“Logan!” I spin around. Staggering to his feet, he winces as he straightens up. I run to the side of my cell and grasp the bars, wiggling my fingers through the tiny grated holes. He stumbles toward me, doubled over, in clear pain. I can’t help my gasp as his face comes into focus. Every inch of his skin is mottled with bruises of varying stages. Yellow, red, and purple splotches paint his beautiful face in horrific fashion. His bottom lip is cut and caked in dried blood and cracked skin. His left eye is black and purple and semi-closed. Clear greenish-yellow liquid seeps out of the corner. I cover my mouth as tears prick my eyes.
“What has he done to you?” My voice trembles.
“Ssh, Angel. I’m okay.”
“You’re not … you’re …” I trail off, emotion hindering my throat.
“I did what I had to in order to protect you and the others.” He grasps the tips of my fingers, and a soothing warmth sears my insides. We stare at one another, drinking in features we both assumed we’d never see again. Emotion—the strength of which I’ve never felt before—embeds into my sinews, inhabiting every nook and cranny of my being. While I don’t believe this is the end for us, if Dante succeeds, I can make my peace with fate because I’ll be exiting this world with the one person who means more to me than life itself.
I thought I’d come to terms with the sacrifice I was prepared to make back on Torc, but I was wrong. I didn’t want that kind of death.
I don’t want to die. Period. But if it’s inevitable, then I can accept it once Logan is with me.
Not that I want him to die either. If it comes down to it, and I have to offer myself up to save him, then I won’t hesitate. He’s far too important to this world. But if there is no way out for either of us, then I’m happy that I’m passing on with him by my side.
“Angel. Although I’m happy to see you, I wish you were a million miles from here.” His pained expression mirrors mine.
“I know, but I was never going to let you perish alone.” A tear slips out of my eye. “I was scared I’d never see you again.”
“Me too. How are you here?” He grimaces, wrapping an arm around his waist.
“You’re in pain. Let’s sit.” Reluctantly, I withdraw my hand and slither to the ground on my knees, facing into his cell. Logan copies me and our hands once again meet between the bars. One of the guards utters some derogatory comment, but I scarcely hear it. Gazing at Logan, I bask in the myriad of feelings flowing between us. A gentle hum vibrates through my body, sending delicious tremors ricocheting all over my sore limbs. “When I get my hands on Dante, I’m going to kill him for what he’s done to you.” Looking at my battered and bruised boyfriend, I actually believe I would do it. Could do it. And not feel a shred of remorse.
A tiny flash of silver at his temple catches my eye. My eyes narrow as I scrutinize the small, circular chip affixed to his skin. That must be the blocking band Neve assumed Dante had applied to stop Logan from using his telepathic abilities. I wonder how we are still able to silently converse? Could it be due to our Eterno connection?
Logan attempts to shrug off my concern, but even that motion causes a shard of pain to dart across his face. “I’m not sure we’re going to be able to get out of this one.”
His blatant resignation has the opposite effect on me. “No! No defeatist talk. We are going to get out of here. We were in the midst of planning your rescue when Dante ensnared me. The others will come for us.” I nod my head vigorously. “Trust in that.”
“How did he find you?” Logan sits down properly.
I give him a quick summary of how Dante tricked me, and that reminds me of something. “How did he take control of Rylan?”
Logan cringes. “It’s an ability all Saven possess, though its use is prohibited, unless there are exceptional circumstances. With my dad out of the picture, Dante is literally a law unto himself.”
I want to probe further, but he quickly changes the subject. “What happened after you went into the wormhole? And why did Griselda speak to you like she knew you?” His expression contains a mix of hesitation and curiosity.
He’s obviously somewhat informed of my heritage, so he has an inkling of what I’m about to tell him. But that doesn’t alter the fact that this is the one question I’ve been dreading. How can I explain that I was created to make him fall in love with me before killing him? That Griselda is determined to make him pay for the sins of his ancestors and to stop him from achieving peace in the galaxy. How I was ready to blow myself up with the Tempo in an effort to protect him. And there’s no way I’m mentioning that I’m married to Ax. Not in this place, with the very real threat of imminent death hanging over us.
If this turns out to be our last moments together, I don’t want anything tarnishing that.
So, I give him the abbreviated version of what happened to me. He listens patiently as I silently update him. It’s only the odd tremor or muscle clench that demonstrates the impact this is having on him. When I explain about my incendio gift, his eyes flash briefly in alarm and it guts me. Quickly recovering, he surveys the bands on my wrists as I explain about their deflective functionality.
He doesn’t speak for several minutes after I finish. Turning his head away, he stares at the floor. A heavy tension settles in the air. He is obviously questioning everything about me, about us, about what I’ve told him he means to me. My heart throbs painfully. If he turns on me the way Haydn has, I think I’ll be offering myself voluntarily to Dante. I couldn’t bear to go on living if he hates me as well.
Sounds of muffled snoring emit from Evana’s cell. I glance over at her, distressed at her frail sleeping form.
“I’m so worried about her,” Logan says. “Her strength is waning, along with her will to live. I don’t think she can handle much more.”
I can relate to the feeling. “I have faith in the others. We’ll get her out of here.”
Logan knots his hands in his lap. “I’m so sorry, Sadie.” I raise my eyes and spear him with a mystified look. So many different emotions are showcased on his face. “How do you feel about it? The fact that you aren’t fully human anymore?”
I exhale noisily. “To be honest,” I say into his mind, while tucking my hair behind my ears, “I’m not actually shocked. It’s kinda reassuring to finally have an explanation for all the ways in which I’m different. To understand why my family treated me like an outsider.”
“It’s such a violation.” A murderous look crosses his face.
I shrug my shoulders. “What’s done is done. There’s no point dwelling on something I can’t change.” I immerse myself in his eyes. “You knew. That’s what you were going to tell me on the ship.”
He slowly nods his head. “Dr. Zuma did a full work-up on Rindyar.”
I’m terrified to pose this next question, but I need to know. “Do you feel differently about me now?”
His face softens. “You’re still you. The same girl I fell in love with. Nothing has changed.”
Tears sting my eyes. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me.” A pained look burns the back of his eyes. “You went through all of that because of me. If I hadn’t wanted you so badly, she never would’ve targeted you. You would have been free to live your life the way you wanted. To be happy. To be with someone who had no mess to drag you into.”
He releases my hand and claws his fingers through his hair.
“I wouldn’t change a thing. I want you. I’ll always want you.”
Kneeling up, he reaches for my hand again. “I love you to bits. More so after hearing that. You have sacrificed so much for me. I’m not worthy of your devotion.” He shakes his head, and it pains me to see him looking so forlorn.
“You are worthy of my everything. I would lay down my life for you.” I very nearly did, but he doesn’t need to know about that.
I could do without the lecture.
“As I would for you.”
“We’re a right pair.” I grace him with a small smile.
“Stop that, Logan,” I interrupt quickly. “Stop talking like we are done for. Like this is the end. We are getting out of here. I don’t know how, but this is not how our story ends.” Perhaps it’s wishful thinking or it’s the surge of contentment I always feel in his presence playing tricks with my mind, but I refuse to accept that this is the point where we leave this world.
“I hope you’re right.”
Me, too.
He turns introspective again. “I’m sickened that Griselda dishonored you like that. If we get out of here, I’m going to make sure she pays, someway, for what she has done to you. You didn’t deserve any of that.” He caresses the tops of my fingers, and it’s amazing how far reaching his touch is. Even in this confined, bitterly cold space, he heats the very heart of me.
“At least there is one positive we can take from all this.” He quirks a brow. “We were always meant to be together.”
“I knew that already, Angel. You will always be the only one for me.” He reaches up and kisses my fingertips. I wish I could yank him into this cell with me and hold him in my arms.
“I saw our future,” I tentatively tell him.
“You did?” His eyes pop wide. “What did you see?” Excitement and longing wash over his face, and I figure he could use the distraction. We both could.
“We were older, married, and living in the palace in Saven. We had two sons—” I stop at the sound of Logan’s spluttering, choking cough.
“We have children … you saw them?” Incredulity shines at the back of his eyes.
I nod. “Yes. They looked like you.” I smile at the memory. “And our older son, Nyx, was in love with Win and Dali’s eldest daughter.”
If his eyes grow any wider, they’ll burst right out of his head. “I wish I could’ve seen it,” he says in a soft voice. The guards lift their heads, reviewing us with a hefty dose of suspicion.
“I also saw the signing of the Intergalactic Peace Treaty. You did it, Logan. You brought peace to the galaxy.” I hope my pride shows on my face.
Newfound determination glimmers in his eyes. “I want that future. I want to oversee long-lasting peace in the galaxy. I want to live that life with you.”
“I want that too, Logan. But you have to understand that the future has already been irrevocably changed. I don’t know if any of that is even possible now, or exactly what lies in store for us. Griselda has already messed everything up.”
He presses his body into the steel bar separating us. “We’re together now and always. That’s all that matters.” I move closer, ignoring the jab of the cold metal as it digs into my flesh through my clothes. Our bodies are lined up, and I wish I could rip the steel bar away so there is nothing separating us. We join hands through the grated gaps as we stare intently at one another.
Words are redundant. Our emotions and feelings waft between us, strengthening our love and building our resolve. We both believe in the possibility of a forever, and in this moment, we cling to that assertion as if it’s the air we need to breathe.
“Cut that out,” a gruff voice says from the corridor. We ignore the guard, our gazes still riveted on one another like heat-seeking missiles.
“You gross me out,” he says, entering Logan’s cell. It’s the same guard who attended to Evana earlier. Yanking Logan up by the shoulders, he snatches him away from the bar, tossing him roughly onto the floor. “She killed your father, yet you look at her like she’s the only thing that matters in the universe. You’re a sick fuck.” He kicks Logan hard in the stomach, repeatedly, and I scream. Logan doesn’t utter a word as he curls into a ball and hugs his knees to his chest. His eyes are clamped shut. If he wasn’t already so weak, I’m sure he would fight back, but he can’t summon the energy to even try.
A ball of fury ignites the fire inside me, and I hop up, bursting with unspent power. My wrists seem to swell, and the deflective cuffs feel even tighter, as if my skin is straining against them. “Stop it! Stop hurting him! And I didn’t kill King Adjani. Dante did.”
“Liar!” the guard shrieks, pointing his finger in my direction. “Dirty, filthy liar. King Dante said you’d try to manipulate us, but you can save your breath. It won’t work. Besides”—he flashes an evil grin—“we have something infinitely more exciting to focus on.”
The tinny sound of my cell door opening sends a flurry of panic whipping through me. The other guard stalks toward me, followed by the asshat who has just vacated Logan’s cell. Backing away from them, I suppress my mounting fear.
“Stay away from her,” Logan growls, hauling himself to the mesh wall. He shakes the steel bars. Ignoring his outburst, the guards prowl toward me. I continue to retreat until my spine slams against the hard wall at my back.
There is nowhere to run.
My eyes flit to the open doorway, and I quickly calculate my chances of fighting my way out of this.
“Don’t even think about it,” asshat number one says, waving a long black hose-like object in front of me. “I’d hate to mess up that pretty face.” The look on his face conveys the opposite sentiment.
The other asshat lunges at me, seizing my arm painfully.
“Don’t touch her.” Logan barks out a menacing warning, but it lacks substance. Given our predicament, they know it’s an empty threat.
Until we get out of here.
Then all bets are off.
“Shut your face or I’ll shut it for you.” The guard’s focus doesn’t stray as he continues to eyeball me warily.
“How dare you speak to your crown prince in such a disrespectful manner,” I protest.
The guard harrumphs. “He stopped being my crown prince the moment he hooked up with you.”
There’s no reasoning with them, so I give up even trying.
The guard swings me around in front of him, flexing his muscular arm tight across my upper arms so I’m restrained in a vice-like grip. The other guard flicks a button on the hose, and it surges to life. A thin red line shoots out of the opening at the top, and I instantly flinch. Bile rises in my throat. He edges closer, a wicked grin spread across his mouth. Logan is yelling obscenities and a variety of different threats, but they don’t even acknowledge him. My instinct is to fight my way out of this, but I’m terrified of the laser beam. I’ve seen what the Tor did to Thalassic City, and what the Saven and Amararetti did to my fellow humans on Earth, with something similar.
One false move and I could be turned to dust.
I have more self-preservation than that.
So, I hold still as he lowers the beam to my wrists. “This might hurt a little.” The two guards share devilish grins, and the torrent of threats and cusses flowing from Logan’s mouth accelerate in flavor and volume. Who knew he had such colorful vocabulary? It’s a side of him I’ve rarely seen.
I brace myself for the impact, but nothing could prepare me for the searing hot pain that whips up and down my arm as the beam touches the center of the silver band on my left wrist. Attempting to exercise some control—because I know how much it will upset Logan to see me in pain—I squeeze my eyelids shut as water starts leaking, involuntarily, out of my eyes. Humming to myself, I visualize a happy place, a happy time, and try to ignore the throbbing pain.
The pain intensifies as the guard switches from one cuff band to the other in quick succession. Blistering heat boils the blood in my veins, and painful sparks zip up and down my arms. My incendio gift reacts powerfully to the threat, adding more fuel to the fire. I literally feel like I’m burning up from the inside out. Doused in agony, my tenuous control is starting to slip.
I open my eyes as the guard increases the power, and a thicker strip streams from the hose directly onto the center of the silver cuff band.
A deafening, horror-filled scream emits from my throat as flames of fire dance over the steel bands at my wrist and start licking the skin on my arms.
>
CHAPTER 5
I can’t halt my natural reaction. A steady shrill scream lets loose as I buck in my captor’s arms, desperate to escape the scorching sensation burning my flesh.
The pain is indescribable.
A dry, acrid odor mixes with the smell of charred flesh as my entire body vibrates in agony. Nausea overwhelms me, and I puke all over the guard holding the hose. Pouncing forward, with a ferocious look, he slaps me hard across the face. My head spins back as I start to drift into unconsciousness.
Logan’s frantic screaming is the last thing I hear before I pass out.
The instant I reopen my eyes, an involuntary moan slips out of my mouth. My arms cry out in silent torment as the worst pain imaginable threatens to resurrect the dark blanket of unconsciousness.
I would actually welcome it if it means I don’t have to feel.
Tiny whimpers leak through my lips as I blink my eyes fully open. Logan is pressed tight against the steel bar. Worry lines furrow his brow and crinkle his eyes as he watches me with blatant concern.
I want to reassure him, but that would be an outright lie, and I’ve promised him honesty going forward. I address him from my horizontal position on the floor. “What happened?” My voice cracks, and his frown expands.
“They couldn’t get the bands off, so they stopped eventually,” Evana says in a gentle tone from behind me. I wonder what the hell they are constructed of if even a laser beam can’t cut through them. And where did Griselda find something like this?
“As soon as I get the chance, I’m going to turn the laza on them and see how they like it. I’m going to rip them apart. Slowly. Limb by limb. They will experience the worst death I can inflict. And that’s a promise.” A muscle pops in Logan’s taut jaw as he silently vents on my behalf.
“I’m down with that plan, as long as I get to inflict the torture too.” My attempt at humor dies an immediate death.
“You’ll go nowhere near those putrada. They are mine.”
Saven Defiance (The Saven Series Book 4) Page 5