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A wave of nausea strikes me. I knew my mother was a fucking crazy bitch, but I never knew she was tied to the rings.
“Did my mother kill Kimber’s parents?” It takes all my strength not to let my voice break.
She stops struggling as the tears continue to fall.
“I don’t know. I don’t know who took her either. I just know we needed her and Amari told us how to find her. I always got the sense that she didn’t want Damon and Dragona to roam here, but she always helped us, so I never questioned her. Now let me out.”
If my mother had anything to do with Kimber’s parents’ deaths… I don’t even want to think about it. I just got her, and I really don’t want to fucking lose her. Why is it so hard to hold on to the ones you want, yet it’s impossible to get rid of the ones you want to lose?
“Did you see Kimber behind those bars? Did you see her dirty, alone, and scared?” I ask her. “Did you see a child that cried for her lost family?”
Sadie hangs her head and has the grace to look guilty. “Yes,” she whispers.
“Did you offer her any comfort?” I ask, offering her the chance to escape this.
After a long pause, she finally exhales heavily. “No.”
I walk to one side of the cell. “We’re fifteen feet underground, and this cell is soundproofed. I built it a long, long time ago.”
Her brow furrows in confusion.
“We can’t vaporize underground.”
Smirking, I meet her gaze. “You can’t. But I can. It’s another reminder of who you fucked with. My mother knew all the secrets to restrain me when she knocked me out and locked me up. But you confused it for me being average.”
She casts her eyes downward once more, looking defeated—as she should.
“I once spent half a century in a cell similar to this one. The same woman who once turned away from me in a cell, just saved me. Maybe you’ll get lucky.”
She snorts derisively. “So you’re leaving me here?”
“Immortals can’t starve. But we can feel the ache of starvation. It takes a few weeks to start. By the twentieth year, you almost wish you could die. By year forty, you can’t even lift your head. But you still keep breathing. It’s very painful. Here’s a tip, don’t try killing yourself. Those chains you’re wearing will revive you. And the hunger pains double. Save your strength. You’re going to need it.”
With that, I dematerialize out of the room, moving like air through the planes to travel just barely outside the perimeter, and I rematerialize in front of Zee who is waiting by my car.
“All good?” he asks, his lips twisted in wry amusement.
“She won’t be going anywhere, and she won’t be dying. I’ve seen to it. Is Liza gone?”
He nods, motioning over his shoulder. “Dice convinced her to leave finally. She wanted to see Sadie before she left, but he assured her that he’d take care of her.”
That has me frowning. “Dice’s mother is going to be pissed at him, because I’m not returning her until she has felt real punishment. I never agreed with Alyssa letting her go.”
His eyes search the land around us, using his night stalker senses to catch anyone close enough to us. “I didn’t either, but Alyssa has a forgiving heart—too big of one. She trusts her creature goddess. There’s a difference between innocence and goodness. Just because she saw goodness lurking within the depths of that bitch’s black heart, that doesn’t mean she didn’t deserve to pay for what she did to us.”
To Kimber. Kimber is the one to have suffered and lost the most, and my mother may have played a bigger part in that than I realized. How do you tell your girlfriend that our world is so fucked up that your mother might have been the one to kill her parents and imprison her? They don’t make reality shows like that.
Instead of mentioning this crazy bullshit to him, I run a hand through my hair and start walking toward the house. Karma’s doll walks by us, and Zee shivers.
“Shaylan still here?” I ask, worried about the full-blooded demon in our midst.
“Nah. He’s with Drackus. They went into town to gather supplies. It’ll take a couple of weeks to ready the armies and fully strategize. And we need to discuss this alleged seal-breaking process. Do we want to just unleash hundreds of immortals that have been caged for years, possibly centuries?”
That’s something I’ve struggled with myself. “Regardless of how they are now, they shouldn’t have ever been caged. They deserve the chance to earn their right behind bars.”
Zee purses his lips, but he’s never seen the other side of things. It’s easy to look at things one-dimensionally when you have no true point of reference.
“Kane’s not sure, either,” he says at last. “Alyssa, of course, wants to free them all. What happens if we have a split decision?”
