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Avel looks back at me, then seems to realize that he can actually touch me. He reaches out for me and sweeps me up and off the bed. I wrap my arms around his neck and bury my face in his hair. Being held by him again is like coming home. I am safe. I am protected. I am loved.
“I want the names of those who took her,” he says over my shoulder.
“They don’t matter. They’re just animals,” Torin says. “They took advantage of a situation and got over their heads.”
“They hurt my mate, and they will die. Give me their names.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“You know I can make you.”
“If I give you their names, I will become hunted. They’d kill me. It wouldn’t even matter that I’m Wrath’s nephew. They don’t tolerate disloyalty.”
Avel’s response surprises both Torin and me. It is so simple, and yet such a radical offering.
“What if I could offer you protection?”
“How?”
“I could bring you under my command. Someone to clean and order the implements. Someone to learn the trade.”
Torin looks at Avel with wide eyes. “You think I could be an executioner?”
“I think you could be many things. The question is, do you want to be a good saurian among criminals? Or do you want to be a dubious saurian on the right side of the law?”
“My uncle would…” Torin hesitates. “Where would I live? Who would… what…”
He’s not forming the question terribly coherently, but I know exactly what he is asking. He wants to know who he would report to, who would be responsible for him. He has grown up inside a system that has kept him under the thumb, living inside a code that demanded terrible things of him. There’s part of him that knows he should want to be free — but what would that code be replaced with? Who would look after him?
“You would report to me,” Avel says, demonstrating that he too understands the young saurian’s concerns. “You would live…” he pauses. “I have inhabited the lofts for too long. My mate is wingless. It is time I took quarters closer to the ground and established a new home. What do you say, Torin? Will you hold fast to your criminal origins and force me to beat the answers I need out of you? Or will you take this opportunity to have a better life?”
Avel is not fucking around. I am certain that if Torin refuses, an absolute thrashing will ensue of the kind that I do not want to witness, and Torin will not want to endure. This is a moment of rare and precious mercy that is all the more touching for the brutality I can sense will follow.
“I…”
Before Torin can form an answer either way, his name is shouted at full volume through the door.
“TORIN!”
“Yeah?” Torin shouts back, doing a good job of sounding like his usual self.
“Do you still have that human!?”
Avel gestures to himself then puts a finger to his lips, indicating that Torin shouldn’t say anything about him. It’s probably unnecessary. Torin is a lot of things, including pretty fucking high, but he has never been anything resembling stupid.
“She’s still here,” Torin calls out.
“Good. We want her back. We want to see what it’s like to fuck a human.”
Their casual words are chilling to hear, but even more frightening is the look that comes over Avel. His expression is a mask of cool, vengeful justice as he moves back behind the door so that when the door opens, he will not be seen. I stay where I am, making myself bait. All of these decisions are made and actions taken without a single word passing between us. There is simply understanding between the three of us.
This will be a trap, and like all of the best traps, it will be dangerous for all involved.
“Door’s open!” Torin shouts.
They open the door and walk in, scaled faces leering at me with vicious anticipation. I see sharp teeth and narrowed eyes. I see my torture and my death. I do not know why, but these saurians do not strike me as individuals the same way Avel and Torin and the others do. These saurians are uniform in their malcontent. They are walking, predatory impulses with very little in the way of thought. There are people like that too, humans who do nothing but follow base instinct. The saurians come to me in a mass of twisted lust and aggression. These are the creatures who captured me. These are the creatures who hurt me. These are the creatures who will toy with me, violate me, and then kill me.
SLAM!
