“Are there prisoners in here?” Avery finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
“Yes, Avery, we do keep our prisoners here,” Savine replied, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
Avery tried to make out someone in the cell that passed, but the light was too low for her to see what the cell held. “Why are they so quiet?”
Kyla gave her arm a squeeze. “There are others like Raikin. One is the warden of the prison and he keeps the prisoners’ mouths bound with his essence.”
A chill went down her spine. Avery knew Savine was ruthless, knew he had a side to him that would stop at nothing to secure his folks’ well being and safety, but there was something unnerving about knowing that she’d bound herself to a man who continued to let folk live in these conditions.
There was a part of her that wondered if she needed to take on a bigger role in ruling the nation just to allow folk more rights. She’d never seen an American prison, and knew there were problems with her own country, but this seemed crueler than anything she could imagine.
Finally, they stopped at a cell where Raikin stood, waiting. Savine placed his hand on the white bars, and they opened immediately to his touch.
“I’ve prepared the prisoner for you, My King,” Raikin said. Jay moved around them to stand at Raikin’s side. Even in this dreary place, Jay smiled and winked at his soulmate. How had he gotten to that point? To overlook Raikin’s faults and only see the good in him?
They entered the cell and Avery gasped at the state Kinlon was in. He was bound to a table, sap dripping from his face and arms, burn marks slowly healing across his skin from the scalding substance.
His eyes were closed and he only wore pants. She could now see just how emaciated the man was. His ribs jutted out and where Savine and the other men in this room were stacked with muscles, Kinlon’s skin clung to his skeletal frame.
She heard Kyla let out a strangled gasp at the sight before her. “Savine, this man is wasted away. His essence is drained and he has nothing left.”
“Then he’ll give the last of himself in service to his king and queen,” Savine said, his voice a cold growl. Addressing Kinlon, he said, “Open your eyes. One last thing and your soul may rot in the Abyss for eternity.”
Kinlon groaned on the table as he cracked an eye open. “You will never be my king, and I’d rather spend eternity in the Abyss than help a human scum sent to destroy my realm.”
Raikin spoke up. “He was ready to share all his secrets yesterday. Perhaps we need to…”
Avery interrupted. It was one thing to try and talk to this man, but it was another to watch Raikin torture him. “No, we’re not going to force his answers out while under duress.”
“If you insist, My Queen,” Raikin replied.
Avery stepped closer and she felt the bond between her and Savine tug at her. “Kyla? Can you help in a gentler way?”
Kyla stepped forward and pressed her hand against the man’s arm. She felt Garnel move up with her, keeping close to his mate.
The man’s face relaxed for the first time and his breathing steadied. He closed his eyes before he opened them again. “The best I’ve felt in—You’ve manipulated my emotions. Such relief.”
Avery moved closer to the table, standing side by side with Kyla. “How long were you in the human realm?”
Kyla continued to hold the man’s arm, her essence stirring restlessly under her skin. “A little over a decade. We’ve been searching for you all these years.”
“How did you know where to find me? How would you have recognized me?” Avery asked, her voice shaking with the knowledge that she’d been hunted in her own world, yet miraculously never caught. Maybe that was the cause of all those twitchy itchy moments between herself and Morgan. Instinctively, she’d known that she was in danger.
“We sought twins marked by the Goddess. We searched where we could without being caught, but your kind have found us out. Took us if we were caught.” His eyes locked on Avery and his face hardened. Kinlon’s body shook on the table, trying to free himself of Kyla’s grasp. “Ah! Damn you, traitorous bitch! Get your filthy essence out of me!”
Kyla didn’t speak as she continued to push her essence into him, once against sedating him into complacency. He sighed deeply again and his eyes looked glazed. “Your kind took some of us. I don’t know where they were sent, but the ones who were caught were never seen again. After several years of being hunted, I realized they were some sort of secret spies for your nation.”
Avery wanted to laugh at how ludicrous this sounded. “The FBI? Are you trying to tell me the US Government has captured fae?”
“Believe it. I’ve been hunted for years. They drew me off your trail and I was forced to take refuge in the forest. My essence didn’t work properly there so I’ve survived through my wit.”
Avery frowned. “You said you were looking for a human marked by the Goddess, but I never had the mark until I came here.”
The man shook his head. “Untrue. It was always there, just not visible in your realm. You have no magic there, so such things couldn’t be seen by your kind. That mark was on you at birth, as all marked by the Goddess are.”
Avery didn’t dare look at Kyla and her freshly trimmed bangs covering her glamoured forehead.
“How would you even know that?” Avery asked. “I never saw a fae until I got here.”
