“Not right now. Let me enjoy being close to you,” he continued. “But to answer your question, your father didn’t care at first. And then more recently, he began to seem uncomfortable with my continued presence. I suppose I seemed too excited about you. Asked too many questions. He knew what my mind was capable of, and many of us were dangerous. We were friends when he was at his lowest. But as he returned more to normal, he began to move cautiously around me.”
Argo’s voice hardened, a bitterness taking over. I tried to wiggle free, but he only held me tighter. I felt panic rise inside of me. He was dangerous, and I was in his world with no help. I did not doubt that he could easily rip me apart in his grasp. I thought of Harris and began to count to ten in my head, steadying my heart. If I was going to get out of this, I needed to think clearly.
“When I finally had enough strength to follow you, you went to that restaurant and met the orcs,” he spat. “I had hoped you were going home so that I could go to you directly. I did not need to keep seeing your father by then, and I knew he would tell me to leave very soon. He feared I’d want to drain your life force after he discovered my…infatuation. But I didn’t want to leave. I wanted you. Had to have you. You plagued my mind when I came back to my realm. I could never stay in your world. The witches made sure of that. But you can come here. You could bring the warmth to my home I had to have.”
I stilled. I could not stay here. I could not. A shadow tentacle snaked up my bare calf and over my knee, and I began to fight against him, no longer allowing my fear to freeze me. I tried to tear the tentacle going up my thigh, but my hands were bound. I pushed my magic at it, and it shriveled up, seemingly absorbed back into his body.
Argo grunted in pain, but his grasp on me did not loosen. “Naughty. Do that again, and you won’t like what happens to you. I’m trying to be nice. I think you’ll find your power isn’t as strong as you’d like in my realm. This will be easier for you if you open your mind to what we could have together.”
His threat made me sick, and I held my breath, trying to hold in a tremble of fear. “I don’t want anything with you,” I spat.
“That orc,” he started. “Is a problem. And he has access to portal hop. He is as obsessed with you as I am. I realize that I cannot have you the way that I want if he remains. And despite my best attempts, he is still alive. Albeit with one less hand.”
“What do you mean by your best attempts?” I asked, a sickening fear twisting my stomach because I already suspected the answer.
Clawed hands dug into my side, giving me tiny pinches of pain. “I watched him plotting and scheming with that brother of his about you. He was a problem from the start. From the moment he saved your father, I should have known. But I could do nothing. So, I had to employ the help of others. Namely, the warlock that the orc used in the rescue of your father. That warlock would come to check in on your father from time to time to help unbreak his mind. The orc hired him to do such. I was able to then manipulate the warlock during those visits into wanting to kill the orc. It took every bit of my magic that I should have used to grow in fighting strength or lengthen my stays in the human realm, but I thought it was worth it.”
It was all making sense now, and I grew sick at the thought. This had all been my fault. It had nothing to do with a rival crime family. Harris was afraid it was his way of life that would put me in danger, but it had ended up being the other way around. “But it didn’t work.”
Argo growled, a rumbling sound that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “I didn’t expect you to get in the way. That useless warlock is lucky you didn’t die, or I would have ended him as soon as I was able. Fortunately for me, it seems your orc did my dirty work. So, I guess he was good for something.”
“What do you want?”
“While I admit I want to feel your power, I would not drain you. That would be wasteful. I would give you a home. I could make you happy here. Wipe the stench of that orc off your skin.” His shadowy appendages slid around me as he spoke, crossing over my chest and up my arms and legs. My stomach clutched with nausea.
“You could make our home as bright and warm as you wanted. I’d have to hold you close because others would be jealous that I had such a magic being, but I will keep you protected.”
I opened my mouth to argue. I wanted to tell him I didn’t need protection because I didn’t want to be here, but it felt pointless. This being was out of his mind, and I was pretty sure that arguing that kidnapping me and bringing me to this realm of darkness was never going to work for me. My heart pounded in my chest as my mind raced with foul things he would do to me. I couldn’t let that happen.
No, at this point, I needed to find a way to kill him and get home. But I didn’t kill things. I was an elf who held magic over the arts and brought beauty into the world. My fighting magic was extremely limited, even without being in this world. And a portal mage was all defense magic. You used it to escape. Maybe you could send someone through a portal, but if he had portal abilities as well, that wouldn’t work. Still, with him attached to me, I couldn’t portal away. And there was only so much blasting magic I could use. It didn’t kill him. However, if I put all my energy into my attack, perhaps he’d let me go, and I could run through a portal. I had to be sure that it would work because if it did not, I feared it wouldn’t bode well for me.
“I don’t want that, Argo,” I said in a trembling voice I didn’t want him to hear. “I could never be happy here.”
He tilted his head from side to side, making him appear even creepier. There was no doubt he was disturbed, and I had to tread carefully. “Your skin is so soft.”
I wanted to scream, but I knew it would do no good. I wanted to cry, but it was an unhelpful action at this point. “What if I just visited from time to time and powered you up or whatever. Maybe even my dad could help.”
He leaned toward me, moving his head to my neck and inhaling. I held my breath, and it felt like my heart stopped. “Yousmell so good. You have no idea what you have done to me. What you are doing to me right now. Being close to you is everything I hoped it would be. I want more than your power, Camilla. I want you. Only you. You should be mine. You will bring meaning to my life in ways I couldn’t imagine. And I can do the same for you. Allow me to show you what I can give.”
A shadowy tentacle rose between my legs, and I held in a scream as I squeezed my legs together to stop its movement. “Don’t,” I said in a choked voice.
He licked his slimy tongue slowly up my neck before rearing back. “Why? I can give you more pleasure than you could ever imagine. Make you forget all about that brute of an orc.”
I shivered in revulsion, my mind screaming. I wanted to be angry with my father for bringing such a creature into my life, but I was rational enough to know it wasn’t his fault. My father was only at fault for obsessing about a realm he was never meant to enter. One that dragged him through years of torment and landed him in a gloomy world with a creature that coveted what he had.
I balled my fists, pouring my magic through my hands in preparation for my attack. I wouldn’t allow this to happen. I’d die before I let him do anything to me. I didn’t care if my magic was weak here. “I will never forgive you if you do this.”
His trapped tentacle wiggled between my thighs while others tried to pry them apart. “You will have time to forgive -”
A blast off in the distance pierced the air, sending an explosion of an orangish haze over the tall grass and tossing us to the ground. It felt like the air was punched out of my lungs, but I was still alive with only a deep ache on my right side that I would live through. Most importantly, I was free. His tentacles having retracted into him when we flew apart.
I didn’t know what it was or who was behind the explosion. All I knew was that it was a distraction for me to get away. And so, I opened a portal behind me, got up, and ran.
Chapter Fourteen
Harris
“I’m not done yet!” Kaylor shouted as she gripped my wrist tighter, pouring her magic into my still-healing hand.
