Jace flicked his eyes about the dark chamber, brows furrowed. “Show your face,” he commanded to the shadow on the other end of the chamber. The shadow chuckled, but didn’t stir. 

“And why, Jace Thornwood, would I do that?” The taunting voice was sleek with aggression. 

Jace snarled. “Show your face,” he repeated. The shadow emerged from the darkness and Jace’s eyes grew wider than dinner plates. Reece Parker grinned back at him, teeth flashing. 

“Surprised, Jace?” Reece smirked at Jace’s expression. “I knew you would be.”

Jace snarled. “Why, Reece?”

The boy laughed. “Because I was offered a deal that I couldn’t refuse.” Reece stepped back into the shadows, silent as a cat. “Good luck,” he whispered before leaving the chamber and locking the door behind him. 

Jace slumped against the wall where he was shackled, breathing a large sigh. His best friend had betrayed him, and now he was going to die. As Jace sat against the wall, his thoughts wandered to Zelie. 

Witty, cunning, wonderful Zelie, whom he loved with all his heart. She would figure out what had happened to him quickly, he knew it. He just didn’t know if she could come for him. Jace’s shoulders began to curve inward as he thought about Zelie. How much he missed her, how he wished she were here. What would she do in this situation? Jace smiled despite himself. She would pick the shackle locks with the bobby pin she always kept with her in case of an emergency. Jace’s grin faded, however, when he realized just how trapped he was down here in the dark chamber. How utterly alone. 

Suddenly, a shuffling noise came from the other end of the chamber. Small feet poked out of the shadows, followed by thin legs and a small body. There was a young girl, with metal shackles on her awfully thin wrists and ankles, sitting across from him. She had long, moon-white hair and large owl-like grey eyes. She looked to be very young, no older than ten years old. She smiled slightly, a strange thing of little joy. Her bone-white skin stood out against the darkness in the chamber. Jace resisted the urge to frown in suspicion. “Hello,” he said to the girl. Her thin lips tightened slightly. 

“Hello.” Her voice was soft, but much more throaty than he had expected. As if she had not had water in a long time. “What do they call you?” she asked Jace. 

He frowned at the wording, but answered the question. “Jace,” he responded curtly. “What do they call you?”

The girl’s large grey eyes widened. “They,” she whispered. “The creatures in the dark. They call me σεληνόφωτο. But you do not see them, the creatures in the dark. No one does.” She shuttered, wrapping her bone-white arms around her thin frame. “You may call me Vella,” the girl stated after a long moment. Jace nodded and watched the girl. She was looking around the chamber as if she thought someone was watching her. Perhaps someone was, hiding in the shadows as Reece had. 

Jace cleared his throat. “So, how old are you, Vella?” 

Vella’s grey gaze snapped back to Jace’s before lowering to the floor. “Age,” she murmured “a funny thing indeed.” Vella looked back up at Jace and continued. “I am young and old, friend. Young and old, young and old,” she said in a sing-song voice. “My age is far more than what you could comprehend.” Jace frowned. He didn’t appreciate being called stupid. Vella continued, but the sing-song way about her voice changed into solemnity when she spoke again. “My body’s age is of nine years.” She stared at Jace, as if peering into his very soul. “And you, friend?”

Jace swallowed. The girl was very unsettling, and he hoped that they would not share space for much longer. “I’m almost eighteen,” he stated simply, doing his best not to shrink into the wall and cower from the creepy girl. 

Vella smiled secretly, as if she knew something that he did not. “And what of the golden-eyed girl?” she asked. “The Golden Witch?”

Jace started, staring at the girl. “What? How do you know about her?”

Vella smiled again. “The prettiest eyes, of sharpest gold, hold all the knowledge of times of old. She who bears this awful fate, will rise above and set the world aflame.” The words were light and sing-song-like, and Vella had smiled unsettlingly the entire time she spoke them. 

Jace shuttered. “What does that mean?” he asked, the words slightly shaky. 

Vella grinned. “No, no, I cannot tell. That would ruin all the fun of the game.” She laughed, a strange, terrible thing. Jace clenched his teeth, trying to resist the urge to lunge at the girl and strangle the truth from her thin, pale lips. 

Vella read his expression and frowned. “You do not like the game?” Her lips twisted into a snarl. “You do not want to play?” Vella’s scream echoed through the room, and it was that hateful, sorrowful sound of insanity that made Jace curl up on the ground and clench his white-knuckled hands over his ears.