No—I recognized that voice, knew the moment another pitch joined the first.
“Keeping us starved with little food or water isn’t exactly keepingus unharmed.” One of the triplets folded her arms across her chest as she glared at Dahes.
Their blonde, silky hair had layers of grease and their clothes hung against their thin shoulders. They were losing weight. I could see their clavicles protruding, their cheeks hollow and caved. The stench alone told me enough about how they were treated.
Dahes clicked his tongue. “Be more precise when you make deals with me, and maybe next time you can negotiate food.”
“Magnolia,”his voice crooned inside my head.
No. No. No?—
“I need another eye.”
My gaze snapped to his, my own eyes widening at his grin.“No,”I said, hating that my voice had a slight quiver even inside my head. I had never said no before, never had the courage.
His grin immediately wiped off. “I don’t think you understand. You don’t have a choice.”
The triplets stopped talking. Out of my peripheral, I saw them all take a collective step back, but they couldn’t go far. They were huddled together, backs rammed against the stone wall on the opposite side of the open bars.
“I’m letting you decide,”his voice whispered back into my mind.“You get to pick who loses an eye.”
I stared at him in disbelief. There were only four people in the room that he meant—the sentries didn’t have eyes and there were no other prisoners in this section. Just the triplets and Hael…
My breath caught as I looked into Dahes’ gaze.“Any eye?”I asked inside my head, knowing he was still listening.
His answering smirk was all I needed. I tried to keep my mind blank, tried to not let him read what I planned on doing.
I jumped, closing the gap in front of us, as my hand rose to his face. I had my fingers pressed into his iris before I was thrown backward.
He roared, his hands pinning my wrists above my head and pressing them against the cold, metal bars as he glared down at me. I couldn’t move. Every inch of his body pressed into mine.
Then he laughed. A single dark chuckle that filled the deafening silence.
“You’ve grown feistier, little ghost,”he murmured, his gaze still boring into me.
He moved both my wrists into the palm of one of his hands before trailing a single finger down my face.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
He stilled, his hand cupping my cheek when realization hit him.
“You want me to take your eye?”
I didn’t answer, just stared directly into his gaze, bracing for the pain. Because I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t ruin the sisters’ lives any more than I already had and there was no way I was taking Hael’s.
His hand started moving again before his thumb swiped over my temple.“You will take one of their eyes, Magnolia,”and I felt the order resonate in my bones.“I don’t want to deform you.”
He let me go, my back still pressed against the bars, as my breathing turned ragged.
The triplets were crying softly, probably already aware of what Dahes wanted me to do. It was their only conscious interaction of me, ripping out Kip’s eye?—
But Hael. He had no idea. His eyes were watching me and I hated it, hated how he was going to see the monster I was.
It was intentional. Dahes was making sure he was watching. My stomach lurched, like the floor had dropped beneath me.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
It didn’t matter. The command was already working. I peeled my back off the grated bars, felt my feet move across the rough stone.
