Page 59 of Born Chaos

The door shrieks loudly as I pull it open. The smell is overwhelming. Old tires, scraps of wood, ancient furniture. Dozens of doors break off to either side of the narrow hallway that stretches in front of me. I set off on the long trek toward the end of it.

Sebastian had keys to get into the door I’m looking for. Unfortunately, I’ll never get my hands on those, but I did grow up having to take what I needed to survive. I pull the picks from my back pocket and set to work.

Just five seconds later, I hear the lock click, and I push the door open.

It shocked me the first time I saw it. There’s a five-foot-wide strip of space just inside the door. And then there’s the reinforced glass wall. Beyond that, it’s a prison cell.

In shock, a figure sits up on the cot pushed up against one wall. With wary eyes, Markus, the necromancer, watches as I step inside and close the door behind me.

“I wondered if I’d ever see you again,” he says, and I’m reminded just how young he is. He was no more than a teenager when he ran with Archer and his cult the first time. He’s still younger than I am.

“I needed to see if Sebastian had kept you alive,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “The situation has changed a bit, so I needed to make sure.”

“Can you really count this as living?” Markus says with disgust. He looks around his cell, and I have to agree. He has a toilet and a sink. There’s a shelf against the back wall and it’s stocked with non-perishable food. “I think the man’s plan is for me to live out the rest of my life in this tiny hellhole. But trust me, I’ll be dead long before I become an old man in here.”

And I don’t doubt it. No one can survive forever in these kinds of conditions.

“Has Sebastian come to check on your injuries?” I ask, moving on, because I haven’t figured out what to do about this present situation.

Resentfully, Markus nods. He’s still casted up, and still will be for another week or two. But the bruising has gone down to nearly nothing. “He knocked me out before he opened the door. So, I can’t one hundred percent verify everything he’s doing to me when I’m out. But, I’m still alive. Things seem to be healing.”

I nod, relieved that Sebastian hasn’t lost all of his humanity. “I needed to ask you some questions. I might not agree with how he’s doing this, but I have a personal reason for not letting you go just yet.”

“Who do you want brought back?” Markus asks with a barely suppressed eye roll.

“My mother,” I answer. I won’t let my grief choke me out. I have to be direct about this, transaction like. It’s the only way my guilt will allow me to do this. “How long does someone have to have been dead for before you can’t bring them back?”

Markus stares at me for a moment, and I feel his evaluation. What must he think of me? I’ve agreed to keep him a prisoner. Sebastian brought me here to show Markus off like it was the most romantic gesture in the world that he’d taken him prisoner just in case he needed to bring me back from the dead.

I see the red flags now. It should have been more worrisome. It was some of the first evidence of how far Sebastian was willing to go in his obsession with keeping me safe.

“Archer King was dead the longest,” he tells me. “So I know my ability goes back five years. Beyond that, I don’t know. I haven’t tried to bring back anyone who has been dead longer than that.”

“Do you think there’s a difference?” I ask. “Bones are bones. So, there shouldn’t be a difference between Archer, who had been dead for five years, and someone who has been dead for twenty-eight years, right?”

Again, he stares at me with that dark, serious look for a long moment, evaluating everything I say and do, and every word he says. “I would think not.”

I give a nod and slowly start pacing the small amount of space in front of the prison cell. It’s the answer I hoped for, but not as certain as I would like.

I know I can get Markus out of this cell. I could do it right now. That lock isn’t that impressive if you’re a vampire. I know I could keep him contained for a while. But could I keep him under control the entire journey from here to Kansas? And once I get to Kansas, I don’t even know where my mother is. I was told she’s buried in an unmarked grave. How will I be able to tell her bones from anyone else who isn’t marked with a headstone?

“He’s not so different from Archer, you know,” Markus says. And my eyes rise back to meet his. “Archer took what benefited him, what he wanted. The man you love isn’t much different.”

My stomach sinks. And it makes me hate myself all the more.

I knew there was darkness in Sebastian. Long before I fell in love with him, I knew he’d had pain in his past. I knew he wasn’t always black and white. And I loved him all the more for it.

I accepted this. I knew it was happening. Sebastian showed me Markus as his prisoner with pride.

“I think that says something about you, don’t you think?” Markus asks.

I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to think on it any more than I have. So I turn and step through the door. “I’ll be back for you at some point,” I say as I glance back at him just once. And then I lock the door behind me.

Just as I set off down the hall, the burner rings from my pocket.

“Mason—”

“Elena’s sick,” he cuts me off before I can say another word. “She’s burning up. She’s coughing her brains out. Juliet, it’s finally got her.”

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