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When Father Borodin came to see me, he didn’t bother with pleasantries. Nor did he push the food closer. He simply kicked the tray aside, splattering the now-cold broth against the wall, and dragged a chair over to sit in.
“Are you here to gloat?” I asked acidly. The numbing potency of the tea was gone.
The Father sat in the chair in an almost prim fashion, crossing his ankles and lacing his fingers in his lap. He stared down at me, his expression neutral but eyes dancing. “The traders were quite dismayed to see what their good intentions wrought.”
“I can imagine.” My back was screaming. All I could do to relieve it was slump, but that meant my wrists and arms would be full of stabbing pains within minutes. “How long have the men been waiting for me to come back?”
“From the moment you left.” The Father’s head tilted as he examined me. “Something is different about you.”
I huffed a laugh. “It couldn’t be the bruises from the beating I received?”
“No.” His eyes narrowed. “Something else. The Salem who left wouldn’t have made a squeak to save her own life, and here you sit talking back to me like you believe you’re my equal.”
I met his eyes squarely. “I would say I am your equal, but that is untrue. In this case, I would be your better.”
Father Borodin only smiled at the insult, and disquiet settled in me. “You have been among the Beasts, haven’t you? They’ve been filling your head with their little fairy tales?”
That sensation of disquiet only grew. I remained silent.
“Oh, yes… I know all about the Fee, and their so-called woman of stone and bone.” He examined his manicured fingernails. “After all, I was there when your mother and her unholy lover were burned. He told us she was sacred, their blessed Fee gift, so on and so forth. In the end, all of it amounted to nothing. They burned together.”
“I think you misunderstand me,” I said quietly, anger beginning to bubble within me once more. I welcomed it with open arms. “I am not your better by some accident of birth. I am better because I am not a sadistic bastard with a penchant for torturing women.”
For once, none of my words would rile him. He merely shrugged. “The way of strong men is clear. We must keep our women on the sacred path, or else they will do things they will later… come to regret.” He leaned forward, only a breath away.
If these chains hadn’t been made of iron, I could’ve torn his throat out with ease.
“You will regret everything,” he told me. “Your life was so simple. So easy. I would even have ensured your marriage to a good man.”
“Oleg is the furthest thing from a good man. He learned well from you.”
The Father twitched his fingers, dismissing me. “You see, we must have a Vessel. You are our weapon against the Beasts. As long as we have you, they dare not lift a finger against us.” His smile was terrifying. “We dare not burn you… yet. But soon the Beasts of the Wood will all be dead, and as soon as we’ve dispatched the last one of those ungodly creatures from the earth, we will be free to expand and spread the word of our gospel.”
I wanted to tell him the truth: that it was futile. There were other packs, and he would never kill them all.
But if I said anything, he would know for a certainty that they were out there. I didn’t want to give the Father an excuse to hunt them down.
“And then you’ll burn me,” I said instead, waiting for him to confirm my fate.
Father Borodin leaned back in his chair, smiling at me. “And then we will burn you,” he agreed. “But first, the Beasts must die.”
Chapter Seventeen
They gave me more tea,and left me there to rot.
I woke from another painful doze to a strange sound. It sounded like humming… but there was no one else in the basement with me.
I wondered if the Beasts had come for me. If I was even worth risking their lives over.
I tilted my head, wincing at the pain in my spine, and listened harder. The hum gradually grew louder, until I could finally place what it was: human voices.
Many, many furious voices, some of them screaming a word that sent ice down my spine. “Witch”.
What had happened out there while I was trapped here?
Despite the nearly suicidal darkness that had overtaken me earlier, I was not ready to die yet. The last thing I wanted to do was give Father Borodin the satisfaction of burning me alive while I hung there limp, lost to the daze of poison.
I took a few deep breaths, trying to clear my head. Then I tested the iron chains.
