Page 19 of Elysian

“No!” I struggled choking out the word. Hester visibly tensed where she lay against the bars.

My mind did not understand what was before me. The officer pulled the sharp blade through the leather belt holding Cassiel’s trousers, then downward through the fabric until he was nude. The officer pulled the clothes away speedily and retreated.

I searched Egan’s face for the man who had squeezed my hand in the carriage. He was there in the tight line of his mouth, the stiffness of his shoulders. But so was someone else. Someone who held the effigy like he’d been waiting for it.

A dry wheeze kept spilling from my lips, and I could not make it stop.

They would not kill him. No, of course not. Not when Al needed to study this ‘Elysian Pair’.

I rocked, turning from Cassiel to Piper hiding under the sawdust across my cell.

Egan held his free hand out, and water from the buckets followed his command, spraying toward the still body. The chains clinked and clanged when water hit them.

A hand on my shoulder whipped me around. I shouted again, this time from fright. The blond officer had my arm and pried me away from the bars forcibly. I thrashed, fighting to get hold of the bars again and shoving at his chest.

“Cassiel,” I sobbed, my fist pounding against the blond’s chest. Cassiel groaned, his fingers twitching until they finally curled into the stone he lay upon.

‘Shh, bondmate.’

Piper’s voice had always been warm; a presence nestling into the space behind my ribs. This was nothing like that. Cold, steady, and so deep it vibrated in my breastbone.

The officer had me near the cell’s exit, arm wrapped around my waist to pull me out. I scanned Cassiel, desperate for answers, but he still lay with his eyes closed.

‘I will get you away from here, Amara.’

I could only stare as the officer dragged me from my cell.

Cassiel said it. It was clearly in his voice . . . but his mouth had not moved. I heard him as I used to hear Piper. In my thoughts, a part of me.

I pressed my hand to the iciness in my chest, staggering to keep pace with the officer pulling me.

That was why the warmth at Piper’s spot had been replaced by cold. It was not only her absence. Cassiel had somehow taken the space that had been hers.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Celebratory

Once again, I found myself in the bathing chamber of the council wing. I tilted my head back against the partition that screened the toilet. Two officers waited beyond the chamber door; a third stood just inside it. The partition had granted me a sliver of privacy, but that would not last if I did not hurry. Exhaling did nothing to calm my rapid pulse.

I did not recall the walk here. Everything had blurred around me as I reeled over Cassiel speaking inside my mind. I battled with opposing emotions. Relief that he was alive cycled into despair. Over and over again.

I wiped away the tears wetting my cheeks.

Piper was truly gone.

Any hope I’d maintained withered and died. There was no turning back or getting her back. Cassiel forced me to face it.

“Redblood!” The sharp snap muffled by the partition informed me my time had run out.

I pulled the lever hanging from the side of the porcelain toilet and walked back out into the main bathing area. A large tub fit for four Warlords sat with steaming water.

Vera stood beside the tub, ivory fabric resting across her arm. The whites of her eyes were a pinkish color, as was the tip of her nose, as if she had been crying. I caught myself before lunging forward, masking the jolt with my limp.

“Your Highness,” Vera murmured, curtsying. “I am to prepare you for a celebration.”

I straightened my shoulders and approached the bath slowly. The scent of rosah came with the steam of the water, and pink and yellow petals floated along the surface.

Why has she been crying?