Chapter 25
948 Words
25
For a moment, Var and I stared at each other, locked in silence. Lick took a cue from his master to growl at me, but that no longer intimidated me. I’d seen him roll around like a lovesick puppy when I gave him scratches. That trick wasn’t going to work on me anymore.
“What are you doing here?” Var growled. He stood up from his rocking chair and swayed through the wooden hut. With a loud hiccup, he swung the door open and stumbled outside.
“I need your help,” I called after him, but he didn’t seem to want to listen.
The man laughed humourlessly. “Leave me alone. Illusions need to stay illusions.”
“I’m not here to talk about illusions.” Careful not to get too close, I followed him through his garden. “I’m here to make a deal.”
He staggered to a trough and dunked his head into the murky water. “Deals are for the damned.”
“This is serious,” I tried, but he waved me away.
“Goodbye, Ylva. Have fun being a tree.”
A tree? What was he talking about? Had he lost his mind in the weeks I’d been gone?
“Var.” I chased after him, the first signs of despair bubbling up in my stomach. If he refused to help me, I was all out of options.
No. I wouldn’t let him walk away from me.
“Var! I thought you wanted to leave the Forest?” I called after him, hoping that would make him listen to me.
He turned around, his dark eyes flickering menacingly. His voice reduced to a low whisper, he hissed. “Don’t toy with me.”
“I’m not. You said you could teach me Shadow magic. I’m ready to learn,” I called.
Everything happened in a flash. One moment, Var was near the trough. The next, he stood so close he grabbed me by the collar. “You’ve played a lot of dirty tricks on me, Keeper. But this is one of the worst.”
He tightened his grip, squeezing the air out of me. I couldn’t breathe, but he didn’t seem to care. This was why I shouldn’t have come.
“V-Var…”
“Shut up. Too long you’ve mocked me. Too long you’ve kept me here.”
What was he talking about? My thoughts raced a mile an hour, but it was hard to think clearly when he was suffocating the life out of me. His reaction to me seemed out of context, too angry. Shouldn’t he be glad that I came back, willing to give him what he so desired?
“L-Let go—”
“Come on, Keeper. Do your little tricks.”
That was the second time he called me that… Did he think I was the Keeper of Illusions playing a trick on him?
“I-I’m not…”
His veins pulsated as the rage whirled through him. “One day, you’ll suffer for what you put me through.”
“Not… Keeper…” I gurgled. The lack of oxygen was tightening my head and hurting my chest. I didn’t want to use my magic on him, not when that could alienate him even more.
I needed to convince him I was real, but I couldn’t do that if I was dead. I had to live on and fix the mess I made.
Desperate to free myself, I clawed at his hands, dragging my nails through his skin until they left red traces. “H-Hyde.”
Instantly, a ball of fur shot towards me and attacked Var. With a shriek, the man loosened his grip and I fell to the ground, panting and gasping. The sudden rush of cool air burned my lungs and filled me with so much oxygen, it almost stopped me from breathing. That was a close call.
“Hyde,” I rasped, my voice bruised from Var’s assault. “Heel.”
“You—”
“Stop attacking me.” I held up my hands, hoping to discourage him from coming any closer. “I’m real.”
“You can’t play that trick on me again. You left,” he hissed, the disappointment shining through in his venomous words.
He held so much pain and anger, it made me feel something I didn’t often experience. Compassion. A quality Ryoko would applaud, but it was foreign to me. I didn’t like this man and he’d just attacked me, yet, I could understand where he was coming from. I sympathised with him.
I rubbed my neck, trying to lessen the pain. “I’m real.”
“Nothing is real.” Var wiped his face dry with his jacket, his stench wafting to me.
“Woof. That’s certainly real,” I muttered under my breath.
The man leaned in. “What?”
“Nothing. I… You think I’m a hallucination made by the Forest of Illusions, right?”
The bitterness on Var’s face answered my question before he actually did. He ran a hand over his stubble, the exhaustion playing on his face. “I’m going mad.”
“Maybe a little, but you don’t have to. I can get you out of here. I’ve come back because I need your help.” I paused, hoping that it would help him understand. “If you teach me the ways of the Shadow Walkers, if you teach me how to transport someone through the Veil… I will do that for you. I will bring you wherever you want to go.”
The man’s eyes glazed over. “Home?”
“Wherever you want to go,” I replied. “Just teach me how, but no torture or pain. If you lay one wrong hand on me or my dusk wolf, I’m out of here and you’ll never see me again. That’s a promise.”
For a moment, Var stared at me. Indecision warred through his eyes and I was sure he was going to reject my offer. But then he nodded, his expression softening and filling with hope. “I must be insane…”
“Why?”
“I’ve tried to leave the Forest far more times than I can count. I always end up back here… I wasn’t going to try again, not after— Doesn’t matter…” His voice cracked. “Let’s do it.”
Hope flowered in my heart. “Yes?”
“Yes. One more time.”
- Writer
