by Sadie Moss
All they knew was that Christine, the Resistance’s ex-leader, had turned traitor. The trap we’d set to prove her guilt had worked—maybe a little too well. She’d both proven and expanded upon her betrayal, using a transport spell to drag me away to Rain’s secret hideout. The last memories I had of Jae, Akio, Fenris, and Corin were the looks of stark terror on their faces as they watched the swirling purple smoke of the transport spell envelop me.
The thought turned my stomach, and I shoved it out of my head.
You’ll find a way to get back to them. Don’t give up.
The weak inner voice of my flickering optimism was interrupted when a face came into view outside the door.
“It won’t be long now, Miss Lockwood. The spell takes a week to recharge between uses, but it’s nearly ready. I apologize for the delay, but there was another mage who arrived before you, and his health was declining, so….”
Rain trailed off, his shoulder lifting in a shrug. He was silhouetted against the light, so I could barely make out his features. I wasn’t sure he could see me at all where I sat huddled against the wall in the corner, but I sent a scathing glare his way just in case he could.
Ugh. The fucking Gifted. Why did they have to be so godsdamned polite about everything? As if apologizing for the delay made what he planned to do any less sinister. As if wearing the veneer of civility made him anything but a monster.
“Go fuck yourself, Rain.”
My voice was rough and weak from days of disuse, but at least my words were honest.
He sighed dramatically. “You have such a strong spirit. It’s truly a shame you won’t even consider joining me. You could keep your magic. And I could use someone like you by my side.” He turned his head slightly, and the yellow light behind him picked up the streaks of silvery gray in his hair, giving him the world’s most ironic halo. “But then again, I’d never really be able to trust you, would I?”
“You can trust I’m going to kill you.”
That was the other promise I’d made the day he captured me.
And I intended to keep it.
Rain sighed again, like a father sick of hearing the same far-fetched story from a child with an overactive imagination. He turned away from the door to address Kate. “Prepare the machine. When I get back from the palace tonight, we’ll get started.”
“Yes, sir.”
Her voice was soft and deferential when she addressed him. The few times she’d spoken to me, it’d been sharp and cruel. I wasn’t sure exactly how she got involved in all of this, but she seemed to regard Rain as some kind of savior or prophet. He’d probably brainwashed her with talk of his insane vision for the future, a world in which only a few “worthy” souls possessed magic and ruled like gods over those who didn’t.
And that was assuming the Gifted and Touched actually survived his second attempt at a large-scale magic pull. They hadn’t the first time.
Rain shot me one last glance before turning and walking away.
The three slivers of light spread across the floor in front of me again. I stared at them as Kate’s footsteps retreated in the opposite direction.
Was she headed off to prepare the “machine?” What did that even mean? I assumed it was part of the process of extracting magic from a living being, something that shouldn’t even be possible. It brought to mind images of medieval torture racks with huge gears that squealed and grated as they turned.
My stomach twisted then grumbled. Experiencing nausea and biting hunger at the same time was confusing and unpleasant, each sensation only exacerbating the other.
But maybe Kate was a little more worried than she’d let on about fulfilling Rain’s directive to keep me alive, because she returned to my cell a few moments later.
The door cracked open several inches, and a thin, olive-skinned hand reached in to deposit a bowl on the floor. Steam rose from it in lazy spirals, carrying with it the aroma of chicken and rice. At the scent, my hunger won out, and I crawled forward as soon as the door thudded shut.
I could feel her eyes on me, peering down to watch me as I stuffed handfuls of food into my mouth, but I ignored her. With a slightly fuller belly, I crawled back toward the opposite corner. As I crossed the room, she cracked the door again, slipping her hand in to retrieve the empty dish.
The first few days I’d been here, she’d made a point to only open the door when I was as far away from it as possible. But she didn’t seem to care as much about that now—probably due to the fact that I looked like absolute shit. Hell, I wouldn’t have been intimidated by myself right now either.
In addition to the bite wound on my shoulder, which had turned an ugly purple color and continued to seep blood, I had several other scrapes and bruises. All of it could’ve been healed with a potion or spell, but Rain didn’t seem interested in wasting magic on me. He’d also refused to give me anything to cover up with after my forced shift from wolf to human had left me in only pants, my empty dagger sheaths, one boot, and a bra.
If he was trying to play some kind of mind game with me, to make me feel weak and exposed without half my clothes, then the joke was on him. I didn’t give a fuck about decency—at least, not over the more pressing concern of staying alive.
Still, I would’ve killed for a godsdamned shirt. The stone walls of this dungeon cell were always cold and a little bit damp, and after days of goose bumps constantly covering my body, my skin was painful to touch.
“It will be over soon,” Kate muttered quietly.
I wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure me or threaten me. Or maybe she was talking to herself.
Not for the first time, I wondered what Rain had promised her in exchange for her help. Couldn’t she see that whatever carrot he’d dangled in front of her was a lie?
Hell, Kate had been the one to kill Christine once the Resistance leader was no longer useful to Rain. Why didn’t she understand that to him, people were either tools to be used or impediments to be gotten rid of? Did she truly expect him to keep his word about whatever reward he’d promised her?
I curled up into a ball on the rough, dirty floor, trying to generate a small bubble of body heat. After a few moments, Kate’s footsteps padded away again. This time, she didn’t return.
Weariness tugged at me, the weights on my eyelids pulling them closed even as the cold seeping into me tensed all my muscles. I wished desperately for the little flame of magic inside me to burst back to life, to warm my body and heal my injuries.
But it didn’t.
I allowed myself to lie there for a few moments, breathing steadily, letting the food settle in my stomach and give me strength.
Just like I had that day on the mountain with Fen, I imagined myself as a wolf, told myself that was my true form, not this human one. I envisioned my heavy paws thudding against the earth. My teeth snapping, piercing flesh and bone. My hackles rising as a growl rumbled in my throat.
The shift to wolf form didn’t happen, of course. The magic wouldn’t work inside this cell. But the images bolstered me anyway, reminding me that even if I couldn’t access that part of myself right now, it was still in there. There was more to me than met the eye.
I was wolf.
I was mage.
I was demon.
I was human.
And despite the old family name Rain had addressed me by earlier, I was Lana fucking Crow.
It was time to show him and his lackey bitch exactly what that meant.
Forcing my eyelids open, I sat back up, a wave of dizziness passing over me as I did. I gritted my teeth, pressing against the wall for support and leverage as I rose slowly to my feet. Me knees tried to buckle, but I locked them until the spots stopped dancing before my eyes.
My plan of escape was a long shot at best, a hopeless fantasy at worst. But I was out of time to come up with a better option.
If I was still here when Rain got back tonight, I’d be worse than dead.
Chapter 2
When my legs felt s
teady enough, I let go of the wall and reached for the sheaths strapped to my thighs. The one upside of Rain not offering me a change of clothes was that he also hadn’t bothered to take these.
They were empty. I’d tried to stab him in the heart with one of my daggers and thrown the other at his head when he first captured me. The blades were enchanted to materialize back in their sheaths so I’d never lose them, but of course that spell wouldn’t work in this fucking magic suppressing cell.
But it should still work outside this room.
Carefully, I undid the buckles and removed the sheaths from my legs. Wrapping the straps tight around one hand, I crept toward the door and peered through the little window. Other cells lined the large, empty stone room, similar to mine. Wall sconces holding glowing yellow orbs of magical light were spaced along the walls in between the wooden cell doors.
There was no sign of Kate.
She and Rain were the only two people I’d seen or heard since I arrived, but I wasn’t sure whether that meant they were the only ones here. Maybe he had other guards outside this room. I had no idea what the layout of this place was, other than the tiny area I could see from inside my cell.
I couldn’t worry about that now though. First things first.
Grimacing in anticipation, I slid my hand between the bars on my cell door. The window was at an awkward height, the bottom of it just reaching my chin, so I had to lean up against the door to get my arm through. As soon as I touched the rough wood of the door and the smooth metal of the bars, agony burned through me.
They were enchanted with the same pain spell that had been on the metal cage he dropped on me—a simple but effective deterrent to keep prisoners from attacking the doors of their cells.
Effective for anybody less stupid and determined than me, anyway.
Sucking in ragged breaths through clenched teeth, I pressed closer to the door, forcing my elbow and bicep through the tight space between the bars. The pain was most intense anywhere I made contact with the door, but it quickly spread through my entire body like air filling up a balloon.
Come on, you stupid things. Work. Work!
When my arm was as far through the opening as I could push it, I held up the empty sheaths like an offering to the gods, praying desperately as my hand shook like a leaf.
I’d tried this once before, right after I arrived here. It hadn’t worked. After a few minutes, the pain had grown so intense I’d been afraid I would drop the sheaths, and I’d pulled my arm back, shivering and sweating.
My theory was that, because of the strength of the magic suppressing spell on this little room, I’d need to get the sheaths as far away from the cell as possible for as long as possible to give the enchantment on the daggers a chance of working.
Or maybe the enchantment had been broken entirely when the sheaths were brought into a magic repressing cell.
Maybe I was sticking these fucking things out the window for no reason, weakening myself further on the basis of a stupid, empty hope.
Not. Helping! I scolded myself, baring my teeth against the cry that wanted to burst from my throat. I couldn’t let it. I couldn’t do anything that might draw Kate back here.
My hand shook with the effort of holding the sheaths out, and my legs went weak, causing more of my body to press against the door. Agony tore through me as if my muscles were separating, pulling apart from my bones and trying to escape the confines of my skin.
Coherent thought became difficult as the pain overtook me, seeping into my mind like poison. Twice, instinct took over and attempted to pull me away from the door, but I fought it down, pressing my body harder to the rough wood instead. My skin was slick with sweat, fat drops of it trickling down my bare arms, neck, and back, mixing with the blood seeping from my shoulder wound.
Blackness edged my vision, and my hand outside the cell started to droop, the effort of keeping it raised becoming too great. It felt like I was holding a lead weight instead of empty leather sheaths.
Wait….
My eyes snapped open, and I shook my head to focus my vision. I peered blearily through the cell window. Tears pricked my eyes, and I let out a small, gasping laugh.
Not lead weights. Daggers.
The two blades had reappeared inside their sheaths.
I resisted the urge to yank my arm back, not wanting to risk dropping or dislodging the weapons. Instead, I slowly pulled them through the bars, stepping away from the door as I did so. As soon as my arm cleared the window, I fell backward onto my butt, bruising my tailbone and bumping the back of my head on the hard stone floor.
Not that it fucking mattered.
After the agony of cozying up to that damn door, a couple bruises felt like butterfly kisses.
And I had my daggers back.
Too weak to stand again, I crawled back over to the corner out of the light and strapped the sheaths back to my thighs. The effect was more comforting than a warm blanket.
Propping my back against the chilly stone wall, I settled in to wait.
Fortunately, today wasn’t one of those days Kate decided to let me skip a meal. A few hours later, my ears perked at the sound of soft footsteps approaching my cell. I stiffened, pressing farther back into the shadows of the corner. I was almost certain she wouldn’t notice the daggers I now wore in my sheaths, but my heart thudded heavily in my chest anyway.
When the dark-haired woman appeared outside my cell, I glanced wanly up at her like I always did. After casting a critical eye in my direction, Kate disappeared from the window, and the lock on the door opened with a click. She set down a small tray with a bowl and a jug of water and shut the door behind her.
Just like I had this morning—or whatever time it had been—I crawled on hands and knees over to the meager sustenance. Pride urged me to stand, but I wasn’t going to use my dwindling reserves of strength until I had to. And I’d be a fool to turn down the last meal I might get for a while.
She peered down at me through the little window while I ate, and I made sure to stay away from the light creeping through the window, pressing myself close to the wall by the door.
When I finished, I let out a satisfied sigh, sucking in a deep lungful of air. I lingered for a moment, dabbing up the last few pieces of rice with one finger as I tried to get my brain and body to sync up. My mind felt more alert as nerves and adrenaline sharpened my senses, but my body still felt weak and sluggish, like it lagged two steps behind.
Finally, unable to put it off any longer, I set the dish down on the tray and turned, crawling slowly back toward the far corner.
When I was halfway across the room, the door opened behind me. The dishes on the tray rattled as Kate picked them up.
And I moved.
Pivoting on one knee and pushing off the ball of my back foot, I leapt toward the door. I slid one of my daggers smoothly out of its sheath as I did, reaching out with my other hand to grab Kate’s wrist.
I yanked, and the tray went flying. The jug and bowl shattered with a loud crash as I pulled Kate into the room, throwing myself on top of her and pressing the dagger to her throat.
In the quiet after the crash, Kate’s sharp breaths pierced the air. She opened her mouth to make another noise, but I bore down harder with my blade, drawing a thin red line across her neck.
“Don’t scream,” I whispered. “Or it’ll be the last thing you do.”
Her nostrils flared, disgust and rage flickering across her features in the dim light.
Then she opened her mouth and screamed.
The action made the dagger dig deeper into her neck, and blood welled. I pulled back in surprise, and in that second, I saw a glint of triumph in her eye.
This fucking bitch called my bluff.
I barely had time to process the thought before she bucked her hips, throwing me off balance and rolling to dislodge me.
Kate scrambled for the door. I dove after her, grabbing her by the ankle. She kicked out with her other foot, catching my cheekbone.
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Stars burst in my vision as pain exploded in my skull.
She reached for the still-open door, and I gave up trying to pull her back. Instead, I let go and darted past her, slamming into the door just as she tried to escape the room. Agony flared in my body. The heavy wood smashed into her fingers, which were braced against the frame. She let out another scream, more piercing than the first.
Fuck. If anybody else was in this building, they must’ve heard the commotion by now.
I shoved Kate backward and kicked the door all the way shut, rounding on her. She cradled her broken fingers to her chest, wild hazel eyes fixed on me. When I advanced toward her, she feinted and tried to dodge around me, but I slashed out with my dagger, catching her across the shoulder.
She stumbled, and I pressed my advantage, driving her into the wall and using my bodyweight to keep her there. I drew my other dagger, crisscrossing the blades over her neck.
“Okay, you got me,” I panted, trying to slow my breathing so she wouldn’t know how winded I was already. “I didn’t want to kill you. I still don’t. Hell, I should. I should slit your throat right now for what you did to Christine, and for whatever else you’ve done for Rain. But I’m sick of people fucking dying because of me.”
“I am prepared to die for him.” Her shoulder glistened with blood, and her neck was smeared with red from her previous encounter with my dagger, but her voice was confident and strong.
“Yeah? What’d he promise you, huh?” I dug my blades a little deeper into her skin, but I hadn’t been lying. I was sick of all the death that seemed to follow me around. I was sick of trying to justify the lives I’d taken. “Your very own worshippers and slaves, once you have enough magic to live like a god? You realize he’d just as soon kill you as give you any of that, right?”
“He has already saved my life,” Kate hissed, her dark eyes burning with fervor. “His vision is the only way, the only future. No one sees the world like Rain Blackshear does.”