The Lie Spinners (The Deception Dance) (12 page)

“
We’ve
got to get you out of these chains,” I say, changing the
subject. I crawl toward him, looking at his ankles; underneath the
metal rings, his skin is chaffed raw. “Oh, God, how long have
you been chained here?” I ask, but I know the answer, months,
because from Madeline’s story the demon killers were taken
almost immediately after Stephen. I grab his hand, inspecting the
chaffed rings under his handcuffs. Under one, I see a familiar long
scar, the one he got last summer when he saved me from a soul-bound
who was trying to cut my throat.

Nicholas
gently pulls away from my hands, and says, “We can’t
Raven, they’re watching.” He raises one hand, fighting
the restraint from his cuffs, to point directly at the lamp.

If
I squint, I can just barely make out a little red light just above
our only illumination. We’re being filmed.

Turning
back to my friend, I’m flooded with the memories of all ‘the
bad’ that’s between us, layer upon layer of hurt feelings
and grudges (primarily, my hurting his feelings and him holding a
grudge). Then at the very end, he saved my life by getting between me
and a knife; and, I never thanked him or saw him again.

“
You
know, I’ve thought about last summer quite a bit while being
chained here…” Nicholas says.

“
Maybe
you also gained the power to read minds, that’s exactly what I
was thinking about,” I say with a smile. I crawl to sit next to
him against one of the metal walls.

He
smiles, and says, “I wish. But no, sitting here, waiting for
them to remember to kill me, I’ve just been thinking about
everything I’ve left unsaid. I shouldn’t have blamed you
for what happened last summer when truly everything that happened was
my fault.” He pulls up his knees and folds his arms around
them.

“
Not
everything. We both screwed up, I much more than you.” I say,
wanting nothing more than to just have our friendship back.
“Honestly, I think I selfishly wanted you to like me. Because
you’re awesome, and happy, and funny, and wholesome—”

“
Wholesome
?
You couldn’t have stopped at funny?” He says.

“
I
should have told you that I was crazy obsessing over someone who was
none of those things, someone I knew I shouldn’t like—and
I was trying to force myself to want you because you were who I
thought I should like.”

He
half laughs, “And I was trying to force you to want me, and
ignoring that every time I asked you if you did, you tried to tell me
no
;
or at least, that you didn’t want me in the way I wanted you
to. I ignored the obvious for my own selfish reasons. Everything just
got so out of control, I thought I was protecting you, but truly I
was just making it easier for Andras to deceive you. Then you killed
yourself because I was more concerned with whether you were sleeping
with Andras than with forcing Linnie to leave Chauncey, or protecting
Linnie in the moment of Chauncey’s death. I had twenty-six
days, thinking you were dead, hating myself because I knew better
than to leave Linnie unguarded, and I left her… I was just…
my pride was hurt, and I was jealous…and…”

“
What
happened, happened,” I say, because truly, what happened to my
sister was my fault, mine to feel guilty for, I will not share it.
“Honestly, as far as I’m concerned, you have been nothing
but good and kind to my sister and me; you saved my life! I’m
just glad we can… reconcile now-”

“
Reconcile!
Err, of course!” He turns to me, “Do not trust anything
you are feeling!”

I
pause and then ask, “What am I not supposed to feel?”

“
Are
you feeling…?” He leans in and through his eye on the
less bruised side of his face he examines my face as if some detail
of my nose or cheek could answer a very important question. “Do
you feel as if you’re in love with me?”

“
Not
at all!” I say, vehemently. I shake my head for emphasis.

Nicholas
leans back and his lips pucker.

Perhaps
I was a little
too
vehement. I clear my throat. “I mean, I don’t think so; I
don’t know anything about love.”

“
I
doubt that,” Nicholas says with a small smile, “I’m
not offended.” He looks around, and then up. “It’s
still happening…”

I
look up because he did, but again I see only blackness above us.

“
I
don’t know how I keep forgetting.” Nicholas shakes his
head, and then winces. “Did Albert teach you’re the Ars
Goetia?”

“
Yeah,
a bit.”

“
I
haven’t confirmed this, but I’ve overheard that this
place is the nest of a greater demon—a great earl in their
hierarchy. The fortieth soul of Solomon,
Räum
.”

“
Yeah
I know,” I nod and whisper, “What can he do?”

“
He’s
summoned for various reasons one of which being: to reconcile
friends,” he uses his chained hand to gesture between us. “But
he also steals, destroys people and cities,
can
immobilize people, see the past and future and…” he
leans in, “he invokes love.”

“
That’s
what Cassidy was trying to tell me,” I whisper to myself.

“
What?”
Nicholas says, “Cassidy… Cassidy Dixon? She’s
here?”

“
Yeah
she was captured with me… I don’t know…”
Another, louder, rustling above startles me. I look up just in time
to see a giant black shape swooping down. I fall back, furiously
scooting toward Nicholas, yelping, seeing only outstretched talons
within a black shadow.

The
shadow passes us, instead swooping to settle onto the floor between
us and the only light. The room goes almost entirely black.

The
only light silhouettes the shape of a giant bird.

A
crow.

Räum.

Bad.

A
moment of complete silence holds us, and then Räum explodes. Or
at least that is what it looks like. Poof. His feathers blast in all
directions, as if he swallowed a firecracker and it went off inside
him.

I
whisper, “What the…?” just as the cloud of
feathers start to recollect into itself, a slow-motion implosion. And
the form that the feathers collect into sways back and forth, like
it’s… like it’s dancing. Two arms reach out away
from us and the collection of feathers form a pale willowy back, then
neck, and then long black hair cascading down. The feathers draw
around the petite (man…?) person, forming a long ball gown.

Räum,
(or who I now question is Räum) dances with arms swinging in
giant circles facing the light… or the camera.
“Sa-wat-dee-kraup!” Räum’s voice comes out a
forced high-pitch, and completely male.

Interesting
…

Räum
bends back making the dim light blast into my eyes.

“
Here
we have the moment we have all waited for! Raven Smith reunites with
her former summer fling for a little sizzle…
And
what a
pooper
!
Raven Smith has no sizzling potential with this one!”

I
squint up at the form of the greater demon (drag queen?), and
suddenly, everything makes sense. We’re at some end of the
world party… and this whole trap was set to bring me and
Nicholas together and invoke
love
between us. We were their
show
,
a melodrama of demonic proportions…

But
it failed.

I
turn to look at Nicholas who squints into the same light. But what I
said to him is true, I don’t feel ‘in love’ with
him. I’m not certain if I know or can even conceive of what ‘in
love’ means; but, I feel that if I experienced that type of
love something within me should be certain. I definitely have never
been certain about Nicholas, or anyone, truly.

The
pageant from Hell continues as Räum turns to examine us; his
features are almost female: a delicate nose, sloping eyes made more
prominent by the thick liner accentuating them, thickly painted lips;
the only evidence of his masculinity marked by a prominent jaw line
with the shadow of stubble. He meets my eyes and I’m shocked…
completely shocked by the color. I shouldn’t be, really, I’ve
seen eyes that bright before; Andras’ eyes are practically
neon. But, Räum’s eyes shine in the dark room, the most
spectacular shade of burgundy.

I
don’t realize I’m scooting until my back hits the wall.

“
Well,
hello, little bird,” Räum says, his voice masculine: no
longer has that affected high pitch. The wine-red iris’ burn
into my eyes, as his mouth pulls into a crescent of teeth. “Welcome
to my nest.”

“
Get
behind me,” Nicholas whispers, voice raspy.

Räum
flicks his hand.

Nicholas,
who was stretching his binds to crouch in front of me, freezes.
Lunged halfway in front of me, Nicholas freezes as an awkwardly
positioned statue.

“
Oh
my god!” I yell. I jump up… or try to, my
body…can’t…move… I turn my head to face
Räum, and then I can’t even move that. What the…! I
breathe through stiff lips, “Nicholas? Are you okay?”

Räum
raises a finger to his lips, and makes a “shhh,” sound.

I
quiet; I’m not sure whether I’m in control of my voice,
or if Räum is. Can a voice be immobilized? The demon Räum
crosses the distance and stands above where I am literally
petrified
.

“
Exquisite,”
Räum says, “He designed you beautifully, my dear. That
one…” he gestures to where I know Nicholas froze, “…is
so pretty, too. I had such high hopes, but there is not an ounce of
potential between you, at least not from you, and that is all that
matters to me.” He shakes his head. I don’t know if it’s
possible, but his eyes seem as if they are lighting the space between
us in shades of maroon. His heavy presence in the air pools into my
every pore. Räum presses his hands together, while examining me.
“Nicholas Tapper has just become quite a bit less useful to me;
do you know what that means, little bird?”

I
clear my throat, finding that now I can at least move my mouth to
speak. I say, “Maybe.”

“
Let
us talk, you and I, in a more comfortable…” he pauses,
“and less
public
setting?”

“
Can
I check on Nicholas?” I ask.

Räum
shakes his head. “No. But, if you speak with me, I will
guarantee that he will continue to live while we are speaking in my
office, this day, this hour.”

“
Is
he conscious? Can he
say
something? I’m not just going to leave him knocked out and a
human statue;
that
is torture. If you release control of his body, gently, so he can sit
on the floor, and guarantee that he won’t be harmed in any way
until I am close enough to see and
speak
with him, then I’ll go with you.”