I didn’t know much about the chains, but I could feel the spell powering their magic. It was a complicated enchantment. If I could manage to get one hand free, I would at least have the advantage of movement, but the metal refused to loosen as I worked my hands back and forth.
Focusing on getting my hands free wasn’t enough to distract me from realizing the enormous danger of my situation. Someone had put me in here on purpose, but who? Thinking through my list of suspects frightened me more than I cared to admit. The only person who knew I was here was Brent.
Could it really be him? I’d known him for years, but I didn’t pretend to know everything about him. We’d been out of contact for almost a year, and he wasn’t the same person he used to be. If his body had been taken over by the bloodthorn, how was I to know?
The chains wouldn’t budge an inch. My fingertips burned with an unnatural icy sensation where I pried at the metal links.
The sound of footsteps came from outside the cabin. I stopped, listening, using my elven senses to amplify the sound.
Someone walked slowly and deliberately, their feet crunching over dead leaves and debris with each footfall. I froze, readying my magic, only to realize that the metal bands would block me from using it. The inability to use my magic left me panicked. What could I do? How could I fight anything without my powers? Unpredictable or not, magic was my only defense.
I needed another weapon.
I crawled closer to the flashlight and grabbed it up. I doubted it would be enough to fend off a predator, but I kept it close all the same. Sitting on the floor, I waited, the light illuminating the white puffs of air exhaling from my mouth, feeling that each breath I took was too loud.
The sound of footsteps faded and soon disappeared. When I was sure that whoever had been outside was gone, I crawled to the door. Grabbing the knob, I turned it, then pushed the door, but it didn’t budge. I rammed the door with my shoulder but with no success. Panicking, I tried again and again, when I finally felt a spell woven into the wood. Someone had used an elemental spell. Normally, reversing the spell would have been simple enough, but with the chains binding my wrists, I had no chance of negating the magic.
The bloodthorn, or whatever creature had captured me, had no doubt locked me inside. Shivering, I backed away from the door, trying to be logical while fighting my growing panic.
I held the flashlight close, but my only source of light seemed to grow dimmer with each passing minute. Scanning the room, I searched for another way out. The cabin had only one window, so I crept toward it on quiet feet, but as I drew closer and pointed the flashlight’s beam at it, my heart sank. Inky black magic emanated from the window as well.
Still, I couldn’t just sit around and wait for the creature to come back, so I used the butt-end of the flashlight to attempt to bust out the glass. After several tries, the glass remained intact without a scratch—the black magic making it stronger than steel.
Collapsing to the floor, breathing heavily, I felt hopeless. What chance did I have of breaking free? The chains had stifled my magic. I had no way out. I sat, huddled and shivering, trying to think through my situation.
Someone had planned this. The wards on the window and door, the magical chains—they had all been done specifically to trap me. Someone who knew me had done this—someone who had studied me.
It couldn’t be Brent. I knew, deep down inside, that it wasn’t him. But what if the bloodthorn had taken over Brent’s body?
No, no, no.
While I didn’t love Brent anymore, it would still hurt if anything happened to him. It had to be someone else. That was the only logical explanation.
When I closed my eyes, images of the dream I’d had of Kull returned, and the pain of losing him hurt worse than the pain of being trapped.
Holding the flashlight tight against my chest, I felt a dent in the top of the metal band. A memory surfaced…
He used a strange metal stick. We do not have them on our planet. It was round and flared at the top.
The door banged open, and in the dim light cast from the flashlight, I stared, shocked, as the creature entered the room. The door slammed shut behind him with a flash of black magic.
The creature stalked toward me, and I backed away, fear running like ice water through my veins. It was so tall it barely fit inside the room. Although its face was partially hidden by a mane of thick, coarse hair, I could see it had a horse’s skull, and its green, pinprick eyes glowed in the darkness. The creature walked on two legs, though hunched over, and its fingers were tipped in unnaturally long, dagger-like nails. Chains clinked around its shoulders as it walked toward me.
As it moved, black magic shimmered around its body, flickering lights that blinded me for a moment. I shielded my eyes, but when I turned back to the creature, it had transformed. Officer Gardener stood in the room with me.
I gasped and drew back. “You,” I said, “it’s you?”
“Yes, Olive. It’s me.” He smiled, a look that sent shivers down my spine.
“But, the beast attacked you… I remember it attacked you.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I pondered the past several hours, trying to remember correctly. He’d gotten me out of the car, and then… something sharp had stabbed my arm. A syringe! He’d drugged me with something. That’s why I’d had so much trouble remembering.
The beast hadn’t attacked him. He’d transformed, and then he’d taken my clothes and tied me with the chains. I couldn’t remember anything else after that.
