Momentum (Completed)

Chapter Thirteen: Miles Apart

(Lyra)

I knew I was right straight away; her eyes turned ice cold and she glared at me.

“What. Did. You. Say?"

"You heard me fine," I replied calmly. "I knew you were familiar somehow..."

She darted over to my cage. "What do you know of my daughter?" 

“Maybe I’ll feel a bit more talkative if you agreed to release me,” I said sarcastically, knowing that this would only be met with scorn from her. She actually faltered for a second, but it was only a second.

"Nyet. I don't believe you know her anyway."

I started counting off my fingers. “She’s a ginger, she’s about twenty-two years old, she’s a very talented fighter, her slave’s name is Twelve, she has a phobia of spiders, she-”  

Zero spat at me, cutting me off. "Enough with your witchcraft! My Nephele would never, ever stay with your kind. I know my daughter, and she would rather die."

“Things change. She wasn’t willing at first..."

"Listen to me, you filthy, foul creature! I do not care what change you have claimed to happen to my daughter, but I know for a fact that you and your disgusting followers have brainwashed her. The closer we get to discovering your secret, the closer we get to freeing Nephele." She got up and walked away from my cell again. "Now, where were we?"

“I brainwashed her?” I laughed at her incredulously, stepping forward and placing my hands on the bars again. It made me feel a little closer to her. “I can’t believe how ignorant you are... It explains a lot about Nephele, actually.”

"Shut up!" she screeched. "Your tricks may have worked on my poor abducted daughter, but they will not work on me!"

“I’m not trying to trick you...” I muttered, a bit taken aback by her hostility. She ignored me completely and went back to Dolosus. "Do you realize that she betrayed warriors in America to spy for us?" I asked, knowing it would hit a nerve, but I realized that I might have taken it too far... The woman's body went stiff and she stopped mid-step. She was silent for a long time before she turned to face me again and moved towards me, her heels clicking with every slow and deliberate step she took. When close enough to my cage, she bent down and pressed her face up close, her expression literally pulsing with hate.

"You listen to me, Insurgo. I am going to kill you, and I am going to make it painful." She paused and pointed back to Dolosus.  "And you see that thing over there? He is going to feel every second of it, and then, just before you're on the brink of death, I'll kill him and then let you suffer an existence without him until I get bored, or until you perish from heartbreak." She never broke her gaze once. “That will happen, Insurgo; I promise you that much, but the amount of time you have left before I destroy you depends on your behavior, da? So, if I were you, I would keep my mouth shut and stop spreading lies, otherwise your bird will be dead before you can blink.”

With that she turned her back on me and moved toward Dolosus, so angry that she didn’t even take the time to give me her trademark smirk. She grabbed a needle off the table and stuck it into him, and he instantly fell into a deep, drugged sleep. I heard her mutter something to one of the warriors, but I wasn’t listening; I was more concentrated on not having the largest meltdown of my entire life. What had I done?

"Please," I begged desperately, "please don't hurt him. He's not the one that insulted you. Punish me instead." She glared at me.

 "Shut up! I'm not punishing, da? This was my plan from the beginning." She handed the cage containing my soul to one of the warriors. I started to hyperventilate.