But it was the beasts who drew my attention more.
Each cage we passed, the beasts within dropped. Wolves, bears, lions, panthers. The sound of bodies hitting metal rang out throughout the prison as silence washed over the area.
Not even the guards said a word, though they drew their weapons. Out of habit, I placed my hand on my hip, where my gun was hidden. We’d been warned the prisoner might try to steal our weapons. They were charmed and hidden now on anyone sent to deal with her.
But the beasts didn’t try to escape. They made no other sound other than hitting their cages as they fell.
Even the other prisoners reacted to her presence.
We dragged her to a large cage in the centre of the prison. New wards buzzed along the bars, turning my stomach. They reminded me of the magic of her cell. That buzzing, which came with pain, returned as the bloody male opened the cage door.
“Enjoy your new home,” the male said, turning to our prisoner with a dark smile. “I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.”
She said something, her voice soft, but I couldn’t hear her over the buzzing in my ears.
Whatever she said angered my partner, but he didn’t strike her. Instead, he grabbed her by the chain of her collar and dragged her into the cage.
“Maybe you’ll finally learn your place,” he sneered.
I didn’t stop him as he threw her inside. Even though something within me screamed to take her and run, to save her, I couldn’t move.
Before the cage door could close, the prisoner hissed, “I hate you.”
Something in those words made the pain worse. Gave the agony a new life.
The familiar creature grabbed me by the shoulder, moving me away from the cage and the female within. “Do you remember who she is?” he asked carefully.
I kept my eyes trained on the doors ahead of us as the beasts in the surrounding cages howled and whined. “No,” I replied slowly.Lie, something within me shouted.Do not trust the bloody one. “Should I?”
The male made a sound in the back of his throat. “Yeah,” he muttered. “You should.”
Those words fed the fiery pain. And I let it.
19
Xerxes
My handlereyed me with disdain as I ran my fingers over the strange metal dish. We had weapons made of the same substance, forged by the southern clans who still had fire in their veins from the elemental witches who once roamed my world. But to see the same metal we fought hard to uncover used to make something so easily crafted from clay had me…curious.
“It’s a fucking plate,” Handler snapped, deep voice cutting through my thoughts. I glanced up from the slop that covered theplate. “You eat off it.”
The soldier sitting next to my handler laughed. “He’s a fucking beast from the Old World,” the male said, slapping my handler on the shoulder. “Give him a break. They probably still live in caves.”
I gritted my teeth to keep from correcting him. The male likely believed I didn’t understand him, but we had Fae blood, and that gave most of us the ability to understand the evolution of languages. My understanding of them was likely even better than his own—better than most, except for the Winter Fae, where the ability stemmed from.
I couldn’t help but wonder if they realised I knew enough about them to know what they were now. That my handler was a traitor to those with magic in their veins. In my world, weknew only of females having magic at their fingertips, but that’d clearly changed when the Queen of Nyx made her creatures flee their home and create another. My handler was not a witch, but what they referred to as amage.
The other soldier, one I knew only from these meals, was a demon. Traitors, both of them.
My handler rolled his eyes as I brought theforkto my lips. Whatever they were feeding us tasted like shit. But I didn’t say that aloud. The food was barren of any flavour or actual substance. Even if we lived incaves, we still ate better thanthis.
“I don’t even know why he’s still here,” my handler muttered. “He should be in the cages with the rest of the beasts.”
The other soldier groaned. “Not this again. You know as a beast he cantalk? That makes him pretty damned cool if you ask me.” I felt the bright eyes of the soldier on me. “How does that work?”
I dropped the fork with a grimace as I swallowed the tasteless grit. “I don’t know,” I replied, barely looking at him as I fidgeted with the charmed twine beneath the table where it was tied to my belt. “It is something we have always had the ability to do. Why do your beasts not speak?”
The soldier snorted. “Fair question.” He pushed his tray away and leaned back. “Is it true you also don’t have a dick?”
