Page 32 of Lower World
“That was the strangest part.” Samir gulped another glass in one swallow, already refilling it. A jolt passed through me when I noticed his hand trembling. “Before he died, your father made me promise to keep you safe, and he told me not to look for you. When the time was right, you would be delivered on my doorstep.”
“This is ridiculous.” A throbbing headache was developing behind my eyes.
“It is the truth.” With a sigh, he scrubbed a hand over his face, and every day of his ancient life was visible in his gaze. “It was decades that I waited, and just when I thought you must be dead as well and was ready to give up, a knock on my door brought me face to face with you. A small youngling wrapped in a blanket dropped outside my door. This door to be precise.”
“I don’t understand. Didn’t you say decades?” I was getting sick to my stomach and hoped I wouldn’t hurl all over Samir.
“Yes, decades, yet you looked just like the day you were born. I saw you that day and gave you my blood, too. A gift so you could call on me if you ever needed my aid.” He searched my face, but I had no idea if he found what he was looking for. “I never questioned why you haven’t grown as if you were locked in time only to be delivered to me later. Knowing your mother, nothing would surprise me. She was the most powerful witch I had ever seen. If anyone could make you suspended in time, it would be her.”
“And?”
“I couldn’t hide who you were the more you grew. Isaiah and Frederic are many things, but fools they are not. You look too much like your mother. There is no mistaking that red hair and those eyes. So, after killing you failed, they tried breaking you so you could be used as their weapon. Even as a child, you were as stubborn as you father. You never did anything you didn’t want. I tried protecting you as best I could, agreeing for your memories to be altered, pretending I was working with them … all was well until Johnathan got involved.”
“That’s how I ended up in the cages.” My gut twisted.
“I rejoiced when you ended up in the cages.” I jerked back at the hiss that came from him.
“What in all the hells, Samir?”
“They sent that idiot to get close to you, not to just spy and tell them your secrets, you stupid child. They couldn’t break you and use you as a weapon. So, they sent him to seduce you. If they couldn’t have your powers at their whim, they could always train your child as their puppet. I didn’t kill that useless male only because his greed made sure he ran to Isaiah and Frederic to rat you out, so he was not able to be alone with you outside these walls. You being in the cages made sure he couldn’t get anywhere near you. There, I kept you alive while I employed Veronica’s help. If they wanted to play games, I could do it too.”
Mind spinning, I sagged into the pillow. What Samir was saying destroyed the last shreds of reality inside me. Were any of my memories the truth? Did every person I thought of as a friend act as such because they were told to do it? Weight pressed on my chest, and numbness spread through my limbs. What was the truth? In the fog clouding everything, one thing he said stood out.
“It was you. Every time they would bleed me dry in the cages, you came to feed me so you could keep me alive.” It wasn’t a question, and he didn’t answer. He only watched me steadily. A hollow laugh passed my lips. “To what end, Samir? What’s in it for you?”
“I gave your father my word.” He looked offended, but I had a nagging feeling there was more to it.
I waited.
“If you knew your mother, you’d keep your word too,” he finally muttered, eying me sideways. That time I accepted the flute he offered me. I’d drink poison at that point.
“So, from what I gather, they killed my father so they could rule, for power. They wanted to use me because I have magic in my blood. What I don’t get is why all the rest of the bullshit. Casting spells, erasing and altering memories. That makes no sense to me.”
“That’s because you don’t know the history of our kind. No one does after that cursed spell, and let me tell you one thing: Isaiah and Frederic will bury both of us alive if a word gets out about this.” Samir was leaning so close I could smell the coppery taste of the blood he’d been drinking on his lips.
“The witches and the Atua were mortal enemies. Before your father met your mother, we were thinning in number and falling like flies. But she loved him, you see. Together, they made a pact, and for the first time, we had peace. It didn’t suit everyone, especially those having a gain from the war, so a group of the witches made a different deal with Isaiah and Frederic. The witches never expected to be tricked. After that spell when half of them perished, the rest were imprisoned, and to this day they serve as the Syndicates’ puppets.”
“But we are stronger and more powerful than the witches.” As the words spilled from my mouth, the thought about Alice and everything she’d done so far made me falter in my conviction.
“Only because they are cut off from half of their magic,” Samir confirmed my suspicions. “When your father was killed, your mother placed that curse on them.”
“On the entire witch kind?” That was not possible. No one was that powerful.
“They called her the Keykeeper. She was … is the vessel that filters the connection of raw magic and the witch kind. They killed the one she loved, and she slammed the door in their face. If she ever appears and decides to open it again? Many in this building will be praying for death that will never come. Especially after she hears what they have been doing to her daughter.”
A shiver ghosted up my spine, pebbling my skin.
“We are on our own, Samir.” I had no idea why I said it. “If my mother was alive, she would’ve showed her face by now.”
“Not yet.” He glanced around as if expecting someone to be spying now after everything else he said without care in the world. “Before she does come and show herself, a few things need to happen. First, your father’s dagger that she made for him must appear.” My heart dropped at my feet, and the said dagger burned through the fabric of my pants where it was strapped to my thigh.
“What’s so special about that dagger?” I asked offhandedly, hoping he wouldn’t notice I was strung as a bow.
“It never misses. It’s etched with sigils, and it’ll always find its target. Only your bloodline could heal from a wound of that weapon. Anyone else would die.” I had a bad feeling gathering in the pit of my stomach.
“Is that the only thing that needs to happen for her to come out from wherever she is?”
“A mortal enemy needs to freely offer his blood to an Atua without expecting anything in return.” My body did visibly flinch with that. Dominic offering his neck and later watching me as I drank from his wrist played in front of my eyes.
