TIME AFTER TIME

sedecim

SIXTEEN:

"A Deal With the Devil"

SALEM.

When I stared at Blade across the room I realized this was another game and, this time, he would get the first move. In this match, he would wield white and I, black. A continuous push and pull between light and dark. 

"Take me instead," I repeat, moving slowly, my eyes never leaving my shaking sister on the ground. He had made her see her worst fears. As if she hadn't been suffering these past weeks. Even in these past moments in Spartacus, she had suffered from the voice of a demon in her mind. I refused to let her undergo more pain. 

Blade tilted his head, those green eyes keenly aware that it was me and not a mirage. "Siren," he murmured, then a deep breath as he glanced over his shoulder swiftly, towards the doors we had breezed through. "You shouldn't be here."

I nodded, slowly stepping past Scarlet. From behind my back, where Bree watched from the shadows, I poorly signed, Run. "Leave her and take me. I'll go wherever you want."

"Where's the other Siren sister?" His eyes scanned beyond me and before they could catch her I stepped in front of him. Too close. Or maybe close enough to distract him. That magnetizing pull flared between us and I had to ball my fist to keep from grabbing him. I couldn't explain the reaction, but if it could be used as a distraction, so be it. 

"She isn't here. My sister, this sister," I looked to Scarlet still silently weeping on the floor. Her breathing was deep, too slow. I willed my focus to the demon at hand, "She came here for revenge and I followed her in hopes of stopping her. Our other sister doesn't know we're here."

He opened his mouth to ask a question, but then with a sharp turn of his head he stared into the end of the room, towards the great doors we rushed through earlier. With the wave of his hand a silver set of cuffs appeared in his hand one moment and the next, were searing locks on my wrists. I hissed in pain as he told me, "Your sister will regain consciousness soon. When she does she'll know how to get to the tunnels to take her back to the human realm. I've placed a glamour on her to keep her hidden." He spoke quick and began to mover quicker. He was striding towards the doors now, I stumbling next to him, the sterling cuffs leading me to stay at his side. We walked through the doors as he turned to stare down at me, the sharp look returned to those feline eyes, "You, on the other hand, just became my prisoner."

We strode through many hallways. We walked through the light, the dark, the outdoors, underground, indoors. I memorized our path, telling myself I would find my sisters. Despite the labyrinth he pulled me through, I told myself we would find one another again. 

"Where are you taking me?" I finally asked him. 

He didn't look at me when he ordered, "Do not speak."

"You can't"-

Then he whirled, teeth barred as he demanded, "Do not speak. Not to me. Not to anyone you see. You are a prisoner." We stopped in a corridor full of light and shadow. Where he towered over me, there were shadows on his face, yet light on other parts. The look in his eyes reminded me of how my sisters would speak to me with their eyes when we could not with our minds. Blade was trying to tell me something.