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“Einar, you’re like a son to --” he stammers, and I cut him off.
“Don’t you dare call me your son.” My voice is like ice. “We are not family. You are a traitor and a liar, something I would have seen long ago, had I not been blinded by my loyalty to my actual father.”
I whistle, and the chalyx retracts her blood-soaked claws, standing at my side once more.
Dvain takes a few panting breaths, his face contorting into something like shock at my words.
“I swear, my bo -- king. I had only just returned home and was questioning your man. He was acting strangely. He claimed the Lady Zaina was alive, but I thought he was mad,” he says while applying pressure to the wounds Khijhana inflicted. “I thought she had died, My King. I had no idea that --” He cuts off as I narrow my eyes, not believing the lies for a second.
I tilt my head to each side, cracking my neck and gripping the handle of my sword tighter.
“No,” I say through gritted teeth, sensing the lie. “Try again.”
“My boy, I have been loyal to you for years. To your father and your grandfather,” he says with outstretched hands, and he’s such a gifted liar that someone else might believe him.
I might have believed him before I knew the truth about how deep his treachery goes.
“But then, your loyalties shifted, did they not?” My words are a low growl. “And remind me, what was the price of your loyalty?”
All trace of color leeches from his face. He doesn’t answer, so I do it for him.
“Oh, I remember now. A defenseless girl to torture, maim, and defile.”
His eyes widen and his mouth opens like he wants to deny it, but I will not allow him to speak more lies about my wife. He has taken so much from her. He can damned well take responsibility.
“Enough stalling,” I grit out, and Khijhana punctuates my threat with a hiss.
I’ve been to this estate many times, but rarely past the main rooms, certainly not long enough to explore any hidden rooms or passages.
Distantly, I register the sound of hoofprints clopping up the path. Gunnar is here.
“It would seem we are at an impasse, Ambassador,” I begin. “You still have many limbs, and I do not have my wife. I won’t pretend that this is an arrangement that is acceptable to me.” I make my way closer, emphasizing every word as I go.
“So here is what we shall do. For every question that goes unanswered or is answered with a lie, I will remove something precious to you. A fingernail. A hand. An eye. A piece of your manhood. Something that you value, until I have what I value back with me,” I say slowly, bending down so we are at eye level. He is drenched in fear so thick I can practically taste it.
Gunnar appears in the doorway, and Dvain looks beseechingly toward him. My man gives him a disgusted look, coming to stand at my side in a clear sign of support. I turn the full force of my ire on the little man, letting him see every single unhinged part of me before I go on.
“So, shall we begin?”
Chapter Sixty-One
Zaina
It’s been several minutes since the door slammed, since the abhorrent voices finally faded from earshot. Finally, I risk opening my eyes.
My vision shifts in and out of focus, but eventually, the forms around me take shape.
My stomach flips. This room was clearly designed for Dvain’s own sadistic purposes. A small fire lights the corner of the otherwise dark space, and several sets of chains are mounted to the walls.
A drain rests in the middle of the floor, the metal stained with red. I squeeze my eyes shut again, trying not to think about what he has done here or the people he has done it to. The children and innocents whose lives he stole. Innocents like me. Like Rose.
Using my chains as leverage, I force myself into a sitting position just in time to vomit over the side of the bed. My stomach heaves until there is nothing left to expel but acrid yellow bile.
Muffled sounds draw my eyes upward. It’s the first thing I’ve heard since Dvain and Odger vacated this room of torment.
The firelight glints off my shackle, pulling my attention to the chains. While some of the fetters on the other walls are more strategically placed, mine seem to be simpler. Perhaps because I had been knocked out?
My arms are bound by one long chain attached to each cuff and entwined through a loop on the wall. My legs are similarly bound, but they are looped through the iron footboard.
