by J. E. Taylor
“And by that time, you were already branded an outcast.”
“Yes, but it wouldn’t have mattered. I can’t reverse what I set in motion. The only thing that will break the spell is for Jaden to marry someone who loves him.” I shrugged. “Besides, I really don’t regret the outcome. Sector eleven is a better place without the likes of Eleanor in it. She would have been a far worse ruler than Samantha.”
She chuckled under her breath. “I can’t disagree with you there. But this new fact puts our arrangement at risk,” she said, her expression sobering.
I stiffened and gave her a nod. “Can I at least take a hot shower before I go?”
She stood and yielded to the side as I climbed to my feet.
“When you get out, we can have a little chat before I make any sort of decision.”
I headed into the tiny bathroom and peeled off the soaked dress. The hot shower felt like a dream against my chilled form, but there was no comfort in the warmth. My mind kept turning over the conversations I’d had with Jaden since he made the mistake of revealing his powers.
The secrets he’d shared were not the kind of secrets I expected. None of them, including the revelation of his intent to propose when I was eighteen. I glanced at the ring on my finger again, just to be sure. It shined under the sheen of water. I sighed before running my fingers through my clean hair.
I wondered just how much of it all was real and how much was a ruse.
Doubting Jaden was a strange and unwelcomed feeling. Regardless of my inner turmoil, however, I couldn’t let him take blame for my spell. With that thought firmly in place, I shut off the water and wrapped myself in a plush towel. The discarded dress was gone, and in its place was a pair of jeans and a sweater along with my repaired boots.
I slipped on the clothing and stepped into the heart of the apartment. “Thank you.”
She patted the chair at the table next to her, and I crossed and sat where she directed.
“You can’t save the boy,” she said.
I raised an eyebrow, and she pointed to the crystal ball in front of us. A hazy vision of Jaden beyond the barrier came into focus. Ravagers surrounded him, toying with him in a way that made the fire in me burn. A claw struck his shoulder, and his blood spilled. I batted the crystal across the room, and it smashed into tiny shards.
I glared at Gypsy. “That is only a possible future,” I growled. “A crystal ball can only show what has occurred in the past. It cannot predict the future with certainty.”
Gypsy was still staring at the mess I had made, but finally her gaze snapped in my direction. She stood, towering over me, and I hopped to my feet, meeting her nose to nose.
“How dare you...” she started.
“No. How dare you! That’s what you want to happen,” I said, pointing at the remnants on the floor. “That would mean the end of the Mallory bloodline. Isn’t that your real hope here?”
She recoiled, her narrowed eyes widening at my blatant accusation.
“If I save him, your hopes of seeing Samantha’s bloodline crushed are gone.” The swell of anger crested as I outlined her intentions. “I’m not blind. I’m not naive, and I certainly can sense ill intentions. You don’t want me to interfere with the exile, do you?”
Gypsy’s gaze jumped from mine to the broken orb and back. “No. I don’t.” She straightened her back, glaring at me. “I want that family destroyed.”
I pressed my lips together, and my hands formed tight fists. “You are willing to see an innocent man charged for a crime he didn’t commit?”
“It’s a means to an end, and I can’t let you interfere.”
I stepped away, studying her for a moment. “You are just as bad as Samantha Mallory.”
Gypsy stumbled back, falling into the seat. I guessed those words were more effective than a slap across the face would have been.
“I will find a way to pay you back for your kindness, but I think my welcome here has just worn out.” I turned, crossed over the broken shards, and reached for the doorknob.
The minute I pulled the door open, I knew I was screwed. Six palace guards stood waiting on the other side.
I immediately reacted, darting straight towards them, catching them off guard. I slid right between two of the guards, right under a rack of clothing. It tipped as I moved into another rack. I was out the door before they realized what had happened and a block away before they even stepped outside.
I muttered my protection spell, the one I used a million times over the years to remain unnoticed. Before I reached the edge of the city, a sting in my thigh crippled me, and I fell to the ground, rolling to a stop.
“He said you’d run this way.” A guard stepped out of the shadows, holstering his tranquilizer gun.
“Who?” I asked, glancing at the barb in my thigh as the drugs spread though my body, sapping all my strength.
“Your traitor of a boyfriend,” he said.
Then all went black.
Chapter 18
My head pounded. I rolled into a ball, covering my ears from the high-pitched buzz filling the space around me. Awareness seeped in, and I rolled on the small hard cot. Cold metal pressed against my lower back. I blinked my eyes open, squinting under the harsh lights.
Blinding pain shut my eyes. I buried my head in the crook of my arm for a minute. When labored breathing filtered over the pounding in my head, I tried to view my surroundings again.
The cell came into focus, and I dropped my head in defeat. I was in the jail at the palace, and there was no way in hell I’d be able to save Jaden from behind bars.
“Star?”
Jaden’s raspy voice penetrated my brain. I moaned, curling tighter. I didn’t want to talk to him. I didn’t want to acknowledge my failure.
“Wake your ass up,” he hissed.
I opened my eyes and sent a glare in the direction of his voice. Jaden looked worse than when I left him, but it wasn’t because of my blurry vision. Even in his injured condition, relief painted his features when our gazes locked.
“I didn’t think you would ever wake up.”
Every muscle in my body hurt, but I pushed myself into a sitting position. Irritation layered over my senses as the last words of the guard surfaced in my memory.
“Why would you tell them where I would run?” I asked, but the words sounded more like I had a mouth full of cotton balls than my usual clipped tone.
“I didn’t want to.” His gaze dropped to the ground. “My mother plied me with truth serum, and I tried to resist. When she didn’t get anything from me, she resorted to having the guards beat the shit out of me, and I couldn’t hold my tongue anymore.”
Agony pulled at the edges of his lips as his attempt at an apologetic smile failed. He lifted a shoulder in a half-assed shrug and winced. The bruises across his chest, along with the dark circles around his eyes, snapped me from my own misery.
“I’m sorry,” he said and lifted his gaze. “She knows I slept with you and made me tell her where you would run to.” Tears shined in his eyes.
A lump formed in my throat. When he didn’t continue, I tilted my head, wondering about how much he truly revealed.
“She wasn’t happy,” he added with a huff of a laugh.
“That’s all you told her?” I asked.
He nodded. “She already knew I was in love with you.”
“So...”
He sighed and shook his head. “I told her it was you down here. Not that woman’s niece like she thought.”
“That woman wants you dead,” I said.
His eyebrows rose. “Well, in a few days, she’ll get her wish.”
“It’s not going to happen.” My voice was as strong as my resolve, despite the sadness in his eyes.
His gaze moved from me to a point behind me and then back. I turned and a chill bit at my skin. A gate in the far wall opened to darkness. I moved back into the bars, hugging my legs to my chest. The animal noises coming from that dark hole set every hair on my bod
y on edge.
“Yeah,” he said, and a tear slowly tracked down his cheek. “Um. I’m told I get to witness what happens when starving ravagers are let loose.”
The chains holding him started to shake. His chin dropped to his chest.
I turned back to the opening, pinpointing that high-pitched squeal. It was the caged ravagers a floor below working themselves into a frenzy as our scents drifted into their snouts.
The click of heels against tile pulled my attention away from the gate. Samantha came into view. The harsh glare she sent toward me made me want to crawl out of my own skin, but at the same time sparked the rebel inside me. I glared back instead of cowering.
“Gypsy Rose has been executed.”
I blinked, shrinking back into myself, the rebel inside stumbling. A woman was dead because she helped me. The horrifying truth hit like a sucker punch. I knew it shouldn’t surprise me, but it still shook me to the core.
I had no idea how empty Samantha was, how completely pathological and psychotic. I wondered what made her so devoid of true emotion or compassion. Was she born like this or did something so horrific happen to her that it stripped her humanity?
Pity layered over every cell, creating an uncomfortable tingle.
“You really have no heart,” I said.
She gave me a ghost of a smile. “You can thank your father for that.”
The mention of my dad set my stalled anger ablaze. “Bullshit. The way I heard it, you were an ice queen long before you propositioned my dad.”
“You are not as meek as you seem, are you?”
I glanced at Jaden. “My mother didn’t think I would survive if you knew how smart I really was.”
She let out a dark chuckle. “She was right.” She stopped in front of my cell and crossed her arms. “How long did you know about my son?”
The tendrils of her truth spell wrapped around me, but unlike Jaden’s which had been ingested, this one just brushed the surface without penetrating. I blinked, faking the symptoms of others I had seen under this particular spell, and stuttered. “I, I, uh, I didn’t know until you accused him at the wedding.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Are you trying to tell me that in all the years you two have been fuck buddies, you had no idea he harbored the evil warlock gene?”
I laughed in her face, ignoring the vulgar reference. “Evil warlock gene? Where did you come up with that?”
Samantha’s gaze narrowed. “Answer me!”
I needed to start acting. Otherwise my ass was toast. “No. I had no idea,” I replied in that slightly drugged manner she expected.
“You aren’t as smart as you might think.”
“Mom, please,” Jaden whispered.
Samantha turned and glared at him before she returned her piercing eyes to me. “So, he didn’t tell you about the spell that killed his wife?”
I shook my head. “No.” Self-preservation rocketed in stopping my tongue from revealing my culpability. The fact that she was fishing for answers gave me hope. If Gypsy had spilled the truth, I was sure I would already be surrounded by beasts tearing into my flesh with their relentless claws and teeth.
Seeming satisfied with my answer, she faced her son.
“Stand up,” she snapped. “It’s time for your trial.”
“Are you seriously going to go through with this?” I asked.
“He violated the law.”
“A farce of a law put in place out of spite!”
“Zip it,” she snarled.
I glared at her but kept my mouth shut as four guards marched out of the elevator. Two approached Jaden, and the other two stopped in front of my cell waiting for instruction.
“Make her bleed. I want enough blood to drive those beasts into a murderous frenzy,” she ordered. “But I expect that she will be alive and in chains when I return. Understand?”
The soldiers nodded listlessly. They seemed to be under a compliance spell, which didn’t bode well for me.
I stepped away from the bars. Whatever horrors they had in store for me, they would not remember their actions, at least not in the light of day. But perhaps their evil would plague their nightmares for years to come.
“Oh, and if you choose to take advantage of the little slut in the meantime, be my guest,” she added and sent me a truly evil smile.
“You fucking bitch!” Jaden screamed, but he lacked the strength to fight against the grip on either arm. The guards tasked with hauling him to trial dragged his struggling form away.
Samantha followed without a glance back.
The remaining guards unlocked the gate to my cell. Panic clenched my muscles. I backed into the far gate as they entered, listening for the sound of the elevator doors closing. I shifted my stance, readying myself for a fight I didn’t think I’d win, not with their hungry leers focused on me.
My heart thumped in my chest. The rush of adrenaline sprinted through my blood. The noises from below increased at the smell of my fear. The guards moved to either side of the cell, choosing to come at me from both directions. I glanced around, even up at the ceiling for any usable weapon. My gaze locked on the camera, recording every moment.
I couldn’t even fall back on magic. Not with the cameras rolling. If Samantha got wind of my powers before I had a chance to get us out of here, I’d be at the mercy of the ravagers below sooner than she planned.
I still had that one secret left, and now wasn’t the time to reveal it.
I knew what these men had in mind. It was apparent in their stalk and the lick of their lips as each one scanned me from head to toe. Not only was I in for a hell of a beating, I was sure if they caught me, I’d end up being their whore for however long they lasted. Just the thought made me shiver. I was sure that was Samantha’s hope. To have a juicy and violent video to play for Jaden. Or perhaps once I was in chains, she would make him witness the abuse first hand.
She wanted him a broken man devoid of fight. My death wouldn’t be the thing that tipped that scale. What she was betting on was my beaten and abused form in chains begging for death. Death she would provide in the guise of a mercy killing, but seeing me torn to shreds would strip the last thread of Jaden’s sanity.
Jaden was right—his mother was such a vicious bitch.
The guard to my right undid his belt and pulled it out of the loops until he had the buckle in his hand. The end dangled on the floor like a whip.
“You need to be taught a lesson,” he said, closing the distance.
The other guard did the same, except instead of holding the metal buckle, his scraped along the floor. His whip was meant to do more than just sting.
He snapped it. The metal bit through the fabric on my jeans, tearing a strip of flesh. I yelped, jumping in the opposite direction and received another lash. I was trapped with nowhere to flee. I threw myself backwards against the bars, trying to escape, trying to force the steel to give.
Another snap connected, this time taking a chunk out of my side. I cried out, pushing harder with my legs as if I could just disappear out of the cage. The creak of metal sparked my first flare of hope. The bars behind me actually gave a fraction. My hope was dashed a moment later with another snap of the belt. I jumped, trying to avoid the bite of metal.
A hand wrapped around my arm. Before I had a moment to compute, my feet were no longer on the ground. I sailed through the air and connected with the metal on the far side of the cell. I collapsed to the floor as my brain screamed, insisting I get to my feet.
They were coming at me, both swinging their belts. But they left a gap between them. I dove into the space, rolling onto my feet back where I started, and slammed my shoulder into the metal bars separating the cell from access to the ravagers below. The metal gave. I landed on the ground just as surprised as the guards behind me.
Before I could scramble to my feet, a hand grabbed my foot and yanked me back into the middle of the cell. I rolled and another strike of the metal buckle tore at my cheek. I focused on the guard d
ragging me back into the room and kicked. The heel of my boot connected with his knee.
He howled and let go, grabbing his injured leg. I rolled onto my hands and knees, hell-bent on getting through the hole I created when leather wrapped around my neck and tightened.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” the guard’s voice growled as he yanked, bringing me to my knees.
My breath wheezed in and out. My lungs burned as I tried to get some sort of grasp on the leather belt strangling me. Starbursts speckled my vision, leaving me lightheaded.
Pain flared in my cheek as the other belt snapped against my skin.
“She said she wants her alive,” the guard approaching me said, unrolling the belt from his hand.
The noose around my neck loosened enough for me to get a grip on the leather and pull far enough to get air. I drew in a deep breath, gasping. The guard who had just whipped my face stepped in front of me, close enough so I had a full view of his hands fumbling with his zipper.
The other guard pulled me against him, his knees digging painfully into my shoulder blades and the back of my head pressed against his already hard member. I had one chance to get away. Otherwise I’d be choking on cock.
I balled my hand into a fist and leaned forward enough to give me a little momentum. Then I threw my head back, and at the same time, I delivered an uppercut with everything I had. Both my head and my fist connected with their groins, exactly where I intended.
Each guard let out a pained “oof.”
I had just enough time to yank the end of the belt from the captor behind me and roll to the side before the guard in front of me was able to get his bearings. He grabbed hold of my shirt. Before he could pull me back, the fabric ripped, and I went flying toward my goal.
The race was on. I scrambled through the broken bar into the blackness beyond the cell, clawing at the belt around my neck. I never saw the stairs until I missed the first step and tumbled.
I rolled and landed flat out on the ground. I panted as I unthreaded the noose, slipping it off my throat while I caught my breath. I didn’t have time for a full assessment of my condition. All I knew was I didn’t break my neck.