“The man could not escape his chain. He grew to resent it. He cried out for it to be unlocked. But he had no key. He begged the Siren for help but she could not. For the second man had the key to all of the chains, she said. The first man howled and cursed the second. How dare he, with his fine garden, rob others of their freedom. Of their rightful bounty. He died on the
floor of his cottage, hungry and thirsty, chained to his own front door and stretching out for a key he could not see.”
Freddy and I both watch as she reaches beneath the collar of her dress to withdraw a long chain necklace.
Instead of a pendant, there is a slim golden key. She holds it up and it gleams.
“You have to make them think the chains are their idea,” she says serenely. “And that someone else wants to take it from them. Then, you will be free. You and only you.”
Silence follows her story and her reveal of the
golden key.
“Hidden Folk are mostly immune to us,” she adds, a coda to her frightening display. “But humans are not. They all follow us. They all believe us. It will be more so for you. They will never disobey or deny you, Freddy, so you must be ready to create and inflict order. Distraction. All of them are compelled to worship us, so let them.”
Freddy’s expression changes and a touch of triumph enters his face. “Not all of them, Mum. She’s different. She’ll never be under your thumb.”
He’s talking about me, and it makes my nerves twitch but then I notice how spikey and unsure Portia now seems. It gives me a taste of the same triumph, and a tiny shot of strength.
“I told you, son,” she finally says. “She will never accept you. Not really. I promise you that. I had a friend just like her.”
“You’ve never had friends.”
“I had a thousand lives before you were born. But only one true friend and even that ended in ugliness. It always does, it always will.”
“Were they like Ramya? Were they immune?”
I watch Portia, expecting her to deny it. She does not. Her memories are with the ghost of this other person, this friend. Whoever she’s talking about, there are clearly things that she feels but does not want to say.
“All of this is for the best,” she settles on, speaking with the same calm serenity that she tried to use on me all those years ago. “And you can tell your little friend something from me. I’d love for her to pay me a visit. She would be in no harm. I just want to make her a nice offer. And the longer she refuses, the weaker that vampire gets.”
Freddy’s eyes widen and then dart to my hiding spot, unconsciously.
“You can come out now, Ramya,” Portia says composedly. “Let’s talk, you and I. It’s been so long since we last saw each other.”
Chapter FOURTEEN
Dress Rehearsal
I wish teleportation was one of my gifts. Yet even Aunt Opal is incapable of that. I hesitate and then swiftly exit the snug, not wanting her to come in after me. I slam the door behind me and straighten my stance, staring at the female Siren. Our first meeting since that party in my parents’ London house. When she deliberately caused a rift in the family and my grandfather left forever.
She looks me up and down, almost hungrily. I was expecting hatred and resentment, but she looks mildly fascinated instead. “You’re so much taller.”
I don’t respond. Instead, I flex both of my hands. They crackle and spit with electricity. The rage and the pain of the last few years builds in me, making the current stronger. A part of me detaches, floats away from my body and settles in the highest corner of the ceiling. It looks down upon the three of us and casually wonders if I have enough electricity in my hands to kill her. It wonders what will happen if I throw a blast of magic at her.
All the remaining parts of me have to fight to not listen to it.
“Easy now,” Portia says carefully. “Let’s just—”
“Your voice doesn’t work on me,” I say brokenly. The adrenaline is mixed with memory and emotion, stripping me raw. “Not like it did on him. I never saw him again, by the way. After what you did.”
Her eyes flicker as they flash between me and Freddy. “Is that so?” Her gaze drops to my hands once more. “So, it’s true. You really are getting powerful.”
“Yeah,” I snap. “I am. And I’m also the only one in this room with a power that works over the other person. So, step away from the door.”
“Ramya,” she says, and while her voice doesn’t control me, it does affect me. It sounds so reasonable. “All I’ve been trying to do is talk to you. I think you’re fantastic. I think your power is—”
“Don’t listen to her, Ramya,” Freddy says quickly. “She’s lying.”
“I’m not,” she fires back, still looking at me.
“You’re a little anomaly. Special. I can see it; I saw it all of those years ago.” She focuses intently on me and lowers her voice into a deep and compelling timbre. “Sit down.”
I don’t move. It’s her testing me again. Gauging my susceptibility. “No.”
“Incredible,” she breathes. “What a gift, Ramya.
Or a curse, perhaps.”
I glower. “Having a mind of your own is not a curse.”
“Ah,” she sighs, smiling wanly at me. “Yes. When you’re thirteen, maybe. But just wait. Wait until the world becomes too much, too wearisome. Wait until you have a million responsibilities crushing down upon you. Then you’ll wish for someone like me. Someone who will make the difficult decisions and decide what is best for you.”
“Is that what you think you’re doing?” Freddy asks from behind me.
“It’s what I know I’m doing, sweetheart,” she replies, not breaking her eye contact with me, despite him asking her the question. “No one wants freedom if it means chaos. People crave order. That’s all I’m doing. You understand that Ramya? That brain of yours, it feels muddled a lot of the time, does it not? Wouldn’t you love it to feel smoother? To feel just like everybody else?”
I throw my hand out before me and let everything Opal has taught me, as well as a dash of instinct, shoot out of my fingertips. Portia’s golden chain snaps and breaks, the key flying free of her neck and shooting towards me. I grasp it between my fingers for a millisecond before throwing it onto their front room floor. I blast it with as much fire as I’m able to muster, knowing Mum and Opal would do a better job.