AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I think back to the day everything flipped on its head. “I thought I’d been making some headway with Gerardo, pointing out that Alejandro was healthier now than he had ever been. But with Gerardo’s death, I finally got to experience what true captivity meant. My last three months there were hell.”
“He treated you like that even though you saved his life?” Oz scowls.
“The man killed his father, who kidnapped Salem and kept her prisoner just to save him. Why do you find this surprising?” Zig huffs.
“I wasn’t in the dungeon because of that. I was down there because I couldn’t be trusted not to run. Gerardo Ortiz was a lot of things, most of which I didn’t agree with, but he wasn’t malicious. He cared about his people, and he believed that treating people with respect earned respect in return. Alejandro is not like his father. For someone who spent so long close to death, he holds nothing but contempt for human life. Everyone is expendable. Everyone but him and me.”
The weight of my words sits heavily between us as Zig slips a hand into mine.
“Did he…” Zig pauses as if unsure how to proceed, but I can guess where his mind went.
I shake my head. “The people there feared me. I mentioned that before. They referred to me as the bruja. And as much as that hurt, it bought me a certain amount of protection. They had these superstitions toward me, which I fed into, knowing it was all I had. But Alejandro’s patience was wearing thin. I told him I was a virgin, and there was a reason for that. If I had sex, I would lose my gift. I told him that was how my mother lost her gift and my grandmother before her. Since he was still worried about the cancer coming back and taking what he had stolen for himself, he was reluctant to test the truth.
“So no, Zig, he didn’t rape me. But he raped many others in my place, and he made me watch as he brutalized each and every one of them. If I tried to heal them, he would kill them before breaking my fingers. I might heal fast, but broken bones still hurt like a bitch.”
“Jesus fuck,” Oz snarls.
“The night you came and got me, something in his eyes—the ever-present madness—told me that whatever had held him back had been eaten away by temptation. There’s more than one way to fuck me after all.”
“I don’t understand. Why treat you like shit if he might potentially need you? Surely, you’d be a better ally than an enemy.”
“He has no allies, only minions and servants to do his bidding. He is God in his eyes. What he wanted from me was something I refused to give.”
I roll my eyes at Oz when I realize where his mind went.
“I wasn’t talking about sex. I told him that I would lose my powers if he had sex with me, so I wouldn’t get raped. No, he wanted a wife. He wanted to tie me to him so that he would have a very powerful weapon he could wield for a price.”
CHAPTERELEVEN
Oz
“His wife?” I snap.
She nods at me, looking drained.
“I don’t understand. If he already had you, what difference would being his wife make?”
“To him,wifemeans property. If I’m his wife, it makes me untouchable—in theory. You see, there is no honor among thieves when they covet what you have. Fear is the only thing that tends to keep people away. The only thing stronger than fear is hope, and that’s what I represent. That’s what I am. So being his wife gives him power. But more than that, it gives him justification for retaliation if anyone attempts to take me from him. He just didn’t understand
“Understand what?”
“What I can do is bigger than him, bigger than the cartel. In the wrong hands, I could make empires rise and fall,” she tells us, but I still don’t understand. She must realize this. “Think of the people we’ve lost—some great people and truly heinous ones. Imagine if the tables were turned and people that should have died didn’t die, like Alejandro himself. Hitler and Mussolini, bin Laden and Hussein. The world would change under their reign like it did under their fall. Then think smaller, closer to home. Think about serial killers. Not just the potential to heal the killer themselves but to be forced to continuously revive their victims so they can be brought to the brink of death over and over again.”
She looks so pale that I expect her to turn around and puke.
“Fucking hell. I admit I didn’t think beyond you being able to make people better.”
“Those are just some of the extremes, but even the most innocent scenarios can turn into a nightmare. Let’s say I visit a hospital and heal a sick kid. Another parent who witnesses this miracle wants their child healed too. Then another and another. Only I can’t heal that fast. The more drained I am, the longer the down periods. There have been times when I’ve lost days and where I’ve been on the brink of death myself because I’ve given so much that I’ve drained myself dry. People don’t understand that, though. Their fear and pain are all they can see and feel, so they press. And their begging and pleading turn to threats and violence, and still more people come for help. I am only one person, and though I can make a difference to a few, I cannot save the world.”
“Why the fuck didn’t the government pull you out sooner?” Zig roars, making her jump. I glare at him as she sways a little.
“The government? Are you insane? They’re the worst.”
I lift my head and look at Zig, a moment of understanding passing between us as the loose ends begin to thread together.
“What? Why are you looking at each other like that?”
“You don’t work for the government? You’re not an FBI agent or something like that?”
