They hissed, groaned, shrieked and screamed in frustration as they fought against the bars of their cell, their arms outstretched through the small spaces to try and grab us.
But we kept moving, dodging their grabby hands—and claws.
Until we weren’t.
Marcus let out a desperate plea before falling to his knees in front of one of the cages. The long raven hair hid the woman’s face, but not enough not to notice the Onyx and gold flecks of her eyes.
“Alina,” he half whispered, half sobbed.
The woman lifted her head and tilted it to the side, watching him. Studying him. She remained dead silent as the other Immortals in the cage kept attacking their cells and the air on the other side of it.
“Alina,” he said again, walking closer and inspecting the lock on her door. “Fuck…”
“Marcus, you shouldn’t—”
I gasped as he turned around abruptly, searching through the sheets of paper littering the floor. I bet if he’d known we’d find his lover right on the other side of the door, he wouldn’t have given the bunch of keysto the Divines that left to free all the others. Or maybe, we should have searched more unconscious guards’ pockets…There was no way there was only one with the keys to the cells.
“Marcus, maybe I can—”
“I need a fucking paperclip. Anything. Help me find something!”
I crouched beside him and searched. There were lots of staples, but—
“Jackpot,” he said, standing up abruptly.
“Marcus, please listen to me for a second…”
He gave me a noncommittal grunt as he started fumbling with the lock. My eyes darted to the Witch sitting at the far end of the cell, and the hair along my arms rose from the way she looked at him.
Oh, their reunion wasn’t going to be a pleasant one…
“Be careful, have you seen the others? She might not be herself,” I whispered next to him, but he kept ignoring me, pushing me away.
“I can’tleaveher here!” he snapped, sweat dotting his forehead from both the strange humid heat and his focus. His hands were shaking when the lock finally clicked and the door opened with a loud creak. “Alina,” he said again, soft like he was trying to lure a small and frightened animal, waving his hand for her to join him. “Baby, come here, we’ll get you out…Where’s Caleb?”
He turned his head, surveying the other prisoners. None of them must have looked like the one he was searching for…
“Alina?”
Before he could even look back toward her, she lunged, pushing him to the floor and landing on top of him, hissing like a feral cat and trying to claw his face.
I took a step, ready to grab the woman by the hair to pull her away.
“Don’t!” Marcus yelled, both of his hands circling her wrists. “Don’t touch her! Let me—let me handle this!”
I gritted my teeth but complied.
Marcus remained soft as he deflected each and every one of her blows but her attacks were savage and merciless. Swiping her long, dirty nails and snapping her teeth at his face.
“Alina! Stop, please!”
“I can’t!” she shrieked. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t!”
I forced myself to stay back, noticing the other prisoners had gone strangely quiet as they looked at the scene with hungry eyes.
Discreetly, I tried to slip into her mind like I did with the demon guards.MaybeI could help without hurting her. Withouttrulyintervening.
But her mind and soul were dark abysses of pure, uncontrolled anger and rage. And, like for the guards, I couldn’t amplify nor appease it…
