Desperately, I yanked, but nothing came. I tried to remember how I had broken through before. Cade had looked at me and told me that my wolf was a protector.
Focusing on that, I told myself, “Cade needs our protection. We have to save him.”
Nothing. So much nothing that I felt like I was falling into an abyss, like I was going to drown inside myself.
The door squealed open, Jesaiah coming back, bearing heavy chains. He dropped them on the floor next to me, the clank of metal on concrete so loud it left my ears ringing.
Using my hands, I tried to press myself up, tried to reach for him. Casually, he kicked at my chest, sending me flat on my back.
“Hey. Watch the goods. I’m not a soccer ball. I’m a work of art,” I snapped. “I understand your master being a coward, not wanting to fight a heavy weight without metal filings in his gloves. But you? You’re an alpha.”
Ignoring my taunts, Jesaiah reached down and yanked at my arms, pulling them together. He snapped on a couple of manacles, then moved to my legs, putting my ankles close enough together to chain them to my hands.
“What, cat got your tongue? No, that’s just the mage you let own you.” I grunted as Jesaiah pulled the chains tight, locking everything together so that I could barely move.
“You should have run when I set you free.” Jesaiah shook his head, crouched over me.
The wrinkles on his face were deep, his skin hanging loose from his bones. When he grimaced, new lines appeared around his mouth and eyes.
“You mean when you tried to kill me?” I gaped. “Thatwas you showing me the door? Wow. You must be a lot of fun when you’re trying to kick people out after a cocktail party.”
“You should have run. Now you’re going to last even less time than your mother.” Jesaiah pushed himself up to his feet, his bones popping. “We’ll see if Siobhan can make you two a last dinner. Even men on death row deserve not to die hungry.”
Jesaiah shut the door behind him, leaving us alone, the mage lights burning just brightly enough for me to see Cade’s face. He was still breathing, his chest rising and falling.
I tried reaching for him, but with my wrists chained to my ankles, I could barely grab hold of his shirt.
The first thing I needed to do was get myself free of the chains. Jesaiah was more efficient at chaining me than the Tweedles had been. When I pulled, the bones of my wrist felt more likely to give than the chains. I heard an ominous crack in my wrist, and my shoulder still burned, dislocated, the arm impossible to move.
My blood cooled, no longer burning with each beat of my heart, and I lost track of time, just focusing on pulling, trying to find if any of the links in the chain would give. The lock linking my hands and feet together gave an ominous creak.
Focusing on that, I lost myself to the push-pull of trying to break the lock. Rocking back and forth, I told myself this wasn’t the end. There was no way this was the end. I was going to make it. I was going to get out of here, the same way I’d gotten out of enough situations that Declan had named me deathproof.
Keys scraped in the door, and I stilled, rolling so that my body covered my work. The mage lights brightened when someone walked inside, bearing a tray full of food.
“You should have let me carry that,” Jesaiah grumbled.
“If it’s the last food I’m going to feed my prince, I want to make sure it’s done well,” Siobhan murmured. She looked around the room. “Now I’m glad I came. What were you expecting them to do, eat from the ground like dogs? Put that down. I’ll get them ready.”
Jesaiah looked at the picnic blanket in his hand, then shook his head, tossing it out on the ground so it flew wide. The plaid pattern looked out of place in what was essentially a prison cell. He took the tray from Siobhan, beginning to set up plates for me and Cade.
Siobhan approached me, the fear rolling off her in waves. Still, she helped me sit up, and I winced when she touched my dislocated shoulder. She was close enough that I could smell a hint of perfume, a fruity scent that matched the red of her hair.
“He’ll need his hands to eat,” Siobhan said sharply.
Jesaiah grumbled, reaching into his pockets. He frowned, patting the other one, then reaching into his shirt pocket. He looked out through the dark door into the forest beyond. “I must’ve dropped it. I’ll be back.”
He didn’t say anything like,can you take care of yourself?Ordon’t do anything stupid. Instead, he just walked out.
I blinked stupidly, sure that I had missed some interaction. Maybe I had hit my head harder than I thought.
“That won’t keep him long,” Siobhan said quickly. She pulled something out of her pocket, pressing it into my hand. I closed my hand around the metal object quickly. “Listen to me. I tried to tell your parents, but they didn’t listen. Leon is behind everything.”
I rattled the chains. “Yeah, that’s become clear.”
“No, you don’t understand. He’s behindeverything.” She blinked rapidly. “I can see the future. So listen. When Cade finds out who you are, he’s going to kill you. Do you understand?”
“You can see the future,” I said. “You tried warning my parents that they were going to die?”
