Page 52 of Hex
“You mean the same way you hexed Sage so she wouldn’t fall in love with me?” I grit out, hatred dripping from every word.
“I see.” Cocking her head to the side, she grins like she not only ate the canary but got some feathers stuck between her teeth.
The worst thing I can do is engage in more conversation, but herein lies the problem. Baba Yaga has the answers to most of Sage’s questions and this opportunity seems crucial. Nevermind that hearing her voice makes me want to rip her into pieces.
“What do you see?” My question is slow, each word a separate threat.
“You still don’t know. Has no one figured out the real curse?”
My hand juts out between the bars but is slammed into an invisible force that protects anyone on the outside of the cell.
“Tell me,” I say, then roar out my frustration. “Now!”
“Yes, Baba. I’d be curious to know as well.”
Baba Yaga and I both freeze as the new voice, familiar and faery-like with its vibrancy, interrupts the heated moment.
Baba Yaga looks around, just as baffled as I am as she stares into the distance. I look over but cannot see a damn thing.
“Who is it? What’s happening.” I’m back to shaking the bars, pulling with all the might I still possess.
“How…” Baba Yaga asks, shaking her head as though she can erase whatever image is in front of her.
“No matter. Please, continue with your story time,” the voice in the distance encourages Baba Yaga, but before she can even speak, it dawns on me…
“Trina? Is that you?”
Chapter Eighteen
Sage
Aroar, so loud it rattles my skull, wakes me with a start, my body shooting up to sitting in a panic. That’s about as far as I can go because thick, golden cuffs are weighing my wrists down. They’re so heavy I can’t lift my arms from the soft mattress beneath me.
The roar is still echoing through my mind as I struggle to move. I know it was Hack. I can feel his turmoil spreading through my veins, almost as if it’s my own. Everything from before I blacked out rushes back to me now…
Hack has been taken by someone who wants to play hide and go seek, I killed a whole bunch of kyn—more like massacred, but I’m choosing to play that shit down before it eats at me—and Hekate appeared to save me from going off like a firework for a second time. She didn’t get a chance to have that much-needed conversation with me about who my father is because my body chose that moment to give up.
So here I am, on the softest bed I have ever felt, surrounded by five black walls—no, not the usual four—and I can’t go anywhere.
At least it’s a beautiful room. The crown moldings are bronze, as is the wide door with carvings engraved over its entire surface. I can’t make the design out from here, but the way the moonlight shining through the glass ceiling above hits the dips and bumps is really effective.
The large four-poster bed—also bronze—has a delicate fleur-de-lis kind of design carved into the posts, and what appears to be the phases of the moon on the headboard. It’s surrounded by flower carvings and again, the moonlight shining through the ceiling makes it look so damn pretty.
I wish I could appreciate it more.
“Hello!” Shouting out like this could be one of those dumb girl things, but my instincts are telling me that these cuffs aren’t holding me down for nefarious reasons.
The wide door opens and I hold my breath, hoping I’m not wrong.
“Nice to see you awake.”
I still can’t get over this whole gods and goddesses are real thing, but here is Hekate, poking her head around the door with a huge grin on her face.
“I would say good morning, but…” I gesture to the ceiling and the night sky above us. “How long have I been out?”
With more elegance than a bird in flight, she floats into the room and comes to stand beside the bed. Thankfully, she comes bearing yet-to-be-seen gifts in the form of coffee…
I can smell coffee from a mile away.
