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18
BREE
When Lord Worm returned with two trays of food, he gave them a broad smile. “Your least meal. I’ve brought you potatoes.”
Bree’s stomach rumbled. The slop was a dull brown in color, just like all the mud. Still, she salivated over it. “Why are you even bothering to feed us if you’re going to hand us over to the enemy in the morning?”
“They seem to want you alive and well. They’ve ordered me to feed you.” He shrugged and stuck his key into the lock. Bree tracked the movement. If she was quick enough, she could shove him aside and run into the corridor. Then, they could escape this place before the demons demanded their prisoners.
What did they want with them, anyway? Did they plan to use them as some kind of bargaining chip? Perhaps they thought they could trade Taveon for Bree and Rafferty. She fought the urge to laugh, bitterness coating her tongue. Lord Dagen would probably do it as well.
Her life for Taveon’s. She could never let that trade happen.
“Ah, ah.” Lord Worm held up a finger when he noticed the look in Bree’s eye. “I won’t feed you unless you back up against the wall.”
She scowled. “Fine. I don’t want to eat anyway.”
“Bree,” Rafe murmured.
She knew what he would say. He was worried about her. Without food, she would not have the strength to fight if it came down to that. But she didn’t want to give the Worm any more satisfaction than he already had.
“That one has the right idea,” the Worm said. “Now, step back.”
Her hands fisted. “How about we make a deal?”
“Hmm.” He narrowed his eyes. “What kind of deal?”
“I’ll step back and eat this food if you let me read that book I found in the library.”
Tension pounded the air. Lord Worm regarded Bree with a cruel glint in his eye, his stained shirt a match to the twisted face. But then he nodded. A breath of relief whooshed from Bree’s throat.
“I’ll bring you the book if you eat that food and don’t attempt to escape.” He held up a finger. “And if you don’t try to fight back in the morning.”
Bree frowned. That was an impossible ask. Of course she would try to fight back when the enemy army took her. She and Rafe would never donothingagainst a threat like that. They were both warriors.
Warriors.
The word bloomed inside of her like a living thing. She realized how easily she’d thought it, as if it truly was an embedded part of her. The girl who’d almost died on the Manhattan streets, who had lost her friend to the fae. Look at her now. Trained and battle-ready, determined, fierce, and strong.
Bree was a force to be reckoned with now. She always had been. It had just taken her a very long time to see it.
She wanted to fight. But she needed that book.
“Fine. It’s a deal,” she said through clenched teeth.
Lord Worm smiled, left the food trays with them, and vanished down the hall. He returned a moment later with the book and then slid it between the iron bars. “Enjoy your dinner and your reading. See you in the morning.”
Rafe hadn’t said a word, and he still didn’t, not until Lord Worm was gone. “I hope that was a lie.”
“Of course it was a lie.” Bree eagerly opened the book. “Do you really think I won’t fight the bastard as soon as we’re out of this cage?”
“Good girl,” Rafe murmured as he stared down at the book. “What have we got?”
Bree fell silent as she skimmed the pages. She pulled the information into her brain, sucking it all up. There that word was again. Anwynn. Bree turned the page.
Anwynn, the realm of the fae, was cleaved in two some centuries ago,the author wrote.It took a very long time for me to find this information, hidden as it is. The fae realm was inexplicably linked to the human realm, like two sheets of parchment, one on top of the other, though people from either realm could not reach the other.
Until the demons came. Those in the death realm discovered the existence of the others. They were vultures who feasted on the souls of small creatures. They wanted something bigger, more potent. They wanted humans.
