“The only one who escaped.”
I can’t look at them. How do I tell them their hope is misplaced? I can’t save them anymore than I can save myself.
I’m spun around and shoved onto my back on a table. I fight, but three pledges grab my hands and feet, yanking them out and locking me in shackles.
“You failed me.”
The voice is cold and harsh, and I’ve heard it from a dozen people or more over the years. I turn and see the Beta’s Voice as she stares down at a kneeling Warden. He doesn’t lift his head or look at her, just stares straight ahead at a spot past me.
“Teach him a lesson.”
He’s dragged over and tied up beside me, but he’s on his knees, arms stretched out at his side, facing me. His expression never changes; the blank stare is a perfect mask.
I watch him, refusing to look away, but my mind is racing.
They bring out the bull whip that has pieces of metal woven into it and give it to a pledge.
“Teach the Warden his lesson.”
The pledge swallows hard but gleefully like the thought of causing someone so much pain is such a turn-on he can’t contain himself. Will this little bastard get hard over it? Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen it.
He brings the whip down on the Warden’s naked back and, for the first time, he blinks, and our gazes collide.
My breath hitches, but I don’t look away.
He’s evil; he has done so much evil in this world. I will hate him forever.
But a part of me will love him, too.
I can’t just see the killer when I look at him, I see the boy who was my best friend, who sat at our table and cleaned my wounds. The friend who taught me how to read, write, fight, and dance. I was never in love with him, and he was never in love with me. But he was…my brother essentially in all but blood. He was family.
Until the day he wasn’t.
How could he do it?
I still don’t understand, all these years later.
The whip is handed to another pledge. Walker’s unable to hold his body up; he’s sweating and weak; his red, red blood is falling steadily in thick, wet drops to the dirty concrete below him.
The Beta’s Voice walks between us and grips his chin, yanking his head up. “Will you make that mistake again?”
“No.”
“When I tell you to kill someone, you will do it.”
“Yes, Goddess.”
“I knew you would be weak, so I had the arrows dipped in poison. So your attempt to save her failed.”
Walker, no, Warden, doesn’t make a sound, but I know him well enough to see the twitch of his cheek and know he’s not happy.
“It won’t happen again,” he says softly.
“Make sure it doesn’t, Warden, or I’m going to send a hunting party for all the people I missed.”
With that, she lets him go and turns to me. “Kaida Keres, it’s such a pleasure to have you here with us. I have been assured that Daryl,” she puts an arm out to the Beta’s Fang, “will take the absolute best care of you and make sure your stay is a long and satisfying one, for us, that is.”
The High King appears, sweeping his long black robe out, his golden mask shining with their firelight. He walks into the center of the space in front of me.
