“Let Lady Reznik go. She doesn’t know anything. She only recently recovered from her ordeal,” Xander said.
Rainer looked relieved by the plea. Xander didn’t understand why he was doing it. Cece wouldn’t leave, but he just wanted her out of the center of Vincent’s attention. She did not deserve to be the object of any more cruelty.
Vincent just laughed. He smiled at Cece as he brought the switch down on Rainer’s back. The sound reverberated through the room like a crack of thunder.
Rainer gritted his teeth against the pain, immediately meeting Cece’s gaze. She closed her eyes and tears streamed down her face. Rainer’s face went calm and serene with her. Xander was struck by the juxtaposition of the horror of the violence combined with their beautiful way of silently communicating.
Xander didn’t know how much Cece could take. She already looked like she was about to crack.
“Lady Reznik, perhaps I’m asking the wrong people. Perhaps you know. Why can’t the trickster get into your friends’ minds?” Vincent said.
“I don’t know,” Cece gritted out.
Vincent slammed the cane down again. Xander and Cece flinched.
The same game went on for far too long as Vincent taunted and tortured them. The more frustrated he got with their defiance, the more brutally and faster he hit Rainer. No matter how many times they said they didn’t know, he didn’t believe them.
Vincent whipped Rainer three times in quick succession and Cece yanked herself free of the guard who’d been holding her back, running to Rainer. He squeezed her hand, and she kissed his knuckles. Her cheeks were flushed and damp with sweat.
Xander couldn’t imagine the agony of both watching and feeling the pain of the person she loved most. If it had been her on the table, Xander would have cracked instantly. But all three of them had managed to keep this secret this long, and none of them were going to break now.
Rainer’s back was a sliced-up, bloody mess. The pain must have been staggering. The air smelled like copper. The table, the floor, and Vincent’s clothes were speckled with blood and sweat.
Cece met Xander’s eyes. He saw her waver. Her hand was poised over her heart as tears poured down her cheeks. It wasn’t Vincent’s torture that had her sobbing. It was that Rainer was hurting but still sending reassurance through their bond. Xander knew what it was to protect Cece at his own expense. He’d done it for months while Cato tortured him. He saw it now in the way she cried harder a moment after the strikes, her palm pressed to her heart. Xander had never respected Rainer more.
“I can do this all night—until he’s fucking dead. One of you is going to crack,” Vincent snarled, preparing to strike again.
Cece curled over Rainer’s body protectively, and Vincent drew up at the last second.
“No,” she snapped. “We don’t know. I made Cato forget how to use his magic. Maybe it has to do with that, but none of us know why he can’t do it.”
Vincent laughed. “You are very tricky, Lady Reznik. The problem is that I’m a liar, and I know a liar when I see one. This is the last piece of information I need to fulfill my deal with the trickster. I’ll have it now, and I’ll enter this era with myself as a king with no debts left to pay.”
“He is barely conscious,” Cece said.
“Are you offering to take his place?” Vincent challenged.
Rainer looked up at her sharply, but Cece said nothing.
“I am,” Xander said.
Vincent blew out a breath. “Oh, cousin, come on! We’ve seen this little drama play out before. Plus, I need you able to move around freely and charm these people. You are part of my succession plan. I need the goodwill you’ve harnessed with the common folk and aristocracy. I also need you to smooth things over with your new in-laws, so we’ll eventually need your new wife as well. You’re lucky, you know. You have a longer-term purpose than your two friends. Unfortunately for them, they were caught with you. Once I have what I need, and I’ve closed off my deal with Cato, they have no purpose. I do hate waste,” Vincent threatened.
He turned back to Cece. The feral look on his face made Xander’s stomach plummet.
“Very well. If none of you want to talk, perhaps I haven’t tried the right strategy yet,” he said.
Vincent grabbed Cece, pulling her back flush to his front. He held her securely around the waist. He didn’t need to say anything for Xander to recognize the look in his eye.
“There are much worse things than death,” Cato had told Xander years before.
Once again, Cato was right.
Ever since Cato had reappeared like a living nightmare the day before, dread had prickled Xander’s skin. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, reminding him that a reckoning was coming. Now that Vincent held Cece against his body, Xander knew what it was.
Two guards untied Rainer from the table and dragged him to a chair. He winced as his back hit the wood, slumping over, unconscious. He quickly regained consciousness as they tied his wrists to the chair—as if he needed restraints. The man looked half-dead.
“If the two of you won’t talk, there’s only one of you left to hurt,” Vincent said. “Now, while I assume she’s the one pulling the strings in all of this, I know that the two of you must also know why it is that Cato can’t influence Marcos.”
