The room had not a single window; not a drop of natural light could seep in. The only opening in the formidable concrete walls was up by the ceiling and consisted of a narrow ventilation duct that might be wide enough for a large rat to squeeze through. There was no lamp, no ceiling light, nor anything else that provided light other than four candles, and the furniture was as scarce as the lighting. It was hardly surprising the air was stuffy and the ambience completely lacking in comfort.

  Within the first few minutes of Nilia locking him up in there, Raven had known this was essentially a prison cell. There was a bathroom, a bed in one of the corners, a table with two folding chairs, and four candelabras that stood some three feet high. And that was the entire inventory of the fifty square feet where he’d been locked up for almost three days.

  At first he was afraid of being totally in the dark once the candles burned down, but he’d discovered that, much to his astonishment and relief, they never went out. The wax kept burning, seemingly unaware of the slow passage of time.

  Raven was hyper-focused on breaking out, and his desire to regain his freedom increased exponentially when he imagined a complicated storyline in which Nilia was negotiating with Diago over the price on his head.

  “Give me what I’m asking for,” says the Nilia generated by his imagination, “and I’ll hand the Minor over to you. I’ve handed him a pack of lies and he’s locked up in a dark little room.”

  Then Diago lets out a sinister laugh and the two of them shake hands.

  This was not the only possibility his tormented mind considered, but it was the one that most contributed to his doing everything possible to escape from this prison. The door would not open. He tried it numerous times, all in vain. He rammed it with his shoulder to see what his chances were of getting out and immediately found they were slim to none. In the second attempt he whacked it with one of the candelabras after he carefully laid the candle on the table. Finally, he charged at it using the bed as a battering ram. The damn door did not budge an inch.

  It was then, after coming to the realization that it would withstand every feeble attempt to break it down and after giving it one final kick in a fit of frustration that hurt more than he thought it would, that he settled on the worst idea possible.

  With a fresh determination and complete disregard for what Nilia had told him about how Diago had found him on previous occasions, Raven put his open hand on the door and concentrated.

  The strange energy that allowed him to achieve things that defied the limits of possibility—like healing his own body or melting iron bars—began to flow from within him. And in almost the same instant, the bracelet on his wrist lit up with a bluish glow. A savage electrical shock coursed through his body, bringing about a cascade of convulsions and spasms. He was thrown backwards and fell to the floor, flat on his back.

  When he came to several hours later, his arm was hurting and his situation had not improved—except that he now knew what to do in the event that he had trouble falling asleep.

  The following hours went by so slowly that Raven wondered if time was going backwards instead of moving forward. Desperation was mounting inside him, little by little overshadowing the rest of his emotions. Resigned to being stuck there until Nilia came back, he wondered about the first thing he’d say to her and what her attitude would be. An apology on her part, accompanied of course by some rational explanation, was the only conceivable possibility. But, how would he react? Part of him wanted to stand up for himself and express his outrage over being locked up for so long. Another part of him, a part that had been unknown to him until the first time he’d laid eyes on Nilia, stubbornly insisted that he would be completely incapable of getting angry with her. It was the part that had stirred in him when he’d gazed in awe at her perfect face; something that burned inside him, filling him with warmth. For a fleeting moment he wondered why he hadn’t ever felt anything like that for another woman. But then again, maybe he had. Just then the thought crossed his mind that it wasn’t likely he’d never been with a woman; maybe he even had a family somewhere out there.

  Not really sure of whether he was asleep or awake, Raven spent the rest of the time lying in the bed, putting up a good fight against the feeling of hopelessness, until he finally heard the sound of footsteps on the other side of the door.

  He sprang up and sat on the edge of the bed. His eyes were glued to the door as he tried to hear over the beating of his heart. Thank God, Nilia had come back.

  He heard the latch on the other side and the door started to open. All the conversations he’d imagined vanished as he stood up and exclaimed, “It’s about time! You want to tell me what . . .”

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  Raven fell silent when he saw the person who’d just come in. It wasn’t Nilia.

  “Is this him?” asked the stranger.

  It was a tall man with long, white hair. Raven couldn’t make out his features since the candles didn’t throw off much light. The guy took a few steps into the room.

  “Yes, that’s him,” said Nilia as she came into the room and closed the door.

  “Who is he?” demanded Raven. His fury was now accompanied by confusion. “You said you would help me with—”

  Nilia’s hand landed squarely over his mouth. Raven had no idea what had just happened. She was walking toward him and then suddenly, one swift move in the blink of an eye, and she had one hand over his mouth and the other around his chest, clenching him so tightly he knew he couldn’t break free.

  “All yours, Zegen,” said Nilia.

  “It will be quick.” The stranger stood in front of Raven. “And it will only hurt a little, human,” he proclaimed with a pointed smile.

  Raven tried in vain to free himself from Nilia’s crushing hold, twisting his body as much as he could, but he got the same results as he had in his battle with the door of the room. Zegen held out his right arm, placed his hand on Raven’s sweaty forehead and closed his eyes.

  Raven felt a sudden, sharp drop in temperature. A new consciousness forcibly made its way through the deepest recesses of his mind, crushing his own will, picking and choosing threads of his memory. He was overcome with dizziness as images flashed before his eyes in rapid succession. He saw himself unsuccessfully looking for his own shadow next to an enormous throne. Then haze. Now he was next to a very tall building, looking down; tiny cars and people that looked like dolls on the street below him. More haze. Now a woman he didn’t recognize was handing him a paper bag and he went off, blowing a kiss with his right hand . . .

  Suddenly the images stopped and Raven was back in the room where he’d been locked up. Nothing was holding him still now. He looked down and saw Zegen’s body lying on the floor. Nilia was leaning over him, her hands grasping the hilts of the daggers protruding from Zegen’s eye sockets. She gently pulled the daggers out. The blades shone with a reddish glow.

  “What h-happened?” stammered Raven, who still felt chilled. “You . . .?”

  “Killed him, yes. You got that on the first try.” Nilia stood up and the gleam on the daggers disappeared. They now appeared rusted and in worn condition, as if they’d changed completely when the reddish glow went away. The blades’ edges were jagged and looked like two old, neglected knives. “We have to get out of here immediately.”

  “What do we do with the body?” asked Raven, walking behind Nilia.

  “Don’t worry about that. My people will find him.” She stopped near the door and Raven almost ran into her. One of the daggers was glowing again, but this time it was a bluish glow instead of a red one. “I should add a new mark . . .” she said, turning toward Zegen’s body while touching her arm that was covered with lines.

  “Mark? What are you talking about?”

  “Never mind. There’ll be time for that later.” The bluish glow disappeared and the dagger looked dreadfully dull again. Nilia put it back in its sheath on her thigh. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They ran up a long hallway, then went up some stairs covered in trash that creaked when they stepped on them. Finally they arrived at a glass door from which they could see a street covered in snow. When they left the building, the intense brightness of the natural light hit his dilated pupils and Raven had to shield his eyes with his hands. He’d been down in that basement with nothing more than candlelight for too long.

  “I need a few seconds.” His eyes were tearing up. “Do you mind taking this damn thing off me?” He held out his arm with the bracelet that had shocked him when he’d try to melt the door.

  Nilia took hold of it and a light surged from her hand. When the light vanished, the bracelet was gone.

  “Thank you,” said Raven curtly, rubbing his wrist.

  “Put your hand on my shoulder. I’ll go slowly.”

  Raven did so and they walked slowly down the sidewalk. Looking at the sun reflecting off the snow was so painful he still couldn’t open his eyes completely.

  “You could at least tell me why it took you so long to come back. You left me locked up in there for three days. And the jolt that bracelet of yours hit me with was enough to kill an elephant.”

  Raven could see Nilia didn’t think she owed him an apology.

  “It was for your own safety,” she declared. “I warned you not to resort to using your abilities; doing so puts you at risk of Diago finding you again.”

  There were a lot of people out. Raven noticed that his eyes had adjusted to the natural light, so he stopped squinting and looked up. He had no idea where they were, but it was quite a congested area. It was bisected by a rather wide street with several lanes and quite a bit of traffic. A good number of passersby were staring curiously at them. Most of these were men so Raven figured they were taken with Nilia.

  “I couldn’t come back any sooner,” said Nilia. Her voice sounded strange. Apparently she wasn’t used to offering explanations. “I hope you weren’t too bored.”

  “What did that Zegen guy want with me? And why did you kill him?”

  “He was trying to empty your mind,” she explained. A car passed close by, splashing them with dirty water and soaking their legs. Raven jumped to the side, but Nilia kept walking as if she hadn’t even noticed it. “My people want you dead. Zegen and I had orders to finish you off once he’d stolen your memories.”

  “Why does everyone want to kill me? I haven’t done anything, damn it!” Raven stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

  Nilia walked back to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. Raven cringed, afraid she was going to hit him again. Since he’d met her she’d inflicted a great deal of pain on him, yet she was supposed to be protecting him. He did not want to get her angry.

  “This is no time for nonsense.” Nilia gave him a gentle shake. “We have to get to a safe place to hide. I already told you your life is in grave danger, more than you can possibly understand right now. You have to hide. You still don’t trust me?”