Page 58 of Midnight Sun
Chapter 15
Jamie
“Whereishe?”
Jamie blinks sluggishly. His head feels like it’s stuffed with cotton wool. He finds himself kneeling on the ground, black gravel digging painfully into his shins, even through the fabric of his pants. What’s going on?
“That’s impossible. How did you find us?”
Another voice. Equally familiar.
“Where is he? I won’t ask you again.”
Finn. The realization hits Jamie like a kick in the gut. He tries to get up only to find he can’t, his wrists shackled to an iron ring sitting in the earth. Jamie shivers in the biting wind. He can hear the roaring of the sea. Looking around disorientedly, he finds himself kneeling in the center of a circle made of a black stone wall and facing the only entrance. There are candles lit all around him. Little trinkets and obscure drawings adorn the walls. Jamie realizes that what appeared to him like a summoning circle at first glance may actually be the ruins of a hovel made of stone. The smell of incense clogs his nose, making him gag.
“Leave or he’ll get hurt.”
Jamie shakes his head against the lingering confusion. Is that Peter speaking? He sounds off, distorted, but it has to be him.
“I’m not leaving without him.”
Finn again. The memories have Jamie drowning in a swirl of confusion. His grandfather’s ring. The doubts. The fear that Finn might have betrayed him. And then Peter, with his lulling voice, latching right onto his worst fears. He vaguely remembers relaying his position to Finn before everything went black. Jamie pulls at the shackles, trying to wriggle free or even pull the ring from the ground. It’s no use.
Peter giggles. “Never mind. I can’t let you run free, anyway.” He continues speaking, but his voice is suddenly garbled beyond recognition. Jamie isn't even sure he’s still speaking English.
A sound like the grinding of stones has the tiny hairs on Jamie’s forearms stand up. It is as if the ground was ripping open. Or a grave. Jamie is suddenly reminded of thedraugur.
He listens with bated breath for a long moment. The ringing of metal against metal has Jamie flinching, heart clenching in fear. He doesn’t dare to call out for Finn; he probably needs all of his concentration to fight whatever horrors Peter summoned. Jamie looks up at the fast-moving clouds. He isn’t sure when he managed to push aside the doubts about Finn that have been clinging sickly to him ever since he touched the ring, but he has. His head feels clearer for it. He needs to free himself.
A shadow falls over the entrance of the stone circle.
“You’re awake,” Peter says, looking at him in surprise.
Jamie forces a dreamy smile on his lips.
“Peter,” he breathes, as if there’s no one else he’d rather see.
Peter smiles back at him, and Jamie wonders when his features changed, if this is a recent development or if Jamie failed to see what was right in front of him for months. Peter looks ill, gaunt. Dark circles are smeared under his eyes and his cheeks are sunken like those of an old man. Peter closes the distance between them and kneels down in front of Jamie. He cups Jamie’s face in his hands. Peter’s fingers are like claws, and it takes all of Jamie’s willpower to lean into the touch instead of shying away. Peter’s eyes widen at the gesture.
“I was wrong about you all these years,” Peter says. “All this time, I tried to make you see that I’m the perfect match for you. But you weren’t looking for a sub. You were looking for someone who takes control.”
Not like this, you psycho,Jamie wants to spit into Peter’s face, but he swallows the words and forces his body to relax.
“Yes,” he whispers instead. Peter is supposed to believe that his little ritual worked. And Jamie wants answers. “It wasn’t Blair who was looking out for me, and the gifts weren’t from him either.” The words taste like acid in Jamie’s mouth, but he forces them out anyway. “It was you all along.”
Peter grins. “Blair was just a convenient idiot. I can’t believe everyone gave him credit for my cleverness.”
“I was a fool,” Jamie breathes. “I didn’t see what was right in front of me.”
Peter gasps, and for a horrible second Jamie thinks he has overdone it, but then a slow smile spreads over Peter’s face.
“It worked,” Peter says as if he were talking to himself. “It worked. Finally.”
He grabs Jamie’s face and forces a rough kiss to his lips. Jamie can’t help the sound of protest that escapes him before he forces his body to keep still. Peter doesn’t seem to care.
“I want to take you home,” Jamie hurries to say as soon as Peter pulls back. “I can’t wait to dump Finn. I want to tell everyone that we’re together now.”
Peter grins, all teeth and cruelty. “Don’t worry. Finn won’t come between us anymore.”