Chapter 13 Unanswered Questions
I shuddered at Delano’s touch; taking it for pleasure Delano pressed his lips to mine. My reflex was to melt into his hold, but I turned my head away in disgust. I glared at him.
“So I want some answers, and I want them now,” I demanded taking a step back, whilst still giving Delano the death glare. He had on an amused expression.
“What am I in relevant to The Key.” I started, but was cut off by Delano’s laughter. He gave me a look that said, do you actually think I would tell you? I scowled in disgust at him. He thought this was funny? Well I would show him. Delano leaned in and tried to kiss me again. I smiled and leaned closer too, but before his lips could touch mine, I gathered saliva in my mouth and spat it out onto his face. I watched as his face turn from a cheerful smile into a demonic glower all in one second. All traces of “friendliness” was gone. He wiped my spit off his face and grabbed my arms tightly, making me wince.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he said monotonously. He began to drag me towards the car. Despite my efforts to escape from him, his iron grip never loosened. As his car loomed into view, I began to grow desperate. Deciding to throw all my efforts in a last ditch attempt, I pretended to go limp in his arms. Almost instantly, his grip lessened on me as he believed that I had given up. I inconspicuously groped around in my back pocket for anything that could be a weapon. And then, I felt the ridged side of my keys. Taking them out in one hand, I stabbed Delano’s hands as hard as I could, earning a pained groan from him. I broke out from his hold and dashed across the parking lot. Screaming at the top of my lungs, hoping for someone, anyone to come and rescue me.I heard the thudding of his feet against the pavement. Just as I reached the curb, hands shot out and grasped me and pulled me backwards. I gasped from the shock of the impact as I crashed into Delano’s chest.
“Never try something like that again,” he hissed threateningly as he once again began to pull me back into the parking lot. This time, I knew it would be hopeless to escape. He wouldn’t be making the same mistake twice.
As he threw me into his car, I hit my head against something hard. I could swear that I heard something crack as pain shot through my body. Everything went black.
***
I opened my eyes and my heart nearly stopped beating. Delano was asleep beside me. One arm under his head, and one arm draped across my waist. Scrambling away, I suddenly swayed in dizziness and tripped over a blanket. The next thing I knew, there was a loud crashing sound and I was suddenly on the ground. Delano’s head peeked out from the bed. A confused expression played on his face.
“Are you okay my princess?” Delano stood up and scooped me from the ground. I gaped at his sudden gentleness, but before I could think any further, Delano threw me onto the bed roughly. I gasped in pain as I hit the bed frame. Stars appeared before me and I was momentarily stunned. Before I knew it, Delano was on top of me, pinning me down. He looked down at me with a smirk and lowered his head down to my side. I gasped as he nibbled at my ear, almost mocking me with his gentleness.
“Don’t forget that you’re mine,” he whispered.
I squeezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the worst. To my surprise, I suddenly felt his weight lift from my body as he pushed himself up and slid off the bed. The door clicked shut and I knew that I was finally alone in the room. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, I decided to test the door. It was locked, as expected. I checked to see if my phone was working. To my complete and utter lack of surprise, there was no signal. Looking around, I tried to see if there were any other ways to escape.
Had the room not been so decorated with luxury, it would have been easy to see that it was just like a cell. The windows were barred and the room was dimly lit. I sank back down on the bed. I felt exhausted.
Abruptly, there was a knock on the door. Thinking it might be Delano coming back to harass me some more, I kept silent. I covered myself with the blanket, pretending to be asleep. Moments later, the door opened and I heard something being wheeled in. Whoever it was stopped in front of the bed and then I heard their scuffling feet retreat back out; the door clicked shut behind them.
I raised my head in wonderment at what had been set before me. I was greeted with the smell of something delicious and my mouth began to water. Lifting a silver cover, I found a platter of fluffy pancakes stacked with rivers of syrup slowly oozing down. On another plate, I discovered a display of fruit, made to look like the shape of a swan. To top it off, multiple pitchers sat on the tray with a wide variety of drinks. There was milk, tea, lemonade, and a curious sparkling drink that was a purplish red. Once again, I thought back to the myth of Persephone and decided to ignore the food, despite my protesting stomach. I laid my head back onto the pillow and tried to distract myself by surveying the room. On a closer inspection I noticed a bookshelf full of ancient looking books and script. They seemed so fragile, that one touch would have them crumbling to bits.
As I approached the towering bookshelf, I browsed the titles. They all seemed to be in Latin. Hmm, maybe he has a book about The Key? Skimming through the titles, I picked one out that seemed to be promising. Clavis. I opened it, but to my dismay, it was in olden Latin and the words were fading. There were only a few words that I could pick out, key, seven dimension, legend.
A rattling noise from the door caused me to shove the book into my jacket. I bounded towards the bed and buried myself under the covers. Footsteps made their way towards the bed. By the sudden coldness that consumed my body, I knew it was Delano. He stopped in front of me and stroked my cheeks softly. Leaning over, he kissed me on the cheeks, his lips lingering a bit too long for my liking. It took me almost everything I had to keep from clawing his eyes out, but I somehow managed to keep up the façade of being asleep. As he saw that he wasn’t getting a response, Delano sat up. With a sigh, he left the room.
Needing a change of settings, I rose up from the bed, and walked like a zombie towards the window and gazed out. Everything was just as it had been the last time I was here. The angel statue, the sea of molten fire, the miserable gloom that wouldn’t go away. However, the line of guards seemed to have doubled. My heart sank then, no one would be able to penetrate through that line of defense. Just as I thought the last words, I noticed the lines of guards going down one by one.
“Intruder Alert!” Someone shouted.
I made my way to the door to find it ajar. I quickly ducked out into the hallway, joining in the crowd. I was shoved from side to side by the running guards and maids. I looked down at the chaotic mess. People were scrambling to put the castle into lockdown. The skeletal servants were everywhere, some running out onto the terrace to prepare the weapon that were needed. I looked outside again to see snipers lining the castle roofs with their flaming arrows.
“Lady Jasmine, what are you doing out of your room?” A maid was already grabbing me by the wrist and dragging me down the stairs into the dungeons. I flailed around wildly in an attempt to escape, but no matter how much strength I was using, the maid’s hold never wavered.
“Let go of me!” I yelled. The maid was now racing down the steps and pulling me along at an almost inhuman speed. When she finally stopped, I couldn’t help myself and slammed into a wall. We were now in the dank place where Delano kept his prisoners. Just as I was about to make another attempt to escape, the maid let me go. She stood before me, the air shimmering. I stared at her befuddled. My confusion was soon answered when Thea appeared behind the cloaked mask.
“Thea! How did you-” I was interrupted as Thea quickly covered my mouth and put a finger to her lips.
“You have to speak quietly, or else the prisoners will talk,” She whispered. “I’ll explain later. Right now, we’ve got to get out of here.”
Out of her invisibility cloak, she pulled out another one. Silently, she handed it to me. I quickly fastened the the cloak around me, while Thea whispered something under her breath. Suddenly, the air around me quieted, and I felt like a muffler had been placed over my ears.
“I’ve put a spell around us to make it harder for people to hear us,” explained Thea, “but that doesn’t mean that we can be very loud either.”
Then we were off, dashing down the dark hallway at a breakneck pace. Everything blurring around us. Then we reached the opening I had ducked into before and Thea gave it a push. The stones gave away to outline a door. We both looked at the door for a second, wondering where it would lead.
“This is kind of our only choice, isn’t it?” As we took a step forward, the scenery changed around us.
“Amazing! It was just an illusion!” cried Thea, “how much effort must have been put into setting this up, and to keeping it intact for how many years?”
I pulled her forwards, knowing that when Thea was fascinated by something, she could easily forget everything else. Together, we descended down into another dark passage.
“You got anything that might give us some light?” I nudged Thea.
“Yep! Just give me a second,” as she held out her hand and whispered “Incendo”, a slow glimmer of light began to grow on her palm until it became a dancing orb of fire. “Alright, and now we’re set!”
We made our way through the passageway. While the area was empty, I couldn’t help but imagine ghosts or evil spirits of dead prisoners following us. I could tell that Thea felt the same, from the way that she seemed to tense up whenever we heard a sound. Just as I felt that I could take it no longer, my eyes caught a glow of light that was definitely not coming from Thea’s hand. We broke through the exit of the passageway to find ourselves outside in a beautiful garden-like cemetary. Vines snaked through the gravestones, each adorned with black roses.
“So this is where the magic happens?” I inquired.
“Looks like it,” responded Thea. “I’m going to need your help for this Jasmine. Are you willing to give it?”
I nodded, unsure of what to say. Thea drew a circle in the ground with her cane. She then took my hand and held it directly above the center.
“Okay, this might hurt a little,” muttered Thea as she took out a dagger from within her cloak.
Before I could say anything, Thea brought her dagger down to my hand and quickly drew a line across my skin with the tip. I yelped as pain spread like splinters across my palm. As the blood began pooling, Thea recited an incantation. After she finished, she tipped my hand and the blood dripped down into the circle.
The ground around me exploded, except that nothing had actually broke and I didn’t hear anything. I felt a gust of wind blowing across my face and suddenly, Thea and I were washed with white petals. Jasmine petals, I thought to myself. The scene of it overwhelmed my senses. As quickly as it had began, the marvelous display came to an abrupt end. I blinked as I looked around. The petals were all gone, as well as the weird cemetery. The cold washed over me. I began to shiver. We were now in the Ice Dimension. Home of Delano’s brother, Dagon. Maybe we could seek help here.
We began to trek through the snow, our footprints marring the perfect snow. We didn’t notice it at first, but suddenly we heard the sound of heavy footsteps everywhere. We ducked into the forest as they came closer.
“We know you’re in there Jasmine Blakewood. Come out please.”
I looked up, to see Dagon’s royal guards approaching. I stood up, about to step out of my hiding space, when Thea put up a hand to caution me. “Let me go check,” she said.
Thea crab walked closer to where the guards were. Soon she was out of sight. After waiting for a while, I was about to check on Thea when a shriek pierced through the air of the forest.
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A/N I would just like to take the time to say thank you for the most awesomest story ad artist EVER :DDD Thank you to Megan13 for her amazing work on my Story ads <3 <3 Thanks a ton!