“There you are! Let's kill these fuckers!” I pulled my dagger as Cyn growled, and we both ran for the Shanba.
“Restrain your mate and disarm him, King Cynric,” Alcha said calmly.
Cyn shuddered to a halt, then turned to me, his expression gone blank. I tried to back away, but he caught me and wrenched the dagger from my hand. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed it aside.
“Very good,” Alcha said. “Now come with us, King Cynric, and bring your mate.”
“Why are you doing this?” I growled as Cyn hauled me along with him, after the Shanba.
“We already told you,” Tla said. “Weren't you listening? Your king doesn't do his duty. He allows our children to be hurt and even killed. Now, he will pay for all those lives he's damaged.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I snapped. “No one can prevent bad shit from happening. He's a good king, and he tries his best. The next Dragon you get may not be so generous.”
“We will take our chances,” Yanu said.
“The Horns saw you and the castle staff know who you are,” I tried again as we entered a cave that quickly turned into a tunnel. “They'll hunt you down.”
“They will never find us,” Alcha said. He pulled a cord and wall sconces flicked on, lighting the way down the tunnel. “They'll assume we retreated to the forest. We're Shanba after all. They'll never think to look for us here. And once we're done with you, we'll leave the kingdom.”
“You're all crazy!”
Alcha stopped and turned to face me. “No, we're angry. We're fucking furious. We've been mistreated for far too long and this is what happens when you abuse people. They eventually fight back.”
“This isn't fighting back, nor is your anger justified. You're hurting a good man who would have done everything in his power to help your people if you had only brought your concerns to him like a fucking rational person!”
Alcha rolled his eyes, turned around, and continued down the corridor. “Agree to disagree.”
I gave up on trying to reason with them. Crazy people can't be reasoned with. It's kind of their thing. But I continued to try to get through to Cyn. I had a glimpse of him already, so I knew he was still in there. But what they'd done to him differed from what they'd done to their other victims, myself included. With Cyn, they had kept their command open, holding him in a sort of limbo. It was good because I knew what to expect. Nothing hidden to emerge later. But mostly, it was terrible.
We entered a vast cavern. There was some furniture there—a table, some chairs, a few pallets, and a trunk—but that was all. The ceiling surged thousands of feet above us and the space was at least a few hundred feet across. Big enough for a dragon.
Could I get Cyn to shift and fry these fuckers? Maybe, but I'd have to wait for the perfect time.
“Chain your mate to the wall over there, King Cynric,” Alcha said as he pointed.
Cyn hauled me over to the smooth, curving rock wall, and as we approached, I noticed two lengths of chain embedded in the stone about four feet up. At their ends were a pair of manacles. I didn't fight as Cyn secured the manacles to my wrists. There was no point.
The three Shanba men went to the table and sat down, ignoring us now that I was bound.
“We should torture that worthless thief,” Tla said.
“He will pay for what he did to Gorsi,” Alcha said. “But let's think this through before we act.”
“What's there to think about? We brought him along to torment the King,” Yanu said. “Now we just up the torment by forcing Cynric to kill his mate.”
My blood ran cold. Surviving the death of a mate was hard enough for a Dragon. But if they forced Cyn to kill me, he was as good as dead himself. And he'd die in mental as well as physical anguish. If he could even kill himself. Maybe he'd just lie down in the cavern and never get up. Fuck.
“Remember, we need to draw this out,” Alcha said. “We will not properly avenge our young if we simply torture the King for a few minutes.”
I tuned them out. I needed to think. The manacles weren't a problem. I could free myself with my belt buckle if I had to. But there was hopefully an easier way.
“Cyn,” I whispered.
Nothing.
“Cyn!”
Cynric blinked and looked over at me.
