Chapter 8 #2
Biting my trembling lip, I press my face into the closest back. It’s the incubus—I know from his scent. I hide between them as I fall apart. I do not have time for this, but pain demands to be felt.
It doesn’t care that I need to keep moving and save my people.
All it cares about is ripping me apart. Grief follows on its heels and tears what is left of me up.
I sob for my mother, for her lover, and all those who suffer.
I cry for the body I lost and the confidence they stole.
I weep for the innocence torn away, along with the reverence I felt for this world.
I cry until no tears remain, but we continue to stand here. They remain strong and unmoving, as if they would stay here for eternity if I needed it. I don’t know where that loyalty comes from, but I know it’s true.
I don’t know if I could trust another man, but these men seem determined to make me a liar. They have shown me nothing but understanding and comfort.
I hate men. I really do.
But these men? I can’t explain it. There’s something about them that makes me feel safe for the first time in a week. They would never touch me or look at me without permission. They have shown me more understanding than any man ever has, and I’m using them, but they know about it and don’t care.
Eventually, I grow chilled, so I pull my head away. “I’m okay. I should get dressed.”
“Only if you’re ready,” Bellami replies. “Otherwise, we will stay until you are. The world can wait, Elara.”
“The world waits for no one, not even a queen.” The words slip free, and he turns his head, looking at me.
“It will wait for this queen. I will ensure it.”
A real smile curls my lips as I stare into his eyes.
I eventually get dressed and climb onto Frost’s back. Corbin sits behind me as if that is his spot. Bellami grumbles and slips down Frost’s legs a million times while trying to climb up, and when I laugh, Frost only seems to make it harder so he falls.
Leaning into the dragon, I smile against his scales in gratitude. When the incubus is finally seated, we burst through the trees and into the air.
The black site isn’t too far from where we stayed. It’s deep in the forest and hidden, but I suppose that’s the point. When we land before the innocuous, one-storey building that looks abandoned, I eye Corbin. “Are you sure this is the place?”
“Don’t let it fool you. There are cameras and sensors everywhere.
It looks like this on purpose. It stretches deep into the bowels of the earth, not up.
” He strides over to the gate, and I see a fresh keypad there, the only sign this structure is not forgotten.
He scans his hand, and the gate opens, allowing us to step into what looks to be an old parking lot.
The once white lines are mostly cracked and faded as we walk to the squat grey building.
It could have been an outpost or a bunker, I’m not sure, but there are no windows and the front doors are closed.
When Corbin knocks his knuckles against it, I realise they are reinforced steel.
After scanning his eye and hand, he has to haul the heavy doors open, and then he steps in. Lights turn on as he moves, and when we are all crammed into the corridor, the doors shut and lock.
The floor is tiled, and some spots are chipped, but it’s clean, as are the dark navy walls. I can see more metal doors down the long corridor, which Corbin heads down. “Armory, just in case. Bunks. Command centre. They are all stocked with these.”
“What is a black site?” Frost asks.
“It’s where they take the monsters they capture or need answers from.
They are built to withstand the most dangerous and powerful beings in the world, even those who are too powerful to exist. This one was marked off a long time ago.
I always wondered why, since it’s so close to Stalker’s Rest, but now I know.
It houses only one prisoner.” He presses his hand to a pad on the wall next to the last door, and a panel opens and displays information.
“A mind walker, a very, very strong one. Not much is known about him, but he was deemed a hazard and brought here. It seems Tate couldn’t bear to kill him, so he’s been here while they decide what to do with him. ”
“Does that mean he’s killed people?” I ask.
“Maybe, but Tate would not have sent us here without reason. I’m not saying it will be easy, but if she says we need him, then we need him,” he replies before hitting the pad again. The door buzzes and opens, revealing stairs going down. “Stay close.”
Without pause, he descends, so we follow.
The steps aren’t wide enough for us to walk side by side, but they are very steep.
The air is tight and warm at the bottom, and the room is huge and circular.
Two levels of cell doors face us, with a metal railing on the upper level.
There’s a table in the middle of the level we are on, with two chairs below hanging lights.
Discarded metal chains and cuffs are bolted to them.
“They are all empty?”
“Bar one,” Corbin answers as he walks through a door opposite us, leading to a separate corridor that has five metal doors between it and the others. “This is where they keep the most dangerous creatures. I’ve only heard of it being used once besides now, and that was for the naga king.”
“What happened to him?” I ask softly. Something about this place makes me feel like I need to whisper.
Corbin glances back at me, his face cold and eyes hard. “They killed him after he slaughtered over a hundred hunters in search of his sister.”
“Did he find her?” I query quietly.
“No, no one ever did.” He stops at the last door. The metal looks so thick, it seems inaccessible, and there’s a glow to it. Whatever they have trapped here must be deadly, and that worries me. I need help, not a psychopathic murderer.
There are long metal rods on the outside of the cell door, and they buzz with electricity as we draw closer. “To subdue,” Corbin murmurs in explanation as he picks one. “Just in case.”
He presses his hand against the lock and glances at me. “Are you ready?”
Taking a deep breath, I tilt my chin up, remembering why I am doing this. “Ready. Open it.”