My heart clenches. Even if we are able to get back to theUnseelie Court while the wound is still fresh, I worry that Haldia still won’t be able to heal his eye. If Jessina had only cut through it, sure. That would definitely be fixable. But is it even possible to grow an eye back when it has been carved out fully and destroyed? I’m not sure if even Rin Tanaka with her powerful healing magic from the Orange Clan would be able to accomplish such a feat. But then again, I’m not an expert on healing magic, so there might still be hope.
Another stab of pain hits my heart as I glance at Orion’s face again.
There has to be hope.
There has to.
“It’s high time you experience what being held captive is really like,” Jessina declares as she strides into the room, her silver skirts swishing around her.
Anger crackles through me, and I snap my gaze to her. “What it’s really like? We already know. We’ve been captives all our lives!”
“And then, we treated you well. We showed you kindness and mercy that your race does not deserve.” Her pale gray eyes flash as she grabs me by the collar and yanks me up from the floor before shoving me down so that I’m sitting with my back against the cold stone wall instead. “But when you held my mate captive, you tortured him.”
Steel glints in the dim light of the cell as she raises her knife again.
“Like this,” she snarls.
And then she drives her knife right down into my thigh and twists.
A scream shatters from my throat as pain crackles through me.
“And this,” Jessina growls.
Agony spikes through my shoulder as she rams the bladethrough it. Black spots dance before my eyes, and my vision swims when she twists the knife before yanking it out again. She’s shockingly strong. I’m wearing my black fighting leathers, and she just shoved the blade straight through the thick fabric.
“Over and over again you stabbed him,” Jessina continues. “I know. Because I could feel it through our mate bond.”
On the floor, Isera snaps her gaze to us and opens her mouth. But only wheezing sounds make it out of her throat since it still hasn’t healed after her furious screaming. I meet her eyes for a second before simply shifting my gaze back up to Jessina.
Isera and I both know that she was the one who stabbed Bane like this when we held him captive. Not me. But she can’t tell Jessina that since her voice is still broken. And I don’twantto tell her that, so I keep my mouth shut as the vengeful empress raises her knife again.
Pain pulses from the wounds in my thigh and shoulder, but I just grit my teeth and glare back at Jessina while she positions the blade over my other leg.
“My love,” Bane suddenly says as he strides in through the door.
Jessina stops right before she can drive the knife into my thigh and instead turns towards him. It takes all of my willpower to suppress a breath of relief.
“We still need her to be able to walk, remember?” Emperor Bane continues, his voice casual.
Annoyance flits across Jessina’s face, and she clicks her tongue, but she does stand up straight away and leaves me sitting there by the wall without inflicting any new injuries.
Coming to a halt in the middle of the cell, Bane sweeps his gaze over all five of us broken and exhausted fae on the floor before he meets Jessina’s eyes again.
“I’m starting to get tired of always having fae around,” he says. “After we win this war and kill all of these insubordinate faeresponsible for it, why don’t we just leave the rest of them trapped there in the Seelie Court to fend for themselves?”
Jessina frowns. “What?”
“We started all of this because we wanted to get away from the fae. And now, we have spent our entire lives surrounded by them. I’m sick of it.”
“I hate them too. But without life slaves, we will no longer be immortal.”
“If that’s the trade-off, perhaps it’s worth it.”
Hope flutters in my chest. First, Bane hesitated when they were attacking us with ice flames earlier. Then he looked conflicted after Jessina cut out Orion’s eye. And now…
I stare at Bane, trying to read the expression on his face.
Maybe those memories that Orion showed him earlier, Bane’s own memories mixed in with ours, had some kind of effect on him.
