Then darkness came for me.
I came to,pulled from sleep by the sound of dripping. It was cold and damp, and the rope ties on my wrists had been replaced with harsh metal. I squinted through the darkness, and I was met with bars. I was in a cell. A small cell. I risked moving and found not only was the cell small, but the chains on my cuffs were short. I couldn’t even reach the bars.
I tried to shift again, despite the risk that I may end up like a sausage in too-tight casing with the bars, but like I suspected, it was fruitless. Whatever they’d done to prevent it was still working.
I searched myself for recent evidence of tattoos or injuries, fearing the worst. But other than the injury to my shoulder, which would be about where the wing injury would show up on my fae form, I seemed untouched.
I hoped the not being able to shift was the wound or that the thing they’d shot was laced with something, and it would heal.
The chains loudly clanked every time I moved, so I couldn’t hide my movement, but no one came. So I decided to inspect the bars. They ran up into the ceiling and were reinforced. I might not be able to rip them free if I could shift.
Fuck.
“Calytrix. Please be here.”I reached out again. I just prayed to the Goddess she was with me, and they hadn’t taken her to another location. We could only speak when at a certain distance from each other. I knew that much about ryder/flyer bonds.
“Faolan?”Her inner voice was weak.
“Thank the Goddess. Are you hurt?”
“I can’t tell. Everything hurts.”She groaned, and it was a little cute. “Where are we?”
“I think in cells of some sort. But I’m not entirely sure. They had us on mules…but I don’t know when that was or how far they took us.”I filled her in on what happened.
“I’m in a cell too,”she informed me, sounding far more awake. Her chains clinked as she moved, and I listened. I was equal parts relieved and terrified she was nearby.
“I hear you. You’re close by.”
“You thought that I might be somewhere else?”
“I had no idea, but you’re the important fae out of the two of us. Who knows where they might have stolen you away to?”
“Damn it, we need out of these cells,”
“I know we do.”
“Can you shift and bust us out?”
“No, thats the problem,”I told her.
“Why can’t you shift?”
“I don’t know exactly, but Kol was poisoned with doses of Dragon's Bane. Not enough to kill him, but enough todisconnect him with his dragon and his magic. This feels like that.”
“Hmmm. Well, even if you can’t fly, I still think we need to get out of here. I can’t imagine anything good will happen when they find out we’re awake.”
“How do you propose we do that? I can’t shift, and even if I could, I don’t know that I could destroy these bars without bringing the roof down on us.”
“I’ll do it, silly.”
“You’ll—what are you going to do?”
“Can you clink your chains so I can hear where you are?”
I frowned, obliging her request, not understanding how it would enable her to?—”
Suddenly, she appeared from thin air outside my cell and winked.
TWENTY-NINE
