Wicked Circle

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

I’d drifted in and out of sleep so many times and was so hungry and thirsty that I couldn’t be sure if only minutes had passed, or hours. My body was stiff and sore, and my shoulder still felt hot and swollen. My right fingers, however, weren’t prickly like before.

I hadn’t felt Menessos awaken, so it must not be night yet . . . but with this barrier up, I might not feel him rise.

If Liyliy’s sisters killed him . . . would I be able to tell the difference in the ache a master feels and all the pain I feel now?

Damn it, what if he’s gone? Johnny can’t help me.

I’m all alone.

Something creaked overhead and suddenly half of the ceiling slid open, retracting into itself with a terrible metallic clang. Dim evening light flooded into the darkness. I’d begun to think maybe I was in one of those domes where the Department of Transportation kept salt for the roads, but this was not like being inside of an upside-down bowl. In fact, the walls actually sloped in at the bottom.

I took in my surroundings. The place was a long rectangle with metal supports placed at regular intervals along the walls like ribs in—a ship? A cargo hold!

I wonder if she read me while I was unconscious?

Welded onto the far wall was an odd ladder with half-moon footholds. It rose toward the catwalk below the roof-door, where the silhouette of a giant owl suddenly appeared and dropped through. As she landed, Liyliy tossed a plastic bag to the side and resumed her human form. Her silken gown flowed down to her ankles. Quicksilver flowed and formed an owl-motif bracelet. She extended her arm, pointing a finger at me as she advanced; a crude knife formed in her grasp.

I said nothing as she neared. Creepy had said she needed me to do something; I had to assume that meant she needed me alive. I’d be doing very little if I was incapacitated any further, so I managed to counsel myself and keep my fear in check.

Until she poked me with the knife tip.

The first two or three pokes I could ignore. “You are brave,” she whispered, and jabbed harder. I felt the skin on my forearm tear with the fourth. She hovered over me to lick the blood. The tips of her hair brushed my skin, and even that was painful. I sucked air through my teeth.

She laughed and slapped the flat of her blade on my shoulder.

I screamed.

Liyliy dropped the knife behind me. “Now your blood has the flavor of fear and pain.” Her hands sank into the salt as her lips touched my skin, skimming between my neck and my swollen shoulder. When she bit me, there was no euphoria easing the sharp sensation, as when Menessos fed.

Menessos.

I hadn’t felt him rise. She had risen, so surely he had too. Unless they staked him.

Have I lost them both? Is our triangle well and truly broken? Loss and despair crept over me.

Liyliy drew back and licked her lips. “This is the side he feeds from, isn’t it? I can taste him.”

She hadn’t drunk much, but my energy was as low as my mood, and I was famished and dehydrated. The world swam before my dizzy eyes.

Liyliy grabbed up the knife again and I whimpered when she jostled the rope and began cutting. It occurred to me she hadn’t yet touched me with her hands. In fact, it seemed like she was trying very hard to touch only the rope, but then she was probably trying to keep from draining me too much.

When she had finished cutting, she backed away, keeping the knife pointed at me.

She’d severed only the portion of rope connecting my bound wrists to my equally secured ankles; I wasn’t free. In the dim light, I noticed the rope had silvery threads running through it. Remembering the pieces of her and her sisters that had floated up to cover the lights at the haven, I wondered if these were also portions of her, like the silver that adorned her leg.

“Sit up. Slowly.”

Keeping my arm against my body, I sat stiffly up. The light-headedness made me fear toppling over, and sitting made me aware my dress was a dirty, tattered ruin. Seeing it, I couldn’t help trying to smooth my hair. After a hundred miles an hour on the broom—where is my broom?—my hair must have looked like a fright wig.

My muscles complained and threatened to cramp; I lowered my arms. I swallowed hard. “When I blacked out at the amusement park there was enough night remaining for you to drag me back to the haven. Why didn’t you?”

She studied me but said nothing.

“If you didn’t need me for something, you would have drained me.”

“You should be grateful I did neither of the things I could have done.”

“I am grateful.” A wave of dizziness struck me and I leaned too far and nearly fell over. “I just want to know why,” I said firmly, as if I hadn’t just almost fainted. “It wasn’t an act of kindness.”

From the bag Liyliy produced a bottle of Coke, a Snickers candy bar and a bag of Sun Chips. She dropped them beside me. The Coke fizzed inside the bottle. “Eat.”

Famished and fully aware I had only myself to get me out of this mess, I worked at the bag of chips, holding it with my teeth and pulling. I was bearing the brunt of the lifting in my left, compensating to minimize the motion of the right. I poured a few chips into my mouth, where they promptly turned pasty with my great thirst. As I chewed, I wedged the bottle between my knees, slowly opened it and drank. It was warm, but it was liquid. The caffeine and sugar would help, too.

Liyliy paced about. “You are an Erus Veneficus who mastered your master, so you are very powerful. Having mastered Menessos, I count you doubly powerful.” She took a pose before me. “He believes you are the Lustrata.”

I had the distinct feeling she was waiting for me to confirm or deny it. “Look, I have to be honest. If we’re trading flattery here, I’m gonna have a hard time coming up with compliments for you.”

She leaned in close, squinting evilly, and smacked my shoulder.

I screamed again and fell over on my side.

Liyliy pounced, punching her fists into the salt on either side of my head. “He could be wrong. You don’t seem like much of a threat.” Underneath those slitted lids, her eyes yellowed, grew bigger and rounder. Her nose elongated like a beak.

Putting every ounce of confidence I could muster into my tone, I said, “Okay, I’m intimidated already. Just tell me what you want me to do.”

She tossed her head like she was flouncing her hair and sat up. Her face resumed a human form. Reaching back and under her hair, she produced a golden necklace with a small pouch on it. It didn’t seem like much, but then neither did the charm Beau had given me. In magic, the shiniest wasn’t always the most powerful.

“Unmake this.”