They were alive. They were going to make it. That was what mattered. It was all that mattered.
Trees loomed ahead, a forest encroaching on farmer’s land, and I didn’t have the strength to lift my head to blunt impact with those weathered trunks.
The next snap I heard … was my neck.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Chains bound me when I woke, and familiar laughter pierced the veil of unconsciousness.
“Hi, Auntie.”
“Sariah,” I hissed through bloody teeth. “Where … ” I swallowed hard and tasted stale copper. “Cole?”
“Oh, he’s fine. Just dandy. He’s in the cage next to yours.”
Primal instincts screamed at me to ask after Phoebe, but if Sariah wasn’t rubbing her capture in my face, I was going to pretend that meant she was okay. The alternative, that she hadn’t survived our crash landing, caused a more critical thing than my ribs to break.
“What do … you … want?”
“What I’ve always wanted.”
At that point, I grasped that my eyes were open, but I couldn’t see. I had a bad feeling the issue wasn’t a blown lightbulb in my cell. And judging by the echo and the moldy smells, I was underground, probably surrounded by concrete.
“You might have … noticed … I’m not currently at my … best.”
“See, in my mind, this is how it was going to play out. The Bushtas stun Cole with the nerve agent they’ve been developing for just such an occasion, he turns all heroic, demands to sacrifice himself for you, and you ride him to the ground like a surfboard.” She snickered at the description, clearly enjoying herself. “I planned on using what was left of him to motivate you to cooperate. I expected him to be the mess of road rash, not you.” She sighed. “He barely has a scratch on him, and you’re … hamburger.”
Thank you, God.
“Sorry to … disappoint.”
“Now I have a matched set. I’m not too upset. You’ve still got the bangles on, which means you’re only half the threat you could be. Honestly, I wouldn’t have tried this without them, so thanks for going the noble sacrifice route.” She clasped her hands together. “Here’s the thing. I’ve gathered my allies, and you’ve gathered yours. We both want the same thing: control of this terrene. I propose we fight it out. Winner take all.”
“Ezra,” I panted, “will kill you.”
“First, I don’t plan on losing. Second, I intend to make him a peace offering he can’t refuse.”
Even with my brain rattling like a rock in a can, I could see where this was headed. “Me.”
“You.”
Motion blurred the darkness as my vision attempted to come online. “He’ll kill you.”
“No.” She paced outside what I assumed was my cell. “He won’t.”
Yes, he will.
No, he won’t.
A laugh escaped me on a wheeze as I imagined how it might play out if I kept engaging her.
Apparently Santiago wasn’t the only one who could devolve into childish taunting.
The sudden quiet unsettled me more than my present circumstances. “What makes you so sure?”
“You’re not the only fish we caught in our net.”
Wu and Kapoor. Had to be. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
“I bet Daddy pays a pretty penny to get his boy back.”
“You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“A xenophobic charun with a god complex.”
“Okay.” Fair point. “Maybe you do know who you’re dealing with.”
“I’ve done the research,” she reminded me. “There’s nowhere to go once I turn you over. Not back down, and certainly not up. For better or worse, this is home. It’s not a bad place to live. Humans are soft and sweet on the inside, and they’ll bargain anything away if it means getting what they want when they want it. They’re incredibly shortsighted that way. They would rather have the latest phone in hand before their friends than a lifetime to experience future technological advancements.”
Other coteries had hidden themselves away in the human population without drawing Ezra’s immediate ire. She might survive if she kept her head down. She was good at that. Surviving. The flaw in her plan was in thinking she could confront him, make demands of him, and then walk away to enjoy that life.
He would bristle at her gall and kill her if she was dumb enough to bargain with him. He wanted me dead, and some days I wasn’t sure he didn’t wish the same on his only child. Still, it was a bold plan. It spoke to her ambition in claiming her mother’s title. More than that, these Bushta must be War’s allies.
Sariah couldn’t have established a reputation for herself in time to raise her own followers. She must be dipping into War’s known cohorts, no small feat considering most former coterie members shrugged off each ascension once their player was out of the game. Sariah must be pitching this as the battle to end all battles for them to be so eager to do her bidding.
We had no way of knowing how much information Sariah had at her fingertips after infiltrating the coterie’s database. No one aside from Wu, Kapoor, and I were aware of the cost of sealing the terrenes. Of that I was certain. Otherwise, I would be bound in bubble wrap and taped to a chair in a basement somewhere.
Killing Ezra would be enough for my coterie, I was certain. As much as I wished I could be satisfied with that, I couldn’t call it a win. Ezra had cost me my aunt and uncle, and my future with Cole. I wouldn’t stop until he was dead, and his empire crumbled to ashes.
Unless we sealed the terrenes, future wars were inevitable. The Malakhim would keep falling, bringing those like Ezra and Wu with them. The cadre would keep climbing, until yet another set of harbingers emerged with battle lust and a taste for destruction.
Commotion down what sounded like a long hall silenced Sariah for a beat or two.
“There’s a healer on the way,” she informed me. “I got a cramp from holding your head in place while your cervical fracture fused. I’m guessing it was C2, maybe C3, but who knows? It’s not like I carry a pocket x-ray machine.” She hesitated. “Try not to die before he gets here.”
The reminder made me flinch, and God that hurt. I had forgotten about my neck. It was one hurt lost among myriad others, a single note in a symphony of agony. It’s not like I could move it or anything else, but relief slid through me, hot and greasy as it mingled with the knowledge I had worse things to worry about now.
“Why not?” I fought to untangle my thoughts. “What does it matter?”
“Ezra strikes me as the sort who enjoys playing with his toys before he breaks them. He won’t be as motivated to bargain if I have to roll you in to the meeting in a wheelchair.”
Faking exhaustion, which wasn’t hard since I was halfway to dead, I slumped back and let her think I had passed out again.
“Sleep well.” She made a happy sound, one of anticipation. “Our healers aren’t as skilled as yours. When a Drosera patches you up, the healing often hurts worse than the injury.”
When I made no comeback, she accepted I was unconscious and left me to my rest.
An hour passed, maybe longer, before I heard a familiar gruff whisper from next door.
“The guard they posted left.”
“Ah.” I kept my eyes shut since the view didn’t change much when they opened. “I wondered what took you so long.”
Thanks to the bangles failing, I had sensed him nearby through our mate bond. That frail connection had been the only thing chaining me to my sanity. It gave me the strength to wait for Cole to make contact.
“I was unconscious there at the start,” he admitted. “Her evil chuckling woke me.”
“I hate we lost our package,” I said, unable to swallow my fear for Phoebe a moment longer. “It was small, but valuable.”
“I’m glad you think so, but we didn’t lose it.”
“Oh.” Moisture gathered on my eyelids. “That’s good then.”
Phoebe was alive and well. I didn’t have to know where
to be content. We couldn’t risk getting more specific in case there were other security measures in place Cole hadn’t noticed. Usually, I wouldn’t doubt his senses, but he was still shaking off Sariah’s cocktail. Until he was back at one hundred percent, we couldn’t afford to take any risks.
“You should rest. You’ll need your strength for the healing.”
“It’s as bad as she says?”
“Worse.” He exhaled. “It’s the difference in a battlefield medic and an acclaimed surgeon.”
A butter knife and scalpel more like it, but I didn’t want to dwell. Knowing would be as bad as not knowing, maybe worse.
“I’m spoiled to the second.” Thom had all manner of healing properties that didn’t require invasive or painful procedures, even if it did require ingesting his various bodily fluids. I promised myself right then I would never question where any of his medicine originated if I could only have some now. “The first doesn’t sound like much fun if I’m being honest.”
“Let me see what I can do to help until then.” Chains clanked across the stone floor. “Can you reach?”
“I don’t know.” I hadn’t fully grasped that I was on the floor too. That was good to know. “I can’t see well.”
“Extend your left arm.” More shuffling on his side. “There.”
His warm hand clasped mine, and the coterie bond poured in through my fingertips to sweep through my abused limbs. It didn’t heal me, and it didn’t numb the worst of the pain, but it was a comfort I felt down to my bones. The resonance I shared with Cole sang through me, connecting us, and I slept.
The Drosera medic Sariah brought me resembled the freckle-faced boy in those vintage Coke ads but taller. He didn’t look old enough to be a doctor, but the skin suit he wore could be concealing any manner of monster. None of Sariah’s coterie were her age, she killed anyone too clever before they became a risk, but the eyes on this one betrayed his years.
“This is Adder,” Sariah said, letting him into my cell. By now I had regained my vision and could see what was happening. Then again, ignorance might be bliss. “He’s the best we’ve got, which isn’t saying much.”
The male didn’t twitch, didn’t show any indication if her insult stung his pride.
An electric lantern swung from his fingertips, illuminating the space. No wonder Cole hadn’t shifted and busted us out of here. This cell could hold two people, barely, but his? It was comically small. He sat with his back to the wall, and his feet brushed the bars in front of him. He couldn’t shift in there, and I couldn’t shift in here. He had no room, and I had no stamina. I was too injured to do more than lie there and let the healer cut away my clothing.
“Don’t break her more than necessary to fix her,” Sariah warned. “You like to play, and usually, I like to watch, but we’re short on time.”
The frenetic energy in her voice drew me upright. “Do you have a meeting set?”
“I do.” She rubbed her hands together in an exaggerated fashion, living up to cartoon villain standards. “Exciting stuff, right? I’m doing all the things I was told I can’t by my unsupportive family.”
There was a difference between can’t and shouldn’t but she ought to be old enough to know it by now.
“I would like to begin,” Adder rasped in a sibilant voice. “May I?”
“Yeah, yeah.” She waved a negligent hand. “Piece her together so there are no scars. No matter how long it takes. I don’t know what Ezra plans on doing with her, but I want her pristine.”
“I take great pride in my work.”
“That’s what makes you the best.” Her lips pulled to one side. “And the worst. It’s all a matter of perspective.”
The healer waited until Sariah left before putting his hands on me. The first touch almost made me scream. I had unlinked my hand from Cole’s while I slept, so there was no relief there. The entirety of my body was one exposed nerve.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?” Adder ran his hands down my torso, over the worst of the damage. “That’s a rib, dear. That’s why. They aren’t meant to be worn on the outside.” He wheezed in laughter at his own joke. “I’ll put it back where it goes, don’t you worry, but first we must begin regenerating your skin. It’s the longest part of the process, and I regret there are no shortcuts.” He smiled, and he was close enough I distinguished the glint of braces on his teeth. “As I said to the pretender, I take great pride in my work.”
At last he’d said something that piqued my interest. “The pretender?”
“Just so.” He massaged a salve onto my feet and up my legs. Cold pervaded my skin, but it didn’t hurt any more than you would expect when someone was touching a raw wound. “She is not War. She was forged by her mother, I’ll give her that, but she is not cadre.”
“You’re following her.”
“With her gives me a better chance of survival than against her,” he said pragmatically. “I’m old. Not as old as some, not as old as her, and I have taken great care to make myself useful.”
As far as strategies go, it wasn’t a bad one considering the depths of depravity War allowed in her coterie.
“You want to survive.” Breath whistled through my clenched teeth. “Have you considered you’re on the wrong side?”
“It did cross my mind when our mistress was slain.” He hesitated, thoughtful. “I expected you to kill us. I would have killed us. Anyone else would have, I believe, in your position.”
“I should have,” I agreed upon reflection. “Starting with Sariah.”
“Perhaps you’ll get another chance.”
“Perhaps.”
Amused, he asked, “Do you sing?”
“No.”
“You will.”
A flint struck, and light filled his palms. Or so I thought until its flickering betrayed its true nature.
“This will burn.” He chuckled again, clearly a huge fan of his own jokes. “Best grit your teeth.”
I opened my mouth, but whatever it was I meant to say dissolved into a pathetic whimper.
Determined not to give him the satisfaction, I buttoned my lips to hold in my screams.
Uncle Harold used to pick on me when I filled in on the choir. He claimed I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. If he could only hear me now. Adder was right. In the end, I sang like a freaking canary.
“I’m going … to kill … you,” I swore to Adder the next time I saw him.
“You’re weak as a kitten.” He clucked his tongue. “You might scratch me, but that’s it.”
The first thing I did was check on Conquest. She was no longer sleeping, but she wasn’t poised for a takeover. She seemed content to sit back and let me bear the brunt of the punishment. Sadly, that counted as the good news.
“How does this feel?” He pressed on the fractured ribs, paying special attention to the one he had shoved back inside me at some point. “Tender?”
I didn’t have enough air to scream, which encouraged him to deepen his examination.
My eyes rolled back in my head.
“Luce.”
Wrapping my arms around my middle, I curled on my side. “Ow.”
“Thank the old gods and the new,” Cole breathed. “Adder has come back twice. You didn’t wake either time.”
“Small mercy.” I ran my palms over my abdomen, relieved to find the flesh smooth. “How do I look?”
“Beautiful.”
Relieved to find my neck worked again, I cranked my head toward him and did what I could to put him at ease. “Are you saying that because I’m naked?”
One small mercy was Adder got off on the pain he inflicted, not my body. Clothes or skin, I don’t think it made a difference to him.
A faint thread of amusement surfaced, barely there and then gone again. “No.”
“I’m better.” I didn’t use the I’m okay line. We were in cells in God knows where and at Sariah’s mercy, or the lack thereof. “I’m not going to run a marathon anytime soon, but I could probably crawl to th
e bars to receive a bowl of gruel, assuming my chain stretches that far.”
His exasperated sigh was music to my ears.
I had been warned against pulling the dragon’s tail, but it was too much fun to stop now, and I could do with the distraction. “Any word on Wu or Kapoor?”
“No.”
“That sounds final.”
“This facility is similar to the one where we … ” He frowned, a gathering of darkness near his mouth. “The only way they could have known about this facility was if Kimora told them its location. Assuming it was built using the same blueprints, there’s only one level of cells.”
“Wu and Kapoor are being kept separate from us.”
“Or,” he said thoughtfully, “they might not have been captured.”
“Cole.” I sucked in a sharp breath. “Are you suggesting that darling Sariah might lie to dishearten us?”
“As much as the notion offends your delicate sensibilities, I’m afraid not everyone is as open or honest as you.”
Strange as it may seem, bantering with Cole was what convinced me we would be okay.
As slim as the hope was, I had to believe he was right, that it was at least possible Wu and Kapoor were still out there. Even if they weren’t, we didn’t have to hang our hopes on them. The rest of the coterie was free, and they wouldn’t rest until they found us.
Light footsteps started our way, and I braced for the worst, unsure if they meant Adder or Sariah.
“You’re feeling chatty,” Adder accused. “You must be recovering at a faster rate than anticipated. That’s good. The pretender will be pleased.”
“She lets you get away with calling her that?”
“I am careful with my tongue.” His freckled, youthful cheeks creased. “Much more than some.”
“Yeah, well.” Easy for him to say, what with him being free and all. “Some of us don’t have as much to lose as others.”
“There’s always more to lose,” he chided. “I would have thought you, as a mate, as a mother, would realize that.”
Icy sweat trickled between my shoulder blades. Conquest wasn’t at fault. This was sheer terror.
End Game (The Foundling Series) Page 9
