Tipping The Scales: Knox (Mate Craze)(40)

I assumed it was something similar with one of her parents and was glad they were only going to be around for one afternoon. Later on, I attested it to them being awful to their daughter. Now. Now I was guessing what I really sensed both times was evil. Freaking brilliant. If only I could’ve known that back then and could’ve avoided all of this, whatever this was.

“I’m gonna need the longer story.”

“Fine, but roll over here so I can get you untied.” So Rhi was as blind as I was and didn’t know I was even attempting to roll already. That wasn’t good.

“So you can what, try to kill me again?” I was only half joking. Part of me knew she wasn’t really trying to kill me. I hoped.

“No. So then you can untie me and we can save Knox.”

“Better get to that story.” I grunted as I rolled over again. If my ears were fully functioning, I had only a couple more rotations before we’d be in touching distance.

“I’m a witch.”

How did I not know this? I mean, I knew she was off and different. I also knew she sometimes did odd new age garbly gook as I had teased her for it, but part of me always knew it was more. True, I was blind to the paranormal world in many ways, never believing that dragons were a thing for instance, but I always knew there were witches. That was something my mother and Gran had mentioned in passing over the years and I just took as truth. In my imagining they were the gallivanting naked in the woods kind of witches, but their existence was still there.

“Rhi.” I gave my best teacher voice as I rolled once more. She couldn’t just say I’m a witch and stop there. There was so much more going on here than that, to be sure.

“No listen, I’m a witch by birth.” She misinterpreted my frustration as not believing her or thinking she was censoring her use of the word bitch. I took one last roll, unable to hold in my grunt as I did so. “To the left,” she directed, and I used my feet to help move closer to her. “So my parents are awful and made me.”

“Do not tell me your parents made you try to kill me because then I may just kill you instead.” I couldn’t believe she was using the parents-made-me-do-it defense. She often griped about things her parents made her do from which classes to take, to going home mid-week for what she deemed stupid family shit, but to blame them for her actions was too much, even for Rhi.

“No, at first they had me friend you, force my way into your life.” Looking back, that made sense. She seemed to all of a sudden be all places. At first it was annoying and gradually I got used to it, and then well, then we became friends, sort of, kind of. I thought we had become friends, but the whole trying to kill me thing had me reevaluating our entire relationship. “They said you were important and nothing would happen to you.”

She sounded like she really believed them, at the time anyway. Which was all well and good if it weren’t for the fact that she tried to kill me an hour ago, or had it been longer? Crap, I didn’t even really know what day it was. The darkness and odd silence kept my senses from working properly.

“And you listened?” I scootched a tiny bit closer, cussing to myself as the pain shot down my spine this time. When I got out of here, I was going to need more than a few aspirin.

“You know my parents. They’re actually much worse than you’ve seen, as hard as that is for you to believe.” I bumped into her arms as she spoke and I felt her fingers grappling at my wrists. She was at least working on freeing me like she promised. That was when it hit me. Why was I, the injured one, the one moving? Before I could ask, she continued with her answer, which was probably more important at the moment. I hoped. If not, I could be making a huge mistake. “I had no choice, and after all, what harm could there be in becoming your friend. And then I did. I did become you’re friend.”

“Which is why you tried to kill me.” I only sort of, kind of teased. For some reason, I wasn’t scared of Rhi in the moment. She felt almost as much of a victim as I was, which my brain knew was complete and utter bullshit, but there it was.

“To be fair, it wasn’t really me.”

“Bullshit.” Although it didn’t sound like complete bullshit. How freaking powerful were her parents?

“Bulltrue.” Her fingers kept working at my wrist as she spoke and odd pauses seemed to occur when they were unable to do what she was asking. “My parents are powerful and I know you believe me on the witch thing because you haven’t even pretended not to.”

My wrists snapped free and I automatically went to rub them. They were going to hurt later, but for now, the freedom surpassed the feeling of rawness on them.

“True,” I conceded as I made quick work of her knots. Unlike mine, hers were in front and… crap, they didn’t start that way. She didn’t come to me because she brought her bound hands to the front and knowing her shoulder issues, that meant she probably dislocated it along the way. I worked as gently as I could, cringing the few times she let a grunt out. “Here. Don’t make me regret this.” The warning wasn’t needed.

“I won’t, I promise.” I pulled to sit up and helped her do the same. I still didn’t know where we were or how we were getting out, but having our hands free felt like a huge victory. “So my parents took control over my body when I refused to help them.”

“Help them do what exactly?” I would deal with the whole your parents can possess people like freaking zombies thing later.