Darkness & Light (War of the Fae: Book 3) (32 page)

“Not all of them.
 
But more than you have.
 
More than the council knows I have.”

“
Tiiiim
... fess up.
 
What do you know that I don’t?”

He shrugged.
 
“Just that the Light Fae have rooms like these and that they’re in the middle of a war too.”

I felt a little sick to my stomach.
 
I couldn’t picture Dardennes or Céline ordering someone be tortured like Ben had done to me.
 
“Did you see anyone being ... tortured?”

“No.
 
But I heard some things.”

“Torture stuff?”

“Maybe.
 
I was outside this door one time.
 
Whoever was inside wasn’t happy.”

“When was this?”

“A few weeks ago.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged, looking down at his clasped hands.
 
“I don’t want you to think I’m making excuses, Jayne, but I’m older than you.
 
I’ve seen a lot of things in my time; and I know that in times of war, certain rules are bent.
 
Some are even broken.”

“Yeah, but we’re
Light Fae
.
 
We’re the
good guys
.
 
We don’t torture fae.”

He shook his head sadly.
 
“It’s not that simple, Jayne.
 
Good guys ... bad guys ... the lines are a little blurry, don’t you think?”

Everything he was saying disgusted me and pissed me off.
 
He reminded me of Ben.
 
“No.
 
I don’t think they’re blurry at all.
 
Good guy means you don’t torture or kill.
 
Bad guys do that stuff, but we don’t.
 
It’s simple.”

He fixed me with stare.
 
“You need to dig a little deeper.”

“No.
 
I don’t.”

Just then the door rattled and I snatched Tim, throwing him up on my shoulder.
 
I tried not to wince at the pulling and yanking of my hair as he frantically hid himself.

“Were you talking to someone in here?” asked Ben, looking around suspiciously.

“Yes.
 
The army of green elves who are on their way here to kick your sorry ass.”

He smiled patronizingly.
 
“There is a very strong blocking spell surrounding this cell.
 
None of your friends can hear you and neither can The Green.”

“Spells were made to be broken,” I said as fiercely as I could manage.

“No, it’s rules that were made to be broken,” he responded, staring at me intensely.

“Something you’re obviously quite good at – for example, the rules regarding basic decency towards others.”

“I didn’t come here to argue with you.”

“What
did
you come here for then?
 
To torture to me some more?
 
Because that was just plain fun.
 
Let’s do it again.
 
Maybe we can do some on you too.”

Ben’s eyes flashed red.
 
“Do you have any idea how frustrating you are
?!
”

“Do you think I give a shit about that
?!
” I yelled back.

“You should, Jayne, you really should!
 
Because I hold the key to your survival.
 
One word from me and you’re done here, headed on a one-way trip to the Otherworlds.”

I took two steps towards him.
 
“Let’s get one thing straight, Ben,” I nearly spit the words out, “I’m not afraid of you.
 
I hate you with every ounce of my soul.
 
I’m not going to help you hurt my family or anyone else.
 
You can burn in hell for all I care.”

Ben took a step towards me, the two of us now just a few inches apart.
 
I could feel the heat of his body, tied to Fire, sending pulses of electricity up and down my whole body, and not all of them completely horrible.
 
His eyes burned bright, and I knew I should be afraid – I’d seen him nearly on fire before – but for some reason I wasn’t.
 
I felt the purity of The Green in my veins, even if I couldn’t call it to me right now.
 
It was out there, somewhere, waiting for me to link in again.
 
The thought of it filled me with a confidence I didn’t know I had.
 

“Be afraid of me, Jayne.
 
Please.”
 
He reached out as if to take my hand, but then stopped himself.
 
He was nearly pleading.
 
Had he given me any other attitude, I probably would have spit in his face.
 
But the way he said it?
 
It was as if he was begging me to be afraid of him, and that totally didn’t make any sense.

“Why?
 
Why do you want me to be so afraid of you?”

“Because ... ” his eyes scanned my face and my shoulders, as if he was memorizing my features.
 
Then he rested his gaze on my eyes, staring at me intensely.
 
“ ... I don’t want to destroy you ...
”
 
He
reached up his hand slowly, touching my temple with his finger, drawing it down my face to my neck, leaving a trail of fire that didn’t burn as it went.
 
“ ... But I will, if you force me to.”
 

I felt my breath catch in my throat.
 
Everything he was doing, and every vibe he was sending, was in total contradiction to my imprisonment and torture he had personally ordered just a few hours before.

“Why are you doing this?” I whispered.

His hand froze and then his eyes hardened.
 
He jerked his hand away and stepped back, his eyes now returned to their flaming, angry state.
 
“We are at war, Jayne.
 
The sooner you accept that and yield to me, the sooner your situation can change.”

His abrupt change of heart pissed me off.
 
I threw my hands out, gesturing around at the ridiculous cell I was being forced to sleep in.
 
“Oh, so until I yell
uncle
, I get to sleep on a stone bench surrounded by my own vomit?” I folded my arms across my chest.
 
“Well, you know what, Ben?
 
You can go fuck an orc for all I care.
 
I’d rather swim in this shit before giving you the satisfaction.”

The red glow built up around him in an instant.
 
He was on the verge of losing his cool, and even though I didn’t know him that well, I knew the temper tantrum of this Dark Fae demon guy would be epic.
 
I doubt I’d survive it.
 
Probably this whole compound wouldn’t.
 
My arms dropped to my sides and my panicked mind went into overdrive ... and that’s when the idea hit me.
 
I could detonate this whole damn place with Ben’s help.
 
All I had to do was make him angry enough.
 
I didn’t even consider the sacrifice I was making
of myself and my friend Tim
.
 
All I thought about was the end result.

“Yeah, go ahead.
 
Blast me, Ben.
 
Send me to the Otherworlds with your fire.
 
You know the only reason you can do it is because you’ve totally cut me off from my power down here.
 
If we were up there in the Green Forest, I’d kick your ass to the Underworld and back.
 
I’d take your Fire and shut it down with my Water!
 
I’d take your Wind and snuff it out with my Earth!
 
You’re
weak
!”
 
I stepped closer until I was close enough to smell the brimstone that was like an aura around him.
 
“You’re a user and a torturer.
 
You have no code of honor.
 
You don’t
deserve
to be a fae.”

That last bit was what did it, I guess.
 
It was the worst thing I could think to say at the time.
 
Even though I wasn’t born fae, I do have a natural talent for making up good insults.
 
Apparently the whole ‘deserving to be fae’ thing was a hot button for him – a truly inspired shot to the heart.

The fire burst forth and surrounded him in a giant, flaming ball.
 
I stumbled back, getting as far away from him as I could, but the heat was nearly unbearable.
 
I hoped he was angry enough to burn this whole place down.
 
I didn’t want to get roasted for nothing.
 

I had a few seconds as he was being consumed in the flames to think about my moment of sacrifice and death.
 
I should have been more afraid, terrified even.
 
But there was nowhere for me to go, and I knew that.
 
It was pointless to fear now.
 
There were no windows to jump out of ... no way to get past him to the door ... no Green power to cool me off and protect me.
 
I was just sorry that Tim would be caught up in it.
 

“I’m sorry, Tim!” I yelled.
 

I felt a responding tug in my hair at the exact same time the door to the cell flew open and a great roar of displeasure filled the room.

The room went white – all white.
 
Not only the colors in the room, but the sounds and the temperature.
 
It’s as if we were all suddenly transported to a completely blank place with nothing on the floors, walls or ceiling but emptiness.
 
A strong wind whipped past and over me, sending my hair flying around my head.
 
Just when I thought it was going to be strong enough to lift me up and take me away, the noise of the wind disappeared and was replaced with a faraway tinny sound, like a television channel that isn’t getting a signal.
 
My hair settled back on my shoulders.
 
I didn’t know if I was still in the same room or somewhere else.
 
I felt like Dorothy must have felt when she was swept away to Oz.

Then it came to me – maybe this is what the Otherworlds are like.
 
Maybe I was in a waiting room for the
Overworld
.
 
Oh,
pleasepleaseplease
let it be the
Overworld
and not the Underworld.

The only problem with this theory was that I could still feel Tim in my hair, and I was pretty sure that when I died, I wasn’t going to be able to take hitchhikers with me.
 
I slowly reached my hand up to place it on the back of my head.
 
Tim was there, trembling.
 
 
Somehow he’d managed to hold on and not get blown to kingdom come.
 
He was being quiet now – probably in a state of shock.
 
I hoped he wouldn’t pee on me.

I shifted the weight of my legs from one foot to the other, feeling around a little bit with the toes of my moccasins.
 
I was still standing on the ground of the cell; I could feel its uneven surface below me.
 
The white began to recede into a light gray.
 
Slowly, the stone floor, walls, and surfaces in the room began to take on their natural hues.
 
I saw that I was still in the same spot in the cell, but now Ben was gone and in his place stood another fae – a female wearing a silver robe.
 
She had white hair and silver-gray eyes.
 
She looked so much like Céline
,
it was freaky
.
 
I almost called her Céline before stopping myself.
 
I didn’t need to give these fae any
intel
at all, and I decided that included names.

“Who are you?” I convinced myself that the first one to speak automatically had the upper hand.
 

“I am
Maléna
of the silver elves.
 
And you are Jayne, the elemental of the Light Fae.”

I just tilted my head, refusing to confirm or deny who or what I was.
 
“That your light ball that came in here?”

She looked at me, a question in her eyes, before she caught on to my meaning.
 
“It was the wind that came, not light.”

“Seemed pretty bright to me.”

She examined me as if I was a rat in a cage doing something curious.
 
“You are amusing.”

“No, actually, I’m pissed.
 
I want to be let out of here.
 
You have no right to hold me against my will.”

“According to whose law?”

I hesitated.
 
“According to the law of the Green Forest.”
 
I was pulling stuff out of my ass now, but it sounded good to me.

“There is no such law.”