Limbo (Part Two)

Chapter Five: How to make enemies and manipulate people

Chapter Five: How to make enemies and manipulate people

If anything could be said for Dietrich, the goblin king, it was that he was clever. Very, very clever. Aleksandra had scoured the depths of purgatory looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found.

Moroi had been furious when she returned to report her failure. I half expected him to kill her, but instead he insisted he would go with her to hunt Dietrich down. He had ordered me to remain in the throne room, and had listed the various types of torture I should expect if I disobeyed.

Unsurprisingly, I didn't listen.

As soon as his footsteps faded into the distance I took off, winding my way through the maze-like tunnels of purgatory in an attempt to pick back up with the plan I had formed before Moroi got involved.

The rock walls all looked the same to me; they always had, so it took me far longer than it should have to find Roran's old hideout. For a moment I allowed myself to miss him, but quickly pushed it out of my mind. Getting sentimental wouldn't help me now. I was on my own.

The cave looked untouched, probably due to the fact it was so high up, and I grinned when I saw several knives still scattered about.  Gathering them up first, I piled them in one of the hammocks and then shed the bloody hospital gown I had been wearing.  I tried my best not to look at myself while I was changing, but the few glimpses I caught of my body made me cringe. Scars littered my skin and all of the curves I had once had were now replaced with sharp angles and jutting bones.

I quickly changed into one of the spare shirts Roran had stocked on the shelf and used some torn cloth as a makeshift belt. The shirt came down to my knees, so I didn't really need pants, but I wanted them. Badly. Unfortunately the clothes were all in his size, not mine, so none of the pants fit me.

I stuck one of the knives in my belt and held the other between my teeth as I climbed down from the cave. Now that I was armed and away from Moroi I felt much more confident. I even had a hunch where Dietrich was hiding.

But I had someone else to find first.

The problem was I didn't know exactly where to look. Dietrich might've known and might have even been willing to help me, but I didn't trust him. Not to mention there were things that needed discussing that weren't meant for his ears.

As I contemplated where best to look, my eyes landed on a dark spot on the floor. It formed a little circle and there were a couple of boot prints around it. It didn't take me long to figure out what it was – my blood. This is where I had nearly died and Roran had used his powers to save me.

His words came back to me as I stood frozen and staring at the floor.

"I lied to you, Thea."

"I'm not a good man, I never was."

Those words had never bothered me before. I had been so grateful that he had saved my life that I hadn't dwelled on them. But now that Moroi had gotten inside my head I couldn't stop thinking about them.

They say your first instinct is always right. My first instinct was to fear Roran. I had thought he was a psycho and a killer. I had run from him.

And then? He had chased me. Hunted me down, killed all of those shape-shifters, and practically dragged me back to his cave. 

I frowned and shook my head to clear my mind. Thinking about what had happened before would just distract me and slow me down. Roran was gone and I would never see him again, so there was no reason to dwell on it.

"Well, c'mon feet," I muttered to myself with a smile.

I was very careful to avoid detection as I snuck around in the dark. I still couldn't see that well, but I used my other senses to try and make up for it. At least I knew the smell of most monsters now, so I would know if one was getting close.