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“Do it, it’s probably better than what they have in store for me,” I sighed, rubbing my temples and lowering my voice to a whisper. “He is here.”
“Who is here?” she snapped.
“Randsin, the man who stole from my queen. The entire reason I’m in this gods-forsaken realm. I tried to fight the urge as best I could, but it’s so damn painful. I told him to run and if my queen ever finds out that I’ve betrayed her like that, she’ll hang me.”
“What are they going to do with us?”
There was a growing fear in the tone of Red’s questions. Some sort of urgency built within her to find some way to survive, to get herself out of here. I didn’t have any answers though, and I didn’t know how I was going to survive. If they were smart, they would try to get information out of me and then they would kill me.
“I don’t know,” I managed.
Voices rose far past the stairwell. Two people argued as they walked down the hallway above us toward the stairs. Their words were muffled in the distance until they reached the door.
“Well, if the ruse is up, I’m setting her free,” a female voice said stubbornly.
“We don’t even know what’s happening, yet. Would you just listen for once?” King Windre’s voice growled.
“Maybe next time,” she said with a snap as she took the final step. Her dark green eyes made contact with Red’s, her jaw falling slightly ajar. “King Windre she looks awful,” the girl cried, a curly ponytail swung behind her as she ran toward the cell with her keys.
King Windre stepped quietly down the last step, watching her. Every word she said left him flinching.
“I told you not to do this. I told you this was wrong.”
The woman's scent filled the air. Not Fae but Nymph. She looked very free, and very much like she had some sort of control over King Windre himself. It was becoming more and more apparent that King Windre wasn’t who he said he was, but maybe that made him more empathetic, maybe I could plead my case.
“I’ll get you cleaned up,” she whispered as she held Red and guided her up the stairs, keys still in her hand. She narrowed her gaze on King Windre. If looks could kill, he would have been dead a million times over.
A new set of feet came down the stairs, stopping before the person could be seen. King Windre sighed and finally turned to face me. He didn’t look cruel anymore, he just looked tired. Behind him, Randsin stepped off the last step.
Metal dug into my chest. The bars of the cell clattered as I shoved against them. Magical urges consumed me, burned inside my bloodstream, and forcefully moved my muscles against my will. I cried out in pain.
Randsin palmed the wall next to him. I could feel the magic running through from him and into me, some of it trickling away toward King Windre. King Windre crossed his arms, his long robe folding in front of him. Randsin had learned some new tricks since the last time I saw him and he lost his ability to speak.
“Why are you here, Milo?” His voice carried inside my head.
I tried to hold in the sob of pain, but it still managed to tumble from my lips as my whole body pressed against the metal trying to find some way to him. “You know why I’m here, Randsin. My queen wants the token back, and she’s using my blood oath to make sure that it happens.”
King Windre’s eyebrows knitted, and one hand rose to his chin with a finger over his lips. “This can’t be anything good.”
“No,” Randsin said to both of us. “It brings back unpleasant memories.”
Heat seared up my spine. I gritted my teeth. “Please. Please leave, your presence is so painful.”
“You gave me the token to take from her. Now you want to take it back.”
“I don’t want to take it back,” I yelled. “She’s forcing me to. Can’t you see I’m not in control of my own fucking body?”
My muscles twitched. Every inch of my skin flushed with unbearable heat as I fought against the iron bars. I could withstand this pain, I tried to tell myself. I could do it as long as I knew the token remained out of my hands.
“Randsin, go, and I’ll talk to him.” King Windre pointed back up the stairs.
Randsin’s lips twisted into a scowl; his eyes remained trained on me until his body was no longer in view behind the wall of the stairwell.
A couple more sobs shook me as the pain sat at the surface, still plaguing my brain and my muscles. He was gone. I told myself. He was gone. But it still took time for the blood oath to settle once more. As it did, I let go of the bars and sat down on the floor.
King Windre pushed his robe behind him and sat on the dusty floor outside the cell. He tilted his head. “Why did you come from the Acture Court?”
“Don’t you want to know who I serve? Don’t you want to know which wicked queen really sent me?” I drew lines in the dirt next to me.
