Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Mynor sucked in a breath when he heard people coming. Part of him hoped he’d finally see for himself that Alphan was okay, but another part of him prayed he’d never see Alphan again, considering where he was. He needed Alphan out there, safe and happy, not in here, sharing a cell with him.
Or worse, dead.
Mynor had no idea what had happened, who had screamed or why, but he was terrified.
He got more nervous the closer the footsteps came, until he felt like he was about to crawl out of his skin when they reached the outside of the room he was in.
The door was still open, and he watched as the first guard stepped in.
Justin was right behind him. Mynor blinked, sure he wasn’t seeing that right, but he was. Two more guards stepped into the room behind Justin, and it was clear that the three of them were framing him as if expecting him to try to escape.
That didn’t make sense. Why was Justin in the dungeons? Why were the guards with him? Why were they treating him like a criminal? He was Anya’s son. He wasn’t supposed to be here.
Unfortunately for Mynor, one of the guards was Pythom. He showed Mynor his teeth as he stepped up to the cell, gesturing at him to move back. “Don’t try anything because it won’t end well for you,” he said.
“What’s going on?” Mynor asked. He obeyed, though. He didn’t have a choice. He wanted to avoid another beating if he could.
“You’re going to have a cellmate for a bit,” Pythom said with a grin.
He grabbed the key hanging from the wall and opened Mynor’s cell.
For a moment, Mynor thought it was a trap, although he didn’t understand how it would work.
He didn’t honestly believe that Justin would be locked up with him, but as soon as Pythom opened the cell, the other two guards stepped forward to push Justin inside.
Justin batted their hands away and glared at them. He was smart, though. He didn’t refuse to walk into the cell. Mynor doubted the guards would beat him up the way they’d beaten him, but he didn’t know what was going on, so he might be wrong.
“Why is he here?” he asked Pythom.
Pythom smiled again as he slammed the door shut and locked it. “Like I said, you’re going to be cellmates for a while. Anya thought it would be interesting, and I’m sure you were bored. If anything, he’s pretty.”
Mynor’s eyes widened. Surely Pythom couldn’t be implying what it sounded like he was implying. Did he really think that Mynor would be stupid enough to hurt Anya’s son? Was that what Anya thought, too? Was it why she wanted Justin here?
Mynor glanced at Justin. His shoulders were hunched, and he was huddled into himself, still standing by the cell door. He didn’t try to push it back open or to beg Pythom to let him out. He looked scared, but also defiant.
“I’m sure you two will have a lot of fun together,” Pythom drawled. “But I have work to do.” He leaned closer to the bars. “Keep the blood to a minimum.”
Mynor gaped as he watched Pythom turn and leave the room. Pythom gestured at the other two guards to follow him, and they did, never once looking back before the door slammed shut behind them. They were really leaving Justin alone with Mynor.
Mynor waited until he couldn’t hear the guards’ footsteps anymore to turn to Justin.
He was still standing there, and since Mynor didn’t want to scare him more than he clearly already was, he kept his distance.
“What happened?” he asked. “Are you okay?” Even though they’d only talked once, Mynor kind of liked Justin.
At the very least, he didn’t want Justin to think he would hurt him.
“I guess it depends on what you mean by okay. I’m stuck in a cell.”
“Why?”
Justin’s shoulders slumped. “I think my mother is trying to scare me. I stood up to her when she ordered her guards to torture the new prisoners, and she didn’t like that. She said I was too soft.”
She was right, but that wasn’t what Mynor found the most interesting in what Justin had said. “New prisoners?”
“They tried to free the ones already in the cells.”
Mynor’s heart raced. “Do you know who it was?”
Justin’s expression went soft. “One of the guards said that your associate got away. They captured other people, but I think he’ll be fine. Anya wasn’t happy about that.”
Mynor had to lean against the bars because his legs threatened to buckle. “That’s good.”
“It is, but do you think he’s going to stop trying to free you?”
Mynor barked out a laugh. “Never. He won’t stop until I’m out of this cell.”
“That’s good, then.”
“It’s not. I don’t want him to get hurt.”
Justin finally stepped away from the door. He looked around, but there was nowhere for him to sit. Eventually, he moved toward the closest wall and slid down, sitting on the cold ground. “I understand,” he said. “I wouldn’t want my brothers to get in trouble or hurt, either.”
“He’s not my brother.”
“Something tells me he might as well be. If he’s willing to risk getting captured to get to you, I’m sure he cares about you.”
“He does. We care about each other.” Which was why Mynor hoped that Alphan wouldn’t come back. It was a miracle he’d managed to escape a second time. Mynor doubted it would happen a third time.
He looked around the cell. He wasn’t sure how long Anya would allow him to live since he wouldn’t do what she wanted him to do—scare Justin. He definitely wouldn’t touch Justin in the way Pythom had implied.
That probably meant that Anya would have Justin moved soon, or maybe she’d finally get bored with Mynor and would have him killed. Justin’s presence here didn’t change anything for Mynor.
But it changed everything for Justin.
Justin didn’t want to be here. He wanted to go home, but his situation had gone from complicated to impossible. How was he supposed to find someone who would open a portal for him from here? He was at Anya’s mercy, which meant it didn’t bode well for him.
He couldn’t help but wonder what his brothers would think. Would they even realize that he was gone? He was sure they would eventually. They wouldn’t know where he was, though. They wouldn’t know how to reach him.
They wouldn’t know they needed to save him.
“Tell me about your associate,” he said.
Mynor pushed away from the bars and went to sit on the other side of the cell. The place wasn’t big, but it was big enough for both of them to have a little space, which was probably a good thing.
“Why?” Mynor asked.
Justin shrugged. “To distract me. I’m scared,” he admitted.
“I was trying to find a way to go home, and now, I’m stuck here.
I don’t know if I’ll ever see my brothers again.
The way you talk about your associate tells me that to you, he’s more like my brothers are to me than just someone you work with. ”
“You have brothers?”
Justin was happy to talk about his brothers. Anything not to have to think about the mess he was in. “I do. Well, all of us were adopted, but I still consider them my brothers.”
Mynor stared at Justin for a moment before nodding. “We have different parents, but we grew up together. Our mothers were friends.”
“So you’ve known each other a long time.”
“All of our lives.”
“Then it makes sense that he’d be willing to risk his life to save you from this place. He loves you.”
“And I love him, which is why I don’t want him to come anywhere near this place.”
Justin snorted. “You know that’s not going to stop him.”
“I do, but how do you?”
Justin pressed the back of his head against the wall.
He stared at the stone ceiling, praying this wouldn’t be the last thing he saw before dying.
“Because my brothers would do the same. Unfortunately for me, they don’t know I’m here.
They don’t even know I’m in Hell. I didn’t tell any of them I was coming here. ”
“Why not?”
“Because I was an idiot. Because our adoptive mother recently died, and we’re all grieving. Because we had a stupid fight, and I thought that if I gave all of them some time to cool down, everything would go back to normal.”
“You lost your mother?”
“Yeah, and stupid me thought that maybe I could find something similar to what I had with her with Anya.”
“I don’t think Anya was ever meant to be a mother.”
“I agree. Unfortunately for me, I’m now stuck here. My brothers don’t know I’m here, and I don’t see how they can find out. I don’t have a way to have anyone open a portal for me, which means I’m as stuck as you are. So please, tell me more about your friend. Distract me.”
Mynor was silent for a moment. Justin expected him to continue being quiet. Why would he tell Justin anything? Maybe he thought that Justin was a spy for Anya. Maybe he didn’t actually believe that Justin was as much of a prisoner as he was.
“His name is Alphan,” Mynor eventually said. “He’s stubborn, which means he’ll try to reach me again. If he manages, and if we get out of here, I promise that I’ll help you find someone to open a portal for you.”
Justin looked at Mynor. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I don’t, but you should be able to go home. Keeping you here isn’t right.”
“Something tells me it’s not the only thing that Anya will do that isn’t right,” Justin murmured. “I know why she had me locked up here. I mentioned you to her the other day, and I think she believes I’m afraid of you.”
“You’re not?”
“I’m more afraid of her. So far, you haven’t done anything that would cause me to be scared of you.
On the other hand, she’s done many things that mean I don’t trust her.
She’s not a good person. She didn’t hesitate to have me locked up when I stood up to her and because I’m not going along with what she wants. I trust you more than I trust her.”
“You don’t know me.”
Justin looked at Mynor. He was as handsome as he’d been the other time they’d talked.
He also looked tired and a little rough around the edges.
Justin still wasn’t afraid of him. “I know you enough to be sure you’re nothing like my mother.
I just have to listen to the way you talk about Alphan.
You care about him more than you care about yourself, which isn’t something Anya has ever felt.
She doesn’t care about me, even though I’m her son.
She only wants to use me and to mold me into her image. ”
“And you won’t let her.”
“I’d rather die.” And it might come down to that.
Justin wasn’t an idiot, even though he’d definitely been stupid when he’d decided to come here.
He hadn’t thought about how this would go.
He’d desperately needed a distraction, and part of him had hoped to find the bond he’d shared with Caitlin with his birth mother, too, or at least something similar to it.
Instead, his birth mother had revealed herself to be a monster, and now, Justin was stuck in a cell with a massive, handsome demon.
He had no way to contact his brothers to tell them what was going on, or even to say that he loved them one last time.
He’d probably never know if Yancey and Calyx ever made peace.
What he did know was that they’d worry about him. They’d try to find him, and Calyx might even be able to do so. He was a powerful mage.
The problem was that Justin wasn’t sure it would happen soon enough. He had faith in his brothers, but he didn’t trust Anya.