Two hours later, we’d heard the entire story. Magic City Prison was built up eighty stories into the sky. It was the tallest building in Magic City, which was in downtown Light Fey Territory, and the prisoners were all kept on the upper fifty floors. The lower thirty floors were for administration, storage, and other things. It was almost as tall as the freaking Eiffel Tower! But the worst news I heard was that it was on a tiny sandbank island in the middle of a giant roaring river. You had to swim or take a boat to get to the building.
“So even the lowest level is two hundred feet in the sky,” I observed as he described the layout.
He nodded. “Can’t jump out that window without certain death.”
I squirmed as I stared at the nub on the end of his arm. He’d recounted his story of cutting off his own hand to release the cuff’s magic. “So they only had one cuff before?” I asked for the fifth time.
He bobbed his head. “And now they do both arms and legs.”
Shit. Maybe Sawyer was right and this was hopeless. Seam had told us that there was a magical grid built into the building, and even if you did make it out, you couldn’t leave the property with the cuffs still on or you’d die instantly. So I’d need to get Sawyer and Walsh’s cuffs off and then break them out somehow.
I decided to leave that for later and focus on any other information I could use. “So after you…?” I looked at his handless arm.
He grinned. “I lured the guard in and knocked him out.”
I nodded, replaying the story he’d just told us. “And you then dragged his body over to the cell and used his handprint to unlock the door because the doors lock behind them…”
He nodded. “Once I was in the hallway, I climbed into the air conditioning shaft, which I’d noticed was loose after a routine maintenance.”
Sage bobbed her head. “Because normally they are bolted shut.”
We’d been over this ten times, trying to find something we could use for Sawyer.
“Precisely. And then I climbed thirty floors down through the narrow venting until I hit the underground parking lot.”
“From there you stole a boat. All of this is likely not going to help us since after you left they have tightened security.”
Frick.
He looked at me seriously, stroking his chin with his good hand. “Is it true that you’re a cursed one? Demon? Soul jumper?”
I swallowed hard. Soul jumper? That was new. “No. I don’t know what that is,” I lied immediately.
His eyes glittered as if he didn’t believe me. “Because if the rumors are true, you could just have your wolf soul jump into your little friend here…” He pointed to Sage. “…and then she could get you inside the building. Two-for-one special.”
I frowned. What was he talking about?
Sage leaned forward. “What do you mean?”
The Ithaki rolled his eyes. “Her wolf, if the rumor is true, it jumped out of her body before with cuffs on, so surely it can do it again. She can’t get arrested because the Magic City warden will just turn her over to Queen Drake, but you…” He appraised Sage. “You they would gladly take in.”
A light dawned on me. “Trojan horse.”
He slammed his good hand down on the table and we both jumped. “Exactly!”
Sage could sneak my wolf into the building and then I could pull her out and … somehow free them all. But I could never ask Sage to do that, risk her life like that.
“Well, if the rumors were true, which they’re not, that would be a good idea,” Sage said, giving me the wide “let’s talk later” eyes.
I looked at Seam, wondering why the hell he was giving us these good ideas when he so clearly could turn me in or worse, try to “steal my essence” like all of the other psychos I’d met along the way.
“What’s your deal? Why are you helping me?” I crossed my arms over my chest, eyeing him with suspicion. We’d been here over two hours and he’d done nothing but answer all of my questions. He’d pulled out maps with hand-drawn hallways and riverways. He’d gone above and beyond. But if he was going to alert someone and turn me in, he’d have done it by now. Two hours was more than enough time for the vampires to come knocking.
His face turned dark, eyes narrowing. “The diamond obviously.” But his gaze ran over my long white hair and his face softened. There was something else there.
The girl, from the photo. Her hair was like mine, long and thick and silvery blond.
“Nothing else?” I pressed.
He sighed, looking over at the wall of pink roses. He was quiet for a long time, chest rising and falling with each breath. I don’t think he had many visitors and he might actually be enjoying our company. He hadn’t asked us to leave and had even offered us tea. We both declined on account of not trusting him, but now I wondered if he was just misunderstood.
“I had a daughter. You remind me of her,” was all he said, and my heart pinched. It was as I thought.
I noticed the past tense. He had a daughter.
“I’m sorry,” I told him earnestly.
“What happened?” Sage asked.
I kicked her under the table and she winced.
He looked at Sage, seemingly considering her question and if he wanted to answer it.
“I’m never going to see you again after this so…” He shrugged. “Why not?”
Then he leaned in, letting the sun shine on his face, and peeling back his lips he showcased his razor sharp teeth.
We both reeled back a little, unsure what he was doing and he chuckled. “Are you not confused with my lineage? I have the teeth of a dark fey, hair and eyes of a light fey, and the tusks of a troll.”
Ohhh, as soon as he said it, it clicked. He was … a total mutt.
“Your mother or father was both?” I asked.
He nodded. “Mother was half light and half dark fey. Father was troll. I have the lineage of all three. Never quite belonged but I never bothered anyone, so they didn’t seem to mind. Then I met my wife…”
His voice broke as he looked again at the wall of flowers.
The roses. The garden so lovingly cared for … it was his wife’s?
“She was a vampire-fey Ithaki,” he stated and my mouth popped open. The fey were the only ones who could breed with the other races. They had some kind of gene that could morph either way and create life where none could be created naturally.
“So your daughter…” Sage put it all together in her mind before I did.
He inclined his head. “She was a true chimera. Dark fey, light fey, vampire, and troll. She had untold power when I started to train her…”
His voice trailed off and he looked at me. I knew then what had happened without him even having to say it. Power was something that the vampires, specifically Queen Drake, couldn’t allow.
I growled. “They took her?”
He nodded. “The vampires took her, experimented on her, killed her.”
The veins in his neck popped and the ring of the teacup snapped as he held it too tightly, then dropped to the floor and shattered, spilling its contents. “Sorry, I haven’t spoken about this in a long time.”
The fear I’d once held of him, the mistrust, it vanished in that moment. This was just a broken old man. I dropped by his feet and started to pick up the teacup shards. “It’s fine,” I told him. “So is that … why you went to prison? You retaliated?”
He nodded. “Sort of. Justice system was taking too long for my wife’s liking.”
That sounded familiar.
“When my wife and I got news from the local authorities that they’d found our sweet sixteen-year-old daughter’s body on vampire land in a shallow ditch with a bunch of holes in her arms and completely drained of blood…” The knuckles in his one hand popped as he made a fist. “We pressed charges, but they said it could take up to a year to find the killer. Magic City Police don’t care about Ithaki. Some lowly vampire, they said it probably was. I knew that wasn’t true. The queen had been poking around here once she got word of my daughter and her power. Even offered to pay us for her.”
Sage gasped. “Pay you!”
He nodded. “Under the guise that it was some fancy private education, but I could smell the hunger on her when she looked at my sweet girl.” His eyes glistened with moisture in the sunlight and my heart ached for him. If it were possible to hate this bitter queen any more, I did. I wanted her wiped from this earth.
“So, your wife is … gone?” Sage asked.
We were too far into the story to stop now. I needed to know everything. I set the broken teacup pieces on the table and returned to my seat as he nodded his thanks to me.
“Varilla was a fearsome warrior. When she heard about our daughter, she stopped sleeping. One night, I found her gone, bed empty and a note saying she wouldn’t rest until the queen was dead.”
Oh shit.
Sage reached out and grasped my hand and squeezed.
“I ran all night, used every magical power I had to get into the Vampire City walls and to where the queen’s castle was, but I was too late. My wife was dead, the queen wasn’t even in town, but my wife had killed a dozen of her guards before they took her down. They arrested me for trespassing and attempted murder of a monarch.”
Holy shit.
His wife and daughter all gone within a week…
“I’m so sorry,” I told him, my voice breaking.
He leaned inward. “I begged them to kill me, but the queen ordered that I live my life without the two women I love as my punishment.”
Evil woman.
“So why even break out? I mean … you didn’t really have anyone to come home to?” Sage said, and then winced at her wording. “I mean, that’s not what I meant. I—”
He waved her off with his good hand. “No, you’re right. I came back for those.” He pointed to the wall of perfectly manicured flowers. “My wife loved few things as much as she loved me and our daughter, and those roses are one of them. She spent hours out here. I couldn’t bear the thought of them dying too. Something she put so much of her life into.”
A tear slipped from my eye and trailed down my cheek before I could blink it back. It was the saddest thing I’d ever heard, and yet … kind of beautiful. He’d let the house go, but he’d kept up the flowers.
“They’re beautiful flowers,” I told him. “And if it makes you feel any better, I plan on killing Queen Drake very, very soon.”
I was dead serious and he appraised me with one raised eyebrow.
“So it’s true. What her son did? That whole family is evil. Tainted,” he hissed. “It would make me feel a whole hell of a lot better if you’d mail me her ashes once she was dead. That way I could mix them with clay and make a urinal out of them, piss on it every day.”
I burst into laughter; Sage did the same beside me. He grinned. And that was that. We all had something in common. That damn queen was going to die if it was the last thing I did.
He waved me off. “Well, you all better get going. I’ll get the rest of the maps and then you can be on your way.”
I nodded. He was a nice man. I’d totally underestimated him.
He returned a few minutes later with a stack of maps in his arms. “These are copies. You can have them.”
I thanked him, before slipping the ring off my finger and handing him the one physical memory of my marriage to Sawyer that I had left. “Thanks for your help,” I told him.
He stared at the ring, pausing. “I really do need this. Otherwise, I’d—”
I waved him off, looking at his broken-down house and sad life. “Don’t worry. Sawyer can get me another.” I smiled.
It was a half-truth. Yes Sawyer could get me another ring. It wouldn’t be the same one, with all the beautiful memories, but it didn’t matter. A deal was a deal, and I wanted Seam to have a good life after all that he’d been through.
He closed his hand around it and nodded. “Well, alright then. Be safe and good luck.”
“Keep your eye on the mailbox.” I winked, which caused him to grin.
He walked us out through the house, but when we stood in the doorway about to go, his arm snaked out and he pulled me near him. “There will come a time in this daring escape when you have to ask yourself how badly you want to get him out.” Then his gaze fell to the long scar at the end of his sawed-off hand. “Sacrifices may have to be made.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. Message received. I just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
When Sage and I reached the horses at the bottom of the hill, I looked up at the crumbling old house.
“That was not how I expected it to go,” I told her.
She nodded. “He was … kinda sweet.”
He was just a grieving dad and husband trying to get back to his wife’s dying roses in time.
“Demi, I know you’re going to try to protect me and say no, but if you think it’s possible for your wolf to…” She shivered a little. “…join my body, then I want to try that. I want to save my cousin.”
I nodded. I’d already done a check-in with my wolf and she thought it was possible. “I’ve got an idea…” I told her.
Sage swung one leg over her horse and grinned at me. “I’m all ears.”
I blew air out through my teeth. “So, for starters, we’re going back to Trip’s animal barn and stealing that fucking dragon. You game?”
She grinned. “Ride or die.”
I just hoped Marmal would be okay with my using Pearl in a prison escape.
It took us the rest of the day to get back across the fey lands and to Trip’s barn. Marmal met us in the meet-up spot we’d previously discussed, and an idea hatched in the flickering lamplight of the tent we all shared deep in the woods.
“So, after we get Sage arrested and she gets inside the prison,” I told them, “I’ll let my wolf out of her and she’ll find Sawyer.”
Seam had confirmed what Sawyer had told me, which is that my wolf wouldn’t be able to just walk through the outside walls and into the prison, because of the protection magic there, but she could walk through the interior walls he thought.
“Once I find Sawyer and Walsh, my wolf breaks them out by attacking a guard and using his key to unlock their cuffs,” I said.
Without those cuffs off, there was no use in trying to get them out of there. The magical grid would kill them instantly, and I wasn’t messing with that.
Marmal and Sage nodded, wide eyed. “Then we rendezvous with Sage, break out the window and jump onto Pearl’s back that Marmal will be flying.”
I looked at my troll friend to see what she thought of the idea and her mouth hung open, slack jawed. I hadn’t exactly asked her about this yet…
“Say what now?” Marmal blinked rapidly at me.
Okay, I should have probably eased her into the plan better, but I was really excited. “The vampires will be waiting for us. The second the alarm sounds that we are breaking people out of their cells, the whole place will go into lockdown,” I told her.
“So you jump out of a window eighty floors up?” Marmal looked at me like I was crazy. “I’m not even sure Pearl can fly, and if she can, I’m not sure she can fly that high!”
I let out the breath I’d been holding. “Look, I’ve run through this in my head a hundred different ways and this is the only one I can think of that gives us a chance. They’ll use magic to bring down a helicopter, but a fucking dragon! That will confuse their witches and give us a chance.”
Marmal chewed her lip. “Dragons are actually impervious to magic, you can’t spell them.”
Hope blossomed in my chest, that was the best news I’d heard in a long time. “Do you think you can get her to fly once we get her out?”
Marmal blew air through her teeth. “She’s been captive for years. They use her strictly for DNA donation. Trip does dark magic, binding the animals to fey so that they can speak into the animals’ minds and control them. That’s what Trip’s little breeding barn is all about. I … I don’t know if she can fly, they don’t let her outside the barn.” There was anger in her voice and she had good reason for it. Those bastards had been treating that dragon like a lab rat, treating all of those animals like that. How dare they!
“Well, we can get a cart to hook up to Sage and my horses and carry her on that until she heals, or until you can practice with her?” It would also help to hide her until the moment we needed her. A fifteen-foot-long dragon wasn’t easy to conceal.
Marmal nodded. “Okay, it’s worth a try, but no promises.”
I bopped my hands excitedly on my legs, eager for this plan and what tomorrow would bring. A try was all I needed.
“But we have to break her out first,” Marmal added.
I inclined my head. “You leave that to me and my wolf.”
I didn’t know a lot about troll magic, they were so secretive about it, but I knew they could manipulate metals and were master blacksmiths. “Marmal, can you … open the locks of the cages without touching them?” Like with your magic, I wanted to say but didn’t.
She suddenly became very shy, cheeks reddening as she looked down at her hands. It was super taboo in their culture to talk about their magic. I had no idea why. Something about they would lose it or something if I remembered my troll history and culture correctly.
“Because if you could…” I added, “we could free all of the animals, not just Pearl, and it would create the distraction we’d need to get Pearl out.”
She swallowed hard and then nodded once. I was going to take that as a yes.
Those bastards were going to pay for what they were doing to these defenseless animals. I’d make sure of it.
