The Dark World

Chapter Seven: Two Doors

Mina did not sleep that night.

'This key opens three doors.'

The words rang through her head as she tossed in her bed.

'The door to pale gold, the door to death, and the door to freedom.'

She turned again, breathless, restless.

'You can guess at one. One is obvious. And one is hidden.'

She couldn't fight the urge any longer. With a gasp, she shot up, back straight, seated on the plush mattress of the bed. Her raven curls tumbled down her face, obscuring her vision. With a long sigh, her warm breath puffed the hair from her eyes.

Sighing, however, didn't prove as cathartic as she had hoped. It felt like her brain was on fire. Worse, it felt like her heart was aflame.

She had the key. Jules had been foolish enough to give it to her. He had been foolish enough to live up to his words. He had been....

Her eye widened. Her breath stuck in the back of her throat, like a knife sharp against her neck. Deep inside her, nestled in her core, she knew.

Jules wasn't an idiot.

And, he wasn't a free agent, either. 

 He had a master. Their shared master.

Mina turned her head to the desk. The dying embers of nightfall glinted off the polished bronze of the key. It sat naked at the corner nearest the window to her room.

Jules wasn't an idiot, she reminded herself when her heart soared at the mere possibility of freedom.

She turned the observation over in her mind: Jules had a keen face. A devious sparkle caught in his eyes. His was a mind that was constantly churning, constantly calculating probabilities.

He hadn't given her the key on some lark.

No, he had given her the key on an order.

Mina frowned at the thought, but, as she prodded it, and examined it from all angles, it was the only explanation that she felt remotely satisfied with. The glint of the key was a signal. A signal in the noise; a beacon cutting through a heavy night.

This was all an illusion, she decided. Jules's master, after all, was the Master of Illusions. Even if the key was a real, physical thing, any freedom she could secure with it was a lie.

Shutting her eyes, Mina played the events of the last few days in her head. Time-traveling in her mind, she couldn't help but feel so silly. A naïve girl. Worse yet, a foolish naïve girl.

She had done everything they had asked of her. She had been so predictable. Easily led. Suggestable. Wanton.

She flinched at the last thought.

She had been so eager to accept Jules's offer, which was to make a fool of the High Priest. But, it was done to obtain her freedom, wasn't it? Or, was it because she wanted to strip the High Priest of his mantle of power and expose him as a joke?

Was she wanton?

No.

That would be the wrong conclusion. Turning the High Priest into a pitiable creature wasn't her primary goal. And, she wasn't doing it to earn Jules's favor, either, she convinced herself. Hell, she really didn't want anyone in authority's favor. The people she cared about, truly cared about, she could count on one hand.