Never expose your cards. Always appear like you’re worth underestimating.
King Forest and Grim chuckled. “You’re a fucking child. What did you think you could do against me, boy? Imadeyou.”
“What you mean is…” I rasped, “you had Amethyst rape the Elemental King to conceive me.”
Silence. I’d pay for that in more ways than one.
“Who told you that?” Forest asked, his voice so deep and low that even Grim took a step back.
I cackled, pushing more blood out of my open wound. Warm liquid oozed down my stomach and lower back. My healing ability wouldn’t save me due to my magic depletion. “Wouldn’t you like to know, Your Majesty?” I quipped.
A pair of shiny loafers approached me, the concrete floor and walls reverberating the sound. King Forest lowered himself to where he squatted eye-level with me on the floor, his green beard pulsing with his clenching jaw. “Don’t you know what happens when you disrespect me?”
I offered him a smile. “Fuck. Off.” Then I spat on his expensive shoes.
Forest’s perfectly styled green hair slowly angled down, studying his soiled loafers. I hoped if I pissed him off enough, he’d just terminate me. Chalk me up as a failed experiment and move along. But then the question remained: where did that leave Gray? I wasn’t the only one to take into consideration. Self-preservation be damned—even if my version of self-preservation meant death.
“Take care of him,” Forest said to Grim. “Break him to the point of no fucking return.” Standing, he walked out of the cell without another word or even wiping his shoe clean of my bloody saliva. Just as he reached the door, he paused, his back facing us. “Don’t let him die.”
The cell screeched open and then slammed shut, followed by the click of the lock. Without another word, King Forest left me to suffer my fate with Grim.
“When I found you in the Endarkened block two days ago, I feared our bonding moments would be cut short. Good thingI found you in time,” Grim said, his eyes wild with demented excitement. “We’re going to have so much fun.” Without warning, a predatory grin stretched across his face, and he thrust four fingers into the stab wound, digging into the hole in my waist.
I screamed, my voice waning in and out from my throat’s rawness. Then, once again, the world went black.
“It’s been two weeks, Grim. Why is he still able to form words?” the king demanded from the corner of my cell. The stench of my body’s waste choked me. But whatever. That was the least of my concerns.
“I’ve gone above and beyond, sir. I don’t—”
A gurgling sound traveled to my ears. Twisted joy lifted my heart at hearing Grim being choked out, even if it was by the king. “I said to break him to the point of no fucking return. Or did I not make it clear enough?”
Grim continued to gag, struggling to breathe. “I—I’ve done it all. He refuses to deplete the other prisoners.”
“Is he completely drained, like I asked?” Forest was on the verge of unleashing his poisonous power. Gamma rays were no fucking joke. His magic affected people in similar ways that nuclear bombs did, poisoning and burning his victims from within.
I never recovered from the Endarkened’s attack, and Grim only amplified my suffering since I awoke weeks ago. Every tactic had been deployed to break me, my body ruined from torture and Grim’s sexual control, I was unable to heal. Meanwhile, my mind consisted of frayed, knotted threads—the effects of prolonged magic deprivation.
“Yes,” Grim rasped through Forest’s chokehold.
Hot tears trailed down my cheeks. My soul wanted out, to be set free, but somehow, it remained intact.
I was a hair’s breath short of becoming rabid, so I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to abstain from the next person they brought before me. Until now, the only thing keeping the inner beast at bay was my determination to deny King Forest his satisfaction. I’d held out longer than most would, but I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. Soon, my instincts would take over, which was their goal.
“Well,” King Forest mused. “That’s an interesting development, then. It seems he is stronger than I gave him credit for. Perhaps your wife wasn’t wrong in the end.” With a surprised laugh from Forest, and a strangled gasp from Grim, the king went on, “Looks like he might be our best weapon after all.”
A sudden burst of lust struck my chest. I groaned, wishing away the double-edge of the emotion stabbing my heart coming from the princess. It could only mean that she was with Slate. Her emotions battered me at random intervals during my time in captivity. The only consolation it offered me was that she was safe.
The noise garnered the king’s attention. “Ah, he’s awake. Let’s bring in another. I want to see it for myself.”
“Of course,” Grim responded, his voice gravelly from the choking. Seconds later, the cell door opened and closed, piercing my ears. Too much.
“You’ve surprised me, Chrome,” the king repeated. “I won’t deny, I was beginning to think that you were a wasted effort. You can only imagine how heavy that’s been weighing on me as of late.”
My breaths crackled and squeaked with each inhalation. I didn’t bother opening my eyes; my vision would’ve been warped. At least I wasn’t hallucinating again. No matter how close Icame to death, I wouldn’t fucking die. I was simply stuck in an in-between state of life and the death, no matter how much I begged to cross over the veil.
My limbs were numb, most of my bones were broken, my body’s excrement and blood pooled beneath me, and my mind was a chaotic mess that I didn’t want to even attempt to untangle. The only sense I obtained was my hearing.
“While I have you here,” King Forest started. “What happened to Kale Brighton?”
