Chapter 67

Elika woke up in a bed, and it surprised her, the last time she had been her uncles prisoner she was locked in a cage like an animal. He had treated her worse than her own father had, and at one time she didn’t believe anyone could treat her worse than that. Her father caged her too, but in an entirely different way.

It was arguably worse.

She slowly sat up, trying to be as quiet as possible as she looked around the small closet-like room. It only had the bed, nothing else, not that she minded. She was used to not having much choice about anything, why did she think that would ever change?

“I’m awake.” She calls, there was no point in pretending otherwise.

He’d know she was awake. He had a way of telling.

He might even have a camera hidden somewhere close; it wouldn’t surprise her if he did.

Darkous enters not even three minutes later, holding the door open for her, “Come on.” He says softly. “We will get you something to eat.”

She stares after him when he leaves, wondering if she had heard him right, he was soft spoken, almost kind. Since when?

He couldn’t have changed that much in the last several months. It wasn’t possible.

She slowly climbs out of the bed and walks into the corridor, almost expecting him to jump out and stab her.

But he doesn’t, and it just makes her even more confused.

The house was old, much links the orphanage, but it was all on one level, like an apartment. She followed the voices and soon found her uncle and his men setting up the dining room table for a feast.

She knew something was strangely different, but she couldn’t work out why, what had changed Darkous in such a little amount of time?

“So, am I just supposed to pretend that this is some kind of slumber party?” She asks, crossing her arms in the door way.

“You can if it makes you feel better.” Laughed Joey, “but I promise you, my slumber parties include more alcohol, and more women.”

That gave the princess the ick just thinking about it.

“I don’t understand.” She says, staring at Darkous. “This is not what I’d imagined would happen when you eventually found me.”

“Were you waiting for me to find you?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

“No.” She laughs a little. “Not all all, but I knew that it was inevitable.”

Darkous sits at the head of the table and pats the seat beside him, “it looks like we have both changed, doesn’t it?”

She takes the seat, the other staying silent as they watched them both.

The whole thing was just too strange.

“Have you though?” She dares to say, “Have you actually changed or is this some kind of sick joke?”

Darkous laughs, filling up his plate with potatoes and meat, “Not in the way you are thinking, no, I haven’t.” He sighs, “but I did realise that I can’t blame you for the crimes of your father, and Hades and I decided that a different approach would be better.”

“What do you mean?” She frowns, filling her own plate.

Joey couldn’t believe it, he never thought he’d see the day that those two spoke calmly, and whilst he had ever faith that his boss wouldn’t go back on his word, it just wasn’t like him to be nice, not to anyone but them.

Michael and Darren were finding it hard to believe as well, but seeing it with their own eyes meant that they couldn’t ignore the possibility that the girl had actually grown in the time they were away.

She looked more like a woman now, still small, but certainly grown.

Darkous doesn’t answer her, not straight away.

The tension in the room grows ticker as the seconds pass.

“Are you saying I’m not your prisoner?” She asks, trying to keep the hope out of her voice.

She fails, it’s radiating from her like a light.

“You are still a prisoner of war, princess.” Michael says with a snort, “don’t take our kindness for stupidity.”

She leans back in her chair with a huff and crosses her arms, “then what? What do you mean?” She asks more forcefully.

“It means, pup, that I am going to take a different approach to how I treat you, and so long as you don’t disobey an order, you will not be harmed.” Darkous angrily stabs a piece of potato and shoved it in his mouth. “But if you try to run from me again, I will take you straight back to the cage, and you will stay there until I have a use for you.”

Elika’s frown deepens, and whilst she is trying her best to be strong, she isn’t, she’s just as scared as she was the first time she was under the same roof as the dark lord.

It doesn’t get easier, especially after all he had done.

The death of her mother and brother. The pain of dying. It was all still very fresh in her mind.

She knew better than most what happened when you disobeyed the dark lord.

“I won’t run.” She whispers softly. “It’s not like I have anywhere to go anymore.”

“I do have one question.” Darkous mumbles, “and believe me when I say there will be consequences for you if you do not answer.” He slams his fork onto the table, making everyone jump. “Who helped you escape?”

Elika rubs the back of her neck, her eyes cast down towards the floor, “my brother, Jake. He was on a mission, and he stumbled across me.” She says. “He brought me to this world and his me from you and my father.”

Darkous looks shocked. “He never told your father or your brother where you were?”

Elika shook her head, “He told me that I was safer with everyone thinking that I was dead, he said it’ll be easier for me to stay hidden that way.”

Darkous didn’t know what to say. He had never expected that.

Elika shuffled in her seat, the eyes of everyone in the room on her.

“Did he ever come back?” Michael asks, pouring her a cup off coffee. “After he left you here, did he ever visit?”

She shakes her head, “Maybe a little in the beginning, but I haven’t heard anything from him for months.”

Darkous chuckles, startling the girl, “He didn’t come back because he couldn’t, he’s with Poseidon right now, in the realm of water.”

“Did my father send him there?” She asks, still not daring to look up.

Darkous could change his mind at any moment, and she was too afraid that he would go back to his old strategy if she said the wrong thing.

“Yes.” Darren says, “He wanted him to learn the realm.”

That makes sense, Jake would eventually take over that world, it seems only right that he should learn how things are handled there.

Joey struggles to hold back his laughter. “Your father still thinks you are dead, then.” He says, “it’ll be a surprise when he learns that your not.”

Elika tried to hold back her own laugh, she could see the humour in it, her father never did like being the last one to gather information.

“I suppose it will.” She says, deciding to eat her plate of food.

What she still couldn’t understand however, was what Darkous actually wanted, he kept saying that he would use her as a weapon in the war.

But she didn’t have any offensive abilities, not apart from telekinesis.

What was he going to use her for exactly?

She supposed she’d find out sooner or later, but not knowing the truth behind it was biting at her insides.

It had been for months.

She needed to find out what he knew that she didn’t, and she needed to do it before he put his plan into motion.