“Veronica,” I said, kneeling beside her and noting the marble piece trapping her arm. Blood coated the left side of her face, and her eye was swollen shut. There was also something sugary on the other side of her cheek.
I frowned at it.Is that icing?I wondered.
Then I shook myself and focused on the marble.
Her green eyes—or the uninjured one, anyway—seemed unfocused until she blinked. “What the fuck are you wearing?” she asked as she took in my outfit. Then she flinched again, another one of those sad little whimpers leaving her mouth. “Fuck,this hurts.”
I assumed she meant the debris on her arm.
Ignoring her question about my attire—because I really didn’t want to waste time answering that—I focused on the piece holding her down. “I’m going to move this so you can get up.”
She glanced at the marble and winced. “Yeah, okay.”
“Can you try to roll a little as I push on it?” I asked.
But before she could answer, the piece disappeared into a puff of smoke and Ajax appeared with an exasperated look.
Veronica cringed away from him, then jumped as Az materialized beside him from a cloud of ash. His disheveled hair fell into his violet eyes, his expression one of concern.
He immediately kneeled beside me, his gaze scanning my mostly nude state. “You’re hurt?” he asked.
I nearly laughed at the false concern in his voice. Like he fucking cared. He’d put me in a cage a few hours ago while dressed in this ridiculous outfit. “I’m fine,” I snapped. “But Veronica is hurt. Get her out of here.Now.”
I didn’t care if this was a Hell Fae trial; something was clearly wrong. And he could spend his time worrying about her, not me.
When he didn’t react or say anything, I added, “Unless you want her death on your hands? She’s probably suffered internal bleeding and needs medical attention.” Because from what I could tell, she was a Halfling like me, not a full-blooded fae.
Az shook his head as though waking from a spell and looked at Ajax, his eyebrows flying upward. “Why haven’t you gotten Cami the fuck out of here yet?”
Ajax merely stared at him. “Oh, now you suddenly care about her well-being?”
“Don’t start—”
“Or are you going to freeze me with your fucking restraint magic and force me to watch her suffer again?” Ajax continued.
Wait, what?
“I was doing my job,” Az hissed. “And we don’t have time for this right now. Get Cami out of here. I’ll handle the bride.”
Ajax folded his arms. “She doesn’t want to leave, and I’m not going to force her, even if it’s the right thing to do. She’s had enough manhandling for one day.”
Now my eyebrows flew upward.Ajax is taking my side?
“Fuck this,” Az snarled, grabbing both me and Veronica.
I opened my mouth to protest as his ashy magic settled all around me, the world disappearing in a cloud of black.
Only for it to blink back into the dim light as I stumbled backward with a magical jolt. My chains cut into my skin again, stirring an agonized groan from my chest.
At least it wasn’t stimulating me anymore.
But it certainly didn’t feel good.
Az reappeared in the next blink with a struggling Veronica in his arms, his violet gaze raging as he glared at me. “What the fuck, Cami?”
I brushed him off, unable to even begin to answer him. I hadn’t tried to fight his teleport, but my magic had. And my magic had won.
So I was staying here for a purpose I didn’t fully understand. Nor did I really feel like discussing it with the man who had put me in that damn cage.
