His unsettling focus stayed on me for another full minute before a smirk hinted on his lips. “Fine. You want to play it that way. You will find soon, Ms. Kovacs, this isn’t Leopold. You push… I don’t push back. I obliterate.”
“I survived and escaped your impregnable prison, Killian. You want to torture or kill me? Bring it,” I snarled back.
“Don’t ever call me by my first name,” he growled, his hands clenching, his shoulders lifting. Names held power to the fae. Intimacy. “You call me King.”
“There’s only one king in this world. His name is Lars,” I spit through my teeth, my head swimming for the lack of air.
“He’s not king here. I am.”
“Just because you call yourself king doesn’t make it true.” Saliva dribbled down my chin as I struggled to get out each syllable.
His fingers squeezed tighter, stealing all my air. I clawed at his hold, which did not budge his fingers, as blackness dotted around my eyes.
“Watch yourself, Ms. Kovacs. I am known for having an extremely short temper when it comes to disobedience.” His breath curled around my ear, sparking energy through my skin before he ripped his hand away, stepping back.
Air rushed back into my lungs with a gasping cough, my hand flying to my throat as I gulped in oxygen.
“You want to know what I want with you? What I am already using you for?” Killian snapped back into his cool, composed demeanor, turning around and heading out the door. “Then you will see firsthand.” He flicked his head to the guard. “Cuff her. Ms. Kovacs is going on a little field trip.”
Chapter 2
Two guards escorted me from my chamber in handcuffs, their grasp on my arms and neck secure, preventing me from trying to make a break for it. I wouldn’t have bothered. Not right now. I had to be smart, learn this place. Find its weaknesses.
I took in everything we passed. They took me farther down a stone corridor through two heavy security doors with code locks, hauling me into an elevator that needed Killian’s magic to activate it. Instead of going up, we went down. The deeper we descended into the earth, the more my stomach twisted. It was a tomb underground, reminding me all too much of Halálház, distancing me from my chance at freedom.
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. Killian twisted his head to peer back at me, but I looked away from his chiseled cheeks and jaw. “You think you are ready for what’s ahead, Ms. Kovacs?”
Sniffing, I lifted my chin, facing him with no emotion.
“Humans. You think yourselves so tough.” Shaking his head, he strolled out.
“I’ve survived so far,” I muttered as the guards shoved me forward into a newly built area. It was a stark contrast to the old stone castle I had been housed in. This area was cold, sleek, and modern and looked very new, the smell of paint still emitting off the white walls.
“You have.” A strange threat twirled around the two words. Killian’s violet gaze drew over my frame slowly. Curiously. “Like a cockroach. But it’s why you fascinate me so much.” He swiveled back around, his shoes tapping over the tile floor, going through two more security doors, which also had guards.
What the fuck does he have down here? And why does he want me to see it?
We stepped into a small chamber with a large window allowing you to observe what was in the attached room. I blinked, my eyes and mind trying to take in everything I saw. Before me was a large room filled with science equipment, fae machines, microscopes, things I couldn’t even describe, and a handful of figures dressed in white coats.
A lab.
“What is this?” Bile burned the back of my throat as my nerves jumped around, a sickness souring my stomach. “What are you doing?”
“What your kind has made me do.” He came up next to me at the window. His rich smell of crisp-forest-after-a-rain-with-a-splash-of-sweet was powerful in the sterile room, soothing the panic wanting to explode from me. “What you made me do, Ms. Kovacs.”
My head jerked to him. “Me? What are you—”
“My lord?” A woman’s voice cut me off, drawing my attention to the door near him. A technician stepped into the room, blasting the small space with electricity, igniting my skin, pulsing my core. Holy fuck. She tugged down her mask, displaying her ethereal face and eyes. They were the color of amber sap freshly weeping from a tree. Her magic felt like a brush of wind across my face. I saw traces of red hair from underneath her cap.
She was tall, thin, and moved like a leaf in the wind. Everything about her was graceful, strong, and sexual, licking the air with desire and need.
“Willow.” Killian turned to her, his head dipping at her in greeting.
“We have the latest results in.” She stepped closer, holding out a file to him, her eyes moving down my figure then moving to Killian hungrily, causing a slight moan to catch in my throat. Biting down on my lip, I swallowed it back, but I felt her magic move down my limbs, caressing my thighs.
The young guard behind me groaned under his breath into my ear, pushing into my back. I could feel his excitement, his need. The other guard gripped me harder, his hand sliding around my hip.
My body responded instantly, feeling the spark of her energy kiss my skin, even though my brain told me it was wrong. Gritting my teeth, I tried to push it away, but whatever she was, she inundated the small space with her lust. I longed to step back into the warm bodies behind me, to feel them against me, but I froze in place, ignoring the need.
“Thank you.” He took the folder, opening it, his attention on the documents inside, seemingly immune to her power. “What about Subject Eighteen?”
“Final stages. No different from all the others before. Well, except Subject One.” Her words were matter of fact, but they seemed to purr from her, her intensity pricking at the back of my neck.
“Interesting.” Killian’s attention drifted from the papers to me, the force of his gaze hitching my breath.
Lust.
Hunger.
Raw need.
He blinked, snapping his head back toward the window, his expression blank again. “Thank you, Willow. You can go.”
“Yes, my lord.” She bowed her head, her tongue sliding over her bottom lip as she turned and sauntered back into the lab room, peeling back the heaviness of the room.
“Fuck,” I hissed. “What the hell is she?” Air gushed from my lungs. The guards behind me sighing in relief drew Killian’s notice.
“A tree fairy. Nature’s scientist. They are incredible at mixing and testing potions. Finding cures and medicines.” His eyes rolled over me again, going back to searching me like a bug pinned to a board. He flicked his chin at my babysitters. “You are dismissed.”
“Sir?” the young guard replied.
“Ms. Kovacs won’t do anything foolish. She has nowhere to go or any way to get out from here. She understands how pointless it would be if she tried, doesn’t she?” Killian tilted his head at me.
My nose wrinkled as I glared at him, which only made him smile, twisting my gut again. And it wasn’t in fear. Anger ballooned in my chest, along with disgust and irritation.
“Uncuff her, Iain. I think I am perfectly capable of handling her.” He nodded to the younger one I toyed with earlier. Iain did as he was told, both guards stepping out of the room, but Iain kept watchful eyes on me until the door clicked behind them.
“Someone wants to impress his master.” I rubbed my arms, the blood tingling through my fingers as I tried to push off the lingering desire to rub up against the man in front of me.
“Put these on,” Killian clipped, tossing a face mask, booties, and coat at me. “Don’t want your human germs and diseases contaminating any of the experiments.”
“Experiments?” My lungs fluttered as I put on the items. I had no choice but to go forward, my curiosity driving me to find out what he was up to.
“Do not touch anything, Ms. Kovacs.” He pushed a button, opening an airlocked door, which hissed controlled air into my face. It held no odor, no
hint of life, only cleanliness.
Apparently above wearing anything that might wrinkle his expensive suit, Killian strolled into the lab with authority and righteousness so fast I had to rush to catch up.
Shockingly, not one technician looked up or greeted their lord, acting as if he were an ordinary co-worker moving through. I would have thought his ego would demand they all take time away from what they were doing and bow to him.
Not giving me much time to decipher anything they might be studying, he moved us quickly through, stopping at another door. This one was thick, similar to a walk-in freezer door, with a tiny window at the top to look through. He typed in another code, the lock clanking, the noise making me tense.
“I warn you, Ms. Kovacs. Prepare yourself,” he said ominously as he swung the heavy door out.
“For what?” The words barely made it out of my mouth when gut-wrenching screams crashed into my eardrums, and the air went from sterile to putrid, punching my senses.
Bile lunged up my throat as my hand slammed over my covered nose and mouth. I gagged at the stench of rotting flesh, piss, vomit, and feces that drifted through the mask. Wails skated down my spine, my bones trembling. It sent me right back to Halálház, but this felt even worse—if that was possible.
My heart slammed against my ribs, panic fizzing over my body as I followed Killian. We turned a corner, and my feet came to an abrupt stop.
Oh, gods.
My gaze moved over the space, but I could barely take in what was in front of me. A dozen thick-barred cells built into the earth lined one side. Every single one occupied people with different sexes, ages, and nationalities, but I knew in my gut they were all human by their flaws—gray hair, bad teeth, plain looks. Things the fae were exempt from.
Guards were stationed on either end, ladened with every weapon possible, like they were ready to go up against an army.
In prison, I had seen a lot of things that would make most people lose their minds: guts being ripped out of people’s bodies, torture, death, people sleeping in their own shit, crying in agony every night. Nothing prepared me for this.
From the first cell to the last one, it was like watching the stages of a horrendous disease strip the life out of every person. The first individual seemed healthy enough, dirty and scared, but plump and present. Looking down the row, they grew thinner, crazed, muttering to themselves, some pacing inside the cage. Around the middle area, the figures no longer moved. They stood there at attention, staring vacantly ahead as if they were waiting for direction. The people in the two cages on the end screamed in agony, clawing at their skin, holding their heads, curling on the floor, crying for death, only skin and bones. The final cage was empty.
“Wha-what is wrong with them?” I croaked, emotion filling my eyes, anger flaring up my neck. “What are you doing to them?”
“Me?” Killian twisted to me, one eyebrow hooking up. “Of course, you’d think this is my doing. The big bad evil fae would relish torturing humans for fun.”
“Seems like something you’d enjoy,” I spat.
In a blink, he gripped my wrists, slamming my body into the wall, his frame looming over mine, his lips tucked into a snarl. “I have no interest in you humans. Torturing or otherwise. This, edesem.” Sweetheart. “It is all your kind’s doing.”
“What?” My head snapped up to him.
He pressed in closer, his frame lining up with mine. “What your beloved master is doing to his own people while killing mine.”
“Istvan? What does he have to do with it?”
“Do you want to know what those blue pills do? What you were stealing?” He let go of one of my wrists, his hand sliding down my arm, igniting shivers along my nerves. Tugging down the face mask I wore, he clutched my chin, pinching it between his fingers as he stared at me. “Why are you so different?” he whispered, like he was talking to himself.
I couldn’t respond, feeling every part of him press into me, his intense magic overstimulating my senses and tricking my brain.
“Get off me,” I hissed through my teeth, countering what my body wanted, stirring up abhorrence.
His gaze went to my mouth, neither of us moving for a moment. Then he shoved me back, his head shaking, his fists rolling into balls.
“Come, Ms. Kovacs. See firsthand what your guardian is smuggling in those crates to other countries.” He whipped back around, striding up to the cells, yanking a clipboard from a holder. “Meet Adel. Thirty-five-year-old worker in the Savage Lands. It’s her first day taking the pills. How are you feeling, Mrs. Denke?”
She was huddled on a surprisingly nice mattress dripping in clean blankets and pillows, a tray of untouched food and drink next to her. She looked up, shrugging slightly, not saying anything. Sadness was etched on her face.
“You think you’re not evil and sick?” I stomped up to him, motioning to the cage. “Kidnapping and testing innocent humans because we’re nothing more than livestock to you?”
“Mrs. Denke?” Killian lowered himself down to her level, his voice softer than I would ever have thought. “Were you kidnapped and forced into anything?”
Her expression cracked with pain, but she shook her head. “No.”
I huffed, my head shaking. “What else would she say? She’s in a cage!”
“The bars are for her protection as well as ours.”
“You are a monster.”
He exhaled sharply, as though trying to keep calm. “My friend here doesn’t seem to believe me, Mrs. Denke. Will you tell her how you came to be here?”
She nodded, wiping her eyes, folding her arms tighter around her legs. “He saved my family from starvation and desolation. I volunteered.”
My forehead wrinkled. “You volunteered?”
“My family now has a roof over their heads, food on the table, and my husband has a well-paying job in the palace.”
My throat tightened. “You mean they get paid in exchange for this torture?”
“I’m not well anyway.” She shrugged. “Knowing they are taken care of makes whatever will happen to me worth it.”
My glare shot to Killian as he stood back up. “Everyone is here by their own will.”
“Because you preyed on their weakest point. Took advantage of them,” I bellowed.
Rage flashed through his eyes, his jaw tightening. “I am a lord, Ms. Kovacs, not some saint from one of your make-believe stories.” He stepped back up to me, his force shoving at me. “I am giving them a lot more than your own dear leader does. At least it is their choice, and their family benefits from my gratitude.”
“You are vile,” I snarled.
“Whatever lets you sleep at night,” he scoffed, his breath trickling across my lips, making me realize how close we were. “Let’s finish our tour, shall we?” He rotated, motioning to the second cage.
An older, gray-haired man sat on the bed, rocking, his lips moving, muttering to himself, but I couldn’t make out his words. “Mr. Laski has been on the pills for two days. Mr. Petrov.” He pointed to the next cell, a younger man, but life had not been kind to him. His pants were almost falling off, his skin a yellowish color, and he talked to himself like he was having a full conversation, sometimes bellowing out words. He paced the small cell, scratching and pulling at his hair, not taking notice of us at all. “He’s been on for three.” Killian continued on.
“But Ms. Kinsky is where things start changing.” He paused on the next cage. The girl was no more than twenty, but again you could see her life had not been easy. Her skin was drawn and sun-damaged, scarred along her face and arms. She stood stock-still, her eyes vacant. Her thin frame was not even trembling from weakness. “Day four is the shift.”
“The shift?” I stepped up to the bars, peering at her. She took no notice of us, not even a flinch or blink of her lids. I reached out, touching her hand. Nothing. “What’s wrong with her?”
“You really have no idea what those pills do?” Killian eyed me.
“No.” I shook
my head, snapping my fingers in front of her face. No reaction. “How long has she been this way?”
“She stopped pacing twenty-four hours ago and hasn’t moved since.”
“Twenty-four hours?” My mouth dropped.
“They stay in this state for days. So far, the maximum time has been five days, but she might be the first who surpasses that.” Killian flicked his chin down the row to the ones wailing, nothing but skeletons. “Next, this starts to happen… and then…”
I gulped. “Then what?”
“Their brains pretty much melt, and they finally die.”
My hand went to my stomach, pressing in.
“They don’t eat, drink, or defecate. But when they reach this state?” He gestured back to Ms. Kinsky. “They are incredibly easy to control.”
“Control? What do you mean?”
“Ms. Kinsky?” Killian addressed her, though she did not respond. He moved us away from the bars, pointing at me. “Kill her.”
As if a monster took her over, she lurched for the bars, making me jump back with a cry. A guttural howl echoed from her, bouncing off the walls as she clawed for me. Her face twisted, her bones cracking while she tried to force herself to fit between the bars, tearing at her flesh.
“Stop!” Killian ordered. She went still, and she stood there like a robot again.
“Oh, my gods.” A bitter tang coated my tongue, my heart thumping in my chest.
“It took us a while to realize when they reached this stage, they were waiting for orders.” He watched the girl, not looking at me. “They also have triple the strength of a normal human and are slightly harder to kill, as if their senses don’t tell them when they’re in pain.”
My head wagging, I swallowed. “I don’t understand. Who would do this?”
“Come on, Ms. Kovacs. Who do you think would benefit from an army of people who don’t feel pain and will attack anyone they are told to?”
“You’re saying Istvan is doing this?” I sputtered, laughing. “We protect humans; this is the opposite of that. This is something you fae would do.”
“We don’t need to.” He spun to me, his statement flat and matter of fact. “Plus, why would I hurt my own people to achieve something we already have?”
Wild Lands (Savage Lands Book 2) Page 2