not right now.”
I blew out a breath. It wasn’t much, but something told me he was telling the truth—that they were alive, and they were here. Which meant I might be able to find them and get us all out of here. I just had to keep playing along until I figured out what the hell to do.
I swayed in place, the edges of my vision dimming. I was hungry, and probably dehydrated, and doing my best to hold on to any shred of hope I could find.
“What do you want, Jonathan?” I finally asked.
He shrugged, as if he were simply asking for another glass of water or a dollar for the candy machine. “I think you already know the answer to that.”
Inside me, my magic stirred, humming faintly in my blood as if it had just awoken from a long nap.
He won’t touch us,the voice said.
I wanted to believe it. But how could I? How could I believe he wouldn’t touch me after everything he’d already taken from me?
“I already gave you absolutely everything I had,” I said, my voice breaking. “And you just… you led your father and his men to my house. You let them kill my mother. You tried to kill me.” At this, I finally met his gaze. “How could you?”
I swear I saw regret flicker through his crazy green eyes, but the instant I blinked, it was gone.
“The problem with giving someoneabsolutelyeverything, Sunshine, is that eventually you run dry. And then what have you got to offer?”
His jaw ticked as he stared at me, but I didn’t think it was from clenching his teeth. In fact, the longer he talked, and the closer I scrutinized him, the more I realized there was something seriously off about him. It wasn’t just his jaw; all the muscles in his face twitched, as if his skin didn’t fit right anymore. His left eyelid drooped, and when he laughed, one side of his mouth sagged.
None of it was obvious or severe, but I’d spent a lot of hours gazing into those eyes, studying the lines of his face. Kissing him. Yes, we were both older now, but still. Whatever was going on with him had nothing to do with age.
“Aww, don’t look at me like that,” he said, mistaking my morbid curiosity for something else. “It turns out, you didn’t actually give meeverything. You were holding out on me, Rayanne.”
Holding out on him? What was he talking about now?
He gestured for me to stand up, and I did, hoping if I didn’t give him too much trouble right off the bat, I could buy myself a little time to figure out a plan. To see if I could wake up that sleepy magic inside.
He grabbed my hand, yanking me out into the corridor and into an adjacent alcove, this one much smaller than the room I’d been in, with a metal gate over the front. I peered between the bars, but the room beyond was pitch black.
“What is this?” I asked.
“You tell me.”
God, what was with the games?
“Give me a hint,” I said.
“Okay, but only one.” Grinning, he banged his fist on the metal gate. “Come out, come out, little mouse.”
Seconds later, a figure emerged from the darkness, her movements slow and stiff, her eyes milky white.
My stomach lurched, the room tilting beneath me.
