When the nausea passed, I straightened my spine slowly and steadied to my feet, braving the clawing ach running through my entire body. “Who have you told about me?” I slapped my hand against the glass. “Who have you told about me!”
“Good gosh, no one. You think I want to share you? I think not.” She sighed loud and long. “I’m just glad I have you back before anyone else discovered you.”
The cobwebs of pain receded, sending up an anger so deep it darkened my vision.
She laughed as she jingled coins in her hand. “How else would I get my magic?”
“You meanmymagic.”
“Semantics.” She displayed her teeth in a smile and stepped closer to my cage, a predator stalking her prey.
My heart shriveled. My mother had never been Elizian. This entire time she had been using my magic. Those jars of blood I had found in the basement weren’t an experiment to help us control our magic. They had been her never-ending storage.
Outrage took hold of me. Obscurity snaked in around my vision at the edges. My magic gathered inmy drained body and pulsed in one bright light that dimmed as fast as it had illuminated.
“Aw, look at you trying to use your magic in a magic-proof box with shackles on.” Her voice morphed into a condescending tone that could be suited for entertaining a child. “Keep going. You almost got it.” A nasty cackle burst from her lips as she dropped coins in my machine and slammed her fist on the button. “I told you to take your clothes off, deary.”
She took another sip of my blood, watching my limbs spread with the force of the machine.
I’d never had two sessions back-to-back. This second one was far worse than the first. As if I’d been struck with ten g-forces, my eyes began rolling to the back of my head and my lungs constricted.
The male bellowed behind me, “Stop! She’s had enough! You’re going to kill her!”
Then, the light in my eyes went out.
Defeat smothered me before the dread had a chance. How had I gone from wanting to tear downthe Cidris Facility with my bare hands and free all the Elizians to being trapped by Mother.
“Are you okay?” Mirin whispered.
“Peachy,” I croaked.
I looked up to see him sitting cross-legged at the barrier in the tunnel between us. Holes pierced his skin, angry redness surrounding each one. “She did me too.”
“Sorry that bitch of a mother is a lunatic.”
“Yeah,” he muttered.
“Have you found a way out of here yet?” I tried to push myself up to a seated position, but my limbs were far too weak, and I fell back to the ground.
“No. These cages are something else. I am an engineer in Elizy. I have never seen anything so intricately designed as this. I’m inclined to believe these cages were spelled together with magic. But not just any magic… royal magic, maybe?” he purred as he ran his hands across the glass as if he was admiring the artistry.
“I’m Ripley.”
His eyes darted to mine. “R-Rip—Princess Ripley?”
I hauled myself up to my elbows and huffed, “Yes.”
I watched as he bowed his head forward and rested his fist over his heart. “It is good to be in yourpresence.” His eyes opened and latched onto mine. “We have missed you terribly in Elizy.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly.
His gaze wandered the room. “Is this where you’ve been this entire time?”
“Unfortunately.”
An expression akin to sadness overtook him as his hand flattened over his heart. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Just help us get out of here. Can I do something to reverse the spell on these?”
