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“Hurry up,” Brisden commanded. “The dirty lot of them will think twice about sending their deathweavers in again once we start giving her back in pieces.”
My fingers curled into my palm, a slight chatter settling onto my teeth. Once they chopped off one of my fingers, who knew if I could still come up with the energy to use my void? To absorb anything, let alone an entire gift? Wield it?
The jailor limped over and sank to his aged knees under groans, blade in one hand, gripping tongs in the other. “Your finger, girl. Push it through, else we’ll bring the fire.”
I didn’t move an inch—not that I was so stupid to believe that obstinance would spare me the potential mutilation. They hadn’t brought that ash to keep infection away for nothing…
“I have no time. Drive her toward the wall with torches.” Brisden sighed. “Get in there. She’s just a void. If she was capable of doing damage, she would have done so already.”
Just a void.
Just a girl.
Worthless. Insignificant. Expendable.
My next swallow went down my throat like sand. I was none of those things. I was Galantia, the future queen of Vhaerya, bonded to Malyr of the royal House Khysal, only living thief known to exist.
But yes, I couldn’t do any damage.
Not unless I stole that gift.
Bringing my hand behind my back, I shifted so my palm would face in the direction where Malyr’sanoahuddled. Shadows slithered through the darkness ever-so-concealed, tingling through my fingertips.
The jailor rose with a grunt, reached the gripping tongs up, and set to work on something outside the metal frame. “Aye, she might still shift.”
“She’ll do no such thing,” Brisden said, his gaze pinning mine down through those rows of chains that slowly seemed to loosen. “The gods know you have caused me too much trouble already, have you not,daughter?And to think that, all these years, I raised the void capable of lifting that damn curse under my own roof. You could have given me a kingdom; instead, you gave me chaos, you and that lying bitch of amotherof yours.”
His words stoked those first embers of ire inside my veins, which clashed painfully with the coldness of the shadows that streamed into me. This man had taken so much from me, from Malyr.
“I am going to kill you for what you did to Lady Brisden,” I ground out through the anguish that once more clawed along my insides. Gods, the pain of that gift… “You hung my mother.”
When a wide enough part of the chains lowered, Brisden stepped into my cage, making me scramble back quickly. But not quickly enough to dodge that kick of a boot that struck my temple.
“Even her primal seems useless,” Brisden said with a kick against my side that sent me rolling over the ground, like a dagger puncturing my kidney. “It took a lot more to beat the ravens out of Malyr. Even after he couldn’t shift at will anymore, at times, his ravens did it for him when he was unconscious, so they could peck at his brother. Disgusting beasts.”
Grunting in pain, I rolled over the ground, all focus on the shadows lost. My chin hit the ungiving stone, sending a shockwave through my skull that ripped me onto my back. Weight came down on my chest, heavy, heavier…
“No,” I croaked.
“For good measure.” Brisden loomed over me, pushing his boot down on my chest until all air whooshed out of my lungs. Only then did he shift the tip of his boot enough for it to press against my esophagus. Beside it, my pulse pounded in my aorta, adopting a frantic rushing sound. “Hurry up, man.”
Something touched my numbing finger. The jailor?
Panic hurled my mind into a fog, all blood receding from my cheeks.The gift! I needed it. Now!
Pinned down as I was, my vision throbbing around the edges, I shifted my absorbing hand toward the shadows. Any shadows!
Pain slammed into me right then, scratching and scraping, shadows carving at my ribcage, ever so cruel.Do not shy away from his darkness,a woman’s voice sounded from somewhere in my head.Embrace it.
But they hurt!
“And what a vexing affair that was, hanging that faithless bitch,” Brisden snarled down at me. “What have you done, I asked her before I kicked the crate out from beneath that smiling cunt. And do you know what she said?Loved her the way I should have all along.” All weight lifted off my chest. “Finish, and bring me her finger.”
Loved me.
She’d loved me.
Anguish clawed its way up from the depths of my soul, so raw and savage that it tore through my heart. My body convulsed, as if trying to expel the unbearable heartache that seared through every fiber of my existence.
