“I feel you and your… boyfriends? What do you call them? You are all together, aren’t you?”
“We are a family. They are more my brothers.”
“Brothers that share and fuck each other?”
Why is she so interested in this?
Before I can answer, she continues, “Wasn’t there another? What was his name?”
Where is she going?
“Ah, yes. Brady was his name, I believe. What ever happened to Brady?”
“He died.” It wasn’t a complete lie. His spirit is gone. It has been for a while. I used to feel him, see it in him. Now. He’s a shell of a man barely hanging on. I know I’m being selfish by keeping him alive, but at this point, it’s keeping the mist contained. Brady would want to go out fighting. Fighting for the protection of people who don’t even know his name. He died many years ago, and who remains now is the warrior shell.
“Died?” she screeches in mock horror, throwing her hand over her mouth. “Oh my. I had no idea.”
I don’t miss the fact she doesn’t offer words of condolences. Would it matter? I wouldn’t believe a filthy word out of her mouth.
She glances down at my balled-up fists and I catch myself and release.
“Well, moving on.”
Yes. Moving on.
“Can I be honest with you?” she asks, placing her hand on my arm and I try not to flinch or jerk it away.
“Always.”
She pushes open the main doors into Infernus and now we’re standing in a large room with four large doors that are the gateways into themed play areas. A wooded area, a playhouse, an aquarium, for the water fae, and a fourth I’ve never been allowed in. No one has. It’s Samara’s private room.
She walks towards the fourth room and pauses in front of it like she’s contemplating something, then shakes her head no and pushes the doors open.
Hesitating, I walk in after her. The room is dark, and it’s not until the doors shut and lock behind me that the lights flick on, revealing a large, stark white room. So white that it’s creepy as fuck. Large white tiles line the floor, with a large white circle, seven feet or more in diameter, pinned against the wall with white cuffs. It’s like a BDSM x-cross but on a wheel. There is a single table in the center of the room with a single white sheet draped across it and behind it is a white shelf with empty jars.
“Are you ok?” she chuckles, watching my face as I look around the room.
I’m getting the feeling this is some sort of room that she performs… dissections of fae and then stores their body parts. Is that what she’s planning on doing to Everlee?
“Fine,” I say, trying to swallow the bile down.
“I thought you would be. Of all your… brothers, as you call them, I thought you would be the toughest. The others aren’t strong enough to handle what needs to be done.”
“What exactly needs to be done?”
“Well, finding Everlee, of course, and studying her.”
“You plan to… cut her apart piece by piece?”
She laughs an evil laugh. The kind of laugh that slices you deep to the bone. “Of course not. What kind of monster do you think I am?”
The kind of monster that erased the entire species hundreds of years ago. “Well, you just brought me here… so I didn’t know.”
“No. Silly. I need Everlee. No, this room is for you.”
Before the words can fully register in my mind, my vision blurs and darkness consumes me. The last thing I remember is my body hitting the floor.
KNOX - INVITING IN THE DJINN
