“I don’t know,” she muttered, pushing another one closer.
I flipped the cover open and gasped when I found Kahleena’s name on the first page. Unlike the ones before it, pages of this book were a delicate scrawl of words, building to thoughts that spanned pages. The deeper I read into the pages, though, the more discombobulated her thoughts became. She wrote about the nothingness and how she felt lost within the walls that held her prisoner day after day, with no coherent perception of time.
“Why would she have no perception of time?” Ryder asked, reading the journal over my shoulder.
“Inside the City of Gods is a mansion, one that was built before the gods ever seized control of the city.” She pushed the hair away from her face, swallowing audibly. “No one is certain why time seems to move differently inside the mansion. We only discovered the peculiarity after Kahleena came out of it changed. When she told me she’d been inside the mansion for over a thousand years, I laughed it off. But as time progressed, and she offhandedly replied to something she shouldn’t have had knowledge of, or answered hypothetical questions that weren’t meant to have solutions, I wasn’t laughing anymore.”
“You didn’t think we should know about it before now? Why the fuck would you put her in there in the first place?” I snapped through the rage boiling in my veins, adding bitterness and condemnation to my words.
“I didn’t understand the magnitude of it until I found the notebook with the markings. As for why I hid her in there? I only did it to protect her from Bilé. Prior to Danu’s death, she was adamant Kahleena be kept chaste and pure. She read me the riot act about how I had to keep her away from boys and others who could tarnish her purity. In the last hours of her life, Danu went insane, and she muttered crazy things. Most of them I dismissed as sadistic ramblings, but then she told me that Kahleena must be given to Bilé and their union was to be blessed in the eyes of the gods. I left her to die alone and brought the children back here for your wedding.”
If she’d known Kahleena was in Bilé’s crosshairs, she should have told us. My fingers drummed over the table, and it took sheer determination and strength not to jump across the table and beat the ever-loving shit out of Destiny.
“Which you kept from us,” I said, and the hiss of accusation in my tone was as intentional as it was clear. “I understand that once Danu died, her threat ended, so you didn’t think you needed to tell us. However, Danu’s demanding and insistence of keeping my daughter pure and untouched? You should have told us the moment she started demanding things outside of her authority to demand.”
“I did keep it from you, but I still kept them protected from him, Synthia. Soon after your last visit, Bilé instructed me to deliver the children to him so he could bring Danu back. He intended to murder the children so he and Danu could wear their faces. I panicked and hid Kahleena in the mansion. I thought if I hid her, he’d abandon his plan to use them altogether. Bilé did, which worked out. Plus, he was rather occupied here with everything occurring.”
I continued to drum my fingers on the table, noting that the color drained from her face. Destiny picked up the teacup, sipping slowly while it trembled in her hold.
“What aren’t you telling us?” Ryder’s tone promised violence if she didn’t get on with telling us whatever she was here to say.
“Kahleena was inside the mansion for a little over five years.”
“Alone?” I clarified as my stomach sank.
“You left her inside that place for five years without checking on her?” Ryder snarled, clenching my shoulder to remain in place. As if he needed me to ground him and prevent him from lunging for her and shredding her to pieces.
“No, I checked twice a week when I was sure that no one was watching me. The boys also spoke to her and discussed how much they missed you two. Right before the battle for Faery began, I went to check on her, and that was when I heard it speaking to her.”
I swallowed over the eeriness of her words. “Heard what?” I demanded carefully, hating the uneasiness churning in my stomach. Destiny sat back slowly, and lifted her eyes to mine as tears slowly rolled down her cheeks.
“I heard the mansion speaking to Kahleena, who sounded dull and resigned. When I tried to coax her to the door, it slammed in my face and dead bolted itself to keep me out. I had the boys attempt to open the door to get her out, but it didn’t budge for any of us. I spent years trying to open the doors, which was where Spyder found me when he ventured to the city to check on something he needed to handle. I only remember him stating something about creating his own damn issues. I took it to mean literally.”
Destiny plucked at an invisible lint on her shirt, glancing at us before she dropped her attention to the empty dish of desserts.
“Spyder was who informed me the mansion was a prison inside a timeless dimension, one so horrible that it was no longer in use but left in place for anyone stupid enough to enter. He was aware of how it works, and he told me he’s one of five creatures alive who can traverse its halls without fear of being locked inside. Anyone else would have to decipher the puzzle of the time locked within the walls before they were released.
“Spyder entered the mansion and carried Kahleena out, but she wasn’t a child anymore. It had fractured her mind and nothing I did could bring her back. The boys attempted to reach her, but it was as if she wasn’t there anymore. Spyder returned after a time, and he would sit beside her, speaking of the mansion and what it did to the mind. He slowly coaxed her back, and they spent months talking about how much she’d learned and while he trained her to fight. When he left again, she all but closed down once more. Then, as if out of the blue, she informed her brothers and me that the war had been won and it was time for them to return and accept their fate that was prophesied.”
“How fucking long was Kahleena in that fucking prison, Destiny?” He slammed his palms against the table, causing her to jolt upright, which sent her chair clattering to the floor loudly.
“I don’t know for certain. Three days ago, these journals appeared on the steps of the mansion. This was with them,” she whispered, placing a small compass-looking device on the table. “You need to contact Spyder and ask him what it is. I do not know how or why it appeared with her journals, but if anyone would have the answer, it would be him.”
“So, you have no idea how long she was inside that place or how old our daughter actually is?” Ryder asked incredulously.
I turned to gape at him, realization dawning on me she’d have aged inside the prison. The boys hadn’t mentioned anything about it, but they’d been trying to shield us from being hurt over the choice we’d made to send them there in the first place.
“Spyder estimated she could be twenty years or two thousand years old. It isn’t possible to guess how much time passed in there because it is unknown how time actually moves within it. Spyder may know, but he declined to tell me when I asked him about it.”
“Since Spyder is the one who saved her, it stands to reason he’d know a lot more than he told you.” I summarized, wondering if she’d been tortured or harmed during the time it had trapped her within it.
“That’s what I assume, but you’d have to ask him. I wanted you to have these in case they hold a clue as to where she might be hidden away. Kahleena is a lot older and entirely more knowledgeable than you think she is. When Spyder saved her from that place, she held more knowledge than even I do, and I’m over ten thousand years old, Synthia. Now, don’t get me wrong. She has no real-world knowledge, but she holds a vast understanding of other things. She’s also incredibly powerful—more powerful than the three of us combined,” she disclosed softly, lifting her hands to rub her silver armlets, which buzzed as the jewels lit vibrantly. “I have to go,” she whispered, vanishing before either of us had time to speak.