“I see your point, but I don’t think that’s the issue. That’s like saying ‘I’m a cannibal, but we were locked up by serial killers, so what’s the problem?’ I’m pretty sure the problem is, they’re afraid of you being a cannibal.” Maybe she shouldn’t use flesh-eating metaphors. It was too close to being the likely outcome. “It’s hypocrisy, sure, but it’s a matter of degrees, from what I can tell. You did the same thing, just maybe in a too-overt way.”
Rig laughedhard.“Oh, awittyone. Very well said.” He had a collection of wooden charms and little figurines on leather cords for necklaces and wrapped around his wrists. “Yes, I suppose you may be valid in that observation, though I still think it is gross hypocrisy.”
“And I’m not saying it isn’t. But, either way, I don’t particularly want to be mind-controlled into whatever it is you want from me.” She took a hard gulp of wine from her glass.
Rig hummed. “I fear it is too late for that, my dear Ava. I have already made up my mind that you are precisely what I have been waiting for.”
Her mind skipped over his words like a rock on a pond for a second. “Excuse me?”
“Let us not start at the end, Ava. Let us talk about what I wish for us, first. This is not how I want this to go between us.” He gestured to the table in front of them. As he did, food appeared before her. A plate of the most delicate and yet extravagant meal she’d ever seen. Roasted duck on a bed of greens and sliced potatoes. Something that probably would go for a hundred dollars a plate or more in Paris.
She stared down at the plate. Then up at Rig. And tried desperately,desperatelynot to panic. She was seated across the table with an armed bomb. Or a hand grenade that someone hadpulled the pin from, and she didn’t know how much time she had left.
He’d just told her he was going to mind control her into agreeing to whatever the hell he wanted. And while she didn’t know if he could get her to agree to a contract when she was already bound to Serrik, shedidknow that he could absolutely fuck her up very, very badly without any kind of agreement in place.
Considering the choices in front of her, she decided to take a deep breath, and do everything she could to just take a slow, careful sip of the glass of wine, and place the wine glass back down on the table in front of her. “All right…I’ll hear your proposal.”
The smile on Rig’s face was both one of relief and predatory joy. “I am so very glad to see you are a reasonable, intelligent human. So many would have started weeping or shouting some kind of nonsense.”
Yeah. That had been a possibility. “What do you want from me?”
“Consider my existence, Ava. I can tell anyone to do whatever I wish them to do. And they act without question, without hesitation—and I can make them forget.” He chuckled. “Or I can make them believe that whatever it is I desire is, to their very soul, is what they have always desired as well.”
She stayed silent. She didn’t know what to say. Or do. Or think.
“It was addicting, little Ava. Why wouldn’t it be? To have such power at your disposal.” He laughed, quietly, looking over at her with a reminiscent, blissful smile. “Everything was mine. Everything and everyone. I had it all.” His smile faded. “But it was all a lie. Every word of it, every bit of it—fool’s gold.”
He sighed. “I could never trust their words, even after I set them free of my influence. Not even their hate was real. All of it,every ounce of it, the good, the bad—predicated upon falsehoods that I designed.”
Against all the screaming voices in her head, she stayed seated. She wanted to get up and run as fast and as far as she could. But she knew she’d make it two steps before he commanded her to stop. And it’d be all over.
He reached out a hand to gently take one of hers where it rested on the table. “Everyone here, I have already ruined. They are already spoiled against me. But you? You do not have reason to hate me yet. Fear me, yes. But that will quickly soften.”
“But to what end? What for? I mean—”She sighed. “Besides the obvious. I’m no one. I’m just stuck with a book I can’t use.”
“Exactly!” He laughed, taking another step closer. “Is it not obvious why that isperfect?Human Ava. Boring Ava. Powerless Ava. You have nothing I want. You are not a pawn on the board. The only leverage you provide to anyone would be by attachment to me or as a meal.” He waved his other hand dismissively. “Both easily protected against.”
“You still haven’t connected the dots for me here, buddy.” She didn’t like him touching her. But she needed to keep him talking. And she needed to think about how to get out of the situation. Somehow. Someway. There had to besomethingshe could do.
Rig released her hand and stood, making her instantly nervous. He approached her and gently took both her hands in his to pull her up to her feet. Clearly understanding that he was dealing with a frightened animal about to panic at any moment, he carefully guided her away from the table and a few steps towards the clearing. “I understand how overwhelming this is, Ava. Believe you me, I do. And I do not discount the strain you have been under.
“This is what I am after, as plainly as I can make it.” He smiled, reaching up to run the backs of his knuckles along hercheek. He was getting her used to him touching her. Shereallydidn’t like that. But she put up with it. For now. He let his hand rest at the base of her throat. When he spoke, his words sounded like an empty grave. “I have never had an honest companion in all my years, Ava.”
Oh. It all clicked into place. All the parts of the weird conversation, all snapping together as one. “You want me to be your companion—one that you never have to hypnotize into doing what you want…specifically because I’m human, and powerless, and therefore…otherwise useless.”
A sad, self-effacing smile wavered on his lips. “Well, when you say it that way, I sound downright pathetic, and yet I have managed to utterly insult you in the same breath.”
“Mm, you can hate on yourself and still think I’m somehow worse. They’re not mutually exclusive.” She was exhausted. And her adrenaline was running roughshod over whatever little control she had over the filter between her brain and her mouth.
Luckily, Rig seemed to take the snarky jab as the joke it was meant to be. He laughed, shutting his eyes. “Yes, I do suppose that is true. Well, thisis my proposal to you, Miss Ava. A contract between us. You will be my willing companion until the end of your years. And I will provide you my unyielding protection in return. It is as simple as that.”
It sounded simple. Which meant there were absolutely giant, gaping, glaring holes.
Never mind that he’d already told her she couldn’t say no.
Never mind the fact that she was not at all certain she wanted to be stuck as the so-called willing companion to a satyr-hypnotist-whatever for the rest of her years. “It’s not really willing when I can’t say no.”
“Do not focus on that part just yet, Ava. Consider the offer as it stands, I entreat you.”
