Dehydration made swallowing excruciating, and talking felt like trying to run six miles. “I…” I mustered through a whisper. “I…killed…him.”
I could practically feel his faux disappointment. The man was anything but unpredictable. Or so I thought. “That’s what I feared. You know there will be consequences, do you not?”
Of course, there would be. I only hoped the consequences would be directed at me.
Instead of answering his question, I choked. “Death…to…the king.”
“What did you say, boy?”
“Long…live the…queen,” I croaked, vowing to myself these would be my final words to him.
The cell door reopened, and in strode Grim, a second pair of shuffling feet accompanying him. “Elemental. Relative to Queen Lilliana.”
“Perfect. Bring him to me and remove the boy’s shackles.” Impatience laced the king’s words. “And don’t even think about trying to feed from me this time,little prince.”
Prince?Oh, right. The big secret was out now. No need to hold back on the pretenses.
The shackles jerked off me, jostling my body from the brusque movements. My arms followed. Fuck, everything hurt.
Grim’s hold on my wrist bit into my bones as he yanked me to my feet. The agony scorching through my body had me collapsing, only to be held upright again by my stepfather. My feet and legs couldn’t hold me, and I had no idea what was broken or torn. My spine was fucked, that much was certain. My ribs were fractured in multiple places, too, for sure. The carnage on my body didn’t stop there.
I was pulverized.
The depletion of my magic reserves, mixed with my harrowing state, caused me to take several seconds to register the energies in the room. Still unable to open my eyes, I noted the three energies that begged me to feed from them.
I recognized Forest’s aura, who was the strongest. As tempted I was to deplete him, I knew if I started, I wouldn’t stop. And as much as I wanted to kill him, I refused to thrust myself into devolution. Grim’s was the least powerful. Then there was the Elemental. It was such a familiar energy. Familiar in the sense of energetic likeness, similar to Gray’s.
All I had to do was absorb energy from the man’s aura, and the excruciating torment could end. Grim had a firm latch on my Kinetic magic, suppressing it with his, so I couldn’t defer to it instead.
The draw to the Elemental called to me as if I were a starved animal. His energy was delicious, a pool of fresh water after weeks of floundering in a desert. My heart rocketed in my chest, fighting against succumbing to my base instinct.
Tears dripped from the tip of my nose from the restraint. I’d lost count of how many times they’d brought someone in here like this, testing my will to abstain. I’d resisted for two weeks now, but I lost confidence with each new person they presented me as my condition worsened.
Fuck, I was going to cave. I felt it. My mental grip on my essence slipped, and it lurched toward the Elemental. As ifwrangling a wild bull by its horns, I snatched it back with all the inner strength I could muster. I couldn’t deplete an innocent. Surely, if they were in the Royal Domain’s prisons, they weren’t guilty of anything other than being born with gold skin and being related to Queen Lilliana.
If I was going to be forced to deplete someone, it would be someone worth thrusting myself into devolution for.
I battled myself despite the piercing agony tearing through every fiber of my body at the denial. My magic protested, burning through my vessels and cells, ravaging my brain that much more.
My shoulders shook from the guttural sobs wracking my body, tears drenching my face. I couldn’t hold out much longer. I had to replenish.
“Shackle him.”
A metal cuff slapped back on my wrist, and for the first time since awakening in the prisons, I was grateful for them. The moment the shackle locked around my left wrist, I collapsed to my knees.
Seconds later, the other shackles locked back into place on the floor. The unbearable urge to feed still crashed through me, but since my magic was shut down and empty, the craving felt more like a rubber band snapping into place.
“Take him back to his cell,” Forest instructed Grim, referring to the Elemental prisoner.
The whooshing in my head quieted everything around me. Relief from the exertion it took to resist my baser instincts flooded me.
“Wow. I’m…actually impressed. Looks like it’s true. You might be useful after all.”
I couldn’t muster a retort. All I could do was lie there in my exhaustion, shattered bones, and splintered mind. Forest could converse with himself for all I cared.
“Your mother will be most pleased,” the king said, as if that meant anything to me.
My body began to convulse on the floor, probably from shock. Each jolt against the concrete sent more shockwaves of hell through me.
