Time's Tragedies- The Books Of Beginning [2]

72. Heart's Desire

Eternity swore bitterly as the last traces of the drug wore off, her foggy mind having slowly uncleared. She struggled fiercely in the grip of two screechers, her captors, who were hauling her through some mighty fortress of stone (she had no clue where it was located, though, and that was only the beginning of her problems). 

"Let me go you bastards!" She roared, "let me go! Ow, fuck, that's my arm!"

One of the screechers had roughly twisted her arm to get her to shut up, only to cause yowls of pain to spring loose from her lips. Screechers did not feel annoyance by nature, which was too bad, in Eternity's mind, because annoyance and cleverness were currently the only weapons she had, at least, until Lili and her family arrived. There was no doubt in Eternity's mind that they would come for her. Even her severe commitment issues couldn't argue against the memory of the girl who had come running back through New York to rescue a teenager she had only just met (Lili was selfless then, but ruthless in protecting her loved ones now). The thought of Lili and Rafe burning this place to the ground was almost enough to drive away the fear twisting her gut, fear of what Robert might do to her. 

She was shoved roughly through a door, which was then shut firmly behind her. Eternity stumbled, before fixing her footing and looking up to see she was in an office, standing before a desk and two chairs. In the bigger, more imposing one, behind the desk, arms folded casually, was Robert Lloyd.

Eternity smirked with all the false bravado left in her, "you've looked better."

He growled in the back of his throat and she felt a pang of satisfaction. Robert's last encounter with the Wibberly family was written across his skin for all the world to see. Heavy burn scars decorated the left side of his face, across his cheekbones and just below his eye. Even more scars decorated his left hand, and probably went all the way up his arm. Plus, if the cane leaning next to his desk was any indicator, the leg that Rafe had broken was still giving him trouble, causing him to limp. 

"What, did I hit a sore point?" Eternity faked innocence, batting her eyelashes. Robert rolled his own eyes. 

"How mature," he said, "please, have a seat."

"Don't mind if I do," Eternity slung herself into the chair across from him, taking care to slouch and kicking her feet up onto the desk. His right eye, the one on the unmarred side of his face, twitched in annoyance, and Eternity grinned. This was more like it. 

"Are you really trifling with me right now? You do know what I could have done to you, correct?" Robert asked. 

Eternity shrugged, "well, you've already messed up one plan today, so forgive me for not having much confidence in you."

"What plan do you presume I messed up?" Robert asked, sounding genuinely confused. Eternity nearly laughed. He was a good actor, even after all these years, but that didn't take away the fact that he was also the absolute worst. 

"Hmmm, let's think," Eternity pretended to muse, "oh, yes. Your goons grabbed me by mistake, thinking I was either Lili or Rafe. I'd bet Lili. Seriously, are screechers severely color blind or something, because really, they should be able to tell the difference between a short white girl with blonde hair and a Latina girl with pink curls."

"What makes you think that I was trying to abduct your friend rather than you?" Robert asked smoothly. 

Eternity actually did laugh, that time, "I don't have that inflated of an ego. I'm not you, after all. Seriously, dude, you fucked up and even I see that. I'm not important to you, I'm just Lili's best friend that you're probably gonna try to use as bait, pretending that that was your plan all along. Or am I missing something?"