Chapter 12 #2
“Tyche!” she sobbed. A shaking hand thrust between the bars, reaching for him, but even if Tyche did the same, there was no way they could even brush fingertips.
Yet even knowing that, Tyche couldn’t help slipping a hand through the bars and reaching for her. “It’s okay. You’ll be okay. I’m here.”
“Where’s here? Where are we? Why are we here? Who are these people?”
Tyche’s tongue knotted. He didn’t even know where to begin, so he opted for one of his own questions. “Where’s Cirina? Where’s your sister?”
Yesuntei closed her eyes and rested her forehead on the bars. Her hand dropped to rest on the floor between their cells. “I don’t know. I’ve not seen her in…in a long time. We had a fight. You know how she is.”
Yeah, he knew too well. Cirina wasn’t all there.
She spent most of the time completely mad and out of touch with the real world, but he figured that came with being the Goddess of Dreams. Yet, as bonkers as she was, Cirina was also ferocious and a fierce protector of her softer and much more tenderhearted sister.
If Cirina had been with Yesuntei, Tyche didn’t believe she would have been taken.
“Who are these people?” she asked, dragging Tyche from his wandering thoughts.
“No idea. We just know they’re looking for anyone who has magic so they can steal it,” Tyche replied.
“But I…” Her quavering voice trailed off, and her one good eye darted toward Shawn, then back to Tyche.
He gave a slight shake of his head. Yeah, he might have trusted Shawn a bit, but he still had a lot of unanswered questions.
Right now, all he had to keep himself safe were his secrets.
And that meant protecting Yesuntei’s secrets as well.
“I know you don’t have any magic, Teitei.
These people are insane, but we’re making a plan.
We’re going to get out of here. I promise. ”
“Okay.” She peeked at Shawn as if she were afraid that he was going to break out of his cell and attack her.
“That’s Shawn. Another prisoner,” Tyche murmured.
Shawn leaned on his bars and waved a hand at her. “Ty’s a friend.”
“Tyche isn’t good at being friends with people,” Yesuntei said.
Shawn huffed a little laugh, which kept Tyche from wanting to groan. She wasn’t wrong. He didn’t have friends. He wasn’t a social creature like so many others. Yesuntei liked to say that he was all prickles and fangs.
“Well, we’re not good friends,” Shawn admitted, and Tyche tried to shoot him a scowl, but the man was ignoring him. “I call him my friend only because he keeps stealing food from me. If I didn’t call him a friend, I’d have to punch him for that kind of nonsense.”
A tiny sound escaped Yesuntei that sounded like a giggle. “Yes. He is all stomach.”
“Wait a minute! You said I was all prickles and fangs,” Tyche cut in.
“You are prickles, fangs, and stomach. But that is all,” Yesuntei countered, showing a spark of her usual spunk.
Shawn let out a low chuckle, and Tyche relaxed.
It was stupid, but he had a feeling that it was at least helping to tame some of Yesuntei’s panic.
He wanted to warn her against revealing anything about herself or her magic, but he couldn’t think of anything to say that would give it all away to Shawn.
Besides, what was the point? Yesuntei might look sweet and na?ve, but she wasn’t.
She’d had an incredibly long life too. That didn’t happen if a person was careless with their secrets.
For now, he could only make do with giving her the same warnings and advice that he’d passed along to Shawn after they first met. Get some stuffing for her ears. Trust nothing that Scarella promises. Keep your mouth shut. Don’t lose hope.
It wasn’t much, but it was the best he could do for now.
“Yesuntei?” Shawn began after they’d fallen silent for several minutes.
“You can call me Teitei, like Tyche,” she said.
Tyche narrowed his eyes at Shawn and swallowed a growl as he imagined the too-handsome man smiling at her. Yeah, everyone thought Yesuntei was sweet and pretty. They were all drawn in by her girlish looks.
“Thank you, Teitei,” Shawn replied.
Did his voice get deeper and softer? What the fuck?
“Can I ask where you were when you were taken?”
Okay, maybe that was an important question. Tyche was willing to give Shawn that much. He wasn’t being flirty for the sake of flirting.
“Um…” Yesuntei shifted where she was seated on the floor.
She’d long ago pulled her arm into her cell and now had her back pressed to the stone wall while leaning the right side of her body on the bars.
“I think…yes, I was near the north docks in Bellcairn. I’d booked a cabin on a ship that was heading to Zastrad. ”
“Zastrad?” Shawn gasped.
“Well, the ship was going to Uris-Oladul, but from there I was planning to grab another boat to the Zastrad coast.”
“Do you think this means that we’re still in Bellcairn?
” Tyche cut in before Shawn could start asking questions about why Yesuntei was going to Zastrad.
No one went to that country. However, Yesuntei spent most of her time in Zastrad or Ilon because there were lots of peaceful spots with tiny settlements of people.
That allowed her to get what she needed to enjoy life without spending too much time surrounded by people.
Interacting with people too much was dangerous for her.
Those kidnapping bastards must have grabbed her during her trek from Ilon to Zastrad.
“Maybe. It’s hard to say,” Shawn hedged. “Just like us, they could have drugged her and loaded her up on a truck. We could be in the middle of nowhere.”
Tyche grunted and slouched against the wall. “Doesn’t matter.”
The important thing was to escape. What waited for them outside these cold white walls was a problem they would tackle after they were free.
“Ty?” Yesuntei called.
“Yeah?”
“You won’t leave me behind, right? When it comes time to escape.”
Tyche smiled at the sleepy sound of her voice. She seemed so sweet and innocent. In many ways, she was, but he also knew that she had the power to scare the humans to death. Literally.
“No, I won’t leave you behind. I promise.”
“We’re taking you with us,” Shawn echoed.
Something inside Tyche’s chest unwound, and he took a full breath for the first time since Yesuntei had been brought into their cellblock.
Shawn had no idea who he was talking to.
No clue as to what she was capable of. And part of Tyche prayed that he never found out.
Yet, Shawn was still vowing to save her life.
Tyche might not trust Shawn, but he believed that deep down, he was a decent person.
He hoped the man would survive what was coming.