Page 17 of Bound By the Wraith: Northern Realms

“Sort of. This one happens to be cut off, and like I said, owed me a favor, which I have now cashed in. Really didn’t expect to use it on you, however.”

“Well, thank you, but I’m still kind of annoyed,” she muttered. Angel or not, she didn’t like stuff being done to her without her knowledge.

Cillian crossed his arms. “I do you a kindness, another kindness I might add, and you’re annoyed?”

“I think I have a right to be a little put out. My ex betrayed me, I was almost committed, I sold my soul, and now my soul belongs to you.”

“You’re not the only one who has put a lot on the line,” Cillian snapped, his eyes flaring with a brief flame of crimson. “I—” His mouth snapped shut.

“You…what?”

“Nothing that concerns you.” With a snap of his fingers, he disappeared from the room.

Cali growled in frustration. Once again, stuck in this bedroom. She’d been healed by a seraphim, who did goodness knows what to her mind, and now she was left with no answers again. It seemed like he was hiding stuff from her.

And why wouldn’t he?

There was something he wasn’t telling her. How could she trust him? And she wasn’t sure what a wraith really did. What occupied his time, besides looking at orbs? She knew a bit about different folklores, like there were obvious things about vampires and sunlight, werewolves and silver bullets, but what did wraiths do? She really didn’t know.

She knew what banshees did.

Was a wraith like a male version of a banshee?

Cillian’s world wasn’t hell, but it didn’t seem to be purgatory either, or one of those levels of hell like in Dante’sInferno. It was like being stuck in a void. Like in limbo. It was a place she hadn’t even known existed. Not from any legend she’d read or anything.

She got up and wandered back over to the balcony where she’d eaten earlier. The table and chairs were gone, and she walked out to overlook the hideous garden of grotesque topiaries that were carved into really brown and dying looking trees.

The sky was orange, like dusk on a summer day, but there was no wind. Nothing but scurrying sounds as little creatures scuttled across the stone and hard packed dirt. There was a stonemaze in the distance that seemed to stretch and bend. And as she leaned over the side of the balcony, it almost seemed like they were inside of an orb.

“Astute observation,” a melodic voice said, reading her mind. “Although, if you make it to the center of that labyrinth, you can escape this all.”

Cali spun around to see an angelic woman in white standing there. It was as if she was glowing, almost. Was this the seraphim that had healed her? If anyone seemed like a seraphim, she did, and she had just given Cali the location of an exit.

Why though?

“Who are you?” Cali asked.

“Elodi. I’m an elf,” she remarked, her violet eyes looking Cali up and down. “Who are you?”

“You can read minds, so I’m sure you know.”

Elodi smiled, but the smile was cold. It didn’t reach her eyes and Cali took a step back, because suddenly, in a realm full of goblins and demons, she didn’t feel particularly safe around this beautiful elf.

Run.

“You are a mortal. That’s all I care to know. You’re really not worth the effort,” Elodi replied with disdain.

“Then why are you here?” Cali asked.

Elodi stepped forward, still smiling that cold, calculating grin that made Cali uneasy. “I’m here to see your master. He was here a moment ago. Did he get bored with his plaything already?”

“I’m not his plaything.”

Elodi rushed at her, gripping her by her hair. Suddenly, that smile and beautiful face morphed into something else, something evil and dark. “I should kill you now, but I cannot.”

“Why is that?” Cali asked.

“Cillian is hiding so much from you. You’re nothing but a pawn in his game. We all are,” Elodi hissed. “Maybe I will kill you after all. A mortal speaking to an elvish princess so flippantly.”

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