2. Sapphire
Sapphire
The dark angel’s midnight eyes glint with defiance as she gives up trying to free herself from the prison of ice.
“Go ahead,” she says, weak but taunting. “Do your worst.”
Riven draws his sword and lets the tip hover near her throat. “Is that a challenge?” he asks, calm and calculating.
Too calm. Too calculating.
I grip my dagger, my fingers trembling, a breeze brushing across my skin.
How far is Riven going to go? How far is he capable of going? After all, he designed those three trials for me and Zoey—trials designed to break our bodies and minds.
Now, there’s something in the quiet precision of his movements that terrifies me .
“One of your kind took our human companion,” Riven says to the dark angel. “Zoey. Where is she?”
She tilts her head back, laughing softly. “Why waste your time on a human?” she asks. “She’s nothing. Less than nothing.”
“She’s not nothing,” I say, but the dark angel shakes her head and smiles, as if I’m a child talking back to my parent.
Anger rushes through me, and I pull water from the air, splashing it on her face.
Surprise flashes in her midnight eyes, and she laughs again, although she doesn’t use her magic to dry herself off. Which means she’s still weak, from both the blood loss and the relaxation potion.
Riven glances over at me, cool and detached. “Use your air magic,” he says. “Make it hard for her to breathe.”
“I don’t know how—” I start, but he cuts me off.
“Do it,” he presses. “Or do you not care about getting answers?”
The memory of Zoey being flown away by that dark angel plays through my mind—the terror in her eyes, and the pain that’s been eating at me about how she could be dead right now.
If she’s dead, it would be my fault.
Which means I have to step up. I have to do everything I can to find her, even if that means embracing the monster lingering under the surface.
“I do care,” I tell him, determination rushing through me as I focus on the dark angel’s throat, constricting the air around it just enough to make it difficult—but not impossible—for her to breathe.
Ghost prowls closer to me as I do, pressing against my leg in an offer of support.
Riven might hate me, but at least Ghost still cares.
“We’re not here for games,” Riven says as the dark angel gasps for air. “We’re here for answers. And if you don’t start giving them, I’ll make you wish you had.”
I increase the pressure, and she gasps again, sharper this time.
I hate this. I hate myself for being capable of doing it.
But it’s what I have to do. For Zoey.
“Release your hold,” Riven commands me. “Let her speak.”
I do, and the dark angel narrows her eyes at me, as if she’s challenging me.
“Your friend could be anywhere,” she says, and I tighten my grip around the hilt of my dagger at her obvious non-answer.
Riven responds by sending ice crystals crawling up her neck, stopping just short of breaking skin. “Answer the question,” he demands.
“You’re weak,” she says instead. “Both of you. Especially you, little hybrid. Too scared to embrace what you truly are.”
Her words hit that feeling I’ve been trying to push down since drinking from the first dark angel I encountered at the ravine.
The feeling I think might be fear. Of myself.
“I don’t know what I am,” I say, and this time when I gather water and send it toward her face, I don’t just splash her. I hold it in a globe around her head, drowning her in it, watching as her chest stops moving as she tries to not breathe in.
According to Riven, breathing underwater is a tough skill for even the strongest water wielders to master. I imagine it’s close to impossible for one who’s already weakened.
She flails her head around, but it’s no use. The sphere is so large that she can’t escape.
“Enough,” Riven says, and I release my hold on my magic, letting the water splash to the floor.
The dark angel opens and closes her mouth like a dying fish.
“Where’s Zoey?” Riven demands again.
“Even if I told you,” she says through gritted teeth, “you’d never make it there alive.”
Riven doesn’t flinch. “We’ll take that chance,” he says simply, and the ice shards along her arms press deeper, as if they’re trying to squeeze the answers out of her until she pops.
She doesn’t give in. Even after continuing like this for hours, she remains as evasive as she was from the start. And, to make it worse for her, she eventually heals from every injury we inflict, which allows us to keep starting the torture from the beginning.
“Wait,” she finally says, her eyes glazed with exhaustion. “Perhaps we can negotiate.”
I release my hold on my magic, relief flooding my bones. Because as much as I’ve been trying to hide it, hurting this woman is causing me another type of pain. The pain of knowing I’ll never be able to wipe what we’re doing to her from my mind, for as long as I live.
Sure, she’s a monster, but her cries have been disturbingly human.
Riven’s startlingly unaffected, but I don’t know how much longer it’ll be until I break from the brutality of it all.
“We’re listening,” he says coolly, not sparing a glance back at me.
The dark angel’s chest heaves as she catches her breath. “I’ll answer your questions,” she says. “But I want assurances.”
“You’re not exactly in a position to make demands,” I point out .
She laughs weakly. “Then get it over with and kill me. But good luck finding your friend without my help.”
Ghost growls low in his throat, but he stays pressed against my leg.
I rest my hand on his head in a subtle gesture of thanks. Because I don’t think I could have stomached all of this if not for him.
Riven remains focused on the dark angel, sizing her up, as if he’s trying to decide if her offer to negotiate is a decoy or not. “What do you want?” he finally asks.
“My life, obviously.” She shifts against her ice prison. “And I want limits. A time frame for questioning. After that, you let me go.”
“And then what?” I ask, since while I’m no expert in deals, there seems to be a lot of holes in this one. “You’ll try to kill us again?”
“We’ll give her the rest of the relaxation potion.” Riven’s cold eyes meet mine, challenging me. “And you’ll drink from her again. Make her as weak as possible before we leave.”
I still at the calm way he says it.
Drink from her again.
As if what he saw me do didn’t disgust him so much that he shut me out entirely.
But I force myself to nod, since his proposal is a practical one. Plus, there’s no denying that her blood will give me extra strength as we continue our journey .
The dark angel chuckles and tilts her head in amusement. “And what’s to stop you from killing me while I’m defenseless?” she asks, although she directs her question to Riven—not to me.
Understandably so. I’m new to this whole fae negotiation thing. Riven’s been doing it for his entire life.
“Not killing you will obviously be part of the deal,” he says, his attention snapping back to her. “And you’ll answer our questions as quickly and directly as possible. No riddles, no games, no manipulation, and no dancing around the truth.”
She says nothing for a long moment.
I hold my breath, worried she’s going to say no and put us right back where we started.
Then, finally, she speaks.
“Thirty minutes of questioning. Complete honesty from me. I’ll drink the potion and allow your girlfriend to feed from me afterward.” She grimaces, then swallows down her disgust. “In return, you’ll let me live, and you won’t seek me out again.”
“Two hours,” Riven counters.
“One hour,” she replies, barely needing a second to think.
Riven looks back at me, and I nod in response. Partly because I’m anxious to get answers, and partly because I don’t think I can stomach this interrogation session for much longer .
“One hour.” He directs his attention back to the dark angel and nods, stepping forward. “Now, here are the exact terms. For one hour, you’ll answer all our questions as completely, honestly, and directly as possible. You won’t attempt to mislead or manipulate us through careful word choice or omission. After the questioning, you’ll drink the remaining relaxation potion and allow Sapphire to feed from you until you’re barely holding on. In return, we’ll leave you alive and unconscious in this cave when we depart. Do you agree?”
“I agree.” She exhales shakily, as if a wall is coming down.
“Perfect.” Riven lowers his sword, his expression as cold as ever. “Then let’s seal it and begin.”