SECRETS
Theomania (noun): religious madness in which the patient believes that he is the Deity.
I was woken up by an electric shock to find two figures looming in the darkness beside my four-poster bed. Turning as I convulsed, I shoved Warren’s sleeping ferret form under the pillow.
The two leaders had arrived.
Dick stood beside the cloaked figure with vibrant blue eyes.
Sadie and Aran thought the cloak concealed a man because of the person’s deep voice and commanding size. You should never make assumptions without all the facts.
The figure pulled down the head of their cloak and revealed a gorgeous woman’s face. She pressed on her thin silver necklace and canceled the enchantment that concealed her voice.
“Hello Jinx,” her tinkling feminine voice filled the quiet room. She was a master of secrecy. As far as I could tell, I was one of the few people who knew she was a woman, but I still didn’t know her name.
My limbs stopped trembling as I panted, “I’ve been expecting you.”
I sat up and grimaced as I realized my prosthetic was across the room, leaning against the chair behind them.
Their positioning was purposeful.
Cowards.
I glared at them, and Dick scoffed as he walked into the light.
“You will step down as Regent of the Fae Realm immediately. We did not authorize you to rule the realm,” Dick spat. “Also, your other shackle will be reinstated because you’ve clearly demonstrated that you have no control over your violent urges.”
It was my turn to scoff.
Every move I made was carefully calculated and planned out; it was how I’d always lived. If I weren’t so regimented, I wouldn’t have survived this long.
Dick held up the gold shackle, and I cradled my bare wrist against my chest protectively.
Then I pulled up the sleeve of my nightgown to reveal the small word carved into my flesh: “LIARS.” You wouldn’t notice it unless you knew to look for it.
“Take a step closer and you’ll regret it,” I warned.
Dick stopped moving.
“What is that?” the woman asked.
I smiled. “Insurance against you two.”
“Explain,” Dick spat, his disguised features turning red with agitation.
My tone was blasé as I said, “Aran’s scar got me thinking about the many uses of blood enchantments. They are quite versatile.”
Dick’s scowl deepened, and I kept my face a blank mask while inside I was a mess of nerves.
I had one chance to get this right or my life was forfeit.
I continued, “This blood enchantment is tied to my life force and—through a tricky bit of science, made possible by the resources of the fae court—it is also tied to an algorithm. You both know how talented I am when it comes to equations.”
Dick’s eyes flashed, and his plain features distorted as his true face showed through.
Both Dick and the cloaked woman understood that I was a genius beyond the scale level used for these realms. They were the ones who’d tested me.
They were the masterminds.
The planners.
The leaders.
I hadn’t even gotten to the best part and Dick was already losing control. This was good.
My plan was working.
Now I just had to do the hard part and execute it fully.
I swallowed around the lump in my throat and explained, “If I’m killed, the algorithm is preprogrammed to override every enchanted broadcasting system in the realms and play footage of you both admitting just who you are.”
The cloaked woman recoiled.
Dick scoffed. “No such footage exists.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Are you sure? The manor in the beast realm has enchanted cameras in the entryway to deter thieves.”
Dick’s eyes flashed with recognition as we both remembered the day he’d strangled me in the manor’s entrance. We both remembered what he’d revealed when he thought he was going to kill me.
He only let me live with his secrets because he needed me and thought no one would ever believe me.
His eyes widened as he no doubt was scanning his memories and recalling the glowing recording crystals in the room’s corner.
Dick swore violently and paced back and forth.
“Fine,” he spat. “We won’t kill you. It doesn’t change the fact that you’re putting this cuff on and leaving the fae realm.”
This was the tricky part.
I pulled the wickedly sharp knife out from under my pillow and pressed it to my throat. “No,” I said calmly. “I won’t be doing any of that.”
The cloaked woman snapped, “You wouldn’t dare.”
She was just as powerful as Dick, perhaps more so.
I pushed the knife against the thin skin on my neck and winced as it stung, warmth pouring down my chest.
My heart beat erratically, and I tried not to think about what I was doing.
I tried not to hyperventilate.
“Are you sure about that?” I asked, my voice high-pitched with the strain of holding back screams. “You’ve already taken my life from me. I have nothing left to live for.”
“Do it, then, little girl,” Dick spat vehemently as his average disguise disappeared and a handsome, cruel man stared down at me. “Do it,” he taunted.
“Stop it.” The cloaked woman grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the bed. “What is wrong with you? You know this can’t get out. Everything we’ve worked so hard to build would be ruined. Our names would no longer be synonymous with greatness, and we’d be slandered. The realms would have nothing to believe in and the peace would fall apart.”
Dick glared over her shoulder at me with pure disdain.
I pressed the knife deeper and nearly passed out as the pain became unimaginable. It took everything I had not to scream in agony.
“Fine!” Dick raged, and I nearly sobbed with relief. “You better keep yourself alive, and we will be sending a representative to assist you in ruling the fae realm.”
He activated an RJE device.
The woman’s otherworldly blue eyes glowed as she lifted her cloaked head and stared at me. “Careful with the games you play, Jinx of Lazarus. We are very upset with you, and everyone knows—you don’t want to upset the gods.”
The truth of what she and Dick were hung in the air between us.
Crack.
They disappeared.
I dropped the knife and screamed for help as I clutched at my bleeding neck. Warren climbed out from under my pillow, and he transformed. He knelt over me, swearing as he bunched up the sheets and pressed them to my neck.
Fae guards burst into the room and summoned a healer.
An hour later, after I’d promised a reluctant Warren that I’d explain everything in the morning, I lay on fresh sheets with bandages wrapped around my neck and a sleeping ferret lying on my head protectively.
My teeth chattered from the force of my tremors.
There was a recording from the beast realm, which I did have in my possession, but such an algorithm was beyond my current capabilities.
It would take years to figure it out.
I rolled out of bed, holding on to furniture and placing Warren on my pillow as I hopped awkwardly over to the gilded desk and collapsed into the chair. I pulled out a golden ink pen and began furiously continuing my equations.
If I was ever going to follow through on my threat, I needed to start working.
Now.
As I wrote numbers and letters through the night, I only paused once to marvel that I’d really done the impossible—I’d successfully blackmailed the sun god and moon goddess of the realms.
I didn’t know if they were actually omnipotent figures ruling over the masses, or if they were frauds masquerading as something greater than themselves. At the end of the day, it didn’t really matter.
I was no longer at their mercy.
My teeth chattered from excessive adrenaline.
I got back to work.
When the first morning rays shone through my window, I picked up my enchanted phone and called Jax.
“How’s my genius sister doing?” he asked warmly, answering on the first ring.
Moisture built behind my eyes, and I whispered, “I love you so much.”
He chuckled, and as we spent the morning talking, the scared little girl who’d cowered for so long before terrifying gods finally healed.
