She closed her eyes and continued to chant more loudly.
Seemingly oblivious to Seraphina’s words, the creature whipped her head toward Fionn and yanked one of the chains from the wall with unnatural strength. She hurled it toward him with a deafening shriek.
Moving so quickly he was merely a blur, Fionn grabbed her and hurled her back against the wall. She struck it with a thud andcollapsed in a shuddering heap. Fionn walked toward her, his voice echoing as he spoke angrily in another language.
I almost missed the glint of the jewelled dagger Torin threw with deadly accuracy as the creature attempted to launch herself at Fionn. The weapon sailed through the air and pierced the Elorium’s right wing before it completely unfurled. The creature uttered an agonising scream so intense that I had to cover my ears. Whimpering in pain, she flopped around on the floor like a beached fish and curled into a protective ball, her free hand feebly clawing at her remaining manacles.
“It would be easier for all of us if she simply cooperated,” Torin said walking forward to regain the dagger as it clattered to the floor.
Exhausted and stripped of the power that had triggered her frightening transformation, the Elorium’s baleful glare held Seraphina and the brothers for a moment before her eyes fluttered shut and her head dropped to her chest.
Only then did Seraphina relax.
“It's over.”
She and the brothers seemed to sag with relief now that the Ordeal was over, and the intense focus they’d previously displayed also dissipated. Fionn turned suddenly to see me peering through the opening in the door.
TWENTY THREE
ELYSIUM
Fionn rushed toward me. “Didn't I tell you to go to your room?”
“And didn't I say that I wasn't going to be ordered around by you?” My voice came out stronger than I felt, but I clung to that strength, hoping it would help me.
Without thinking, a rush of defiance pushed my fear aside. I slammed the door and latched it before Fionn's hand reached it.
The satisfying click of the lock echoed through the corridor, and I felt a surge of adrenaline. For the first time, I had a barrier between us, a physical sign that I wouldn’t be controlled so easily. A tremor ran through the wood with every strike, as if he could break it with his bare hands. But I wasn’t going to let him threaten me like that.
“What are you doing, Tilly? His voice hardened. “Open the door.” Cillian said, stepping forward.
Panic seized me as Fionn began pounding on the door in a rage.
But in this moment, for one little split second, I felt like I was in control. “I’ll open it if you break the spell holding me to this house.”
Fionn’s voice cut through the chamber.
“This isn’t a negotiation, Tilly.”
Now I heard more footsteps approach the door.
“Open the door,” Seraphina said. “There's no place to run. You also don’t understand the nature of what we’re dealing with. You are playing with a fire that has consumed realms, little earthling. Do not think you can stop what has begun. Vareth’s power is already reaching across the stars and poisoning your mind.
In time, you’ll see that there's a reason for what we must do.”
Though I felt a sense of victory that I had at least demonstrated to Seraphina and the brothers that I wasn't a child held to their beck and call, I also realised that I didn’t want to provoke their anger toward me. Afraid of what I’d seen of Seraphina and the others, I was more afraid of what I had not yet seen.
“You shouldn't be here, Tilly,” Seraphina said. “This isn't for your eyes.”
“I shouldn’t do this; I shouldn’t do that. Why should I listen to anything you've to say?” I responded, feeling the anger and frustration that had been building up regarding Donte burst like a dam. “You know I don’t want any of this. I just want to go home!”
I yanked down a wooden spy-hole cover positioned in the centre of the door and peered through at each of their faces. My eyes eventually stopped at Cillian.
“Why have you done this to me? Do you have any idea of the hell I’ve been through? First, Donte, then you leave me here for days, and now this limbo. I don’t know who or what to believe anymore. All I know is that I’ve done nothing to deserve this!”
Torin approached the door with an ingratiating smirk.
“Such a fiery show of spirit. I always knew you had it in you. All it takes is a little...”
