Mara
If Mara’s jaw could’ve dropped open any further, it would’ve come unhinged. With exhaustion fully setting in, she could have sworn the image of her sister running toward her was mirage. Not to mention the fact that Sadie had been sitting on a throne and she was with the Wicked Prince. The jolt of pain through her ribs as Sadie slammed into her, wrapping her in a hug, brought her back to reality.
“Mara! Thank fuck, you’re in one piece. Sort of. You look like shit. Are you okay?” she asked, pulling away to place both of her hands onto Mara’s face. Both sisters looked over each other with scrutiny.
“You’re one to talk.” Mara pulled her sister back into a light hug, the weight on her shoulders finally lifting. “What are you doing here?” she managed to ask, stepping back to give her ribs a break. “Oliver said that you had gone looking for me. He said you were missing. I’ve been following your trail, trying to find you. And now you’re here . . . on a throne . . . with the Wicked Prince?” She paused to half-heartedly wave at Sebastian. “Hi again, by the way. Sorry about that whole kidnapping thing.”
“No big deal. Just possibly one of the biggest insults of my life, being traded for the payment of one’s rent,” Sebastian said, the words sour upon his lips. Vareck rolled his eyes, wrapping his arm around the Prince’s shoulders as he ushered him to the side.
“Ah, good. I’m glad he holds no grudges; that’s great. I really am in Hell. Speaking of which, how did you two even get up here? Did the rock monster things capture you?”
“The Okalri are harmless. Seriously. We wouldn’t have been able to stay alive this long without them.” Sadie opened her mouth to continue, but paused. Her fingertips pressed against the bottom of her chin, examining Mara from head to toe. “Were you in my closet?”
“Okalri?” Mara asked, trying to steer the conversation back to the matter at hand.
“I better get my lucky shirt back,” Sadie warned.
“Sadie, we don’t have time for this right now.” And Mara didn’t want to mention that one of Sadie’s favorite jackets was left in the cave down below.
“Alright, alright. Uh, yeah. That’s the only weird garbled word that they mutter on occasion. At least that’s what it sounds like. So that’s what I call them.”
“Weird . . .” Mara mumbled, glancing over to the rock golems. They seemed to have backed off for the most part, keeping to the edges in a larger circle around the group. “And they’re friendly?”
“Yeah, they seem to worship us. Or me. I’m not sure which. They brought us here, showed me the throne, and I think they made me their ruler. They feed us all the time. It’s pretty great, actually. Well, minus the weather, and missing mom’s cooking, and not having internet.”
Sadie, stretched her arms above her head, wiggling out her fingertips. “Well, now that I know you’re safe . . .” She strutted over to the two men, tapping them both on the shoulder to grab their attention. Vareck turned and Sadie held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Your Highness. You’re fucking dead.”
He had moved his hand toward her to accept her greeting, but he paused at her threat, looking over to Mara. She rolled her eyes. “Sadie.”
“What? Too forward?” she asked, smirk sliding across her expression.
Mara could see that Vareck was straining to keep himself neutral. She had to admire him for it. He had been doing his best to not push her away. “No, it was forward enough. Pleasure’s mine, Sadie. I think there’s a lot we need to discuss here,” he said.
“Right, right. Sure. Like how you kidnapped my sister? Are we discussing that?”
Mara sighed. If they kept this up, they’d be going nowhere fast. It was up to her to get everyone on the same page so they could get along. “Sadie, stop. It’s more complicated than that. Let’s figure out some things first. We’re all on the same team here.”
“Oh, I doubt that. But go on. Let’s figure things out,” Sadie said as she glared at Vareck.
“Sebastian, I’m sorry you got stuck here. And I really am sorry about the whole kidnapping thing. We’re here to bring you two back home,” Mara said.
“I don’t really feel like accepting”—he paused, looking at Vareck, and then cleared his throat—“ . . . right. Sorry. Please continue.” He crossed his arms in front of him and Vareck sighed as he ran his hands through his hair.
“Let’s just . . . sit down. Figure out things from the beginning. How did either of you get here?” Mara prompted.
“I woke up here,” Sebastian said. “After you turned me over to that crude leprechaun and he knocked me out, I woke up on the eastern side of this mountain. I eventually came across Sadie on my daily search for food. This environment is tough to survive in.”
Sadie nodded to confirm his words, butting-in to tell her part. “I was looking for you when I ended up falling through a portal at Amelia’s and into this shithole. Bast was so sure that staying in the same spot would get him help. I told him I wasn’t sticking around to wait for something to kill me.”
Bast? Just how close was her sister to the prince? How long had they been here? She couldn’t even remember how long she had been captured or how long she’d been in Faerie. Didn’t she just talk about this at the dinner table?
Mara and Vareck made eye contact. Amelia’s? There was something more to this situation than they realized. They would have to figure this out.
Mara’s exhaustion was deepening, and it made it difficult to focus. She blinked, forcing herself back into the conversation. “And the Ocal . . . ri?”
“Okalri,” Sadie corrected. “I’m getting there. Don’t interrupt.” She took a few steps back, slumping onto the throne. “We took shelter and tried to rest. One of us was supposed to be on watch, but he decided to sleep. We woke up and they were surrounding us. Started shouting and poking and prodding us, pushing us around. But I’m not about that life. Long story short, they started bowing when I summoned my axe.”
“We’ve still been trying to find a way out,” said Sebastian, “but to no avail.”
“They feed and take care of us at least, so that’s cool.” Sadie clapped her hands and two of the Okalri came running over with bowl-like objects. One held delicious looking berries, likely picked from the nearby mountain bushes they had passed. The other was crawling with bugs; more legs than Mara had ever seen in a lifetime. Sadie scrunched her nose, sending away the second bowl with a sway of her hand. “They’re still figuring out what we like, but they’re pretty resourceful. Seem to know the land pretty well.”
“Right.” This was all too surreal. Mara glanced over to Vareck. He had seemed to be the most knowledgeable on the subject, and that didn’t say much. “What do you think?”
He raised a brow at her question. “Me?” He turned to glance out of their cave and look at the strange, shifting rock creatures. “None of this makes logical sense. Of course I have a bad feeling about it.”
“You look brooding enough to always have a bad feeling about everything. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. They’re fine,” Sadie said.