Page 69

Uriel squirmed, subconsciously tucking himself against Bruiser’s chest. “They kept me in a cold, dank cell underground, without any light. I tried countless times to unlock my cuffs, or even just conjure some light or warmth, but the cuffs drained my magic. It didn’t matter how much power I used; when I tried to overload them with everything I had, the cuffs absorbed it, and I passed out. I only woke up when they kicked me awake.”

“Fuckers,” Bruiser growled, his arms wrapping more tightly around Uriel. “I hate the thought of you being trapped. Being hurt. Four years.”

Uriel shuddered. “It was horrible. I knew my parents wouldn’t have searched for me, and I’d spent so much time in the school library studying spell books that I hadn’t made any good friends. No one cared enough to make a police report.”

“Not even the school?”

“They probably called my parents. My parents would’ve told them we’d moved away. No one would follow up then.”

“You were only seventeen,” Bruiser said, outraged.

Uriel gave a mirthless laugh. “And if they waited long enough, I would’ve turned eighteen, and I wouldn’t be their responsibility anymore.”

Bruiser took several unsteady breaths behind him. “I’m sorry your parents are such assholes.”

Uriel shrugged uncomfortably. “They brought me into this world and kept me alive for seventeen years. There’s that. After, when I got out, I went back to their house. They had cleared out my room and used up all the money I’d stashed for myself. Then they told me they thought I was dead, and shut the door in my face.”

Bruiser trembled, his breathing forcibly slow and even. “I’m going to get back at them for this.”

Uriel bit his lip. “If me being kidnapped and tortured didn’t change their minds, I don’t see how anything you do would.”

Bruiser cursed. He breathed for several long moments. “So, magic-draining cuffs, underground cell. How did you get out?”

Uriel sagged. “For a long time, I didn’t think I would. They beat me when I fought, and when they did the injections, the changes to my body made me fatigued. I lost track of time in there. But sometimes they gave me a break between the experiments, and I used those times to feel my way around my cell.”

Bruiser frowned. “Nothing you could use?”

“Not at first. The cell was all concrete walls and floors, with a steel door that I couldn’t hope to break. But one day, one of the scientists dropped his tray of tools at my feet. He didn’t pick them up immediately, so I kicked one of the tools under my bunk while he was monologuing.”

“Nice.”

“It was one of those awful things with a thin metal hook at the end. When he left, I retrieved it from under my bunk and tried to use it on my cuffs. Then I pressed it against the floor to straighten out the hook, but still couldn’t pick the lock because I had no experience with physical hacks.”

“So how...?”

“I made a friend.”

Bruiser’s eyebrows went up.

“He came in crying,” Uriel explained. “I don’t know what experiments they did on him, but he was in the cell across from mine. At first he cried a lot. Then he stopped, like he’d given up, and I knew I couldn’t just let him think he was alone. So I pressed my ear to the door and listened for guards, I was good at picking out their movements by then. When it sounded like there was no one outside our cells, I would yell things like ‘Hi!’ and ‘Can you hear me?’ and hope he’d answer. It took Fenn a while to trust the voices, and a couple times, the guards caught us talking.”

Bruiser stiffened behind him. “They punished you?”

“Yeah. But Fenn and I learned that crying and groveling made them stop the punishments earlier, so... We learned to listen out for guards before we talked. Then I asked if he knew how to pick locks.”

Bruiser huffed quietly. “He did?”

“Yeah. I didn’t want to let it slip that I might have a tool for it, in case there were others around, or maybe even guards. So I had to leave some time in between each lock-picking discussion. It took a while, and I knew I was running out of time because he kept sounding weaker every time we talked.”

Bruiser stiffened up again. “Did he make it?”

Uriel couldn’t help it; he was still an asshole at heart. So he continued his story instead of giving Bruiser a straight answer.

“It turned out that I needed a second lock picking tool, not just one. So I had to discreetly steal that too, when a scientist came into my cell and his back was turned. With Fenn’s help, I eventually unlocked my shackles. The first thing I did was to remove the magic-sucking spell. It felt so good to have my magic back, like I wasn’t constantly hungry anymore.

“The second thing I did was to get my cell door open. There weren’t any guards, so I went into Fenn’s cell and checked on him.” Uriel drooped. “He was pretty bad off. I didn’t have time to study much healing magic before I was captured; all I had were the basics. It took me a while to fix his internal injuries. I charmed his bunk so it would heal him whenever he was on it; he wasn’t even conscious at that point.” His breath caught. “I think he might’ve died, if I hadn’t gotten to him that day.”

“Fuck.”