Lying Liars Who Don't Tell The Truth

Chapter Nine

Revellion Manor, a mansion cloaked by impenetrable Magick on the outskirts of Haven, looked like a half-broken down set leftover from a mildly successful Dracula movie made in the late eighties. This I thought as I was dragged, my hands bound behind my back, into the mansion later the same night I told Amar that I loved him. The same night I betrayed every last one of my friends.

Amar didn't kill me. Against the pressing wishes of the Revels with him, he vouched for me, at least enough to buy me the time it took to get me to Revellion Manor so I could be interrogated further. Amar Magickally bound me by my wrists but he refused to take any additional security measures, despite valiant insistence again from his company.

Amar egressed with me in his arms — it occurred to me that since my declaration and his, he hadn't taken his hands off of me — and a second later we were standing at the base of a sweeping staircase in a grand foyer. All of the lights in the manor were turned off and, although the structure clearly had the potential to be more dolled up than it was, everything inside looked barren and smelled of rusting metal.

One of the Revels gruffly suggested that I be brought down to the basement, but Amar, again, evoked his Zorion card and had me gathered into one of the broad sitting rooms where I was placed by Amar into a black, leather-backed chair. He stepped back to look at me, his eyes almost apologetic, before flicking his fingers behind me and lighting a massive fire in the chimney that immediately warmed my aching back.

As if he could sense this, he gave me the slightest smile before turning to address the twenty or so other Revels — or whatever Zorion called them — that had collected in the room.

"There's been a slight change of plans," he said briskly. Any ounce of the broken-down man who stood under the streetlight not but twenty minutes ago had vanished, replaced once more with the cheerfully charismatic man I'd met in New York City all those months ago. Every single pair of eyes in the room were glaring at me with such hate and contempt you'd have thought their only impression of me came from a review from Squid.

A smaller woman standing near the entrance to the room said, "I thought we were going to kill her."

"That would be the changed plan, Parus," Amar responded lightly.

The gravelly voice of a large man to my right asked, "How do we know she's not lying?" while leaning in close enough to me that I could smell sour alcohol on his breath.

Amar turned to him, tapping his finger against his chin, and asked spitefully, "Do you really think I would do anything to jeopardize this home? These people?"

The man next to me had backed off, but responded, "Not intentionally."

Before another breath could be drawn, the man was collapsed on the ground, grunting loudly in pain. Amar's face was still bright and pleasant as he sent waves of agony through the man's body. Everyone else in the room had become very still, most unblinking. It was as if all the energy in the room had been singularity transferred to the body of this one man.

Amar's violent gaze broke only when he snapped his eyes over to me. His entire face warmed the moment it reached me, as if he was silently trying to communicate to me that everything was going to be alright. He had, after all, told me that he loved me. I had, after all, said it first.

"Lucicoria," Amar said, his voice softer now, completely indifferent to the man beside me twitching with the aftershocks of agony, "you should know that, if I find evidence that you have been lying to me, the consequences will be... unpleasant."

I swallowed. "I'm not lying," I said in a whisper.

"Why now?" he asked gently.

"I've been trying to find you," I began. For some reason, I could feel tears welling in my eyes. My throat began to tighten with the familiar beginnings of a sob. Knowing there was nothing I could do to stop it, I figured I'd better lean into it. "I've been so lost," I sobbed, tears now spilling freely down my face. "I didn't know how to get away. It's always been you, Amar. It's always been you."