by H. D. Gordon
Pushing the covers back, I grabbed my long dress from where it was still pooled on the floor and slid it over my head.
I was getting ready to start kicking myself for what had happened when I spotted a platter of fresh food and a piece of paper folded neatly on the desk, my name scrawled across it in perfect cursive.
I found myself smiling as I picked up the note and opened it.
I hope you rested well, Rukiya dearest.
Apparently, there is still a Hound on the loose, and I’m going to look into it.
You rest as long as you like, because when I return, you won’t get another chance to for a while.
~Adriel
My stomach fluttered just reading the words, and I set the note down, shoving some of the food from the platter into my face before heading out of the room. I had a feeling I knew exactly which Hound was missing, and there was no way I was going to lay around until the bastard was captured.
As these thoughts struck me, I picked up my pace on the way out of the library. When I remembered that I had been supposed to meet up with Goldie at the tavern Gods only knew how many hours before, my heart skipped a beat or two.
Suddenly, a bit of dread washed over me, and my new immediate objective became locating my best friend. I told myself Goldie was likely just fine, and in reality, the Hound that Adriel had mentioned was on the loose in his note might not even be Mekhi… but that didn’t stop me from shifting into my Wolf form so I could move faster, didn’t stop me from racing through the streets of Mina and calling out mentally to Goldie in hopes that she would call back.
I roamed the entire north side of the town, checking the tavern where I’d said I’d meet her and another spot with a small park where I knew Goldie liked to hang out sometimes.
I did not find her.
From there, I explored the eastern part of the town, and then the southern, and finally, the western. Goldie was nowhere to be found. My anxiety grew more intense with each step I took without knowing where she was.
By the time an hour had gone by, I was close to being frantic. Just as the panic began to overwhelm me, Adriel found me.
I was darting across a side street, my mind focused on reaching out to Goldie’s, when Adriel just appeared in front of me. He wore his usual all black, but his handsome face was openly concerned when he looked at me.
“Are you okay?” he asked me, running his scarlet eyes over me as if looking for damage. “I felt your panic.”
I shifted back into my mortal form, and my brows shot up. “You did?”
Adriel’s perfect cheeks went a little red, an expression I’d never seen from him before, and I had to admit it was rather endearing to see him blush.
“I drank a good amount of your blood,” he said, and nodded toward the amulet that I’d nearly forgotten was hanging around my neck. “And, there’s that.”
I reached up and gripped the red stone at the end of the silver chain, calm washing over me as I held it in my palm.
“Oh, right,” I said. “I can’t find Goldie. I’m starting to worry. Did you catch the Hound?”
Adriel’s handsome face went deadly serious, and I felt the magical power around him surge, but I didn’t cringe away from it. In fact, I leaned in.
“No,” he said. “We didn’t.”
“Was it Mekhi?”
Adriel held perfectly still. “One of the children said they saw a Hound sneaking around near the southwestern edge of the town,” he said. “A stocky Hound with a scar on his forehead.”
I resisted the urge to growl in frustration. If something happened to Goldie, I would never forgive myself. I’d been supposed to meet her. I’d also been aware that Mekhi could still be on the loose, and in my haste to make things right between Adriel and me, I’d nearly forgotten my friend all together.
As if he could see my mounting guilt, Adriel placed his hands on my shoulders and made me look up at him. “We’ll find her,” he promised.
I leaned into his strength, needing to believe him.
But, then, Yarik found us. He came skidding around the corner, moving quite fast for such a large male. His normally jovial face was twisted with worry, his eyes burning with equal parts anger and fear.
My heart sank at seeing this. Goldie and Yarik were a couple, and I recognized the expression on his face as the same one I was likely wearing at the moment.
Yarik was gasping for air, as if he’d been running throughout the town in the same Manic fashion I had. He could hardly get his words out fast enough.
“He took her,” Yarik said. “Put a knife to her throat and took her right out of my Gods damned bed!” He slammed his fist into his palm, the thick muscles in his arms and neck bulging while anguish lined the curves of his handsome face.
“Hold on, brother,” Adriel said, ever the collected, calm leader. “Slow down. Tell me what happened.”
But, we knew, didn’t we? Yes, we knew. And Yarik’s next words only confirmed it.
“That son of a bitch Hound,” Yarik said, and spat the name. “Mekhi. The bastard took Goldie.”
27
I felt the blood rush out of my face.
My hands were curled into fists so tight that my nails punctured the skin of my palms. I swore to the Gods that if Mekhi hurt her, I was going to kill him slowly myself. I would skin him alive and remove his puny but probably favorite body part. I would make that Hound wish he’d never been thought of, wish that he’d never crossed paths with me back in Dogshead, make him pay for every sin he’d ever committed in blood and flesh.
To say the least, he would suffer.
But if he hurt Goldie, no matter what I did to him, I would suffer more, because this whole thing could have been prevented. I should never have left her side.
If I lost her, I would never forgive myself.
“We need to find them,” I said, the words spoken between clenched teeth.
Before anyone could respond, a familiar voice spoke from behind. “No need to go searching, Rook the Rabid,” Mekhi said.
I spun on my heels to see the bastard emerge from around the side of one of the buildings. A growl rippled up my throat as I saw Goldie held tight against him, her back pressed flush against his chest. His beefy arm was wrapped around her neck, and in the other hand, he held a blade angled right beneath her ribs.
“I’m going to kill you,” I said.
“No,” said Yarik in a tone that would have chilled a corpse. “I’m going to kill him.”
Mekhi pursed his lips, an ugly grin tugging them up in the corners. Yarik, Adriel, and I stood as still as statues across from him and Goldie, aware that with any sudden movement, the Hound could gut her with that sharp blade.
“You’re not going to do anything, you stupid Mutts,” Mekhi spat. “I’ll give you back your whore.” He paused and licked Goldie’s neck, and as I watched her cringe under this unwanted contact, in all my life I’d never wanted to murder someone so bad. Mekhi looked at me dead on. “In exchange for another,” he added.
If the rage flowing off of Yarik and Adriel were any indication, I was not the only one who was getting ready to blow their top. I had to give it to the Hound; he was one bold son of a bitch to pick such a fight.
Mekhi angled the knife, and shot us looks of warning, as if he could sense the direction of my thoughts. “You move one muscle and I will gut this bitch where we stand. It’ll be the last Gods damn thing I do,” he said. He looked at Adriel. “Open a portal back to Marisol,” he commanded.
Adriel only looked at him.
“Open a Gods damned portal!” the Hound demanded, and with this, he dug the tip of the blade into Goldie’s skin.
Goldie let out a small squeal of pain before a few beads of blood appeared on the front of her dress. Mekhi’s arm simultaneously tightened around her throat.
“Okay,” Adriel said, and I knew him well enough to know that his calm appearance was a façade. He was as concerned for Goldie as I was. “Okay,” he repeated, “Just don’t hurt
her.”
Adriel waved his arms in a circular motion, his scarlet eyes flaring with the use of magic. I knew from the books I’d read that opening a portal took an insane amount of energy, that doing so would drain Adriel of all his power and leave him magic-less until he could recharge.
Despite this, in the space between us and the Hound, a swirling red portal opened, and my breath caught in my throat as I looked through it and recognized the beach in Marisol.
Mekhi laughed loudly enough to make me want to tear his throat out. “Good boy!” he crooned at Adriel, who only stared back at him with murderous scarlet eyes. Mekhi ignored this and looked at me. “Now the trade. One whore for the other. Ryker wants to see you, Rook. You’ve been a bad, bad girl.”
“Don’t!” Goldie cried as I immediately went to take her place.
Mekhi brought up the beefy arm that was around her neck to cover her mouth. “Shut up, bitch,” he hissed.
“I’ll come with you,” I said. “Just let her go.”
Mekhi shook his head. The scar above his eyebrow twitched with the movement. “No way, darling,” he said. “You just go on through first. Then, I’ll release your little whore friend and follow after. An even, fair trade, if you think about it.”
“Take me instead,” Adriel said, making us all turn and look at him. “It’s me your Master really wants. I’m the Conductor. I’m the one who’s been stealing from them. Take me and leave the ladies alone. I’ll come with you willingly.”
Mekhi laughed again and clicked his tongue. “Interesting offer, Mixbreed,” he said, spitting the label as though it were dirty, “but, unfortunately, I’m under specific orders to retrieve her.” He nodded his head at me. “Must have some magic between those legs of hers,” he added.
“Before this is over,” Adriel promised in a tone that was as cold as ice, “I’m going to cut the tongue from your mouth and make you eat it.”
Mekhi had the good sense to bristle, but he flashed his teeth at me and drew a few more drops of blood from Goldie. “Jump through,” he commanded. “Now, or the next cut removes her guts.”
There was really no choice to make here, and we all knew it, so I cast one last look at Goldie and Adriel, at Mina and the town I had unwittingly come to love.
Then I jumped through the portal.
And landed on the sandy beach of Marisol.
I hit the sand and went sprawling. The abrupt change in atmosphere was hard to reconcile at first. Then the scent of salt hit my nose, and the sound of the endlessly churning ocean reached my ears.
Marisol.
I was back.
Before I could even absorb the impact of this, Mekhi jumped through the portal behind me, and it closed behind him, disappearing with a finality that hurt my heart.
The Hound grabbed my arm in a vice grip and jerked me to my feet. “Get up, bitch,” he snapped.
As if the bastards had been waiting for us, four more Hounds came trotting down the beach toward us, whips and batons ever resting at their hips.
I’m not ashamed to admit that the sight of this terrified me. Images of metal carts carrying torture instruments, of cracking whips and brutal beatings, of steel cages where two unlucky Wolves fought tooth and nail to the death, flashed through my head, and it was all I could do to keep my knees from buckling.
If it weren’t for the fact that I would rather die than let them see this weakness, I might have broken down crying right then. As it was, I tipped my head back and pushed my chin out a fraction, adopting a scowl that I’d used many times in the past, a mask that I had foolishly begun to believe I was done wearing.
One of the approaching Hounds pulled a black, magical collar out of a sack he was carrying, and I was forced to my knees.
The collar was fastened around my throat, the click resounding in my ears.
In that instant, every shred of hope I’d slowly begun to wrap around me during my time in Mina was torn away, and I resigned to the fact that at least I would die having done what was right. No matter what happened next, I needed to remember that I’d traded myself willingly for Goldie, and Goldie was more than worth it.
Yes, I could die knowing that.
Mekhi yanked me once more to my feet, and I made no move to resist him.
“Let’s go,” he snapped, and shoved me forward hard enough that I stumbled before righting myself. The bastard grinned at me in a display of just how much he was enjoying this. “There’s someone who’s been dying to see you,” he told me.
I swallowed hard, though I tried to hide it. I didn’t have to ask whom he was talking about.
He was taking me to Ryker.
With a new collar secured once more around my neck, I forced my feet to carry me forward.
The male who’d flipped my world upside down was waiting for me, and the Hounds surrounding me were going to make sure I didn’t disappoint.
Mekhi—(and the three other Hounds who were apparently required to transport little old me to wherever their new Master waited)—took me the back way up to Reagan Ramsey’s former castle. The structure was exactly as it had been the last time I’d been here, all jutting towers held together by sandstone and seaglass, hanging out over the ocean on the ledge of a massive cliff.
It overlooked the town of Marisol the way a throne overlooked peasants in a throne room. Seeing it made me think about my previous stay in the dungeons before The Games, where Ramsey had me tortured, sliced, and beaten, and Mekhi had to shove me forward again to get me moving.
It was all I could do to keep my legs from shaking as they dragged me up the side of the cliff that was opposite Marisol. Apparently, my arrival here was meant to be a secret. I couldn’t imagine what the reasoning for this was, or what it meant.
Then we were passing the huts on the beach where the Hounds had burned one thousand slaves alive while they slept. The pitiful structures were little more than piles of char and ash, and closer inspection revealed that the bones of the Dogs had just been left where they’d burned, reminders of what happened when someone stepped out of line.
I got the distinct feeling that Mekhi had walked me past the sight to remind me that I was the one who had stepped out of line, that I was the reason all those slaves were dead.
Kalene, Oren, Ares… The names came flooding back to me along with the faces, the time we’d shared together, the laughs and the pain.
Guilt struck me so hard in the gut that I could barely remain upright. I’d escaped this horror, if only for a brief period of time, but I’d escaped it. I’d had the privilege of knowing what life beyond chains could be, of knowing what safety felt like, of belonging to myself and being my own.
But the others had remained here, forced to receive the brunt of my actions, the casualties of my escape. Of all the terrible thoughts that had ever flitted through my troubled mind, this was perhaps the very worst of them.
As if a whisper on the sea breeze, Adriel’s words during the argument with Asha came back to me.
“None of this is Rukiya’s fault,” he’d said. “She is not the one enslaving the Wolves. She is not the one who lit those fires, and she is not responsible for the deaths of those slaves.”
I clung to these words with a death grip as we finally reached the back entrance to the castle. Standing in the shadow of the structure, I felt a shiver of fear race up my spine, and tried and failed to conceal it.
Mekhi tightened his grip on my arm until it hurt, and leaned in close to my ear, his hot, foul breath brushing against my neck.
“Welcome home, Rook the Rabid,” the Hound whispered, but I barely heard him over the fracturing of my heart within my chest.
28
Mekhi took me straight to the bowels of the castle, a route I recognized well. I tried to tell myself that everything was okay as we entered the familiar dungeon, as the cold, damp air hit me and horrific flashbacks flitted on a loop through my mind. But I was terrified. There was no way around it. I’d been returned to my own version of hell, and this time
, I was pretty sure I was not going to survive it.
For Goldie, I reminded myself. For Goldie, it was worth it.
The Hounds brought me to the same cell I’d been held in before, and as soon as that heavy, solid door swung open, revealing the inside of the torture chamber from my nightmares, all of my careful composure flooded out of me. I screamed and kicked and cursed, lashing out at the Hound’s throat and missing by only a hair’s width.
Cursing and moving swiftly so that I couldn’t get in another swipe, Mekhi slammed his fist into my stomach without reserving any strength. The air was instantly knocked out of me, and I gasped like a fish out of water as I bent double and absorbed the pain like a sponge.
Immediately following this gut-punch I was shoved hard from behind, and went sprawling into the room, the cold, stone floor greeting me unforgivingly. I lifted my head enough to spit blood onto the stones, to gasp again and again until air finally reached my lungs.
The door slammed shut behind me.
Slowly, I lowered my head to the floor, staring at the small pool of blood I’d spat out a moment before. Now that I was alone, the tears couldn’t be helped. They burned my eyes and pooled in my ear as I lay on my side and clutched at my midsection.
The punch Mekhi had delivered was bad, but the source of the pain swirling through my stomach was almost worse than any physical punishment they could deliver, as if there was a fracture in my very soul.
I realized only in that moment that I’d begun healing this fracture in Mina, but now it had been split open again.
Maybe this time for good.
When the door to the cell opened, I was sitting against the back wall. The tears had dried up already. I’d made sure of it. I would not let them see what they’d done to me. I would not give that bastard Mekhi the satisfaction.
But it was not Mekhi who entered my cell after the door opened.
It was Ryker.
He looked the same as he had the last time I’d seen him in my dreams. Golden-brown hair handsomely messy, blue eyes gleaming like pure sapphires. He moved into the room hesitantly, approaching me as though I were some wild beast that must be handled with caution.