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I’m not sure what he means about anything, but before I can ask him, darkness funnels around me and drags me under.
Chapter Three
I hate that this is happening. I hate that everything feels out of control. I hate that everyone has lied to me.
I hate…
I hate…
I hate…
I hurt…
I hurt…
I hurt…
“Eva,” Ryleigh’s voice graces my ears. “Can you hear me?”
Usually when she speaks to me, I feel calm. But right now, all I feel is anger. So, instead of opening my eyes, I lie motionless.
“Eva, please,” she begs. “I know you’re mad at me, but this is important.”
I don’t want to listen to her, but the plea in her voice makes me feel bad.
Dammit! I hate having a conscience!
Sighing, I blink my eyes open to wispy clouds lazily floating across a glittering purple sky. I’ve been here before, when Hunter put a sleeping curse on me. And like before, the place makes me instantly feel calm and at peace. Then, again like before, the clouds shift and begin to run like wet paint.
I jump up and shield my head with my arms as drops of clouds splatter across my skin.
“Again? What the hell?”
“It’s just how this place works,” Ryleigh says apologetically.
I turn in a circle, trying to spot her across the field lined with trees. “Okay, but what is this place? It sounds like you know, and honestly, every time I come here, I get a weird sense of déjà vu.”
“That’s because you’ve been here before.” Ryleigh’s shadow appears in front of me. “When you were younger, I used to bring you here.”
I inch through the grass toward her. “Why?”
“To calm you down,” she whispers, sounding remorseful. “When you were first taken from the demon lair, you had nightmares every night. So, I finally slipped into your dreams and brought you here. After about a month of this place, you stopped having nightmares … It’s something I can do—travel into peoples’ dreams.”
Yet another thing I didn’t know about her.
Slowly, the shadow starts to shift into her. Well, the dead version of her, with long, blonde lily white hair; big, blue, bloodshot eyes; and pale skin. The sight of her brings me zero comfort, only anger.
“You lied to be,” I bite out, stopping in my tracks. “All my life, you and our parents—your parents—lied to me. Even Hunter and Opal, my only real friends. I guess nothing was real, was it?”
“That’s not true,” she insists. “How we feel about you, that is real. We all care about you, Eva. And you and I might not be blood-related, but you’re still my sister … Always will be.”
I shake my head, fighting back tears. “If that were true—if you really cared about me—you would’ve told me the truth a long time ago.” I swallow hard. “Honestly, I don’t even think I believe you. After lying to me for all those years, who’s to say you’re not lying to me now?”
Tears flood her eyes. “Eva, I’m so sorry we did this to you,” she whispers. “I really am. There were so many times I wanted to tell you … But the society wouldn’t let me—wouldn’t let any of us.” She stares down at her hands. “I wasn’t the only one who wanted to tell you the truth. Hunter did, too.” She looks up at me. “He really cares about you.”
I grit my teeth. “Did he tell you to say that?” I ask, and she nods. “How? Can he, like, communicate with the dead, too, or something?”
She shakes her head. “No. But he knew if he talked to me, I’d hear him. Just like he knew that I’d eventually come here and pass along the message.”
“Sounds like you know each other well.” I mentally curse the jealousy that creeps into my tone.
“It’s not like that, Eva. Hunter and I are just friends.”
“Yeah, I thought we were, too.” Pressure builds in my chest as I realize that maybe we never were anything. That perhaps I was just Hunter’s job, and that all those years of being in love with him was wasted time.
“You two are more than friends, and I think you know that.” Her voice is soft and cautious.
I shake my head, staring down at the ground. “I don’t know anything anymore.” I really don’t.
Everything I thought I knew was a lie. All lies. Every single day.
Sucking in an uneven breath, I raise my head and meet her gaze. “Why are you here?”
“To see you. To make sure you’re okay.” She gives an elongated pause. “And to see if you can help us figure out where you are.”
“I’m fine,” I tell her. “As for where I am, I can’t help you.”
She frowns. “You don’t have any idea?”
I shake my head. “All I know is that Max took me to some demon lair, but I don’t know where it is.”
“Max?” she questions with a raise of her brows. “Is that the demon who kidnapped you?”
I nod. “Or, well, it’s what he told me to call him. I’m not sure if it’s his real name or not.” I hug my arms around myself as the wind picks up. “He’s also the one who rescued you from the tunnels.”
She tenses. “The one you made the deal with to free me?”
I nod again. “But taking me wasn’t part of the deal.”
“Then why did he take you?”
“I have no idea. He did say he was going to bring me back.”
That doesn’t seem to relax her the slightest bit. “Eva, you can’t trust demons.”
“Well, I don’t really have a choice, do I?” I pause, trying to bite back the cruel words wanting to fall from my tongue. They slip out, anyway. “Besides, Max has been more honest with me than any of you have.” When she winces, I sigh. “Sorry, but it’s the truth.”
Her mouth curves into a broken-hearted frown. “I know. And I’m so sorry for that.” She exhales loudly. “I’m going to make it up to you. From now on, I’ll tell you the truth, no matter what. But first, we need to save you, and in order to do that, I need you to try to help us figure out where you are.”
“I already told you I have no idea. I just know I’m in a demon lair.”
“How did you get to the demon lair?”
“On a path.”
“Eva, please,” she pleads, her body starting to fade. “I need you to think harder. Did you see anything that perhaps stood out? Like a sign, or a marker, or a mountain?”
“I was blacked out for most of the journey,” I admit, picking at the hole in the hem of my shorts. “When I woke up, I was in a bed, in a cave, and there were a bunch of burns in my clothing.”
“Burns in your clothes?” She pauses, deliberating. Then her eyes light up. “Oh, my God, you’re probably at Fire Mountain.”
“Fire Mountain? What the hell is that? And why have I never heard of it?”
“Because it’s demon territory, and people in Mystic Willow Bay rarely talk about demons.”
“Unless they’re in that society, right?” My tone carries bitterness. When she winces, I feel sort of bad. “Sorry.”
She shakes her head, her hair blowing into her eyes. “You have every right to be angry with us. I just hope, after some time, you can forgive us.”
I remain quiet, unsure of what to say, mostly because part of me is still skeptical she’s telling the truth now. Perhaps she’s pretending to care about me so I’ll help her figure out where I am.
What I really want to know is why they want to rescue me so badly? Is it because they care about me? Or is there more to it? And why did they go through all the trouble to protect me from the demons for all these years? Was it even about protecting me?
So many unanswered questions.
“I know you have questions,” Ryleigh says, as if reading my mind. “I promise we’ll talk more when I see you.”
Her words remind me that I still need to save her once I get back to Mystic Willow Bay, which I plan on doing. Mad at her or not, I’m not going to let her stay dead.
“But, E
va, I need you to do something for me, okay?” she asks in desperation.
“Okay,” I answer with wariness. “What?”
“I need you not to use your magic at all. Even if the demon tries to force you to, pretend you don’t know how.”
“That’s not going to be a problem,” I assure her. “I don’t have my wand.”
“Not your witch’s power,” she says in a rush as her body flickers in and out of focus. “Your demon power.”
“Demon power? I don’t have demon power.” My brows dip together. “Do I?”
“We don’t know for sure what you can do,” she explains. “But now that you’re around a demon, he could get your demon powers to manifest. And since we’re not positive what you are … Well, we don’t want the demons finding out first.”
“You think I can do something bad?” I massage my aching chest.
Oh, my God. What am I?
“We don’t really know,” she says quietly. “All we know is that the demons have been trying to get ahold of you for years, ever since the society took you from that lair. And now that one of them has you …” She gulps. “You need to be careful, okay?”
“Okay, I can do that.” At least, I think I can.
The truth is, I’ve never had much control over my powers. And honestly, whether it makes me evil or not, part of me is curious to find out what I can do.
No, I can’t do it. Whether I want to find out or not is beside the point. The point is, demons are evil and any power of theirs that I harbor has to be evil as well.
Wait, does that make me evil?
“I have to go,” Ryleigh whispers as her body fades back into a shadow. “I’ll try to visit you again when you’re asleep, but my powers are weak now that I’m dead, and I don’t know if I can get back—”
The wind picks up and gusts her body away like pieces of dirt and sand, leaving me standing alone in the field.
Part of me wishes I could stay here forever. That I will never have to return to Max; will never have to return to Ryleigh, Hunter, and my family; will never have to deal with the truth.
