I Wish

Chapter 60

“Has anyone told you that admitting to people that you kidnapped them is probably pretty stupid,” I told him, my mouth moving before my brain could catch up with it. Fortunately he just seemed vaguely amused with my gall.

“Hasn’t anyone told you that you shouldn’t give people better advice on how to hold you captive?” he asked in return, and I looked at him, narrowing my eyes in confusion.

“Yeah, but you confessed to it right off the bat. So the way I figure it’s fine, you’re clearly not a very good kidnapper,” I said, keeping true to form, and letting the snark flow freely.

“Would you prefer I didn’t tell you?” he returned bluntly, shifting to cross one leg over the other.

“Probably, now I have to figure out a way out of here, or have to explain to Ivy that I knew that you kidnapped me and didn’t try to leave,” I explained and he shook his head, “Choices, choices. Why did you think that kidnapping me was a good idea?”

“A human claimed by the Queen of the Seelie Court must be very special indeed. I wonder how you’ll fare, on the way out,” he answered, peering at me as if just looking would give some kind of hint to that, and I wracked my brain. After a moment I remembered that Seelie was the name for Spring and Summer combined. 

“That sounds like you plan on letting me go,” I said slowly before denying the idea, “No. Nope, too good to be true. What would have been the point of taking me in the first place if you were only going to give me back?” He let out soft chuckles, as if my alarm was amusing him.

“The Unseelie Court will give you a far better chance than any of those manipulative Seelie twits,” he scoffed, “Of course you leave, it's part of the game. If you can get back to your gaslight queen then you are free to go, and if not then you pay the price.”

“And the price?” I demanded harshly, he grinned as if I had been smarter than he’d expected and he hadn’t been expecting much. Huh, what an asshole.

“I could use a pet,” he hummed consideringly, and the offense I felt flared so fast that I almost screamed in outrage. I had thought it was just something idiotic that I had imagined Kaede say, but no apparently it was in more than just that dumbfuck. Apparently it was a thing. 

“What is it with you morons thinking people are pets, people are people,” I hissed at him, because I was fairly sure that if I shouted then my head was going to roll clean off my shoulders and shatter on the floor. He looked stunned, grey bushy eyebrows creeping up into his hairline before he started to laugh somewhat hysterically. Gravelly bone dry chuckles tinged with enough disbelief that it sounded insane. Great. Once, just once, I’d like to get kidnapped by someone who clearly was all kinds of f****d up.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” he said, slapping a bony thigh with more energy than a man his age looked capable of. He certainly looked frail enough that it wouldn't surprise me if something cracked as he did so. I did not want to be dealing with all of this right now, he made me feel stupid, and I had the headache from hell. 

“Sure,” I said back with sarcasm coating every syllable, “Whatever. Do you even have a name or does Old Man suit you?” There was a twitch in his facial expression that made me want to swear out loud, because there it was. The thing that Ivy did whenever she knew more than she was supposed to, or found something I said… funny. I was only just now correlating the two parts of that sentence together, and I wasn’t liking what it implied. I also wasn’t a fan of how I didn’t seem to be able to get anything more than a hazey idea of what that implied, and just to make things super interesting it didn’t even translate into words very well. There was just a suspicion that something wasn’t right, and a hint of what it is but not enough to be able to do anything with it.

“I think it might be for the best if we went with that,” he said with a strange sort of quiet delight about the whole thing, “You may leave when you like, best of luck with whatever you find out there, and I hope to see you soon.” I didn’t get a chance to find anything to say about that, because he stood and walked through the only door out. I was up and after him, a stitch formed in my side as I ran and my body throbbing, but by the time I followed him through the door he was gone.

“I had a terrible feeling that this is not going to go well for me,” I muttered, as I looked around the dark hallway. The only consolation was that there was only one way to go, straight out and follow the tunnel. It made me feel better about my chances of not getting lost in here. It wasn’t like I needed the help with that, getting lost was something I excelled at. I’ll admit that I considered turning around and climbing back into that bed to rest some more before I took off, but I had no way of knowing if that counted as a forfeit. Something told me to avoid forfeiting at all costs. 

The tunnel looked like it was something dug by a giant mole, or I’d been shrunk and dumped into a Bugs Bunny movie. Torches lit it periodical, and dirt covered and otherwise expensive looking quartz. Dipping into the grooves to leave the engravings standing out clearly. Someone had obviously tried to keep this place clean, but there was just so much dirt around that I was assuming it was impossible. It took a significant amount of time before I came to the front door. I assumed it was the front door, anyway. It was wooden, and heavy looking. A hook with a black bag hung on the back, and the bag had a note that read my name. I might have been worried that I would be able to open it, because it looked sturdy enough that it could be an issue. However it had been left ajar. The shivers that wracked my body at the sight had nothing to do with the cold, or the snow trickling in the gap. There was no way that I was just going to be able to leave here, the door unmistakably open, and the outside beckoning like it was perfectly safe to run with this golden opportunity. This was way too easy, and I was going to pay for that later.