Page 17

She walked through the open door and into my cell. Why I even needed to be inside a cell when I was chained to the fucking wall was something I'd never understand. They knew I'd given my magic away for my son, I had no way to attack them.

The door clanged shut loudly behind the girl and I flinched at the noise. The chains keeping me held in place against the wall rattled at my slight movement. There was zero give for me, I hadn't moved so much as an inch in years. When the chains rattled my torture always began anew.

I looked over the girl’s shoulder, waiting for a robed monster to come around the corner and rush at my cell. Nothing happened and I forgot again that this was a dream. Her dream. Mine. At this point it didn't matter.

The girl stopped less than a foot away from me. She scanned my face and her eyes dropped lower. Her face flushed and her eyes jerked back up, wide and startled. It was like she hadn't even noticed I'd been chained up and naked this whole time.

Innocent. This one still had a semblance of her innocence left. Likely not a virgin, but not entirely defiled yet either. Maybe I'd been wrong about her. Huh.

"Tell me where we are," she insisted. I shook my head. In truth, I didn't entirely know. "You have to tell me so that we can come and get you. I can't leave until you tell me where you are."

She was a persistent little thing, I'd give her that much.

"You mentioned women coming down here, were they witches like us? Who else has been down here with you? You have to give me something here. Dash thinks you've been dead all his time."

My heart froze inside my chest before stopping altogether.

Sounding as if the words were being ripped from my very soul, I ground out, "What did you just say to me?"

In all my time spent down here, not one person had ever uttered my son's name. It had been a source of torture all in itself.

"Dash," the girl said slowly. "He's one of my boyfriends and a member of my coven. He thinks you've been dead all this time. I don't want him to know about you yet until I talk to the others and we know for sure we are coming to get you. I have to talk to Quinton first, he'll know what to do, and he'll make sure that no matter what Dash will be okay. That's kind of his job, but mine now too since I'm their female witch and Dash is one of my boyfriends."

She didn't just like to talk, but seemed to be one of those obnoxious nervous talkers. If what she said was truth then...

Wait a damn minute, did she say...

"Alexander?"

I hoped she didn't mean Quinton Alexander. That poor kid had a monster for a father who was way worse than Dash's mother and grandmother could have ever dreamed of being. And that kid, Jesus, that fucking kid, he'd been put through hell and back. His dad was real tight with the Council and liked to volunteer his son to be experimented on, and more often than not, if rumors were to be believed, he was the one who originally came up with the ideas behind the experiments.

In a sad way it would make sense that those two damaged boys ended up together and with this scarred up girl standing in front of me.

Jesus, my boy.

If what she said was true and I said all of those fucked up things to her... I would never be able to forgive myself.

She looked at me expectantly, as if she was waiting for me to do something. Or say something.

Ah yes, she'd asked me several questions. I thought back before answering her, hoping my messed up brain didn't jack up her questions and I got them right. If she really was a part of my son’s life, and an important one at that, then she deserved me at least attempting to give a shit about her.

If this was all a lie and she was fucking with me, then I'd kill her. I didn't care what I had to do to accomplish it, but I would kill her for bringing my son into it.

"The Council," I told her, as I stared into her haunted green eyes. Her eyes ate at me. She'd been through some shit, it was written in her eyes for all to see. "A man named Adrian and another named Daniel. Have you heard of them before?"

Every witch not in hiding knew who the fuck they were. They ruled over the covens with a tight fist while doing absolutely whatever the hell they wanted on the sidelines.

The girl grimaced as she looked away. "I know them. Adrian better than the other. Daniel is actually dead."

For the first time in longer than I could remember, I smiled. An actual honest to goodness smile. I wasn’t sure if she could actually see it past my beard, but the sucker was there.

The girl sucked in a sharp breath as she looked down at her feet in horror.

"No. No. No."

I followed her eyes and watched as fog began to swirl around her feet and slowly climbed its way up the rest of her body.

Damn, this really had been a dream after all. I hoped like hell that meant she'd been telling the truth about everything else too.