I pressed a kiss to Sara’s cheek first, and then to Michael’s. “Please don’t search for supernaturals any longer,” I added as I pulled back. “Promise me that once this is all over, you will go and live normal lives.”
Sara struggled, her eyes red as she sobbed. There were no tears, which probably meant she was too dehydrated to shed them.
I gave their hands one last squeeze before standing. “It’s going to be okay. I will fix this. I have allies. You don’t need to worry about me.”
The empty promises I made crashed to the ground, shattering around us. No one believed me, that was clear, but it felt like the right thing to at least try to settle their concerns. I had to turn away then, away from their frantic eyes, away from the anguish of knowing this might be the last time I saw them. Laous knew exactly what he was doing giving me these few moments with my guardians. Motivation to provide him with everything he wanted.
Some of the Imperial guards brushed past me; I heard a mild struggle before an echoing silence descended. The air changed after Sara and Michael were gone. Everything felt darker, more painful. I was alone again … always alone. But it was okay because I was keeping people I cared about safe. Sara and Michael. Lexen … all of the Darkens.
Laous was waiting where I’d left him, right near my egg prison. “I will not give you one thing until I see evidence of Sara and Michael, free and healthy,” I said, no inflection in my voice.
The healthy part was what had me most worried. Laous just nodded, a half-smirk on his face. I turned and marched myself into the egg. New walls immediately closed around me and I sank into the center, wrapping my arms across my legs. I felt sick, my stomach churning over and over until I felt like I would throw up. If I’d had anything to eat recently, it would definitely be making a reappearance. How could my parents not tell me I was the secret keeper? It was one thing to hide that information when it was about them, but if it was my burden to bear, then I really should have known about it. About Overworld and Daelighters. About everything.
I sat in that same huddled position for what felt like hours, my mind racing with everything that had happened to me in the last little while. Everything I could blame Laous for, all the ways he had ruined my life.
An ear-ringing pop signaled that my cage was open again. An unknown Imperial entered. He had red tattoos all the way up his face and across his neck. He held a small device out to me. It had a screen on one side and I grabbed it, pressing my face closer to watch my guardians. They were in our house on Daelight Crescent. My breath caught again as one of my hands lifted to brush against the screen. They both looked perfect. Healthy, strong … alive.
“Prove to me that this is footage from right now,” I demanded, knowing it would be easy to manipulate me with old footage.
As if he’d been expecting it, red tattoo pressed a small black button on the side, and then we had audio.
“We need to get her back!” Sara’s voice sounded desperate as she paced across the tiny living room. “They’re going to kill her, just like they did Chelsea and Chris.”
Michael moved forward to comfort his wife, his normally jovial features tight and drawn. “There is no way for us to get back to Overworld. We can’t use that transport light thing. We did as she asked. For now we have to wait.”
I was relieved they were being circumspect about talking with the Darkens. Maybe they knew Laous would be watching the house. Michael’s paranoia was coming in handy.
“How could Chelsea and Chris hide this from us?” Sara sounded desperate. “Tell us just enough to hook us but never reveal that Emma was so important. Even though we were always going to be the ones to care for her if they couldn’t…”
I’d always wondered how a straight-laced teacher and accountant became such great friends with supernatural hunters, and now I knew. There was nothing normal about my parents, and whatever they had been involved in, it had influenced the Finnegans, causing them to jump into this crazy life of hunting down Daelighters. It got my family killed, and almost the Finnegans too.
Was I next?
“Are you satisfied?” His gruff, heavily-accented question was hard to understand, but I got the general idea.
I nodded. “Yes. I will help you in any way I can. But you need to tell Laous that I have been trying to think of akeymy parents would have treated reverently and I’m drawing a blank.”
Red tats smirked, and I was immediately wary, stepping back while keeping my guard high. Thankfully, he didn’t move toward me. He just shut off the cameras and gave me a simple wink, which somehow felt as intrusive as if he’d touched me. “You better think harder, grubber. Laous does not take well to being denied what he wants.”
Then he was gone, walking out of the egg; the walls snapped into place with a twang, like a rubber band flinging back into place. Some of the relief at seeing Sara and Michael returned to good health – through some sort of alien magic obviously – faded away as I realized that I could no longer stall Laous. He wanted to know where this key was, and apparently I was the only one who could help him. It might have been a little easier if I had an idea what sort of object it was. Was it a literal key, or something less obvious?
I could not remember a single time my mom had mentioned a key or secret keeping, or anything like that to me.How could they do this?A burst of anger had curses flying from my mouth, one after the other.
Energy boosted me to my feet, and using my temporary rush of emotion, I kicked out at the walls again. Again they shifted away so I couldn’t touch them. “Come on!” I shouted. “You stupid piece of crap, open the hell up. Let me out!”
By this point I’d clearly lost all semblance of sanity, morphing into a screaming banshee. There was no real reason for it, I knew that, but it felt cathartic all the same. I’d had a really long, shitty in some ways – amazing in others – week, and I really needed a release.
When I got that out of my system, I decided to stand and glare at the walls for a good twenty or thirty minutes. Then I started to sing. I chose the most annoying, ear-piercing song I could think of, humming it at first, then breaking into a full-on ballad. High notes included.
The truth was, fear was eating me up inside. Fear. Worry. Pain. So I would just sing my songs and pretend I wasn’t being held prisoner in hell.
Literally Overworld hell.
My song died off as the walls burst open. Laous stood on the other side, beady eyes drilling a hole through my face.
“Yes, can I help you?” I asked, like he’d just popped in for a chat.
“Do you have the location of the key?”
