"Oh, sweet girl." His smile widened. "I was so hoping you'd say that."
He moved faster than her eyes could track. One moment she was pulling against his grip, the next her back hit the cell wall with enough force to drive the air from her lungs. He caged her there, both hands coming up to frame her face with mock gentleness.
"Can't have you running to my baby brother just yet," he murmured. "Not when I've waited so long for proper revenge."
She opened her mouth to scream, but he was already moving. His lips pressed against hers, and it was nothing like kissing should be. This was violation wrapped in the mockery of intimacy. She felt his magic pour into her like liquid mercury, coating her tongue with metallic bitterness, wrapping around her throat like frozen wire. It burned going down, ice and fire at once, making her teeth ache down to the roots. The magic burrowed deeper, sinking barbed hooks into specific words, specific places. Her stomach roiled as the foreign power settled into her voice box like a parasite making itself at home.
When he pulled back, she gagged on the taste of copper and winter rot. She immediately tried to speak. "The dungeons—"
Nothing. The words simply dissolved on her tongue like sugar in rain, leaving only a numbing cold where they should have been.
"The dun—" Again, silence. Her tongue went thick and useless, pressing against her teeth as if it had forgotten how to form the word. She couldn't even form the shape of it.
"Perfect." He stroked her cheek with a tenderness that made her skin crawl. "You can speak of anything else. Tell my brother about your day, your feelings, your little humanneeds. But the moment you try to mention where you've been, who you've seen?" He demonstrated by pressing a finger to her lips. "Nothing."
Terror flooded through her as she tested the binding more thoroughly. She could think about the dungeons, picture them clearly, but the moment she tried to voice anything about them—even peripherally—her throat closed like a fist squeezing from the inside. She tried to write the word in the air with her finger, but her hand cramped and seized. She attempted to mouth it silently, but her jaw locked mid-motion, sending shooting pain through her temples.
"Clever, isn't it?" Malus watched her struggle with obvious delight. "The binding reads intent. You could say the word 'dungeon' in another context, describing a story perhaps, but try to warn anyone about this place, about my presence?" He snapped his fingers. "Your body simply refuses."
He moved closer again, caging her against the wall with deliberate slowness. His fingers traced along her jaw, tilting her face up to study her in the phosphorescent light. "You know, I can taste him on you. In your mouth, on your skin." His thumb brushed her lower lip, and she tried to jerk away but had nowhere to go. "His magic has seeped into your very bones. How thorough of him."
His other hand caught her marked wrist, turning it to examine the vines in the dim light. His eyebrows rose with genuine surprise. "Well, well. What have we here?" His fingers traced the delicate pattern, stopping at the tiny white buds that had recently appeared. "The mark has bloomed. How extraordinarily rare." His grip tightened. "My little brother must be completely besotted. These only appear when the bond goes far deeper than mere bargains."
Malus leaned in close enough that she could feel his breath against her ear. "Tell me, does he know what it means? Or is he still pretending this is just about contracts and obligation?" His laugh was dark, knowing. "When I take back what's mine, my throne, my castle, my court…I wonder what I should do with my brother's favorite toy. It seems a waste to simply discard something he's put so much effort into cultivating."
His fingers slid from her wrist up her arm, tracing the path of the vines. She grit her teeth, trying to ignore his touch. "Perhaps I'll keep you. A living reminder of his failure. Wouldn't that be poetic? The human he marked so carefully, warming my bed instead. Wearing my claim over his."
She pressed herself harder against the stone, trying to create distance that didn't exist. "He'll kill you."
"He'll try." Malus's smile was all teeth. "He failed once before. But then, he's gotten soft, hasn't he? Playing house with humans. Letting himself feel things that make him weak." His gaze dropped to the buds again. "These pretty little flowers prove it. He's given you pieces of himself he doesn't even understand he's lost."
"Now then." He released her, stepping back to admire his handiwork. "Where did you get this fascinating little trinket?"
Before she could react, he plucked the leaf from her pocket, holding it up to examine the silver veins.
"No!"
"Hush." He turned it over with interest. "Oh, this is delicious. I’ll have to commend Ferria for giving you a way to hide from my brother. I wasn’t sure how she would accomplish it but this is quite inventive." His laugh was darker now. "This will make everything so much simpler."
"Please—"
"No need to beg, little mouse." He tucked the leaf into his own tattered pocket. "You fed me, gave me strength when I had resigned myself to eternity in the dark. I should be thanking you." His smile turned predatory. "And I will. When the time is right."
He moved toward the door, each step confident and strong. No trace of the broken prisoner remained.
"The Wild Hunt you said?" He paused at the threshold. "My brother does so love his displays of power. Showing off his pretty pet to the court." His eyes raked over her with calculating interest. "Wear something devastating. I do so enjoy a dramatic entrance."
"He'll know," she managed. "The moment you appear."
"I’m counting on it. The look on his face, the surprise, the outrage…" She shook her head as though that might be enough to dissuade him. He smiled at her growing horror. "And when I reveal how his precious pet has been sneaking down to the forbidden depths, feeding his greatest enemy back to strength... at whom do you think he'll direct all that fury?"
"Enjoy your time with him," Malus said softly. "However many days remain before my debut. Try not to feel too guilty when he holds you. When he whispers whatever sweet cruelties make you moan for him." His smile sharpened. "After all, you've earned those moments. Paid for them with every morsel of food you brought me."
"I didn't know!"
"No. You didn't." He offered a mocking bow. "Which makes it all the more delicious. Innocent kindness wielded as a weapon. My brother will appreciate the irony, I think. Eventually. After he's done raging."
Then he was gone, melting into shadows with the leaf's magic hiding his presence. Leaving her alone in an empty cell with a broken door and a compulsion sitting like lead on her tongue.
