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With a flick of his fingers, the cell door popped open, and I could taste ozone in the air.
Boriel didn’t even raise her head at our presence. I thought maybe she was sleeping, but then I saw her hands clenching at her sides, her little wrists in the iron-like shackles taut.
“It’s time to go, little Boriel. As promised.” Cael pushed me into the cell, throwing me into the corner, and I fell to my knees, wincing at the impact. The floor was slimy and cold, stealing my breath.
I looked up and saw Cael squatting down. He wore a smirk on his handsome face, his eyes dancing as if he delighted in Boriel’s pain. The way he looked at her was hungry, obsessed, and it occurred to me that I was in no danger from him. That didn’t mean I wasn’t in danger, though. Whether he planned on locking me in this cell or not, by the sounds of it, the Basilica was coming down, and if I didn’t get out now, I’d be buried alive here.
Eyes on Boriel, Cael ignored everything but her. Could I simply just slink out?
“Easy now,” he told Boriel, his tone like that of a lover. “I’m going to release you, and then you and I… Oh, I think not, Sierra.” So much for ignoring me, I thought.
His hand went out, arresting me with its speed. I had tried to get to my feet, to escape, to run out of this horrible place. But whatever power he wielded stopped me. I was pressed against air as strong and forceful as a wall.
Satisfied I wasn’t going anywhere, he focused back on Boriel. His mouth moved silently, his eyes sweeping every inch of her. I could see his chest inhaling and exhaling in short bursts. He was actually excited! Arousal spun in the air like cloying incense. And it sickened me.
Fighting off nausea, I begged her to do something, but whatever force Cael had on me had taken my voice with it. All I could do was compel her to look at me.
She still hadn’t glanced up, her chin tucked down, that mass of fine hair a veil, hiding her. She made no sound as the click of the manacles released her.
“Easy, easy,” Cael told her. “Not long now, my pet.”
Movement in the corner of my eye had me turning my head. I was so confused by what I was seeing, couldn’t make sense out of it. A Servant tip-toed softly, slowly, toward Cael’s squatting form. A shiny metal pipe, thick, with a sharp opening, swung from the Servant’s raised arm, then swept down onto Cael’s head with a thunk.
Cael went down like a wilted flower. My mouth was hanging open, still trying to process what I was seeing. When Boriel stood, unfurling herself in an eye-defining movement, all I saw of her before she disappeared was an ice-blue sheen and glowing eyes that I swear could have burned me alive had she turned them on me.
And then she was gone. Cael was slumped over on the stone floor, a pool of dark crimson liquid flowing around him.
Move, Sierra, I said to myself. But I was frozen in shock. Run!
“Omega,” someone, a male, said.
The Servant. I had forgotten all about the Servant. I looked up at the robed man who seemed so familiar… and then panic swelled inside me, making me draw back. I couldn’t catch my breath.
“Thank the gods you are unharmed,” he said, coming closer. He went around Cael, tsking at him in what sounded like disgust. “Now that he’s not here to stop me, it’s just me and you.”
My thoughts slowed as I realized he had grabbed me by the hood, pulling me to him. His other hand went to his pocket, quickly pulling something out. Something shiny, like glass. The object came closer, and before I could get a good look at it, there was a pinch at my neck. For a moment I thought maybe I’d been bitten by a spider or stung by a bee.
“Let’s get you out of here, my beautiful.” I was lifted, held in his arms. My limbs were useless, heavy from whatever he’d injected me with. All I was now was a doll.
Useless.
The clanging sound of his foot hitting the pipe on the ground was the last thing I remembered before darkness took me.
My head felt enormous, a bolder of pain, encompassing my whole being. I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t. Alongside the pain was a dull throb of heat. In my bones. In the fine hairs of my arms. I must be sick, I thought. A fever. I wanted to ask for Mother, for Lucinda. I was so thirsty and would have done anything for a glass of cool water.
“Ah. I see you’re awake,” said someone that wasn’t either Mother nor my watcher.
The Basilica. I gasped, and even that hurt.
I felt cool hands on my forehead, and for a moment the sharp ache dulled. A scent like blood, like sticky body sweat filled my nostrils, and my stomach wrenched. Before I knew it, I was retching, my eyes tightly closed, the vise-like pain of my head squeezing for all its worth.
“Oh my poor pet. Yes, I know it is strong. Take your time,” the Servant said. And I knew it was a Servant. Servant Sarbo, to be exact. I remembered it all now. Cael, Boriel. Phobius leaving me in the dungeons.
Somewhere out there were my mates, Mari, the others.
I sat up, opened my eyes, my stomach settling but burning with acid, and I looked around me. I was in a white room, on the floor, lying on some kind of soft pallet. There were no windows; nothing but walls, Sarbo, and this pallet. A clean room, nothing like the dungeons.
What was this place?
