Chapter 14
“What is this place?” I whispered, staring at the pale figure, strapped to a rack in the center of the room.
Laylen shook his head. ‘I have no idea…I’ve never been down here before.”
“Should we…” I gestured at the person bound to the rack.
“Should we free them?”
Laylen gave me a skeptical look and then slowly made his way over. I followed at his heels, trying to figure out if the person was alive or dead. Honestly, they looked dead, their eyes sealed shut, their body unmoving, their lips silent as a grave.
Even when we stood above them—or should I say her—
she still showed no signs of life.
“Is she…is she alive?” I said to Laylen.
Laylen leaned over her. “Yeah, I can hear her heart beating.”
“Should we…” I reached for one of the ropes around her wrist. “Should I untie her?”
Laylen nodded and reached for the other rope around her wrist. The rack wasn’t stretching her limbs to their full capacity, but her pale skin was pulled rather tight. Her curly black hair ran off the sides of the rack, and so did the worn-out blue dress she was wearing. Laylen and I untied the ropes around her arms and her legs, but still she didn’t move.
“Now what?” I wondered, reaching out as I considered giving her a soft shake.
But Laylen beat me to the punch, lightly shaking her shoulder. But still, she didn’t show any signs of being alive.
“Maybe she’s—” I started
The girl’s eyes shot open. She took one look at us and leapt from the rack. She backed herself up against the stone wall like a skittish cat, her black curly hair a tangled mess around her face as she let out the loudest blood-curdling scream.
“Son of a…” Laylen jumped for her, grabbing her as gently as possible and covering her mouth with his hand.
“We’re not going to hurt you, but you have got to stop screaming.”
The girl’s bright yellow eyes were wild as she scanned the room, the rack, the stairway that twisted up to a door.
Then, she caught sight of me and something in her expression changed. She calmed down.
Laylen slowly inched his hand away from her mouth, testing whether she was going to freak out and scream again. But she didn’t. There was something about the sight of me that was calming her.
“It’s you,” she breathed loudly. “I can’t believe it.” I glanced behind me, making sure there wasn’t someone else she was looking at.
There was nothing there but the tunnel
“Yeah, it’s me.” I shot Laylen an ‘is-she-crazy’ look and he shrugged.
“If I let you go, are you going to scream again?” Laylen asked her in a gentle tone.
The girl shook her head and he released her. Her bright yellow eyes stayed locked on me as she walked forward.
Laylen, I guess getting nervous, stepped between us.
“You think you know her?” he asked, pointing at me.
She nodded. “She’s the one he talks about all the time.
The girl with the violet eyes—the star.”
Well, holy crap. She did know who I was. “Who told you about me?” I asked, stepping up beside Laylen.
She glanced up apprehensively at the top of the spiral stairs. “The man with the scar,” she whispered.
Stephan.
“Why did he tell you about her?” Laylen held out his arm in front of me, still trying to urge me to keep away from her.
“Because.” She tilted her head, examining me over with her unnatural bright yellow eyes. “I’m the half faerie, half Keeper he needs for his plan.”
She said it as if were nothing out of the ordinary, as if we should have known this bit of information already.
But it wasn’t normal. At all. It was one of those things that made your jaw smack to the floor. At least that’s what I thought until she tacked on, “And I’m his daughter.”