Page 85 of The Rat King
As if sensing my thoughts, she asked, “Are you sure?” Her voice dripped with poisoned honey.
I released a sigh as we turned the corner, taking a passageway that led to the workshop at the back of her house. We crossed the perfectly manicured lawn and entered the building through the solid wood door.
The room was dim and musky, and the foul smell of urine and animal waste drifted into my nose as I entered. “Why are we here?” I asked her. In the center of the room there was a large stain covered table and innumerous jars filled with varying items, from volcanic ash to what appeared to be blood.
“I thought you said you wanted to see your wife,” she said, pressing her lips together and regarded me as if I had lost my senses.
I was going to burn this place to the ground once I got Avery back. Jetta was right, and my mother was much calmer, but it horrified me to think that the woman I cherished most in the world spent even an hour in this god-awful building.
“Come, darling,” she said. “No need to panic. She is unharmed. The last thing I would do is hurt my daughter-in-law.” The grin she gave me as she stepped around the corner made me wonder if the copious use of whatever magic she had siphoned from the earth had somehow corrupted her mind. She seemed to be getting worse the more time elapsed.
I followed her, stepping around the corner and as I took in the cages, my stomach dropped. My throat went dry as panic seized it, and I swallowed. “Are those all humans?”
I don’t know what shocked me more. Her ambivalent attitude or the fact that dozens of little wire cages were stacked on top of each other and in each of them was a rat.
Samara picked up a tin, flipped the lid open and began handing little pieces of dried fruit to them. As her hand approached, they rushed to the front of the cage and their tiny pink fingers reached out and took the fruit before bringing it to their mouths to nibble away at it.
My blood went from ice to boiling in a split second. I grabbed her by the neck and slammed her face first into the wall. Before she could move, I had a dagger made from my power digging into her side. My actions surprised her, and though her hands which were planted on either side of her head on the wall were glowing white, she didn’t move.
I leaned down to whisper in her ear. “If you do not release her right now, I will drive this dagger into your liver. Then I will take my time as I fillet you before cutting out your eyes and shoving them down your throat. After that, if you’re still alive, I’ll see how hungry your pets are.”
To emphasize the point, I pressed the dagger in deeper and a trickle of blood trailed down her cream robe.
“How dare you?” she hissed. “Let me go this instant.”
I tightened the grip on her neck, digging my nails into her delicate skin. If I changed my angle slightly, I could crush her windpipe. We both knew I couldn’t kill her, though. What she did to Avery was witch’s magic and possibly a dark form of it. I needed her to turn my wife back into a human.
Before I could stop her, her finger flicked once, and the sound of creeping metal filled the room. I glanced over at the cages. Every single door sprang open, and the rodents tentatively approached the edge. They were practically identical and within seconds, as they discovered their newly found freedom, they began hopping out of the cages, hitting the floor, and scurrying past our feet, squeaking, hissing, and crawling over each other as they went.
In my shock, I loosened my hold on her neck. Samara used that to spin around and shove a blast of hot power into my stomach, wincing as my dagger dragged a thin line across her side. Her power clad hand met the black fabric of my shirt where her power burned me with such force I flew into the opposite wall. I slid to the ground, clutching my stomach.
She hovered over me, gripping her side. “Why could we not just be a normal family?” she asked, as she teetered back to the part of her that seemed to earnestly want to be a mother. I only needed to wait another few moments and she’d be back to the conniving witch who’d tricked my father and murdered him before my eyes.
I clutched my stomach, and the magic burns I felt blistering beneath the fabric. My insides felt charred as I glared up at her. “Because you’re an unpredictable psychopath.”
She twitched and her eyes became glassy for a moment before hardening into the pale blue ice I usually encountered.
“That’s unfortunate,” she said, surveying the creatures squirming into cracks beneath the baseboard and under the door.
She started to walk away, but halted when I got to my feet and asked, “What about Avery?”
She spun. “I released her. Just as you asked.” She waved her arm around the room at the fleeing creatures.
“I’m going to kill you,” I said, raising my hands to draw on my power, but whatever she did to me had guttered it. Only flickers rested in my palms. Not nearly enough to make good on my threat.
“Not that you would ever take my advice, but if I were you, I wouldn’t be spending precious time threatening me whenever you should be hunting for your wife,” she said.
I darted forward to grab hold of her, but my fingers met the air where she had stood. Shit. I lifted my shirt to inspect the wound and winced as I pulled away the fabric and skin. A few places I could see down to the sinew of the muscle. I wasn’t sure if any lasting damage had been done to my internal organs. It didn’t matter. Samara was right. I needed to find Avery.
The irony and the horror were not lost on me as I knelt to the ground trying to scent which of the creatures had that familiar sunshine and floral smell. Surely, I’d be able to recognize it. Hissing came from the table, and I looked up to see a couple of the creatures tussling over the open tin of fruit. A few others were still working their way around the edges of the room, but one stood in the doorway, blinking its black beady eyes at me.
“Avery?” I asked, feeling more than a little insane. How had the woman reduced me to this? But I’d endure this and limitless humiliations for my wife. Tentatively, I crawled toward the animal, but as the board underneath my knee creaked, it darted away into the lush green grass of the backyard.
I shot to my feet and ran after it. The blades were thick and tall, and I could only see the top of its back as it ran toward the hedges. I had to get it before it made it out into the city. There were endless blood chilling possibilities. Horrifying things that could happen, from being caught in the jaws of a stray dog or under the wheel of a carriage, to poison, or a rat trap. And there were also an endless number of places to hide. If she got out of my sight—no, I couldn’t let that happen.
Keeping light on my feet, careful to not accidentally bring my boot down on one of these cursed beings, I chased after her.
She fled between the metal rods of the fence and darted under the bush and into the nearest street, running along the buildings. A woman stepping out of her building, saw the rodent, screamed as she jumped back, slamming the door shut before it could run inside.
