Page 48 of A Fable of Riddles and Redemption

Taking another bow, he said, “My home.”

Zorina blinked. His home? But… “How did I get here?”

“I brought you here, of course.”

“I have no recollection of this,” she said slowly.

Caliban grinned. “No, you would not. You weren’t exactly conscious.”

Unease twisted her stomach. Had he kidnapped her? Used magic to lure her here? Like all of those other women who’d disappeared…

The threatening letters.

The lack of memory.

Waking up in a strange place.

The Maestro.

Is he the one behind all of it? But…why?

Swallowing, she tried to think of a way to ask without offending him. “And…why was I not aware at the time?”

He brushed her question away with a wave of his hand. “It doesn’t matter. The important thing is you are here now, with me.”

Zorina’s muscles tensed at his words. “It matters to me. Why was I unconscious, and why do you want me here? Did you do the same thing to the other women who’d disappeared? What will you do to me? Will I forget everything, too?”

A frown creased what little of his face she could see, and she couldn’t help but wonder what he looked like beneath the mask. “Do you not wish to learn more magic?” he asked, not at all answering any of her questions.

“Magic?” she asked slowly, cautiously, as she stood while staying on the opposite side of the bed from him. “Why would you think I’d know anything about magic?”

Despite her magical abilities, it was an honest question—primarily because she had no idea what made him believe she knew anything about it in the first place.

Caliban arched an unbelieving eyebrow at her, clearly not convinced. “You know more than you claim—and you wish to learn more.”

Zorina shook her head, refusing to be that vulnerable with the man who’d kidnapped her. “No, I want to know how—and why—you brought me here.”

Caliban sighed while shaking his head in return. “Ah, Zorina. Magic can do many things—things you are not yet capable of. But I can teach you.” An eager light lit his dark eyes at his last sentence.

She blinked, not fully understanding what he was getting at. “Teach me? You still haven’t even answered my questions. How and why am I here? And why do you think I can learn magic?”

A slow smile spread across his face as he crept closer, skirting around the lavish furnishings. “Did you know, my dear, that mages of ages past focused their magic through song? It made their power even stronger, allowing them to do more with less.”

Zorina furrowed her brow and shook her head. Apparently, he wasn’t going to answer the how and why beyond the vague hints he’d already given. As for magic through song, she had never heard anything like that before, even with all the magical tutors she’d had. “Why don’t they do that now?”

An eager light lit his dark eyes at the question. “An excellent point. I suspect that knowledge was lost with Atlantis. Even the great wizards of our day seem to have forgotten this.”

“Then…why do you know it?”

Caliban chuckled as he drew even nearer, stopping only a little in front of her. She backed up as far as she could against the end table in response, but it was not far enough away. “Another good question. I have dedicated my life to mastering magic, in every way possible. Music is merely one way to enhance one’s natural capacity.”

Zorina stared at him with wide eyes. There was only one way she knew about to enhance capacity for magic, but only the most depraved would dare to use it.

“Aah, you see where I am going with this. Yes, black magic is the other way to do the same. But when you combine them together—black magic and song—you will be unstoppable. We will be unstoppable.”

She shook her head. “Even if I could use magic, I would never use black magic. It steals power from others with magic—and drains them. It’s wrong.”

While Zorina had made plenty of horrible mistakes—one in particular—that was a line she had not crossed. A line she would not cross.