Orpheus’s nostrils flared, but in the moment before his dictator mask returned, I saw the pain of a child etched into his face.
‘Who would hurt a child?’ I said, my voice softer.
Orpheus stood and turned his back to me. The guards, who had released me, stood next to Orpheus, their wide eyes staring only at my burns.
‘It wasn’t right, Orpheus. You didn’t deserve what they did to you. You were just a child.’
‘Shut up!’
‘Was it your parents? Did they torture you? Did they make you want to control everything and everyone? Did they close your heart to the world?’
Orpheus spun around to me, his face scarlet. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about – you evil, evil witch.’
I held his gaze. ‘I see you.’
‘You see nothing! And soon, you will never see anything ever again.’
I pressed my back against the wall to stop myself from falling over.
‘You don’t have to be this way. You can choose another path,’ I said.
Orpheus’s face scrunched up as he tried to hold onto the threads of control that were unravelling inside him.
‘How dare you talk to me like this!’
‘Your wife, your son, they love you. You are not alone. You could choose to love them, love life, love yourself.’
Orpheus rubbed his face violently. ‘How dare you talk about my family, my family who wanted you as part of ours. When I think about it, how you tricked us, manipulated us, of how close you came – a WITCH – it sickens me to the core.’
‘I might be a witch, but I never meant any harm and I never tricked any of you. What Ezra and I felt, that was real. We…loved each other.’
Orpheus’s face looked as if it were sitting in a pot of boiling water.
‘YOU. ARE. A. WITCH,’ he screamed, his voice rebounding around the small cell. ‘You were born an evil witch and you will die an evil witch. You will go to the devil – where you belong.’
‘I might die a witch, Orpheus,’ I said quietly, keeping eye contact. ‘But like you, I will make a choice about whether I die with love or hate in my heart – and no matter what you do to me, I will choose to love.’
Orpheus raised his hand to strike me.
‘Not long ago, I was a child, like you once were. And even after what you do to me, however you torture me, however much you hate me, I will choose to love.’
His lips parted, and for the smallest moment he saw past the image of me he had created, to the person I really was; and he saw the truth of who he was and what he was doing to me.
He dropped his hand, his body shaking.
‘You can change your mind at any time,’ I said. ‘You can choose love.’
‘Or I could kill you,’ he said, his face set again. ‘Exterminate one more witch from the world.’
And then he turned and strode from my cell, his heavy, solid footsteps echoing through the long underground tunnel.
One of the officers cleared his throat. ‘I’ll see if I can find something…for that.’
I glanced down at my arms, a fresh wave of pain rushing over me.
‘And if you promise not to tell,’ said another quietly, ‘I’ll bring you some food.’
I glanced up at the officers who had been attending me for days. The faceless men who were not so faceless after all.
‘Yes, thank you,’ I said, tears prickling my eyes. I sank down into my bed, pulled my knees to my chest and gave in to the tears that could no longer be denied.
Chapter Seventeen
When I woke, I kept my eyes closed. I was not alone. I knew what sat beside me, what was above me, what filled the cells. My time had come. The dark creatures no longer had to attack me. They knew that I had nothing left to fight them. It was simply their time to come for me, to take me away with them.
I felt their icy bodies pressing against me. For a few moments, I craved to be taken from my pain, from my bruised and battered body into another world where I would be powerful and strong once again, where I would command an army to do my bidding, where they would kill Orpheus, Max, Noah – at my command – and I would want them to. My inner goodness – my light in the world – would be extinguished like a match that had been blown out.
I could feel them now, on my skin, drawing me to them, claiming me. I tried to find something, anything from the depths of my soul, but I had nothing left. I’d been drained, left to rot; I craved death.
My life flashed before my eyes. My brother was running beside me as we raced along the stream near our old home. My parents laughed as they chased us. Then we were older. Elijah opened the door to our home to let me in. A simple act. But the feeling I’d had only moments before, of being all alone, was replaced by love. My mum, sitting at the end of my bed, talking to me about how much I meant to her. My dad taking me in his arms on the day we decided to move, telling me that everything would work out okay, just wait and see. Ezra, there he was, holding me in his arms while feelings I’d never experienced before exploded inside me. Violet, sitting beside me in her snug lounge room, bringing me untold comfort. And then there was Jet, crouched in front of me, tending my wounds, unspoken love in his every movement.
As the creatures came closer, I heard them – the wings of a bird. The wind of the bird as it fluttered past me. The air filled with birdsong, sweet and soulful. The final gift, given to me by life, before I would be taken away. I opened my eyes. Sitting there on
