The tunnel seemed to last forever. And just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, that the pitch black was never going to leave us, I could suddenly see again. But what I saw made me want to shrink back into the dark tunnel again. It made me want to run.
Laylen and I were standing in a torture chamber.
And we were not alone.
Chapter 14
“What is this place?” I whispered, staring at the pale figure, strapped to a rack in the center of the room.
Laylen shook his head. ‘I have no idea…I’ve never been down here before.”
“Should we…” I gestured at the person bound to the rack.
“Should we free them?”
Laylen gave me a skeptical look and then slowly made his way over. I followed at his heels, trying to figure out if the person was alive or dead. Honestly, they looked dead, their eyes sealed shut, their body unmoving, their lips silent as a grave.
Even when we stood above them—or should I say her—
she still showed no signs of life.
“Is she…is she alive?” I said to Laylen.
Laylen leaned over her. “Yeah, I can hear her heart beating.”
“Should we…” I reached for one of the ropes around her wrist. “Should I untie her?”
Laylen nodded and reached for the other rope around her wrist. The rack wasn’t stretching her limbs to their full capacity, but her pale skin was pulled rather tight. Her curly black hair ran off the sides of the rack, and so did the worn-out blue dress she was wearing. Laylen and I untied the ropes around her arms and her legs, but still she didn’t move.
“Now what?” I wondered, reaching out as I considered giving her a soft shake.
But Laylen beat me to the punch, lightly shaking her shoulder. But still, she didn’t show any signs of being alive.
“Maybe she’s—” I started
The girl’s eyes shot open. She took one look at us and leapt from the rack. She backed herself up against the stone wall like a skittish cat, her black curly hair a tangled mess around her face as she let out the loudest blood-curdling scream.
“Son of a…” Laylen jumped for her, grabbing her as gently as possible and covering her mouth with his hand.
“We’re not going to hurt you, but you have got to stop screaming.”
The girl’s bright yellow eyes were wild as she scanned the room, the rack, the stairway that twisted up to a door.
Then, she caught sight of me and something in her expression changed. She calmed down.
Laylen slowly inched his hand away from her mouth, testing whether she was going to freak out and scream again. But she didn’t. There was something about the sight of me that was calming her.
“It’s you,” she breathed loudly. “I can’t believe it.” I glanced behind me, making sure there wasn’t someone else she was looking at.
There was nothing there but the tunnel
“Yeah, it’s me.” I shot Laylen an ‘is-she-crazy’ look and he shrugged.
“If I let you go, are you going to scream again?” Laylen asked her in a gentle tone.
The girl shook her head and he released her. Her bright yellow eyes stayed locked on me as she walked forward.
Laylen, I guess getting nervous, stepped between us.
“You think you know her?” he asked, pointing at me.
She nodded. “She’s the one he talks about all the time.
The girl with the violet eyes—the star.”
Well, holy crap. She did know who I was. “Who told you about me?” I asked, stepping up beside Laylen.
She glanced up apprehensively at the top of the spiral stairs. “The man with the scar,” she whispered.
Stephan.
“Why did he tell you about her?” Laylen held out his arm in front of me, still trying to urge me to keep away from her.
“Because.” She tilted her head, examining me over with her unnatural bright yellow eyes. “I’m the half faerie, half Keeper he needs for his plan.”
She said it as if were nothing out of the ordinary, as if we should have known this bit of information already.
But it wasn’t normal. At all. It was one of those things that made your jaw smack to the floor. At least that’s what I thought until she tacked on, “And I’m his daughter.” Chapter 15
It was one of those moments where time freezes. No one moved. No one talked. No one breathed. As if we all had forgotten how to.
Laylen was the first one to find his voice. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think you are…Aislin and Alex don’t have a sister.”
“Oh, I’m only their half-sister.” She talked strange as if using her voice was foreign to her. “And they don’t know about me. My father keeps me hidden all the time. Down here.” She gestured at the rack.
“Of course he does,” Laylen said like something had just dawned on him.
“Why would he keep you hidden?” I asked.
“Keepers aren’t supposed to mix like that with fey,” Laylen explained to me, brushing his blue-tipped bangs away from his forehead. “There’s something about the blood…too much mythical creature on one side and not enough on the other that creates an imbalance.” He discretely nodded his head at the girl. “It makes things a little off.”
How off?“What’s your name?” I asked the girl.
She stuck out her hand awkwardly. “I’m Aleesa.” Laylen shook her hand politely. “Nice to meet you Aleesa.”
I eyed over Aleesa and something didn’t add up. “You don’t really look like them. Alex and Aislin, I mean.”
“Oh, I get my looks from my mother. She was fey,” she said, like it explained everything.
It didn’t.
“It’s actually true,” Laylen told me, finally lowering his arm from in front of me. “Many of the fey have bright yellow eyes and dark hair like hers. Nicholas was an exception.” Nicholas. It felt like someone was choking me. “So Stephan is your father,” I croaked and Laylen gave me a funny look. “I mean, he created you for the plan…the end of the world plan.”
She nodded. “Yes, I am his half-faerie, half-Keeper sacrifice he needs. I am what will bind the fey to him.” My eyes widened. “Sacrifice?”
“Yes,” she said simply, her hands behind her back as she rocked forward on her toes.
The poor girl. She thought this was all alright.
I gazed around at the torture chamber, the rock walls, the cold cement floor, the rack. “How long have you been down here?”
She considered this, a look of perplexity twisting across her face. “I’m not sure. Forever, I think.” I shuddered. “Well, what about your mom? Where’s she?”
“Oh, she’s gone,” she said with a shrug. “She left me.” I had no idea what to do with this. Obviously, we couldn’t just leave her down here to be tortured by her own father.
But she also made me kind of edgy because she seemed a little off her rocker.
“Laylen can I talk to you for just a second.” I backed away toward the tunnel, motioning him to follow me.
“What’s up?” Laylen asked when we reached the edge of the tunnel.
“What are we going to do with her?” I said in a low voice He glanced over his shoulder at Aleesa, who was fiddling with a hole in the hem of her worn-out blue dress. “I guess take her with us.”
His answer didn’t really surprise me. That was the kind of guy Laylen was. “But is she…I don’t know…” I tucked a piece of my long brown hair behind my ear. “She seems a little off. What if she flips out on us or something?” His eyes filled with anguish. “I could flip out on you and yet you’re still with me.”
“Yeah, but you’re…you. I trust you more than I trust anyone.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t.”
I sighed. “We’ll take her with us, then. But just keep an eye on her.” I started for Aleesa, but stopped. “And I’ll always trust you, Laylen. I’ll trust you forever.” Getting Aleesa to leave with us proved to be a difficult task. First off, she kept saying over and over and over again that she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. But after some persuading, she finally agreed. That just left the task of trying to keep her quiet while we snuck upstairs to get my mom. I was worried she might snap and start screaming again or something. This was a concern of Laylen’s too, and I suggested that maybe we should leave her here and pick her up on our way out. But after some deliberation, we decided we should take her just in case we had to make an emergency exit.