I straightened in my chair. “Tonight, for dinner, I want a twelve-ounce medium-rare steak with garlic potatoes. I’m sick of the mush, and I’ve earned it.” I’d eaten mashed potatoes, broth, creamed rice, oats, anything you could think of that made a slop noise when you threw it in a bowl. I was done with that.
The corner of his lips quirked into a smile.
“Jennings!” he snapped and the door opened to reveal his most loyal guard. My interrogation had gotten the man a promotion. He loved Lord Stryker and would never think of stealing from him, and wanted to kill anyone who dared speak against him.
“Yes, my lord.” Jennings stood erect, waiting for a command.
“Go fetch the miner boy, Eli,” he said and relief washed through me. He was giving me what I wanted. Well, half of it.
He peered down at me then. “I’ll tell you what. If Eli is innocent, like you say, you get your steak dinner.”
I gulped. “And if he’s not?”
“Then I’ll make you carry out his sentence.”
My stomach clenched.
“And what is his sentence?” I asked.
Nervousness rushed through me as Stryker held my gaze. He wasn’t smiling, but the gleam in his eye told me he was taking pleasure in making me squirm. “Death.”
The uneasiness in my belly exploded into full-blown panic.
“What’s that look for, little witch?” Stryker asked with a hint of a smile. “You’ve been so adamant that the young boy is innocent, that he was falsely accused. Surely there’s no need to worry.”
I swallowed my fear, not wanting Lord Stryker to see the truth, that I hadn’t actually used my magic on Eli so I didn’t know if he was in fact innocent. Although it felt like he already knew.
I put my shoulders back and lifted my chin, putting on my princess front and forcing all emotion from my face.
“And when you learn he’s innocent?” I said, challenging him.
Something sparked in Stryker’s gaze, and if I didn’t know better I’d say it was respect. “If the boy is in fact innocent, like you claim,he’ll be released and given rations to bring back to his family for the amount of time he’s been in my dungeon.”
I blinked back at him. I’d hoped for the release, but hadn’t expected Lord Stryker to go above and beyond, atoning for a false imprisonment.
He must have seen the shock on my face because his mouth flattened into a scowl. “I’m not a monster,” he snapped, and I kept my mouth shut because I still wasn’t fully convinced that was true. “If the boy is blameless that means I’ve deprived his family of an extra set of hands to help feed them all this time. They are owed their due.”
“That’s very …justof you,” I said, reining in my emotions once again. They had a nasty habit of getting out of my control when I was around the growly fae. Something I found very annoying.
“I pay my debts,” he reiterated, getting agitated, but before he could say more the cell door creaked open and a guard hauled in a young unseelie fae that I assumed was Eli.
With his rounded face and lanky figure he looked even younger than I’d imagined. On the cusp of being a young man, but not quite there yet.
I’d met many different types of unseelie over the last several days, but I’d never seen someone like him before. His skin was gray with hardened patches over his cheekbones, the ridge of his brow, and along both forearms. It almost looked as if he was partially made of stone. Two small horns peeked out from his mess of black curls. And rather than nails on the ends of each finger, he had small talons that came to a point.
The boy’s wide eyes swiveled back and forth over the room,taking in Stryker first before swinging over to where I was tethered to the torture chair at my ankle. At least I wasn’t strapped down fully like I had been the first day, but it was still obvious I was as much Stryker’s prisoner as he was.
When his gaze collided with mine I saw that his eyes were filled with terror. My heart instantly went out to him.
“The prisoner you requested, my lord,” the guard said and pushed the boy further into the room.
“M-m’lord,” Eli said and tried to bow deeply, but he was shaking so badly that he stumbled a step. The guard roughly yanked him up by the scruff of his neck and Eli winced.
“Stop,” I yelled, pulling at my ankle restraint as I positioned myself to leap up if needed. “Don’t touch him!”
Fear flashed over the guard’s face, showing he had some sense after all, and he instantly removed his hand from Eli and took a half step back.
That’s right. I might be shackled to this infernal chair, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t dangerous.
