Red patches on uniforms. Scarlet city emblems on military trucks. Adder’s public announcement about the slaughter of Ilasall’s government. Gedeon hiding behind a silver car. Kali being dragged by a group of soldiers. A mass of them swarming me. And then…nothingness.
Ardaton had invaded Ilasall. And its military had likely brought me to Ardaton’s prison, deep underground, where offenders were thrown in to never experience sunshine’s warmth again.
Squinting, I attempted to scout the space I was?—
Bright light scorched my retinas. Illumination incinerated my nerve endings, and I ducked my head to slow the onslaught of sensation.
But the harsh lamps didn’t fully cover the surface of the white vinyl floor. Shadows swirled in the corners, and the farther from my scuffed-up and bloodied boots I looked, the more sparkles bounded across the floor.
When I lifted my head, dread settled in my gut.
My room wasn’t the one with the lights on.
A glass wall, without any frames or seams, stood before me. And behind the spotless barrier, in an identical room to mine, a woman sat strapped to a polished metal chair.
A woman I would’ve given anything to trade positions with.
Stripped naked, Kali tracked the movements of two individuals dressed in white, their loose pants and tunics as pristine as the entire space—not a speck of dirt. Even Kali had been washed clean, and I doubted she would’ve done so of her own will.
Especially when her limbs were secured so tightly, the chains dug into her flesh, her hands splayed on the wide armrests, each finger tied separately.
A familiar sputter signaled the engagement of speakers on my side of the transparent wall.
Someone must have noticed my state of alertness.
“So whatcanwe do?” the taller of the two figures asked, striding to the milky table near the exit in Kali’s room. As he rummaged in the few open boxes, his thin, synthetic clothing shifted, the rustle so jarring it blew my eardrums. Yet I couldn’t help but continue listening as the man rattled off, “We can’t toy with her sight or hearing, or anything fun in general. What does it leave us with?”
The smaller but curvier of the two adjusted the white mask over her face. That and the cadence of her voice betrayed she was female. “Our orders are to keep her generally intact. To not cause permanent damage or anything else that could hinder breeding her.”
Joining her friend in searching the boxes, she selected a meat cleaver gleaming in the rod-like lights hanging from wires.
Adrenaline spiked in my bloodstream from the awareness of how such a weapon could be used.
Leaning against the table, the taller one crossed his arms. “Or affect her appearance too much.”
My pulse thrummed as the prospect of Kali going through torture made me thrash in my restraints. Chains pinched and ripped the thin hairs littering my skin, but it was the pounding in my head and the steadily climbing flame in my broken wrist that convinced me to calm down.
I wouldn’t be able to do anything if I passed out again.
And from how Kali didn’t so much as glance at the clear wall dividing us, I guessed she had no clue she wasn’t alone.
She couldn’t see me. The glass was one-way.
“But they only said she has to look appealingenough.” The curvy woman’s remark chilled me to my core. Sauntering to Kali, she said, “I hope you rested in the break we’ve so gracefully afforded you, but it’s time to get back to business.”
“Good luck.” The woman’s colleague propped himself on the corner of the milky table, content to watch the show instead of participating. “Though, if she didn’t talk after I beat her up, I don’t think she will spill her secrets now.”
Beat. Her. Up.
My blood boiled. The cuffs sliced my flesh as I strained forward, as if my proximity alone could protect her. Feet slipping, they failed to find purchase on the floor, but I twisted and turned,writhed, rattling the restraints, ignoring the blinding spasms blooming from my fractured wrist and spreading, connecting with the multitude of gashes decorating my body.
Although dark patches of skin weren’t spoiling Kali’s flesh, bruises didn’t appear instantly. And the swelling… If you knew where to hit, you could minimize it to the point it’d be hard to spot.
Now I knew why Gedeon constantly ground his teeth. When you were bound, physically or otherwise, it was a way to pacify your wrath, clear the muddle in your mind, andfocus.
But the rising temperature inside me refused to go down. Sweat broke out along my hairline, the filling-me-to-the-brim heat doing nothing but warding me against the chill saturating the windowless room.
Wielding the meat cleaver, the woman asked Kali, “Tell me, how many of you managed to slink into Ilasall and how many remain outside the city?”
