Page 22

“Henry…” Ava began, thinking maybe if she used his other name, his other identity. The man she had cared for… or thought she had. Maybe she could reach him. Maybe see reason.

Andras looked down at her, as he rose.

“Do not call me that,” he bristled.

“I know you aren’t all bad, Henry,” she continued. “I saw it in you when we were together. You were kind, and loving and?—”

She was interrupted by a slap to the face. Adding to her previous injuries her body was becoming bruises upon bruises upon bruises. She reeled from the pain and realized there was no talking to him. No reasoning. She knew he wasn’t Henry, but she had to try one last time.

“You know nothing.”

He left the tent and she looked over at Remy and saw he had stopped rocking and was assessing her.

“Are you okay?” he asked, wringing his hands .

“Yeah,” she lied.

“Ava?”

“Yes?” she whispered through the pain, head throbbing.

“How did you get to Eorhan?” he asked.

“Andras tricked me and used my blood to open a portal that led us here,” she said.

“Your blood… The portal. You have magic?”

Sighing, she answered, not wanting to face the truth. “I don’t have magic. I never have.”

“But it opened the door. Yes, it did. How?” he insisted.

So she told him the rest of her story; explained it all. That her grandfather and mother escaped into the human world before her birth, but she hadn’t known about any of it.

He listened intensely, eyes wide and when she finished, he said reverently, “You came back. You came back to help.”

“No, Remy. I made things worse by letting them in. I don’t have magic. I can’t do anything.” She shook her head.

Not listening, face now lit with hope, he urged her. “You need to escape and get to your homeland. Yes yes yes…” he trailed off and mumbled to himself.

“Remy, what are you talking about?” she tried asking but he was lost in his thoughts, mumbling to himself and looking around.

Wondering if he had always been this odd or if being imprisoned had damaged his mind, she knew he wouldn’t answer her now.

Later that evening, two guards entered the tent, carrying what looked like a big stew pot and some bowls.

“It’s time for dinner,” one of the guards said as he looked over Ava and Remy.

The body of the other prisoner must have been removed as she slept, every trace of the captive erased. As if she didn’t matter. Had never even existed. Ava hoped if there was an afterlife in this world, she was resting peacefully with her loved ones there.

One of the guards scooped what appeared to be dark oatmeal into the two wooden bowls, sounds of the thick paste plopping grotesquely, while the other unchained Ava’s wrists.

He put one bowl in Remy’s cage, and he took it and ate voraciously as if he couldn’t get it down fast enough.

The guard then handed her a bowl and spoon for herself and stood over her.

“You will only be unchained for you to eat. Don’t try anything.” Ava looked at the slop and then back at him. “You better eat. This is the only meal you’ll get each day.”

Knowing she would need strength for her escape, she choked down the glue-like mush. After finishing, she handed the bowl back to the guard and he shoved a water skin into her hands and she chugged the contents, quenching her thirst.

“Um… what if I need to use the bathroom?” she asked tentatively.

She needed to learn their schedule. The meals and bathroom breaks. Times where she may not be chained so she could plan her getaway.

“Twice a day someone will bring you a bucket and unlock your chains. Anything more and you can soil yourself,” he said. “No one will be in again until tomorrow so now’s your only chance.” He retrieved a wooden bucket reeking of unwashed urine and feces.

It seemed as if this was the bucket all the prisoners used and other than dumping it, was never washed out. Ava tried to keep her food down as she looked at the vessel on the floor beside her.

Hesitating, she looked at the guard. “Aren’t you going to give me privacy? Or unlock my feet? ”

He threw his head back and laughed. “What kind of fool do you think I am? The foot chains stay on. They’re long enough for you to move over the bucket.”

Stomach roiling Ava decided to get it over with.

Humiliated she stood and positioned herself over the bucket, unbuttoned and pulled down her pants and released her bladder.

She didn’t even try to ask for something to wipe herself as she knew he would laugh her off again.

Quickly pulling her pants back up, she sat down.

He picked it up and silently walked out of the tent.

Ava remained silent as the other guard chained her arms back above her head, gathered the dishes and left without saying a word.

Ava looked at Remy, already fast asleep, and was relieved he missed her humiliating bathroom routine, though he must have done the same many times already.

It was nighttime now. She had caught a glimpse of the darkness and stars through the tent flap as the guards left.

How long had it been since she had left home? A week maybe?

She had failed. Utterly and truly failed.

In her selfishness to learn about her past and her anger at her mother and grandfather, she had brought her homeland’s own enemies back.

Back to destroy and conquer. To burn and maim and kill.

Even if she escaped, then what? Was she supposed to go to those mountains?

Find her ancestors if anyone was even still alive?

She doubted the fae would even believe her, especially when they found out she was the reason the daemon queen had returned. They’d probably kill her on sight.