I reached for the crystal, seeking its power, but Noah held it high, away from me. I collapsed on the bed, my energy seeping from me yet again.
Noah stepped closer and sat on the edge of my bed.
‘Tell me, Eva – where is she?’
I pictured Anna then, sailing away with my brother, their unborn baby giving them hope for a future; hope they both so deserved.
I rolled to my side, pushed my back against the wall.
‘She’s long gone,’ I whispered.
Noah looked as though I’d punched him in the stomach. He then thrust the crystal against my leg, its heat seeping through my clothes, burning me.
I screamed and pulled myself upright.
‘Where is she?’
‘I…don’t know where she is. All I know is that she’s better off without you.’
Noah edged closer until I was cornered. I glanced up at the cell door, which had been left ajar. Noah followed my gaze and in an instant he was at the door, locking it.
‘Do you really want to be locked up with me?’ I asked, using the last of my energy to send a small fireball in his direction. He ducked and stomped out the flames.
Then he returned to the door, placed his hand on the key.
‘Any day now, Eva – any day now,’ he said, letting himself out of the cell before turning to glare at me. ‘And then so help you God.’
The room started to slip from my view again, but my words found their way. ‘Even God can’t save your soul, Noah.’
Swearing, he stormed back down the hall, leaving me safe for another day. But his words returned to me again: any day now.
He was right – I didn’t know how much longer I could keep him away, stop him from torturing me to find out the whereabouts of his sister. Tears sprang to my eyes. I wiped them away and lay back down on my bed, no longer able to support myself. I pictured those I loved – my family, Anna, Jet. They would be on their way to a better life – a happier life. I heard a sob. Was it my own?
Any day now Noah would find his way to me, and then when I couldn’t stop the guards from grabbing hold of me, I would hang…like Violet. I could no longer control my tears as I remembered my friend who had protected me and then given her life for mine.
I was so lost in my thoughts that it took me a few moments to realise that Orpheus – who had not once been to see me – had entered my cell and was sitting on a single chair in the corner. I glanced around and stationed at the door were three police officers, their eyes lasered in on me.
‘If you try anything untoward, Eva, the officers will have no choice but to shoot you,’ said Orpheus.
I dragged myself to sit up and tried my hardest not to cry out at the pain that rattled through my body.
‘I mean, personally I don’t want you to die just yet. I’d much rather make a public spectacle of you. But I suppose we could hang you if you’re dead and let the crows peck your eyes out.’
A chill went down my spine as I pictured the scene his words created.
Orpheus stared down at me as though I were a bug he wished to squish between his fingers. ‘Now, I suppose you’re wondering, to what do you owe the pleasure?’
I focused on breathing, in and out.
‘It’s simple really – I want to know where your family and Jet are in hiding.’
I sneered at him before turning away.
‘If you don’t answer me, I will take that as an act of non-compliance.’ He withdrew the black crystal and held it towards me.
I cowered away, pressed myself into the wall. I remembered how I’d felt with my hands clutched around the crystal – as if all the power within the world belonged to me. Yet, held against me, the crystal stripped me bare, tormented my soul.
‘So, what’s it to be?’ he asked.
Inside, my dark beast broke free. I launched myself on him like a rabid dog and reached for the crystal that was just beyond my reach.
‘Guards!’ yelled Orpheus.
I launched myself at him again, my teeth bared. I nearly had my hand on the crystal when an officer grabbed me and threw me against the wall. I fell to the ground and pain ripped through my body before the darkness came and took me away. For a time I could not know, I was trapped in a place where death waited patiently nearby.
A searing pain brought me back into the light – where the real hell was waiting for me. Guards pinned me down while Orpheus held the crystal against my hand, burning me. I screamed and cried, but he pressed harder, filling my nostrils with the smell of burning skin. Eventually he stopped, but the guards held me firmly so that I couldn’t move.
‘So where are they?’ Orpheus asked again before pulling back my top, exposing the skin on my arm.
I held back the tears that threatened, but made myself look him in the eyes. ‘No matter what you do to me, I will never tell you.’
Orpheus’s eyes narrowed as he lowered the crystal to my skin and seared me so deeply that my skin blistered and blood seeped from my wounds. Over and over, he burned me, threatened to kill me, demanded to know where my family was. I stayed silent, retreating to a place so far inside of myself that there was no pain, no life.
I heard a scream. Was it my own? Someone shook me. Someone called my name. I came back into my body, which burned with horrendous pain I’d never known existed. I gazed down at my arms, which wore Orpheus’s torture marks. He’d branded me. But he would never beat me.
‘Who made you like this? What did they do
