Paying the Piper

Twenty-Seven: Desperate Enough

 "You called," Dorian said wonderingly. "All this time, I've been trying to reach you and been foiled, and then you actually called me to you directly."

"Who are you?" Ryland asked. His hands gripping Hannah's legs tightened. "Faye, do you know him?"

"Dorian Gray," I muttered to Ryland. "The deal maker."

"Did you do this?" I demanded of Dorian. "Did you trap my friend? Are you the one who made her like this?" I had been certain it had been those leech things, but maybe Dorian had showed himself to Hannah before we got there. Maybe he did something to her before.

He stepped closer as if to investigate who I was speaking of—as if he regularly trapped or hindered so many people he had to check if it was his doing or not. He even waved his hand and the area was suddenly cast in a weak glow of light, so we could more easily see each other clearly. "No," he said at last. "The shadows from these parts had their way with her. Looks like they sucked the life right out of her."

Hands balled into fists, I leaped to my feet and pushed against his chest. The first push managed to shove him back a foot, but after that, he held firm, grinning at me. Finally, he brought his arms from behind his back and seized my own.

"That's poor manners, Faye Wulfgaar. Especially when you invited me here."

That's right—he had said something to that effect initially. "I did no such thing," I said with clenched teeth. "The only reason I would ever call you here would be to—to eradicate you." I wasn't sure if a being like Dorian could be killed.

He tutted, releasing my hands and beginning to pace. "Oh, but you did. All you humans do. When you're desperate enough." He gave me a sidelong glance. "Looks like Hannah was your limit. If I'd known that, I would've set my sights on her ages ago. But instead, my backup plan worked." He grinned at Ryland.

Ryland seemed taken aback by the insinuation. "Huh? What do you mean by that?"

I was wondering the same thing. I looked from Dorian to Ryland, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Oh, did you not know all this time what blessings I bestowed on you since your birth?" Dorian was enjoying our discomfort. "You are my gateway, Ryland. Wherever you go in the Potomah, gateways are created in your wake. All those people who went missing in the Potomah because they fell through the portals were mostly thanks to you." Dorian gave a short showy bow. "So thank you."

I gaped at Ryland. Cale's words of warning about gateways opening returned to me. It had all been Ryland. Intentionally or not, he had been the cause of so many people falling into portals. Including me. Including Hannah.

My vision darkened.

"Let go of Hannah," I said tightly to Ryland. "Put her down." I didn't want him touching her one second more, however unfair of me it was.

He stared at me, eyes wide. "Faye, you have to know I didn't mean to do anything of what he's talking about. I didn't even know I was doing it!"

I ignored him. "Put. Her. Down."

He grunted, trying to shift the position he had been locked in to carry our friend out of these woods. As he lowered Hannah down his back, I was there to bear her weight. I cradled her head into my lap.

"Wake up!" But Hannah wasn't sleeping. Her hand lay prone and heavy and cold in my own, and her body moved with gravity, even when it wasn't a natural position for her body to be in. "Hannah!"

I kept repeating her name as if the sound would somehow string her life back to her body, binding them together again. I stroked her golden hair so that It lay neat around her head, sobbing to her how sorry I was.