Page 24

“Yes, and he would have, as I felt him trying to do just that, making me realize that he must have done this before.” Her voice became hard and angry as this realization hit her.

“How come it didn’t happen this time?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but the only difference now is that I have you, my mortal side.

Perhaps you saved me from it, saved me from the villain, as I realize now that was all he ever was…

Gods, Ella, he controlled everything!” she cried out, before covering her mouth just in case he heard her anguish and anger combined.

“Well, we can hate him together, but before we start making Voodoo dolls and poking sharp pointy shit into them, let’s get back to the plan of escaping,” I said, and I felt her screw up her nose, before admitting,

“I have no idea half of what you just said, and I’m especially not fond of the part where we defecate on something but yes, we need to escape, although that will be vastly harder to do now, as the caves are no longer an option.”

“Any ideas?” I asked, and she sighed in response.

“No, but there must be various way out of the castle.”

“Yes, but how many are guarded?” I pointed out, making her deflate back onto the bed.

“Most likely all of them. I am going to be honest here, I don’t know how long I can keep up the pretense around him. Not now I know the truth… that he forced me to feel these things toward him. To know that it was never real.” She shook our head as if haunted by the revelation.

“I understand.”

But then she wiped at her tears and this time the reason she was crying wasn’t because of Garmr at all.

“I think he stole my memories,” she said softly.

“What makes you say that?”

“Because I didn’t remember him, Ella,” she admitted sadly, and when her breath caught, I didn’t know if it was because of her or me.

“You don’t remember, Jared?” I asked, my voice near breaking for her.

“Cerberus,” she said, making me answer with a small,

“Oh.”

“I know that I used to have so many memories of him. But when I try and reach for them, it’s like they are no longer there. More like he is just a vacant memory of a beast I knew once existed. That he used to mean something to me, but when I try and push for what it was, I feel emptiness.”

Oh, Gods but I wanted to cry for her, because honestly, I knew how it felt to have your memories messed with.

“And ever since I mentioned him, you have been searching for it… for those memories?” I guessed, making her nod our head.

“Yes. I looked for them, as I once loved him, that much I do know. But it was like the grief I once knew I felt had been replaced by bitterness and hatred, yet I don’t know why or when I started to feel this way.”

“And now you think Garmr planted those feelings in you?” Again, this wasn’t a hard guess.

“What else could it be? He must have, and now I know he has that power over me, then I can’t think of anything else but what he has taken from me… because memories shape a person, and he has taken them. I know that he has changed me.”

“He tried to change you, but he hasn’t succeeded,” I argued, making her scoff.

“Hasn’t he? Look at all I have done,” she said, no doubt referring to the violence inflicted on our father’s wife and stepsister. Also fighting Jared and basically trying to kill him… twice.

So yeah, I was starting to understand why she was struggling with this.

“Okay, so yes, you went a bit kill happy there for a bit but you’re looking at this all wrong,” I told her.

“How so?”

“He has taken your memories, changed you, made you do bad things, shaped you into who he wanted you to be, but in the end, he still couldn’t keep the goodness that’s inside of you from coming out and finding your way back regardless,” I said, trying to get her to still see the good in her, adding, “Because if there had been nothing left of your true self, then you would have continued to shut me out forever. You wouldn’t have questioned things the way you did.

You wouldn’t have gone into that bedchamber and discovered what you did. ”

“I think you were my anchor to who I used to be. I needed you to break the spell,” she said, and perhaps she was right, or perhaps she had broken free of his control many times before without my help.

We would never know, which was what I told her before I then added gently, “I’m sorry this happened to you. ”

“Happened to us,” she reminded me.

“Yes, I am sorry this happened to us but no more. Never again will he have that power over us, not as long as we stick together in this,” I told her, making her laugh the once.

“It’s not like I can get rid of a piece of myself, no matter what Garmr said.”

“Unfortunately, I think he will try and find a way, especially if he ever discovers that I am the reason you can’t be controlled anymore.”

“He better never find out then,” she said, but before we could speak more on it, we heard footsteps behind the door. Which was when she reacted by lying down quickly and faking sleep. Doing so just in case he had ignored what she said about not being hungry and returned.

We both seemed to hold our breath as the door opened slowly, almost cautiously. Which I thought was odd, making me wonder if it was someone else and not Garmr after all.

“She’s asleep, what do we do now?”

The second we heard this voice, our eyes flashed open and saw what I would have once believed as a dream. But then Anástasi shouted her name.

“Lerna!”

The next thing I knew we were hugging her, holding her tight as tears filled our eyes. However, Lerna wasn’t sobbing like Anástasi was, which made her pull back and hold her sister by the shoulders.

“Sister, is it really you?”

Lerna’s beautiful face nodded.

“It is me,” she said, but there was something else in her gaze that made me instantly wary and before I could question it further, she said, “I am so sorry, Anástasi.” I felt our frown.

“What do you mean, you are here, what could you ever be sorry… wait… you!” Anástasi narrowed our eyes on another in the room, and it took me a moment to realize who it was.

“Koro!” Anástasi hissed in anger, because of course she thought he was still the enemy.

She wouldn’t know any different or know Koro as anything but Garmr’s right hand man.

The one who kidnapped her sister all those years ago and became her personal jailor.

And whereas before, Garmr would have made her believe he was one of the good guys, like himself, but now she knew the truth.

Which meant that she would only associate Koro as being in league with the man we were trying to get away from.

However, before I could say anything to stop her from reacting, her powers started to rise from our hands ready to attack. Something that ended up with our sister and I shouting at the same time,

“No!”

“No, Anástasi, stop!”

Whereas I was helpless to do anything, Lerna wasn’t. Because it seemed like they had come here with a plan in mind.

Lerna reached into her bag and pulled out a glowing glass bottle. One swirling with shimmering blue liquid like it held the evening sky inside it.

“I am sorry for this, sister,” Lerna said, and before either of us could react, she threw the bottle down next to us.

Quickly stepping away and covering her mouth and nose with her cloak, as Koro did the same.

As for Anástasi, she wasn’t quick enough, and the scent of something sickly sweet filled our senses.

Before I knew it, our eyes were closing.

Which meant that for the second time since being locked in my own mind, I found peace…

In the darkness of hope.