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Footsteps on stone. I roused myself enough to crack my eyes open as the man from the carriage appeared…Eadric. Gone was the feigned amusement he’d worn like a mask. Now, his expression was blank, eyes hard. My chest tightened. This didn’t bode well for me.
He gestured to the red-haired guard without sparing him a look. The guard sneered at me as he unlocked my cell door and slipped the key back into his pocket. Another man followed Eadric into my cell. Shorter than me, skinny to the point of scrawny, he walked with quick steps, almost scurrying after Eadric. He kept his thinning hair long, and it parted as he walked, revealing a wide section of bald scalp.
The cell door slammed closed behind them, and the space seemed to shrink by several footspans.
A muscle twitched in Eadric’s cheek. He was clenching his teeth now. I kept my back pressed against the wall and waited him out.
Two men joining an unarmed woman in a locked cell never ended well. At least, for the woman.
“It seems your brother has taken the hourglass,” he told me.
My chest lightened, and I could suddenly take a full breath. If Demos had the hourglass and Eadric didn’t know where he was, it meant they’d survived whatever Regner had lying in wait for them.
“That sounds like Demos,” I said.
Eadric smiled coldly. “He shouldn’t have been able to touch it. How about you tell me how he broke the ward?”
“I’m not telling you—”
He gestured to the man next to him, who raised his hand, opening a long, bloody cut down my bicep.
Pain erupted across my arm. I screamed, attempting to slap a hand over the wound, but the heavy chains made it impossible. He’d cut through my tunic with his power, slicing deep into muscle. Clenching my teeth, I sucked in a deep breath.
Eadric gestured again. The man nodded, and another deep slice opened along my left ankle. I hissed and Eadric studied me. His eyes lightened with amusement. “You just don’t know when to yield, do you?”
“Torture me all you want,” I said. “I won’t give you anything.”
“I had a feeling you’d say that.”
I writhed as more cuts opened up all over my body. Warm blood slipped down my skin, the metallic scent making me dizzy. But I wouldn’t scream again. And I certainly wouldn’t tell this bastard anything.
Eadric angled close as I leaned against the wall, panting through the pain. “Soltor can cut you down to the bone,” he told me conversationally. “Then he can close those wounds, and we can do this all over again. For days.”
I clung to that last word. Days. Days meant that Regner still had to make his way here. Days meant that Cavis and I could escape before Regner arrived.
Eadric tutted. He must have signaled Soltor, because my skin began to weave together, the deep slices closing. It was agonizing, as if my wounds were being stitched one by one.
“Again,” Eadric said.
Pain ripped through my body as it was flayed open again and again and again.
I closed my eyes, blocking out the pain, blocking out Eadric’s voice, blocking out Soltor’s panting breaths. Instead, I focused on Lorian. Asinia. Tibris, Demos. On Galon, Marth, Rythos, Madinia. And the hybrids, hidden across this continent, desperate for peace and safety.
“This can all end,” Eadric said. “I’ll take you out of this cell, order you a bath, and we can be discussing this over dinner like two rational people.”
I snorted. Eadric caught my chin, and my eyes slammed open. My attempt to smash my hands into his face was thwarted by his other hand clutching the chain between my manacles.
“Let’s try this,” he said. “They have the hourglass. We have you. Where will they travel next?”
I laughed.
That muscle twitched in his cheek once more, and he tightened his hand on my chin, squeezing painfully.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Worried Lorian will come for you? Because he will.”
His mouth tightened, and he released my chin, gesturing to Soltor. Agony burrowed deep into my body, tearing through my defenses. The world turned white around me.
In the distance, someone roared in response. Cavis. Relief surged against the edges of my mind, and it was suddenly easier to breathe.
