Chapter 5. There are numerous time brakes in this chapter, shown by . Read, review, enjoy!
I stared across the blackwood desk into those cold, bored eyes. Daemon looked at me, his fingers forming a steeple as he did so. "Stop staring at me, dammit," I snarled, slamming my fist onto the desk. "Will you do it or not?"
"I see what he means." Daemon said quietly.
"What?" I snapped.
"They get feisty when they're riled."
My crimson nails dug into the desk, leaving deep scores in the wood. "I'm not hear to play games, uncle."
"Don't call me that."
Even before I said it, I knew of the word's history. I needed to get him on my side, and I was not getting it by sweet talk. My voice was flat when I said, "Yes or no."
"You are a child."
"I am a Queen."
Daemon glared at me. "Ah, yes, I forgot." He smirked. "The little girl pretends to be a Queen, but the second she walks on to the killing field . . . . then what? Does she stand her ground? No. She crumbles."
"Look at me." Those gold eyes bore into my own as I spoke again. "Do I look like I give a rat's ass?"
He blinked, and then laughed. "Feisty, feisty."
"Answer me!"
Daemon looked taken aback. His fine black brows were raised well above their normal level. "Excuse me?"
I stood up and stormed over to him. A fist aimed at his pretty little nose should do the trick. How dare he brush me aside? The cold hit me then. It started at my fist and worked its way up my body. Cold ropes slithering around me, twisting, writhing. I gasped and choked for air when my lungs became restricted. Damn. Thinking became hard. I couldn't breathe, much less think of anything coherent. Fighting was utterly useless, so it was only rational that I stop fighting. Of course, everyone knows how rational I am. I took a sweeping dive to the Sapphire. Of course, he was there to meet me. Thinking I, like witches on their virgin night, was trying to escape the pain. Fool. He didn't want me to get hurt, and that was exactly what I knew he would do. Using his own net of protection as a spring, I hurtled back up. The force of my own strength, coupled with what he had wrapped around me burst the icy bonds that had enveloped, by that time, my entire body.
As soon as I was free, my legs buckled and I collapsed on the ground, gasping for air. Daemon rushed over to me, and propped my head up.
"Andie! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" He snarled.
I smirked, and coughed, "Bastard." I saw a ghost of a smile cross his face before my world went black.
I felt a smooth hand brush the hair away from my face. After a while, my eyes fluttered open to find Jaenelle sitting beside me. She did not look angry, but concerned. I was exhausted, I knew that my jewels were drained. My whole body ached as if I had been beaten with a sledge hammer. I guess that, considering what I had done, I was very lucky. Most people don't play around with the Sadist and live to tell about it. No matter, I'd chew his ass out later. Darkness, I'm beginning to sound like an Eyrien. That alone is a frightening thought.
"You were foolish." Jaenelle's velvety voice brought me out of my pitiful reverie. I bowed my head, perhaps I was. "But," her sapphire eyes were lit with amusement, "I would have done the same thing."
"Really?" She nodded.
"However, I don't think I would have mentioned rats' asses." I realized, then, that I would never live it down. Mother Night, what is the Sadiablo family coming to?
Three days later I found myself back at the Keep. Daemon grabbed my arm and drug me down to the dragon den. He held a ball of witchlight above our heads to illuminate the pathway. Lorn was probably quite sick of me by now.
Once we reached the dragon, Daemon took a comfortable seat between two of the mighty tail spikes. Too bad he didn't take a seat on one of them, but never mind that.
"Ssshe is angry with you." Daemon shrugged. "What do you want of me?" Lorn's sibilant voice echoed through the chamber. I felt the two males communicate through a spear thread, damn them. "I sssee. Are you sssure, Sssadi?"
"Yes."
Lorn turned to me. "Do you know how you came to be, child?"
I turned a quizzical eye to Daemon. "What, did you need a refresher course on reproduction or something?"
Lorn growled. Maybe being arrogant wasn't the best way out of this. My mistake. "Sssilence." A few small stones shuddered on the floor. I faced him, trying not to wince. "A ssspell, child. A cursssed ssspell." And then everything went black. Again. Dammit.
When I opened my eyes, I saw an older woman sitting at a table, her fingers dancing over a complex web. I wanted to get closer, to examine the delicate threads, but as soon as I turned toward it, I had to stumble back. It was contaminated, somehow. Repulsive. I cringed as I saw the grey growth creeping along the strands. The woman had a gleam in her eye that I could not place. Who was she? I watched her turn from the web and scan the pages of a book next to her. Her lips lifted into a feral grin as she began working again. And then she began to whisper to herself. I found myself unable to move.
"She will purge the Realms," Jaenelle? How did this lecherous creature know my mother? "Yes, she is too bound by honor to do anything else. Like him, bound by the precious Protocol." She laughed. "Oh, Saetan, you will pay for that." I blinked, who was this bitch? "And she will survive. She is too strong to die for that, damn her. But she will pay for ruining all I've worked for." A chilling laugh filled the room. "She loves the Sadist, so it will have to be the halfbreed." I snarled at the insult, but she could not hear me. The woman picked up the web and muttered a spell that I could not understand. A vibrant flash of blue burned my eyes, when the light had faded the woman held a small orb in her hands. She brought the orb to her chest and it seemed to spread out around her and soak into her skin. I cocked my head, what in Hell's fire? The woman laughed and ran her hands up and down her arms, as if to rub the spell into her body.
"When they destroy me, this little darling will be caught in it and pierce that bitch's heart." She smiled to herself, making me shudder.
A male voice echoed through the chamber. "Heketah!"
She ran a hand through her hair and looked at me. Did she see me? I took a step back. "Coming!" She turned and left the room, leaving me alone.
Suddenly, I was back in reality. Sadi was looking at me, not quite amused but not completely sober. "Now do you underssstand, little Eyrien?" I looked up into Lorn's huge eyes and shoved my shaking hands into my pockets. I nodded. The spell was swept up by the Purge when Heketah was destroyed, and then the backlash had carried it to Jaenelle. I had to admire the pure genius of it . . . . of me. I must have grimaced because, Daemon spoke.
"You see now, don't you?"
"Yes, I do."
Daemon stood and stretched like a cat. I wonder if he purrs? His next words caught me off guard. "Then I will teach you."
Author's note: Being merely a simple landen, I don't know how spells work, so I hope this chapter made at least a little sense. Lol. (Begs shamelessly for reviews)