After several long moments, I asked, “Apologies, but did you saybreeding room?”
“Yes. They had a whole hallway of awful little cells in the basement of one of the fancy apartment buildings for higher ranking angels,” Brinda said, voice low. “Bed, sink, toilet. Nothing else. Two meager meals a day. Not enough for me to keep my strength, just the bare minimum to keep me alive and healthy enough for their purposes. I wasn’t ever let out to so much as take a walk; I just paced around my little cell. It was ten steps from the door to the wall, five from the bed to the sink. I made a game of it, to keep my sanity.” She scrubbed her hands up and down her upper arms. “It was so quiet, so lonely. I couldn’t hear anybody else down there with me, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t there.” She swallowed. “I was visited by the full angels I was matched to breed with, as often as possible. Sometimes more than once a day, sometimes I’d get a day or two between.”
My blood was roiling under my skin. “I would appreciate names, if you have them.”
Brinda’s face fell. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any. I never saw any faces. The angels I was matched with came only when it was dark and wore coverings. It was not… intimate. I was made to face away from them, both so I couldn’t run and for their anonymity.” James and Harmon made angry noises and she sniffled, blinking away her tears before they could fall. “Councilman Armaros came by once a week to make sure I was still well enough to do what they wanted. Once, he brought a healer after…” She shook her head but didn’t elaborate. She didn’t need to; we could all guess why just fine. “There was nobody else.”
I glanced at Seir, who indicated with a slight head nod that he’d heard that as clearly as I had. The rage I felt down to my bones was reflected in his face, his red eyes and elongated teeth. They would pay, one way or another.
I turned to the men. “And your prison, it was elsewhere?”
James played with the frayed threads on his pant leg, clearly agitated. “Only female Nephilim are truly useful to them. Our potential breeding contributions are considered insignificant—they just want rid of us. The female angels that reproduce the same way we do are already matched with full angels, and anyone with an angelic parent that isn’t completely evil would never stand for their offspring being treated in such a way, male or female.” He looked away. “We were only a nuisance. So we were left to rot in a dungeon.”
“At least we were together,” Harmon said, strong affection in his eyes. “And that allowed us to plot our escape. So we could get back to Brin. Get her out.”
“How did you escape?”
“Our guard got careless. We were intentionally compliant. Docile.” His jaw rolled. “He liked to chat, though we rarely responded because that wasn’t the point. He loved to hear hisown voice. Though he did enjoy the challenge of getting a reaction out of us.”
“He did, at first, too. Until we got smarter,” James added.
“Yes. We learned. Watched. He had a bad habit of leaving his keys in doors after he opened them. One day, we got lucky. He went to use the toilet after leaving us near the tubs for our weekly bath. The keys were still in the lock, and he was across the room in a water closet, proving his diet was not to be envied.” Harmon relayed the information in a detached tone that indicated he’d ventured back to that place in his mind.
James took up the tale, seeing Harmon’s gaze go distant. “We were still dressed even, the fool. We glanced at one another, turned on the taps to make it seem like we were still there preparing to wash, grabbed the keys, and locked every door we could on our way out to slow him down. Then we ran like the devil himself was chasing us.” He looked up, eyes wide. “No offense.”
I couldn’t help but smile and Seir was openly chuckling. “None taken.”
“How did you know where she was?” Phin asked.
“The idiot had gleefully taunted us about how close and yet how far from us she was.” Harmon snarled. “Told us more than once exactly where they were keeping her, what she was being put through.”
“Were you able to find any other women?”
“Only her.” James’s somber tone weighed down the air. “We opened five other rooms before the guards came. They were all empty. But there were perhaps another twenty we didn’t get to check.” He swallowed and reached into his pocket. “I still have these.” A ring with dozens of keys dangled from his fingers.
“And where you were kept, were there any other men?” Seir asked, perplexed.
They shook their heads. “Not many. Not anymore,” James said sadly.
“There were four other cells. Nine other men. Only three still alive and one of those… barely,” Harmon breathed. Brinda whimpered and Phin closed her eyes, tears running freely down her cheeks. “We opened their cell doors on our way out. They all went their own way, and we’ve never come across them again. I didn’t recognize any of them either.” He sagged. “I hope every day that they are recovered and safe somewhere.”
“Armaros was behind all this?” I bit off his name like a curse, eyes lifting to Seir who was as disgusted as I was.
“Yes. It’s hisinitiative,” James affirmed. “That’s what he called it when he came every so often to see if we were dead or dying yet.”
I recalled with rage how I had viscerally responded to the man that day in the church. “I came across him in Vincara, shortly after you had passed through. It’s a wonder he didn’t try to snatch Phin right from the church on the slightest suspicion she was Nephilim.” I hated to be thankful for the tincture that had quite literally been poisoning her, but it had done a good job keeping her hidden from him, even at close range.
“Youwerethere,” Brinda gasped. “We were so close.”
“He’s too careful for that.” Harmon shook his head. “We’ve been trying to find you, Phin, since we first escaped. Our first stop was to check the garden, but you were obviously already gone. The door was wide open again though, a clear trap. We’ve wanted to be sure you were okay, and to warn you. To apologize. This whole time. We went to Vincara because we’d heard a rumor that there was someone with eyes like ours in that village, a dark haired boy.” I raised an eyebrow, and the corner of Phin’s mouth twitched. “That was you, right? Not someone else?”
“Yes,” Phin confirmed.
“I hate that us going there drew his attention to you. It seems we’ve put you in further danger, and I’m sorry for that too, none of this was how we intended.”
They bled sincerity, and I found myself letting down my guard. They’d done what they could to survive and saved others in the process.
“I understand,” Phin assured them. “So… you escaped Heaven and have been running since then?” Phin asked. “How long were you held captive?”
