His words bring my thoughts to an abrupt stop. “Myparents were part of all of it?”
“Well, your mother was. Your father was never on board, but my mother took care of that. Histwoprincesses.” He rolls his eyes and scoffs. “Like it was an honor to have a daughter being the Princess of Varethiel.” He spits the name of the second kingdom.
“But you know what is great about this city?” He looks through me, not waiting for me to answer. “With the witchesallowed to live here, you can buy just about any type of potion or herb you can imagine. I already gave you forget-me-nots when you were out.”
A wicked smile stretches across his face when he sees the horror in my eyes. “Yeah, you know what that means don’t you?” He mocks.
I swallow thickly.I do know. Forget-me-nots are one of the few flowers that are cruel enough to strangle a Fae’s element from the inside out. Once they take the root in, the magic will wither. Starve. Until the body finally purges it.
I don’t have my magic…
He pulls a vial out of his pocket and dangles it in front of me with two fingers. “And then there is this potion. Why don’t we do a little experiment to see what this one can do?”
I fight my restraints, trying to get any traction on the floor to push away.
He grabs me by my hair and jerks my head backwards. Gripping my jaw painfully, he forces it open. I send every ounce of strength I have to my magic. I feel only the smallest quake. I’m doing everything I can to fight his prying fingers and the liquid he’s trying to pour into my mouth. But some of the liquid slips down my throat before I’m able to spit it out.
I immediately begin to feel its effects. My body is going numb, and for the briefest moment, I feel the smallest connection to Nova. I don’t know if it’s finally finding out what happened to her, or if it’s our fates connecting us in our mirrored deaths, but she’s here. I feel her fear as she realized she would die at Caspien’s hand. The fear she felt knowing she would never see those she loved again. I feel her spirit with me.
And then she’s gone, and I’m alone.With him.And my heart is uprooted from my chest and buries itself into my stomach.
As the potion takes its full hold of me, I no longer have any control of my body. I am limp in the chair, unable to even hold my head up.
“Now, when we were to be bound, I was excited about the fight in you. But tonight, I decided it would be better to have you a little moreagreeable.” I can feel him working the knife against the ties on my ankles.
“I’m confident that you’ll be a good girl now. I should probably thank you for making it so easy to grab you tonight. I’ve been watching for an opportunity and you, showing up here with no Guardians...” He laughs.
I try my best to shake my head, but nothing happens. And my foggy mind does nothing to settle the dread as he finishes freeing each of my legs. I try to kick my legs out when he moves on to my wrists but again nothing.
I realize the only thing I can do now is focus all my energy on reaching Cillian.
“It’s Caspien. Please! Help!”
Tears are streaming down my face.
“Varethiel. Please!”
This can’t really be happening.
“Please hear me…”
After cutting all the restraints off of me, he lifts me from the chair and unceremoniously drops me on the stones at our feet. I squeeze my eyes shut, shutting out what is happening, trying harder to focus on summoning any magic I can reach in the stones that surround me.
I feel a sharp burn to my face as he slaps me. “Keep your eyes open!” He roars in my face. I can smell his rancid breath. The cool metal of the blade against my neck. “You will be awake through all of this!”
Unable to respond, I do my best to keep my eyes open, trained on the cracked ceiling, barely blinking.
And all I can think is,Goddess, help me…
Chapter
Thirty-Six
CILLIAN
Our feet touched down in Varethielfaster than ever before. Not long after disconnecting with Aiden, Nissa got a message through to me. It was weak and broken, but I was able to hear it. And now I can’t get it out of my head.
Caspien has me. Varethiel.
