Page 80 of Beneath the Watching

“Hey,” I greeted her softly. I waited for her to acknowledge me, but she didn’t turn to look at who’d entered her space. “What’s going on?”

She flicked away a tear. “All they want is my magic. They don’t wantme.” She swung her legs down but made no move to get up.

Kiara finally faced me. “Ilya claims he loves me, and I really thought he did, but he wants what everyone else wants. Power.”

I sat across from her, my heart aching at her words. “I do think Ilya loves you. He seems to. I don’t really know him all that well but from what I’ve seen, I’d say he does.”

“You don’t understand!” She raised her voice in anger. “This thing inside me—it's insane. I never asked for it, I don’t know why I have it. I mean, what did I ever do to have to end up like this? Huh?”

Pressing my lips together, I glanced at one of my best friends. I didn’t have the answers for her; I had no idea why any of the stuff that was happening, was happening. She had a point—who would ask for this? You can dream of it, imagine it, and think you want it, but the reality was seriously messed up.

“Can you get rid of it?” I met her gaze. “Is that possible?” I asked.

Kiara laughed bitterly. “Not the way you’d think. I have to die for it to be gone. I have to let one of these goons suck me dry to make it go away.”

“There has to be another option. What are you reading” I pointed to the book she held.

She slapped the book shut and clutched it on her lap. “I have to die.” She laughed bitterly. “Everybody knows you can’treallydie. I’ve heard that so many times.”

She rolled her eyes. “But I can leave and not come back here.”

“What do you mean?” I glanced out the window as my heart stuttered. My friend stood up, the tome falling off her lap and landing with a thud. “What are you going to do?”

“Did you know I can break every one of these windows with just a flick of my wrist? I can make the glass slice right through you, cutting you in half if I wanted to.”

“That’s a bit...graphic.”

She nodded. “Yup. I could set this whole place on fire, too.”

“Uh. Maybe don’t do that? I kinda like my life here, I’m not planning on going anywhere.”

She gave me a dirty look. “You’re lucky. You don’t have to deal with any of the bullshit, you have no idea what it's been like for me. Everything always works out for you,” she sneered.

“Excuse me? That’s not true at all. Maybe I don’t know what you’ve been through but I’m not you. I’ve had plenty of my own stuff to go through.”

Kiara spoke bitterly, “All you’ve had to do is sit there all pretty and quiet and people just take care of you.”

My eyes welled with tears. She had it all wrong, even though I could see why she’d think that. “I was never allowed to talk or do anything. Here, I get to do both.” I kept my voice low. “I just wanted us to hang out again, I’ve missed you. I wanted to find you. I wanted to tell you about everything that’s happened. I’m sorry for whatever’s happened to you. Can’t we just figure something out?”

“No, Mabel, we can’t,” she spat.

Kiara was losing it. Losing it beyond anything I’d ever seen with her before—and I’d seen a lot. There was no way for me to know all she’d been through here, away from home, and it was clear these men had put her through a nightmare. The woman I’d known was gone, gone quicker than a Fourth Realm sunset.

“Maybe we should go fix up Ilya’s room?” I had no clue how to fix whatever was happening and thought maybe appealing to her heartstrings would change the direction of the conversation. It was worth a shot. I’d left the infirmary hoping to be some sort of help.

“Did you not listen to a word of what I just said?” Kiara flopped back down on her seat. “I’m leaving.”

She held her hands, palms toward each other about a foot apart and I felt the air pressure change as if we were on a descending elevator. Dizziness overwhelmed me and I backed into a chair before sitting down. The lights flickered and she pushed her palms together, her biceps trembling. Then, she cupped her hand like she was holding liquid and brought it to her chest. Her eyes closed, lids fluttering, and she dropped to the ground turning as white as the snow I’d seen the night at the abandoned house.

29

STEFAN

“Zyra,”I called taking the steps of the circular staircase two at a time. At the top, I went to the right, down the long hallway, heading toward the breeze. I expected to find my sister on the rooftop patio where she spent hours training her corvids and I swiveled my head, searching. Crows naturally took to her and frequently brought shiny trinkets as rewards for the bits of meat she lay across the railing every day.

I crossed the granite platform, the scent of rotting flesh assaulting my senses. As smart as they were, the birds left crumbs of the raw muscle behind to decompose under the heat of the sun.

Zyra came around a corner, an obsidian-feathered bird on her leather strapped arm. The creature squawked at me, beady eyes full of accusation, before lifting into the air.

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