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The keys jingle at his belt, and I feel them while I babble incoherently at him, keeping his attention on my mouth, not where my hand is.
I get the key off the ring quickly, and my nimble fingers curl around the cold iron, hoping he doesn’t notice it’s gone.
I hear a voice call down the passage, and Lire’s head snaps toward the sound. With a growl, he punches me hard in the stomach before he lets me go, and I drop to the floor, wheezing. He cackles as he swings the door to my cell closed, and I let out a small sigh of relief when he doesn’t try to lock it because if he had, he’d have found the key missing.
He leaves more quickly than when he approached, and now that the voice is closer, I think I can hear Grey.
They’re getting me out to use me. I knew they wouldn’t be able to help themselves.
I try to get up, but fall back, my head swimming and my eyes not able to focus.
‘Girly?’ Glowing Eyes asks.
His voice sounds far away.
‘Too many … blows to the head,’ I slur with a chuckle.
‘You’re crazy,’ he mutters. ‘Even for a human.’
I grin as I slump to the side, hitting the floor and jarring my ribs. The key falls out of my palm and onto the floor, and it takes every ounce of my focus to pick it up and fling it through the bars into his cell just as the door to the dungeon opens again, I can hear two sets of boots coming toward our cells. One is Lire, and the other must be Grey.
‘Remember the deal,’ I whisper, and I think Glowing Eyes nods as he slinks to the back of his cell.
A moment later, my cell opens again.
‘You want this one?’
I’m grabbed roughly by my long hair, and my head is lifted towards the light of a lamp.
‘I don’t see any other human females in here, do you?’ Grey snarls, and I’m a little taken aback by his tone. He doesn’t usually let emotion into his voice. I wonder what he’s angry about. Probably that he had to come down here to get me himself, I suppose.
I can’t help my low cry as the brightness hurts my eyes. It morphs into a weak squeal as Lire yanks me up by my braid and pushes me forward.
‘I suppose she did all that to herself?’ I hear Grey ask as he eyes the bruises that he can see.
‘Aye, they tend to hurt themselves quite a bit when the City Guard has ’em,’ Lire says. ‘Guilty consciences because of their crimes, they say.’
Would anyone actually believe I’d done all this to myself? I’d snort if I weren’t half-senseless. I can’t help but be glad that the jailor is going to be dead soon.
I’m taken in a painful grip by Grey and urged in front of him as my head lolls forward. I’m in the middle of congratulating myself for being able to walk when I falter, and my legs give out.
I prepare to meet the hard floor again, but Grey grabs me before I can fall and swings me up into his arms. In the back of my mind, I wonder why he bothered. I’d expected him to just drag me along by my ankle or something.
I close my eyes, listening to the gentle thudding of his heart, letting it calm me.
* * *
I’m dropped unceremoniously onto something soft, but I still let out a low cry that I immediately wish I could take back when I hear Dane’s low laugh.
‘Well, she certainly looks worse than when she was taken.’
‘Are you surprised?’ Kallum asks, sounding bored. ‘The city dungeon isn’t the place for a human. Not even this human.’
One of them prods a bruise on my shoulder hard with his finger, hoping for a scream.
I give them nothing.
I roll over, gazing at The Cunty Trio with a shuttered expression. Grey looks angry about something, but he’s trying to hide it. I can tell that Dane is highly amused by the state I’m in because he doesn’t look as murderous as usual. As I survey them and the room I’m in, I catch Kallum staring at my bare thighs. My eyes flick to him. I’d roll them so hard if I didn’t think it would hurt my head.
