by Lucia Ashta
Radley smiled, his grin all the more wicked for the pain he’d inflicted on me. “I told you not to try to run,” he said, supremely pleased with himself. “Too bad I had to restrain myself from fully liquefying your insides.”
If this was him showing restraint, I was certain I didn’t want to stick around for any more of his demonstrations. It felt like every organ inside me was fighting to regain proper function.
I opened and closed my mouth a few times, awkward around a thick, unwieldy tongue. “What did you do to me?” I meant to say, when it reality it sounded more like “Wa di you tho to me?”
“I told you,” he said, spreading his smile. “I had a spell to try out. Unfortunately, I had to modify it so I wouldn’t actually kill you. So I seared your insides instead of liquefying them. I figured the effect would be similar.” He rocked on his heels, pleased as punch. The fact that he still looked like my dad was almost as bad as all the rest. I sure hoped my subconscious would be able to distinguish the actions of the two men, or I was going to need a crap ton of therapy to sort this out.
I shook my head in an attempt to push away the haze, and began to take in the extent of my surroundings for the first time.
And I froze.
“Hey, Rina,” Wren said softly, her hair framing her face in limp sheets.
Wren and Jas were each tied to a hard, wooden chair, the kind built to last, with thick ropes that would make a mariner proud. Beyond that, I was certain their bindings were enhanced with some sort of spell. Like them, I was bound to a high-backed chair. I could sense the zing of magic running through the ropes, ensuring I wouldn’t go anywhere.
“I’m glad to see you’re all right,” Wren said, batting her lashes timidly. Everything about my friend was soft spoken and gentle. She didn’t deserve to be pulled into this mess because of me.
“Are you both okay?” I asked, to avoid admitting that I wasn’t at all sure if I was all right. My insides hurt like they’d never hurt before. I had nothing to compare it to, but I couldn’t imagine it was good. If I managed to get us out of here, would I heal? Would my body function as it had before? At least my tongue was working a bit better now, though my words still seemed to tumble out around a mouth stuffed with cotton balls.
“Do we look okay?” Jas snapped. “We got taken by these assholes. I’m pretty sure that’s the definition of not okay.”
If Jas had retained her spunk, then she was doing well enough.
“How did they even take you?” I asked. “The academy is supposed to be protected and impenetrable.”
A deep, booming laugh entirely lacking in mirth rang out behind me. I attempted to swivel in my chair. Once the man spoke, however, I had no doubt as to who he was. His was a voice I’d never forget, no matter how hard I tried. And trust me, I’d tried.
“The academy isn’t the safe place it touts itself to be,” Rage said. “With enough skill in magic, nearly anything can be accomplished, and I only hire the best.”
Across from me, Radley Torture-Happy Sorcerer puffed out his chest—my dad’s chest. Beside him, a man, who was remarkable mostly for his lack of remarkableness, shrugged slightly in acknowledgment. He was tall, but not too tall; thin, but not too thin. His hair was a dishwater, dirty-blond, his eyes a dull light brown. If we were in a crowd, I wouldn’t cast him a second glance. But in the confines of this barn, I was as wary of him as any of the others. Rage wouldn’t have him here if he weren’t capable of great feats.
It was easier to understand Radley’s motivations for being here. He was vain, after power and accolades. But this second sorcerer? I had no idea, and that made him highly dangerous.
“My sorcerers found it easy enough to infiltrate the Academy Spell,” Rage said, though I knew that couldn’t be true. Not even Radley had claimed it’d been easy. “From there, all Laredo had to do was perform a spell with some of your DNA. A strand of hair was all it took, and your so-called friends were all too ready to believe he was you.”
“Hey,” Jas snapped, “we are her friends. Don’t assume otherwise just because you don’t understand the meaning of friendship and loyalty.”
Rage skirted around the open barn, entering my line of sight, his hands clasped behind his back in a deceptively relaxed pose. When he neared Jas, he whipped his face next to hers. “I know you’re friends, little girl. That’s what I’m counting on.”
“For what?” Jas said with a smirk and a heap of false bravado. Rage might not have noticed since he didn’t know the spunky skunk shifter, but I sure did. Jas was frightened. I’d never seen that in her before.
“You’re here to motivate Rina to do what I need her to do. Her brother and lover are too strong. They’d do their best to cause more trouble than they’re worth. Besides, I’m in no mood to deal with the king of the fae, and I don’t think he’d be too pleased about me messing with his son. The girl, however ... King Dillmon might actually reward me for hurting her. From what I hear, he’s plenty eager to be rid of her.”
He paused to look at me, but I didn’t give him the gratification of revealing how much his comment upset me. I was still worried about what was going on inside my body. My vision was blurring off and on, and I was finding it difficult to concentrate from the waves of pain pulsing from all sorts of regions I’d never felt before. For the first time in my life, I was feeling most of my internal organs, and I was wishing like hell I wasn’t.
Rage turned to include the rest of his audience. “The sooner Rina does what I ask of her, the sooner you all get to return to your pretend little world at the academy.”
“You’re going to just let us go?” Jas asked, thick with disbelief and her signature sarcasm. Yeah, I didn’t think our chances of getting out of here alive were that great either.
“Of course I will,” Rage said. “I’m not a monster. Once Rina gives me what I want, I’ll even deliver you to Thunder Mountain myself.”
Jas, Wren, and I just watched while he resumed his pacing across the barn, consumed with himself and his megalomaniacal goals. The barn was dark and dingy in the far corners where the bright light from the open doors didn’t reach. Cobwebs hung from every surface, and the musty smell that affronted my nostrils suggested the barn hadn’t been used in some time. A series of metallic contraptions of varying sizes and shapes suggested that Radley hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d boasted of Rage’s torture device collection. There was some sort of chair that would have reminded me of a throne if not for the series of metal spikes lining the bottom where the seat should have been. From afar, it was difficult to tell exactly what all the pointy tools were for, other than my surety that I didn’t want to examine any of them up close.
But what terrified me the most was that Rage was unconcerned about keeping kidnapping victims tied up in plain sight of the open double doors, which were large enough to drive livestock and large tractors through. If Rage wasn’t worried about anyone seeing or hearing us, then my earlier impressions were correct, and we were out in the middle of nowhere.
If we were to somehow escape, we would have to find the way ourselves. I could only assume Wren and Jas had been transported here by an untraceable portal as well. No one would be able to find us, though I had no doubt my real dad, Ky, Leander, and Boone, along with the entire staff of the Menagerie, were searching frantically for us already. Their efforts just wouldn’t bear fruit.
“What is it you want from Rina?” Wren finally asked in a tremulous voice, when Rage stopped his pacing to face us, waiting expectantly.
“Yeah, dickwad,” Jas added, “you already stole her shifter magic. What’s left for you to do? The least you could’ve done after that is leave her the hell alone.”
“A feisty one,” Rage said, smiling at Jas with an edge of hunger that unnerved me.
To draw his attention from her, I called out the first thing that crossed my mind. “You took everything I had. There’s nothing left for me to … give you.” After forcing out the last bit, I panted, drawing in quick, short
breaths. I tried to fold in on myself to ease the pain, but my bindings wouldn’t allow it.
That damn truth spell! Now was not the time to be a goody-two-shoes truth teller.
Rage smiled, a wicked gleam illuminating his eyes. “I see your truth spell worked,” he called over his shoulder at Radley and Laredo. His attention never left me as he circled my chair. He was all predator, his muscles coiled in anticipation of attack. When he licked his lips, I pushed my chair back with a loud screech. I only managed to move back half a foot with my bound legs.
He chuckled. “There’s no escaping me now. I want the rest of your magic so I can control the entire Voice, not just the Shifter Alliance. And I always get what I want, isn’t that right?”
Surely he wasn’t expecting me or Jas and Wren to cheer him on, but neither Radley nor Laredo answered either.
Rage scoffed before moving on. “After your shifter magic went into my brother, you still managed to break the spell that held your brother’s binding collar in place. How?”
My gaze flicked toward the identical shiny metallic collars around Jas’ and Wren’s necks.
“Are you thinking of trying that little trick again? If so, go right ahead. We’re ready for it, and I’d love to see what you’re packing before I take it for myself. I always like to do my research.”
Was he bluffing? He very well could be bluffing in an attempt to get me to reveal the source of my remaining power. It wasn’t worth the risk, beside the point that I didn’t think I could manage to tie my shoelaces right now, let alone access my mage powers, which I struggled to control to begin with.
“No?” he asked. “You don’t want to play? What a shame.” Jas clenched her jaw across from me. Wren watched me with big eyes brimming with concern.
I opened my mouth to shoot something back at him, but whatever it was sputtered and died in a twist around my tongue. Gasping, I wriggled within my bindings in a lame attempt to escape the sensations flooding my body. My breathing came too fast as several organs squeezed at the same time. I had no idea which ones were spasming, just that it hurt like a mother-effer. My head rolled around my neck before slumping against my chest.
“Untie her!” Wren yelled, and had I been able to focus, I would have been surprised at the forcefulness of my meek friend.
I grew lightheaded before snapping my head back up. I could not afford to pass out again from the pain. Whatever Radley had done to me was so bad that I needed Melinda, and I needed her stat. If I didn’t get help healing soon, I wasn’t sure I’d survive this.
“Didn’t you hear my friend?” Jas rumbled. “Untie her, motherfucker! She’s about to pass out or something!”
“If she passes out, nothing will happen. She’s tied up.” But the casual indifference of Rage’s tone didn’t fool me. He cared very much about what I was enduring, but only because he must’ve finally realized I was in no shape to do what he wanted of me.
My insides twisted and I screamed, finally realizing there was no point in holding back the signs of my discomfort. At this point, delay was our better option. We needed some kind of plan to get out of here. And it helped that I wasn’t putting on a show. I was genuinely suffering more pain than I ever had in my entire life, and since my arrival at the academy, that was saying something.
“What did you do to her?” Rage snapped at Radley.
“Just a little one of my new inventions. I had to test it out. It was too tempting not to,” Radley said, though he didn’t cower at the larger shifter, who was quickly becoming enraged.
“Your only reason for being here is to do what I ask of you. I don’t pay you to test your little experiments.”
“Clearly my ‘little experiments’ are highly successful,” Radley countered, his shoulders straight. “And you told me you didn’t care if I put her through a little pain to get her here.”
“Yeah, a little pain. Her eyes are rolling in the back of her head from whatever you did to her. What if you fried whatever power she has left? What if you ruined what I paid you to get for me?” Rage rounded on Radley, who finally retreated half a step from the snarling shifter leader.
“I didn’t ruin anything,” Radley said, but I could tell from his hesitant undertone that he wasn’t sure. Neither was I. It seemed impossible to think I had any kind of power within me just then. Only pain and more pain. There wasn’t room for anything else.
“Here, let me look at her,” Radley said, walking around the bulky shifter to advance on me, but Rage stopped him with a thudding hand to the chest. “You’ve done enough.”
While continuing to hold the sorcerer, he turned to the second one. “See what you can do to help her.”
Laredo looked between Rage and Radley, nodded, and walked toward me. I panted while trying to calm myself, scanning the lanky sorcerer from top to bottom. As he neared me, I noticed what I hadn’t from a distance. Beneath the dull-looking exterior of his irises swirled an imbalance perhaps even greater than Radley’s.
I jumped and pushed in my chair and managed to scoot another couple of inches backward, not that they’d help me in the least. It just felt so wrong not to do anything to defend myself.
“No!” Wren cried as Laredo stalked up until he bent right in front of me. Hands on his knees, he attempted to peer deep into my eyes. I snapped them shut. He didn’t make a sound of protest at my futile attempt to protect myself from his prying.
“Stop it,” Jas said. “You can’t do this kind of shit. It’s not right.”
It certainly wasn’t, but I suspected that made them enjoy doing it all the more.
“I’m displeased with you,” Rage was saying to Radley.
“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t be,” Radley said. “Because I know exactly what she’s hiding from you.”
“No,” I whispered, but it was too late. Rage, Laredo, and even Jas and Wren turned to stare at Radley, who was about to spill the secret I’d told him when I’d believed I’d been speaking to my dad.
“Rina can still feel some of her shifter magic.” Radley smiled like he’d just won a grand prize. “Whatever shifter magic you took from her before, she has more.”
A few seconds beat out while we all processed our shock—Rage and Laredo at the news, and Wren, Jas, and I at the bad luck that Radley had extracted my most valuable secret from me, all too easily.
As I began to consider just how bad it was that Rage now knew what I was hiding, and that he’d want my power with renewed fervor, a shot of electricity ratcheted through my body.
My head flung back in a violent jerk as I prepared to weather another wave of unbearable pain … until I realized this wasn’t pain, not exactly. Sure, this new shock stung like a mofo. But I recognized it.
And I welcomed it with open arms.
21
“What’s going on?” Fury demanded of his brother as he strode into the barn. His brow furrowed in disapproval the moment his attention landed on me, and a shock of energy raced through my body. My face contorted into a pained grimace, and I thrashed violently against my bindings. But I was secretly almost grateful for the intense discomfort that allowed me to so easily conceal the new wave of hope that Fury ushered in with his arrival. I embraced the additional pain and put on a show, gasping for air like a fish out of water, biding my time.
“I could hear her screams all the way down the road,” Fury complained. “You agreed you wouldn’t hurt her. Rage, you promised me you wouldn’t.”
Rage’s eyes clouded over in an instant, obviously displeased at being called out by his younger brother and second-in-command in front of others. He stalked toward Fury with heavy, angry steps. “I didn’t hurt her,” he said. When he reached Fury’s side, he leaned down to whisper angrily: “You can’t come in here and tell the hostages that I promised you I wouldn’t hurt them. What would be the motivation for them to do anything I need of them if they aren’t afraid of me? You just messed things up, big-time, but you’ve been good at that lately, haven’t you? Besides, I didn’t promise you
I wouldn’t hurt her. I promised you I wouldn’t hurt her unnecessarily. That’s a big difference. I didn’t make any promises as to the others. You had to know things would get messy once we took them.”
“Yeah. And that’s why I didn’t agree to this,” Fury whispered vehemently. “You’ve taken enough from this girl.”
“I don’t need your agreement to do anything,” Rage snarled, getting right in his brother’s face, his broad shoulders all but blocking the slightly smaller shifter from sight. “I’m the head of the Shifter Alliance, not you. I’m the head of the pack, not you. And don’t you be forgetting it.”
“I’m not trying to question your authority, brother. It’s just, isn’t there another way to go about this?”
“No, there isn’t,” Rage snapped, but then excitement infused his next words. “The girl is a dual mage shifter.” With a quick glance over his shoulder at the rest of us, who were all staring at them and their not-so-secret conversation, he placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder and ushered him back toward the doors, where he stopped at the threshold. I had to strain to continue following their whispers, but I managed it.
“This is even better than I’d hoped,” Rage said, sotto voce. “No shifter is supposed to be able to carry mage powers as well.”
“But the girl can?” Fury asked.
“Apparently. And it would explain how she managed to break her brother’s collar when you’d already taken her shifter magic.”
“I didn’t take her shifter magic,” Fury protested.
“Sure you did. But call it whatever you like so you can sleep at night. You’re back to being your full, powerful self. I don’t regret a thing.”
Fury, however … perhaps there was some way to turn him into an ally.
Fury stared at me over the shoulder of his brother, and when he made eye contact with me, his eyes widened a fraction of a second before I understood why.