by K. A Knight
Clay is back. He sits down heavily at the table, and he’s clearly tired, but he doesn’t complain once. He pulls me into his arms and kisses me. “I’m sorry I failed you, Pascha. I should have gone back for him.”
“No point in dwelling on the past,” I murmur, knowing he is blaming himself. “Let’s just get our beast home, okay?”
Pressing his head to mine, he searches my eyes for condemnation before he nods. “Bring him home.”
“What did you find?” Archel calls as he and Evan come into the room with a yawn. They both take seats, and Abel quickly makes them all hot tea and puts more food on the table, bustling around silently while listening. This feels like a family matter, but this is his house, and he may have insight into these men, so I say nothing. Even if he was kind to me, helped me, I still have my reservations. Maybe it’s because we are such different people and he’s not a fighter. He stayed up here, all alone, with no inclination to explore or find more. We are opposites, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t trust him.
However, he has to earn that, and as of yet, he has not.
“I didn’t see Jago, he must still be in the mines. I could hear voices coming from deep inside of it though.” He grins at me and stands, setting me back down effortlessly. “They sent out a patrol just as I was about to give up.” He disappears and then we hear a struggle. A moment later, he drags a bound and gagged man into the kitchen and tosses him to the floor. “A present, Pascha, to make up for my failure.”
I glance at the hog-tied man and then to Clay with a smile. “You did good, babe. We can use him to get Jago back.” I look at Archel and order, “Tie him to a chair, and let’s find out everything we can about our new friends.”
Archel’s grin is definitely evil. He may be my shadow and protector, but he is also a Seeker, one of the best assassins in The Wastes. Right now, I’m going to use his skills as well as Evvie’s, to keep this man alive long enough to find out what I need to know.
I need to learn if my beast is alive and how to get him back.
If he’s not… No, I can’t even think like that. Jago is invincible, untouchable, the strongest man I know. He’s alive, and we will get him back. It’s not a case of if, but when. There is no Brawler without Beast. That man saved my life over and over again and stole my heart. I’m not living without him. Even with an injured head and exhausted body, I know I’ll walk through hell and back to get to him.
He would do the same for me. He would never stop, never give up until I was back in his arms. He already came for me, even when everyone else said I was dead. He never gave up hope, and I won’t give up on him.
As I watch Archel effortlessly lift the man as he struggles, Evan leans closer and assures me, “We’ll get him back, Pip, have faith. If there is one man in The Wastes who will always survive and make it back to your side, it’s that big bastard.”
It makes me smile. “Thank you,” I murmur as he leans in and kisses my cheek. Abel notices, but he says nothing, and I turn my attention to the man Archel just tied to the chair in the middle of the room. Clay lifts me onto the table to sit and rest while Archel prowls around him.
His blue eyes dart around in fear and anger, his lips silenced by tape. He’s half bald, and his eyebrows are gone like the others’ were, but he seems bigger, more well fed. It makes sense if he’s a scout, but I do wonder why they shave their heads. Less care maybe? I know shampooing can be a bitch, but damn, I don’t think I could rock the bald look.
“You are not shaving your head, Princess,” Archel remarks before he stops before the man and rips the tape away. His lips are bleeding, and his cheek is split open as well—I’m guessing from Clay. He rolls his lips as he runs his gaze around us, not saying a word.
“We will start easy. What is your name?” Archel asks, but the man doesn’t respond, so he quickly back hands him.
“That was a warning, not even half of what I will do to you.” He leans closer. “You see that woman? That sexy, smart as hell warrior sitting behind me?” The man looks and nods. “That’s my princess, the love of my life, and you took her man from her. There is nothing in this world I won’t do for her, no line I will not cross. I can guarantee you will be begging to give me information before the sun fully rises…or we could cut past all that bullshit of me ripping out your nails, cutting off limbs, burning out eyeballs, and slicing your skin, and you can tell me what I want to know now.”
My heart melts. The speech is a little insane, but damn if it doesn’t bring tears to my eyes. My shadow owns my heart like the others do, and yet again, he makes me fall in love with him all over again. He may be cocky, even scary to others at times, but to me, to our family, he’s perfect, and right now, he’s showing how far he is willing to go to protect our family, our lives, and my heart.
It only makes me love him more.
“Gravel,” he snaps. “My name is Gravel.”
“Good, and how many of you are down in that mine?” Archel asks. He’s testing if he’s going to need to…influence him with pain. Honestly, I’m kinda hoping he does. I’m pissed, and watching my shadow work is weirdly hot. Like, I shouldn’t be turned on, should I? Yet my secret garden is opening up like ‘hey, you crazy fucker, plant your tree here.’
There’s a pained sigh, and Archel looks back at me, but he’s smiling. “Princess, you’re talking out loud again. I’ll happily plant my…tree.” He coughs a laugh. “Another time though. Kinda hard to act tough with you talking about secret gardens.”
I roll my lips inwards with a sorry expression as he turns back around. Evvie shakes his head and leans into me, chuckling. “Never change, Pip.”
Abel just pretends he didn’t hear, though he does come to my other side. “Is this necessary?” he inquires, and I throw him a glare.
“You want to protect him?”
“Because I don’t wish to see a man tortured?” He frowns.
I sigh. “I used to feel the same way, but I’ve seen what’s out there. That man” —I point to him— “would not hesitate to torture us, rape me, and eat us after they get bored.”
“An eye for an eye. Those who seek revenge should dig two graves.”
“Yes, one for this asshole and one for any other who touched my man,” I snap. “You do not have to agree, but do not interfere. You can hate us and think we are terrible people, but like Archel said, I will do anything to get my man back. They have already broken the rules. I am simply playing the game they have set. Being a hero won’t save Jago’s life, even if it makes me feel like a better person. I can take a little stain on my soul if it means he’s alive. What would you do to save those you love?”
“There are none of them left,” he offers sadly and walks away without another protest. He’s not stopping us, but he’s not condoning it either. That’s fine.
“You have not answered,” Archel warns and pulls out a knife, twirling it through his fingers as the man watches. “Where would you like to be cut first?”
“Wait, fuck, okay. There are—were eighty of us. You killed a lot. There are around fifty left now.”
“And those skinny bastards?” I prompt.
“They’re half-dead, born with birth defects,” he sneers. “We use them as fodder and send them out to get supplies. Most don’t come back, but we don’t care.”
“What do you mean?” I ask with a frown.
“They are born from the women we keep down there,” he hedges nervously and meets my eyes before looking away. “From male leaders over the years. Many have signs of radiation and weakness from lack of medicine or help.” He shrugs. “Some grow up okay like me, but others like them are nothing better than slaves for us.”
I almost snarl, but Archel slaps him for me. “How many women?”
“Ten at last count. Two died last week from bleeding out during birth,” he answers honestly. “I’ve never touched them.”
“How many…leaders, men like you, are there?”
“About six, the rest are half-dead ones.
”
“Easy, Pascha,” Clay cautions.
“It changes things, we have to free the women,” I murmur. “We can’t leave them there to be raped and used as fucking birthing machines.”
“They won’t go. Many have been down there all their lives. They know no other way. One of the half-dead tried to free his mother once, but she turned on him and killed him. They are loyal to our people.”
“And who exactly is that?” I snap.
“We are the mine dwellers, we are the undead.” He shrugs. “Our elders, who died, brought us there to survive, and we have not left since. This is our way of life—scavenging, killing, it is what we are taught to do.”
“We are taught to kill, to train, but that doesn’t make us fucking monsters like you,” Clay snarls. “You are a disgrace, nothing but murderers and rapists.”
“Maybe,” the man concedes, “but you will not stop us.”
“My man, Jago, the one you captured…is he alive?” I demand.
He meets my eyes again and smiles, his teeth covered in his own blood.
“Is he alive?” I yell, struggling to get to my feet, but Archel gets in his face.
“Answer her or I’ll make you a eunuch,” he hisses.
“For now.” He cackles.
“What does that mean?” I leap to my feet and almost fall. Evan and Clay catch me, but I still fight to get to the man. “What does that mean?”
“It means they are currently having fun trying to break him.” He grins, spitting blood at me. “But once they get bored, he’s dead meat.”
I snap and fling myself at him. Luckily, Archel catches me with one arm before I can kill the bastard, and he hauls me back to his chest, holding me as he looks into my eyes. “Shh, we’ll get him, Princess. Let me work, okay?”
He hands me back to Clay, who wraps me in his arms to protect the man…not me.
“Your man? He won’t last long. They tortured him, and he wouldn’t speak. He didn’t utter even a word about who you are, where you’re from or going, even when we made it hurt so bad, he passed out. You won’t get him back. You’ll all die trying.”
Archel doesn’t lose his cool, not once. Not even as the man’s screams ring through the house when he won’t tell us what we need to know. My shadow’s expression is calm and cold, those icy eyes filled with determination, and when we are done, the man is passed out and coated in blood after telling us everything. Archel turns to me, blood splattered across his face, even as a cocky grin tips up his lips, making my pussy pulse at the sight.
“Ready to go get our beast?”
Archel and Clay pack up quickly, while Evan checks me over. The noise must draw Abel’s attention, because he hovers at the door, watching us with a frown.
“Don’t worry, we’ll take him with us. Sorry about the blood,” I say from the chair where my men placed me, wanting me to rest for as long as I can.
“I am not worried about that,” Abel replies, regarding me worriedly. “You are not healed enough to leave yet.”
It’s my turn to frown then. “I’m fine, and we have to move to get Jago—”
“He said you will die if you go in now at night, and being injured only makes that more and more likely. You should wait until morning.”
Why the hell is this man trying to keep us here? I don’t have a bad feeling, but I do watch him carefully. “Why do you care?” I find myself asking. “Surely you want us gone? We have brought nothing but blood and chaos to your peaceful door.”
“I also don’t want you going out there to die, not when I could have stopped it,” he answers sternly.
“You owe us nothing—”
“I do not care about that ether. This is stupid. At least wait until tomorrow—”
“Jago might not have until tomorrow,” I argue before sucking in calming breaths. “I will never forgive myself if he dies during the night because I waited for sunrise.”
“Then you will die there with him, is that what you want? Don’t be so stupid!” Abel snaps. “Wait until you are more healed, until daylight, and then go—”
I lose it, done with his condescending lecture and advice. He’s nothing but a stranger, but he’s acting like I should listen to him simply because he’s old and a man. Not a fucking chance. He doesn’t know, he doesn’t understand…
How could he?
“Do you even know what it feels like to love someone so deeply?” I snarl at him. My worry for Jago and my anger at Abel for calling me stupid flip the switch inside me. “So all-consuming that you would die for them? Would kill for them? Do anything for them, including burning the whole fucking world if you had to? Do you?” I step towards him, my eyes narrowed and nostrils flaring.
“I don’t think you do,” I accuse, staring him down as he flinches. “If you did, you would never ask me to leave him, to wait, because you would know how this feels. Each second that passes without him here next to me is another crack in my heart. I might die. I might not. But either way, I don’t care because I will be with him.”
“Pipe—”
I shake my head at him. “I would kill them all, ruin them, destroy them. I would wreck this world if that’s what I had to do to get him back. There is nothing or no one that will keep me from my love. So don’t you dare tell me what to do ever again. You speak of being smart, of being strong, but you don’t know, not really. Walking away, even if it hurts, to save others isn’t being strong. Not in this world. That’s selfish and done out of self-preservation. You speak out of fear, as someone who has never had to fight every day of his life to find a glimpse of happiness only for it to be taken away. You hide up here on your cliff, you hide from the world, and I feel sorry for you.”
I step closer again, and he flinches. “You will never have someone do for you what I will do for Jago. You’ll never have to worry about death, but you’ll also never truly live. Not really. You’re like a ghost wandering across these rugged cliffs. Forgotten, lost, damned, and alone. You are everything others fight to never be, what I fight to never be, and I’ll go out into the dark, into the fire of fucking hell. I’ll head towards certain death just to be in his arms one more time, to have one last kiss, one last fucking second with my love. Dying isn’t scary, but living with regrets is. If I die with him, then so fucking be it. At least I’ll die with my family, with my loves. When the end comes, Abel, who will be by your side? What will you have left?”
“You don’t know what you are speaking of—”
“No, you don’t! Age does not always grant you wisdom! You have lost, you have suffered, but you let it turn you into this empty, lonely man. Well, here’s some wisdom for you—everyone who has survived in this world has suffered. The key is to let it guide you, not stop you, and when you find a bit of hope or love in this fucked-up world, you hold onto it as hard as you can. I plan to do that. So don’t you dare tell me what to do. You are a stranger, you are no one. That man waiting for me down in those mines is the love of my life. What do you know about sacrifice? What do you know about love?”
He stays quiet then, and I snort cruelly. “Exactly. If you did, you would never expect me to wait. Stay here, hiding on your cliff. I’m not asking for your help, but I’m asking you not to try and stop me as well.” I turn away to see my men watching me. Clay nods in respect, Evan smiles in understanding, and Archel winks at me. They know, because they would do the same for me, and I them.
Life isn’t about playing it safe. It’s about taking chances, even when they are terrifying and the odds are stacked against you, because you find out what you are truly capable of through suffering.
We finish packing quickly without another word to Abel. Clay unties the man and takes him with us so he can show us the other way in he mentioned. It’s still dark when we leave and head down the path between the trees. The water crashes into the cliff, and when I glance back, I see Abel framed in the doorway.
Turning forward, I ignore him as Clay shows me the path through the obstacles Abel has gathe
red to block off his house, so it looks like he isn’t even there—including two buses and some cars, which is why we have to walk. There’s also a chained gate with string and cans so he’ll know when anyone tries to get in.
It’s smart really.
But lonely.
Once we reach our bikes, I take a deep breath. My head hurts, but that won’t stop me.
It’s time to get my beast back.
We don’t head to the front entrance of the mine. No, Gravel takes us across a sharp incline, which then drops into another tunnel, where I see their bikes and cars. He explains this is their usual entrance, and it’s unguarded because if you aren’t one of them, then you won’t know it’s here. It’s not easy to find, and I can agree with that.
We slip through the entrance and past the cars and bikes. We can hear talking, but he assures us it’s way off, and their voices support that. We know we can’t fully trust him, but at least if he gives us some direction we won’t get lost in this fucking mine.
“Where?” Archel demands, his hand on the man’s throat, keeping him in check while the rest of us are armed. I’m shoved in the middle, though, so they can protect me since I’m not fully healed yet.
At least they didn’t try to stop me—they knew better.
“To the right,” he murmurs, and we follow along the tunnel he directed us to. It gets dark, but there are lights strewn about, so luckily, we don’t have to use our torches. It’s still creepy though, and the places where the lights don’t shine are in darkness and shadow, making me wonder if those half-dead men are waiting in cracks and crevices to jump out at us again.
We keep walking slowly, listening for anyone creeping up on us.
“Not much farther,” he tells us softly. “He’ll be in the main chamber, you’ll have to fight to get to him.”
“And the women?” I ask, wanting to save both Jago and the women.
“In the chamber before… I can take you there first?”
Fuck, Jago or the women? If we get Jago out first, they will all know, and we probably won’t have time to save them. Can I live with myself if I leave them behind without trying?