Slave.
Like a slave.
Like the other Priestesses, bound in Caledonian gold. Tied to an Elite parasite.
Forever.
When the shaking started, it rattled the chain in the captain’s hands, dusting frost into my lungs and chaos into my brain.
How? How could I have let this happen? How could I have been so bloody stupid? So rash and sightless?
The lock clicked open.
Meeting that inky gaze was all it took. I fell back, skinning my elbow.
He followed. Easily. Grinning. Extending his hand. “Come.”
I shook my head, opening the whip lash as I inched away. Broken ribs chewing at my insides.
Pendant swinging forward against the inside of his shirt, the captain loomed over me with a smirk, hauling me to my feet with his hands on my waist. “You know, I neverdidget your name. I was able to narrow it down to Tannovic, but the records showedtwoSenators with that surname, believe it or not. I couldn’t determine if they were both Senators at the same time, as the records were a bit… charred. Anyway, theybothhad daughters.” He flicked a matted length of caramel brown over my shoulder. “So it’s either Mila, or Grace. But somehow I don’t think the latter quite fits…”
Fingers dug into the lash, parting the torn edges of my rough-spun shirt, but I did little more than grimace.
I had to get free! Had to get his hands off me before… before…
The room spun. Dark stars glittered in my periphery as I swayed, blinking up at him.
Ki! I needed ki!
Too desperate for pride, I reached for the parasitic link festering inside, trying to pull something from it—fromhim—to chase the oblivion away.
But the link remained lifeless to my touch. Cold.
The captain’s gleeful smile faltered, hand coming away sticky with red. “Shit,” he breathed, one hand steadying me as I wobbled, frowning at the other. “Are you injured?”
Blood. I could smell the coppery tang. But I huffed, trying to shake him off, though my lips tingled and the room tilted and bucked beneath my feet.
How in the name of the dead Goddess had this happened? How had I failed in such spectacular fashion?
“Miss Tannovic!”
In a detached sort of way, I watched his lips continue to move before everything went white and I hit the floor.
Chapter 13
A strong grip tightened around my ribs and the crooks of my knees, bringing me back mid-way through a hushed conversation.
“I can’t do it if she’s injured, Marco. I won’t take the risk.”
Cheek pressed to a muscular chest, I lay limp in his embrace. Rocking with every step. A masculine scent tickling my nose.
Sweet tobacco smoke wafted over me. “To the infirmary, then?”
The captain cursed, the sentiment rumbling through his chest and into mine. “No. No one can know I’ve got her. Not until it’s done. It’s too risky. If one of the others find out…”
“They won’t.”
Someone had freed me of the Raith—at least in part, for my wrists were no longer bound by leatherorpoison. It gave me a little extra room to breathe, without allowing me to touch the soul-deep well of ki that defined me. It wasn’t enough, not with the same foul, ki-stealing substance encircling my throat, but it was something.
