Page 98 of What did you do?
The cat leaped down from her lap as she stood and moved behind the beaten-up glass counter of the register.
“Seelie.”
Startled at my words, the witch whipped back around to me, recognition filling her brown eyes.
“I knew you were a real witch,” I muttered triumphantly as I hugged the little black cat.
“Well, this makes more sense,” she said, tossing me a cloth with strong-smelling oils all over it.
“Can you split my heart? I need to give it to someone, and it’s important that I can physically hand it to them,” I pleaded, deciding on taking the blunt approach.
“Split your heart? Body modifications like that are incredibly unreliable and difficult. There’s a reason why you never hear about it being done, kid, especially when it comes to vital organs. That’s why those witches in Hanabi got burned for splitting those Marongs’ hearts once their powers started killing them. Besides, it only lasted a short amount of time.” She grimaced at my blood-smeared face. “Here, let me help.” The witch slowly moved toward me, as though she was afraid of scaring me, and grabbed the cloth.
If she only knew.
“How long does it last?”
She stared at me for a second. “Depends on what you are, but usually only until the red circle passes the moon.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
She laughed. “No one knows what it means unless you’re a witch. It’s about twenty years.”
“Please, I need you to try on me. I have to hand her my heart,” I pleaded. “Please.”
“I’ll have to call my grandma. She’s better at?—”
“No. No one else can know I was here,” I said, cutting her off. I needed to make sure this didn’t get back to Saracen.
“Okay. Then it’s going to cost you,” she said with a smile.
I giggled appropriately and palmed the karambit in the pocket of my cardigan.
Unfortunately, it was going to cost her a good bit more.
“What are you? I can’t see your ears under that hat. Elven? You know, over two streets, there are the sweetest husband and wife who are elven. They own the Hobbit Hole Bar on second street,” she said warmly.
Moving aside a deep red curtain that acted as a door behind her counter, she paused and waited for my answer.
“Okay,” I said with false intimacy, “but you can’t tell anybody.”
25
PRESENT DAY
Caly
Iwatched the heavy rays of sun move through my cell and be replaced with the orange-red of Seelie dusk.
They would be coming soon, just like they had every night for the last several weeks. Goose bumps pricked up my arms at the thought. My dry, bloodshot eyes stared out into the sky, unable to blink. It felt like it had been forever since I’d started hearing the distant cries of the others day in and day out. Maybe today would be the day they actually came for me.
Sitting at the very peak of a beautiful mountain, high above the tallest tower, and nearly in line with the clouds, stood Malvar. The place I would breathe my last breath.
The opulence here was used to break your mind, to make you feel safe when you weren’t. My mind had broken a long time ago, accompanied by several other body parts.
The sun shifted again, and I knew it would only be a few more hours.
Malvar was not what you expected to find when you heard it was a prison for some of the most dangerous fae out there.
