The Daughter of Time (Ace of Queens #6)

Ch.19 Lie to Me

Chapter 19

"You didn't feel anything?" Heyder turned to Maya. "How did you not feel something was wrong?"

"I did!" Maya frowned. "I was going to stop the spell but it was too late."

"Fuckin' fantastic!" Heyder threw his arms up into the air. "Brilliant, Maya Dorin. You just closed the time gap and trapped Fiza."

Maya felt her temper flare like a gas stove lighting up, "Why are you yelling at me?"

"You're supposed to stop as soon as you sense something is wrong!" Heyder snapped. "Not stop when the spell is fuckin' done!"

Syde looked at his assistants and then at Maya. He quietly backed away and excused himself leaving the loft to Maya, Heyder and a crying Fiza.

"I....I want to go home," the girl sobbed. "Emir is waiting for me. We're getting married."

Maya turned her eyes to the girl as Heyder pulled her into his arms to comfort her. Fiza buried her face into his chest and her narrow shoulder racked with sobs.

"Why does she even have a binding spell on her?" Maya asked. "Did you do it?"

"Oh yes!" Heyder laughed harshly. "I did a binding spell and didn't tell anyone. Listen to yourself."

"Then who did?"

Fiza lifted her head and looked up at Heyder with her puffy eyes, "That's a binding spell?"

"It connects you to a jinn," Heyder said to her. Maya hated the way his voice lowered as he spoke to her. "As long as the jinn lives, you will be bound to him. If he goes to any other dimension he can pull you with him."

"I....I don't know any other jinn beside you," Fiza frowned.

"What about Mirza?" Maya asked. "You know Mirza."

Heyder looked down at Fiza once more. He pulled her away from his arms and scanned her face.

"Fiza, did Mirza say or do anything to you?" He asked.

"He.....he was there when I woke up."

"What do you mean?" Heyder asked.

"When I woke up on the snow, Mirza was there."

"He probably pulled her out," Maya shook her head. "It can't be coincidence that of all the people in the word Fiza fell through the hole and she is bound to a jinn."

"Is that.....is that true?" Fiza trembled. "Did Mirza do this?"

"It's possible," Heyder sighed.

Fiza started to weep harder.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know what he was doing."

"It's okay. It's not your fault," Heyder pulled Fiza back into his arms and held her head against his chest. Across the living room, his eyes connected with Maya, who stood in the salt circle staring at them with her face blank.

Maya felt a scream start to build up in her throat. Heyder had no right to treat her as if everything was her fault when it was his stupid brother and his wimpy lover that had messed everything up. She glared at him from across the room but he didn't seem to understand at all why she was upset. Or maybe he did, but he was just too stubborn to admit it.

With a heavy sigh, Maya stepped out of the salt circle and walked over to the sofa. She grabbed her coat and put it on before running down the stairs of the loft.

"Maya," Heyder called after her, but she didn't stop to listen. Her anger was fuming and she needed to get out of the stifling indoor air.

Where are you going? Heyder mind-linked her as she stormed past the barista and into the snow.