Mistfall(Book One of the Mistfall Series)

23. I May Have Finally Gone Too Far





“They’re broken.” Elijah had just finished examining me. Well, his bobcat did.

I had been sitting in the same position for hours. I tried to move around, but that only caused me more pain and difficulty breathing. A moth had found its way into my cell. It was rather nondescript, butter yellow in color. I hadn’t paid it too much attention until if flew in my face.

I swatted at the thing repeatedly, which only caused me to wince in pain. The moth got away. A masterful flyer, the moth darted and dove, evading my attacks. Finally, it landed out of arms reach at my feet. That’s when things got weird. The moth slowly grew larger before is became disfigured as it changed shape. Two minutes later, I was staring down a bobcat.

Neither one of us made a move at first. He or she (I wasn’t going to try and find out) was sizing me up. I, on the other hand, was wondering how long I could fend it off. Now I know bobcats aren’t much of a threat, but if this thing sensed I was injured, I might have a problem on my hands.

Elijah chose that moment to appear at my cell door. “Oh quit being such a bully Jess,” he scolded the cat.

“You know this animal?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the overgrown housecat for a second.

He knelt down next to Jess and rubbed it behind its ears. Jess purred in response to Elijah’s attentions.

“Yes,” he chuckled. “I know Jess well, she being my familiar.” Elijah then turned to the cat. “What’s it been old girl, fifty years?”

The cat meowed loudly in response. Whatever she said, Elijah understood. I guess he spoke cat.

I became less apprehensive. Though I didn’t trust the feral p-ssycat, I did trust Elijah’s control over the critter.

“Elijah, I thought familiars were the thing of human mythology,” I said, wincing at the sharp, jabbing pain in my side. I swear it felt like someone was poking me in the lung with a fork. I may have found myself newly na?ve to the goings on of the Otherworld, but this was something everyone believed.

Elijah gave me a big, toothy grin. “And that’s how we’d like it to be kept,” he replied.

He gave me the basics on familiars. Contrary to popular belief, familiars did indeed exist. Instead of Witches though, they preferred gypsies. They were rare. A familiar always took animal shapes, though they always had one or two they preferred above others. Also, the familiar chose the person and not the other way around.

Once Elijah had me convinced that Jess wasn’t going to use me as its next year’s sustenance, he threw me for another loop. He wanted his sidekick to examine me.

“Wouldn’t an x-ray be a little more, um, accurate?” I suggested.

Elijah looked at me like he had been sucking on a sour lemon. “Bah. That human magic is dangerous stuff. They don’t understand or respect their power. It could hurt you.”

Now I knew how an x-ray machine worked and how not dangerous it was. He did have a point though. Humans’ magic lay in technology and they sure knew how to abuse their powers.

“Trust Jess,” he encouraged me. “She can help heal you.”

Since I wasn’t in a hospital, I had no choice in the matter of my medical specialist. Elijah gave the cat a pat, motioning her to me. I still wasn’t convinced, but I was at a disadvantage, my body had no intention of moving.

So here we are. Dougie Mouser, M.D. just diagnosed me with a matching set of broken ribs. Elijah helped me into a resting position on my uninjured side and suggested I cuddle up with Jess for the night. He laughed when I asked him if he was crazy.

Left alone, with only a large cat for company, my mind started to wander. Elijah’s potion had long since worn off, taking my thoughts to dark places. John and Melissa. My emotions ran the gamut of hurt, anger, and disbelief, repeatedly.

I allowed myself a few tears, but didn’t allow my soul to cloud over with heartache. I would have to let it go for now. My thoughts would constantly distract me if I didn’t. Of course there were lingering questions that, one day, I’d hunt them down for.

Why had they kept the truth from me? Why did Willa involve them knowing who they were? Probably the one I needed the answer to the most was: Why would the both of them develop close relationships with me built on lies?

The heat from Jess was like having a warm water-bottle pressed to my side, comforting me. Not long after I had put thoughts of John and Melissa on the back burner, I found it easy to sleep that night.

My dreams were a bit off though. In one I stalked a squirrel for miles. Once I cornered it, I jumped on top of it and threw it around. I played catch and release with it for awhile. In the end, and this is the most disgusting part, I ate it, raw.

Dreams aside, I slept well. I was even able to breathe normally when I woke up. All that remained was some light bruising. I would have to rethink being a dog person. Jess, her work done, was already gone and I was alone once again.

My stomach grumbled. I wasn’t too sure how much time had passed since I ended up down here. I figured somewhere around a week. Not once I had eaten, yet I hadn’t been hungry until now. What was I going to do for food? They gypsies had a plan in place, but I couldn’t impose on their goodwill forever.

If I was going to eat, I’d have to give away the fact that I was awake. If I didn’t eat, I’d get weak. Weak people can’t escape from prison.


“Seamus! Barra!” I shouted into the corridor.

“Hey, you’re awake.” It was the other guard, Barra.

This made me happy. If Seamus was the boss that meant Barra had to be the more dimwitted of the two. Hopefully I could accomplish a few things without him noticing.

If Seamus was ugly, poor Barra was downright grotesque. Even Hades wouldn’t have a creature like him. Barra’s eyes were on the side of his head and he only had slits for a nose. Open sores festered and oozed, the smell made my stomach acid boil. When he didn’t want to make me throw up, I felt sorry for him. He couldn’t have an easy existence.

It was time to get out of this cell for awhile. “Yes I am,” I said. “I take it Abel’s going to want to see me so whenever you’re ready we can go.”

Barra scratched his head, or the sores on his head. I wasn’t too sure which one and I wasn’t going to take a closer look. “I dunno. I’m just ‘spose ta tell tha cap’n.”

This was going to be a piece of cake. “Barra, you don’t want your king to find out he had to wait, do you?” I asked, adding sweetly, “I wouldn’t want to see you punished.”

Barra flinched when I mentioned the word punishment. I guess he spent a lot of time as a whipping boy around here.

He tossed the idea around in his head for a few seconds. Come on. Please me as dumb as I think you are.

“Okay,” he agreed giving me a toothless, rotting gum grin. “I don’t wanna make tha king angry.”

Great, his sense of dread won out.

Barra fumbled with the keys until he found the right one. He paused a moment before opening the door. “You’re not gonna do anything are ya?” he asked.

Not quite the dull boy, I thought. “I lifted my wrists, showing Barra my golden, magic-restraining cuffs. “Nope. I couldn’t, even if I wanted to.”

Appeased, he opened the cell door, allowing me out.

“Don’t worry,” I assured him. “I won’t do anything to get you into trouble.”

Barra gave me another horrifying grin. I doubted he got the chance to smile much. I was serious about behaving. I would wait until his job was done before I began my shenanigans.

Elijah mouthed a silent good luck as I passed by his cell. Being a psychic he already knew what I was up to. The lack of worry on his face made me hopeful that my foray into the castle would go well.

I mapped the way through the castle in my head, as we walked. Thankfully, Barra took me through the servant areas. I was able to steal a few pieces of fruit and a knife when we walked through an unattended kitchen.

I didn’t find too much else I could conceal, though I did find plenty of hiding places to stash weapons and other necessities. They would also be useful for me to hide in as well. As we continued our foray into the castle, I realized that I would need a week or two to amass a small cache of weapons and supplies.

Eventually we made it into Abel’s throne room. All I can say is that this man was definitely compensating for something. The room was ostentatious and extravagant. I swear the room had more gilding than gold in Ft. Knox.

“Stay here,” Barra ordered. “I hafta go get tha king.”

“I’ll be on my best behavior,” I promised him. “Scouts honor,” I added trying to make a scout sign with my fingers, but I really had no clue what I was doing. Neither did Barra for that matter. He took off to find Abel, leaving me time to snoop around.

There was a living tapestry that covered one of the walls. The general theme of the whole picture was ‘How Cool Is Abel.’ All of his conquests (most of them imaginary) were lined up in living color. There was the one about Abel squashing the Witch Uprising in Salem. I found that one a little amusing because he was the jerk that started the entire ruckus.

Then there was the one of Abel as conqueror of the Gypsy Rebellion. In reality, he talked (bullied) all the Otherworlders into sending the Gypsy’s into the camps. Dark days let me tell you. We’d like to forget that one, but if you forget your past, you’re destined to repeat the mistakes, of which we currently, though not as viciously, were.

One scene in particular bothered me most. It wasn’t as evil and diabolical as the rest of Abel’s exploits, but repugnant all the same. The tapestry pictured Abel’s destruction of my kind. Of course there was a made up story on the artwork of how the Iblian jinn tried to destroy the world or some bunkum. I was taken aback at how he would fictionalize himself doing the work of the gods.

In the last part of this particular scene were two Iblian jinn. The one with white hair was being run through with Abel’s sword while he stood one foot on the back of another in conquest. Those two jinn? They were Willa and I. Needless to say, by the time Abel showed up, I was full of snark and sarcasm, all just for him.

“Ah Magdalene,” Abel greeted me like a welcomed guest. “I have to admit, when the idiot guard told me he left you here alone, I was just the teeniest bit worried. But I see you’ve learned to behave considering you didn’t run off. I knew you’d come around to my way of thinking at some point.”

He seemed pleased for the moment. Owen and the other wolves had filed into the room with him. They were either giving me dirty looks or leering at me.

“So,” Abel clapped his well-manicured hands together, “let’s discuss the details of our new arrangement.”

I rolled my eyes. Whatever he had planned had to be less of an arrangement and more of a forced servitude.

“Why Magdalene, don’t you want to hear how you’ll be spending the rest of your life?” he admonished me.

I raised my arms and shook my wrists to show him the cuffs that bound my magic. “Captive audience,” I retorted.

Abel burst out in a raucous laugh, his chest vibrating from it. “You do have a wit most would call an acquired taste. I myself find it refreshing.”

Did this jackass think I’d break so easily? He was dumber than I thought. Barra had more sense than that. “So what’s the plan?” I asked out of morbid curiosity.

“I like the eagerness.” Abel turned to address the wolves. “See boys, I told you she’d come around without too much of a fight.”

Grumblings of “Yes your Highness” were elicited by the wolves.

Abel took a seat at his highly polished, mahogany throne. Carvings of elves in various poses decorated the seat of power. His wraiths, visible at the moment, surrounded him like gauzy curtains of purple and grew smoke.

I still hadn’t moved. Abel thought I was finally subservient. For the moment I was inclined to let him continue believing the fallacy.

“May I step forward?” I asked politely. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do yet. At the moment I was just playing with Abel’s head.

“Of course, of course,” he replied, gesturing me to come towards him.

The wraiths protection afforded Abel to give my new found behavior the benefit of the doubt. “Normally you would have to bow,” he informed me, “but there will be plenty of time to teach you courtly manners.”

This guy and his manners. Too bad he didn’t have any of his own. Unfortunately for me, Abel dropped that subject and picked up a whole new bag of crazy.

“You will become my consort,” he informed me as if he was telling me tomorrow’s weather.

My mouth dropped to the floor. Was this moron really serious?

Normally this is where I’d tell him something terribly clever and immensely irritating to him. Still in shock, I was unable to say anything. Genius boy took it as a symbol of awe and not the total disbelief and revulsion I was currently feeling.


He stood from his throne and made his way to me, walking slow circles around me as if he were inspecting a horse before he bought it. “You won’t have any power in my kingdom you understand, he continued, “but you will be a powerful asset and ally to me.”

It took such an effort not to laugh at him. I could only nod my head in assent as he continued on.

“You will be required to conduct yourself in the manner required of an Elven Queen. No matter what I decide regarding my kingdom, you will support me. You will have no contact with anyone from your previous life. Any alliances and friendships will be brokered through me.”

He stopped walking around me and now stood in front of me. Abel’s black Armani suit had not even a speck of dust on it. His hair was gelled back, not a hair out of place. This is a man that thought of everything down to every last detail. Except for when it came to me.

“Also,” he added, finishing up my job requirements, “as my consort you will be required to make yourself readily available for wifely duties at my request. Do you understand my terms?”

“Ba ha ha ha ha!” I couldn’t help it, the laughter burst through my mouth. My composure was gone the minute he said ‘wifely duties.’ I mean, come on, who says that?

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m going to sleep with you,” I told Abel in-between giggles.

I still laughed even after he hit me. The man had one hell of a right hook. Like I said, it didn’t deter me. As hilarious as his sexual demands were, I kept laughing, intending to irritate him some more. I think, though, that I may have really crossed the line this time.

Abel lifted me up by the neck and slammed me against one of the walls. “You filthy jinn bitch!” he shouted. “How dare you continue to mock me?”

“I’ll quit being a smart ass if you’ll quit being a dumb ass,” I managed to retort while gasping for air.

He slammed me back against the wall again before dropping me. My head spun a little from being slammed so hard this time.

“That’s the last time you’ll speak to me in such a manner,” he threatened before turning to the wolves. “She’s yours for now. Teach her to behave.”

Owen and his buddies seemed a little too happy at the prospect. “Keep her alive,” Abel warned as he stormed out of the room.

I’ve said it before that I can’t stand werewolves. They’re too hairy, too smelly, and the machismo B.S. gets old real quick. But, to watch them stalk their play is like watching a professionally choreographed ballet. They’re swift and silent. Every move they make is graceful and coordinated with the rest of the pack.

Normally, I would admire this dance. However, being the prey, it wasn’t such hot stuff. It was five of them against one of me. I had no magic and no weapons. Clearly, I was at a disadvantage. My only saving grace was that Abel wanted me alive. Thought that thought wasn’t too comforting while awaiting a werewolf beat down.





Elijah joined me once again after the wolves threw me back in my cage.

“You should’ve seen the other guy, “I weakly joked.

Elijah didn’t think it was funny. His mouth was set in a grim line. “You are a mess Mags. I don’t even know if Jess can fix all your injuries,” he said, pointing to all my various injuries.

“Nothing’s broken,” I replied. “I’ll just behave for a few days and will be as good as new,” I assured him.

I was a little bloodied and bruised, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Next time I would make sure to be prepared and have a weapon.

Elijah shook his grey haired head at me. “You shouldn’t have said anything if you were unprepared to fight,” he scolded. “But, I don’t think I would have been unable to laugh either,” he said, his stern face breaking into a warm smile. Elijah had a grandfatherly way about him that I was beginning to endear.

Footsteps pounded their way down the hall. Elijah disappeared in a flash, but not before promising to return. I could smell the mangy mutts before I saw them.

I looked up at them when they entered my cell. “Beating up a girl once today wasn’t cowardly enough for you? Gotta do it twice?” I taunted them.

Something was off. The stares and movements they were making were predatory, but not in a murderous type of way. I felt a chill seep into my bones, snaking its way to my heart where the cold grabbed my soul and held it in its icy cold clutches.

Owen stepped in front of his men to address me. “You don’t understand Mags.”

“Understand what?” I asked, wary of what I feared was going to happen.

“Upstairs. That was your punishment. Do you remember why you were punished?” Owen didn’t stop to let me answer. “Well, now that your punishment is out of the way, we can begin that lesson Abel wants you to learn.”