Chapter Sixty-Three

Chapter Sixty-Three

DJ and Misty turned back to the imprisoned Evil Other after Hanna stormed out of the cabin, slamming the door behind her. Misty let out a low whistle. “You sure know how to get on someone’s nerves.” 

“Thank you!” EDJ smiled broadly. 

“Hanna will be the least of your worries as soon as we haul you back to Iceland,” DJ commented. “You can finally pay the price for all the crimes you committed.” 

EDJ smirked at him. “You’ve got nothing on me.” 

“I have plenty. I also have this.” DJ pulled out the tattered journal. 

The corner of the Evil Other’s mouth twitched and his eyes narrowed, but his lighthearted tone did not change. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?” he asked. “There’s nothing in there that will help you. With this situation or any other, for that matter. It’s completely irrelevant.” 

“Is it?” the Original pressed curiously. 

“It contains nothing recent, that’s for sure,” EDJ continued apathetically. “And I’ve no personal attachment to it. You could toss it in the fire and I wouldn’t care. In fact, you’d be doing me a favor.” 

“Nice try.” The Original rolled his eyes while safely tucking the book away. 

“I had to.” The Evil Other’s thin smile did not waver. “Words on a page make for excellent kindling.” 

“There will be no book burning under my roof,” Misty cut in as she stood up with a disapproving look. 

“I agree! Under the roof is a terrible place to burn books,” EDJ responded with renewed enthusiasm. “Not enough air circulation. How about outside? We can burn them outside!” 

“No book burning outside either,” she answered. 

“You’re no fun.” He frowned in disappointment before suddenly tilting his head. “Are you the one who keeps putting up cabins on my property?” 

“Your property?” she echoed. “You’re the one who keeps destroying the cabins on my property.”

“Hmm… I knew I should have double checked the boundary lines.” His brows furrowed before he addressed DJ. “I see you took my blades.” 

“They looked important,” the Original responded. 

“They are. Give them back.” 

DJ snorted, face cracking with a smile. “Not a chance.” 

They turned as Hanna returned to the group, appearing much calmer of disposition than when she left. “How’s Lui?” EDJ asked with a smirk. 

I swear I’m gonna slap that smug look off his face one of these days. Hanna glowered, but remained outwardly composed. “Pretty good, all things considered.” 

Misty nodded, looking back at the glass object. “I’m glad I’m not stuck in that mirror. He seems to be having a pretty good attitude overall about it though.” 

“Perhaps for now,” EDJ answered. “His good attitude will turn to despair eventually.” 

“Tell us the real way to get him out.” Hanna demanded, still hoping for some sort of truthful answer out of the prisoner. 

EDJ chuckled. “Ha! You think I would just out and tell you? You’re going to have to do worse than empty threats.” 

Hanna frowned, turning to DJ. “Any ideas?” 

“Are we allowed to use semi-violent actions?” The Original asked, narrow green eyes staring his Evil Other down. 

“Like what?” she asked in confusion. 

“Mere threats don't carry much weight with him,” DJ said evenly. “We could burn his fingertips… Or start with his feet. He doesn’t need those...” 

“...What?” Hanna, who was fully on board a second ago, didn’t expect such an answer from him. He said it with such a straight face, she couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. He didn’t even blink.

“Torture?!” EDJ’s eyes and face lit up with a chaotic grin. “Isn’t that against your code of conduct?” 

“I’m willing to make you the exception,” DJ answered. His Evil Other laughed.

Hanna turned back to EDJ. “I wouldn’t be so happy about this, if I were you. You’re the reason we’re in this mess!” 

He smirked at her. “You entered my home, encased me in ice, and now you plan to torture me for information. Explain how I’m the bad guy in this scenario.” 

Hanna’s anger flared. “How dare you?! You kidnapped my friends and tried to wipe out humanity!” 

“Water under the bridge. Or over it,” he said, gloating tone still present. “Do what you like, Hanna. I can tell you right now, my pain tolerance is much higher than anything you’ve got up your sleeves.” 

“We can liquid nitrogen his hair,” DJ offered. 

EDJ’s smile instantly dropped. “Don’t touch the hair.” 

“Guys, please quit arguing,” Misty requested, interrupting the battle of wills with raised hands. “Surely we can come up with a solution that doesn’t involve torture or physical assault or burning books.” She looked at DJ and Hanna like they should know better then turned back to EDJ. “Do you know how to get Lui out of the mirror or not?” 

“Not a clue,” EDJ answered honestly. 

“Liar,” Hanna quipped. Of course she did not believe him. “I have had it up to here with your antics.” She said, gesturing to an invisible limit near the top of her head. 

“Wow, that bar’s set pretty low, isn’t it?” EDJ commented. 

“What?!” she snapped. Misty wrinkled her nose and facepalmed while DJ bit back a smile. Hanna took a breath and let it out slowly. “Final chance. How do we get Lui out?” 

EDJ attempted to shrug, as much as he was able to anyway. “How should I know? I wasn’t the one who put him there.” 

She crossed her arms and glared at the prisoner. “This is getting us nowhere. I should have known better than to trust you with an honest answer.”

“What is life if not full of disappointment?” EDJ responded casually.

Hanna huffed and pulled DJ aside, whispering, “I don’t know what to do. I can’t tell if he’s lying or not.” She gave him a concerned look. “Did you really mean what you said about the torture stuff?” 

“I just said it for the personal satisfaction it would extract,” DJ answered lightly. 

Hanna dragged her hands down her face. “Maybe we’re going about this wrong,” she said. “Maybe it’s not about what we can take, but what we can offer. We should have the upper hand here. We have him captured. We should be able to get anything we want out of him. Why is this so difficult?”

DJ glanced from the mirror to EDJ in thought. “There is high risk involved with anything we do. Which is why I suggeste-”

“Yeah, I know, I know,” Hanna interrupted, waving her hand dismissively. “I should have listened to you to begin with. I know. I’m sorry. We might have gotten Lui out by now instead of wasting all this extra time talking.” She sighed, exasperated with the situation and frustrated with herself.

“This has been fun and all,” EDJ started cheerily. “But if we’re done with this little game, I’d like to be taken back to my castle now. If you don’t mind letting me out…”

Hanna turned to face him, finally feeling like she had an advantage. “Oh, didn’t you get the memo? Your castle’s gone,” she said with a smirk. 

EDJ raised a brow and glanced at Misty, who nodded in confirmation. “Very funny.” he turned back to Hanna and DJ with a polite smile. “But I’m disinclined to believe you.”

“It’s the truth,” the Original said. “Self-destructed. Do you want to tell us why there was a self-destruct button lying around?” 

EDJ gave him a suspicious look, but flatly answered with, “Until I see the castle for myself, I’m going to assume you’re trying to trick me into giving something away. It won’t work.” 

Misty looked around the room. This sure is an interesting predicament we are in. Lui was trapped in a mirror, EDJ was trapped in ice, and the three of them were trapped without knowing what to do. “Hanna, we can’t just keep at this. We have to try something eventually.”

“You think I don’t know that?” she responded with a hint of annoyance.

Well, that’s not fair, I’m still trying to help you here. “I just think we aren’t going about this the right way,” Misty replied with a frown. She tried to think of what other solutions were available to them when an idea hit her. Hey, wait. I do know someone who can and will help! “I kno-” She paused, listening. She thought she caught the sound of something outside. 

“How do we know he isn’t lying if he does tell us how to get Lui out?” Hanna muttered with a sour look, still entirely too focused on EDJ to notice anything out of the ordinary. The cabin door slammed open. Hanna and DJ both drew their weapons as they turned to face whatever it was that blew the door open. Two cloaked strangers entered the cabin. Reacting quickly, Hanna blasted EDJ’s face with a wave of ice magic to contain one threat while they dealt with another. 

“You can’t trust him,” one of the strangers said while stepping toward the group.