72. CHAPTER 72
Zayne
The Capital
Kallum, Ciondo
Pain dragged Zayne from the grave and thrust him into the world once more.
But he remembered dying…
Electricity branched out from his chest wound and sent shock waves throughout his entire body. He gripped damp sheets, gasping. Metal grated against his wrists, just like in the north.
“You must have thought you were dead.” The baritone melody of the Phaedra’s voice rose above the hum of the machines. “But maybe time has collapsed on itself to bring us back to the place where it all began. The two of us in this tower after you betrayed me. Once as a boy, now as a man.”
Light seared his vision when his eyes slid open, the Phaedra’s form darkening the corner of his eye.
The heartbeat monitor chirped behind him.
He remembered giving himself over to the sweet warmth of the waters. Maybe death meant relieving his nightmares to no end.
“A father long awaits the day he'll discover what kind of child he has brought into the world.” The Phaedra rose and leaned over Zayne, so his long locks fell over his shoulder and tickled his bare chest. “What am I to do with a son like you?”
Zayne had listened to the Phaedra long enough in his life, but he had no recourse. Cuffs held his hands to the bed, and sleep had given up its hold on him.
Only one question mattered now, and he wasn't sure he had the voice to ask it.
“And your brother… I never expected him to betray me.” The Phaedra’s eyes wandered down Zayne’s face. “Your father warned me about how serious the animosity was, but neither of us could have imagined this.”
Mouth opening, Zayne tried to speak and ask the only question he cared about, but a weak sound fell from his lips.
“You must be in pain. I'm so sorry.” The Phaedra tilted his head. “It’s inconsiderate of me to not ask if you wanted visitors in your condition.” He tapped one of Zayne’s handcuffs.
“I’m certain these don’t help. I advised the soldiers the restraints wouldn’t be necessary—for your comfort, of course.
Then they reminded me that you murdered your own private.
” The Phaedra shook his head and hummed.
“My boy, that isn’t what we do to our men. ”
What did he need to do to shut him up?
The Phaedra sat in the chair beside Zayne, his intense focus never straying.
He recognized this room. The Phaedra brought him here when he was a boy while he was recovering from reprogramming.
His memories of those days were foggy. He remembered every detail of the room, though his mind hid the Phaedra and the time spent in here.
It looked the same, with the hospital bed in the center and the chair beside it. The one where the Phaedra sat.
A painting of the tower hung on one wall beside a portrait of the Phaedra, watching him at all times. There was a couch on the far end of the room where Dr. Cooper had sat, and a screen hanging beside it.
Zayne clenched his teeth. This man, this country, this room—they were all inescapable.
He was trapped in every sense of the word with no indication of what had happened to Kira.
“Oh, that’s right,” the Phaedra said. “I know what I’m forgetting. You would appreciate a morphine pump, wouldn’t you?” The Phaedra chuckled and kicked his feet up on the bed, jostling Zayne.
Fire ate through him. It felt like his heart would explode. Black spots spread over his vision. He didn't have enough breath to groan or scream.
“We'll have to think of a way for you to earn your relief. You've been very inconsiderate, doing this to your father right after your mother's death.”
Agony reopened the wounds of his heart. How dare the Phaedra speak about her.
Why did Zayne have to survive? There was no worse punishment than being trapped with him.
“It was sad enough to see her throw her life away.
Now you. I suppose we should be happy she isn't here to see this.
And what you did to Mellie… It's shocking.” The Phaedra eased his hand into Zayne's, running his thumb along his knuckles.
The touch revolted him. “Still, I love you, even now, my son.”
Zayne struggled to tear his hand away, but he didn't have the strength to move.
The Phaedra’s grip tightened.
“I graciously love you even after you betrayed your Phaedra. After you gave your bitch the devotion that belongs to me. I look forward to making her suffer for it.”
“She's…” Zayne wheezed in a breath, struggling to voice his words. “Safe…”
The Phaedra’s face darkened.
He couldn't resist rubbing Kira’s captivity in his face. She’d made it out. Zayne could feel it. Nothing else mattered.
“Safe.” The ruthless chuckle rumbled over Zayne's skin. “I told you I own you. I own you both. You still don't understand, but you will. No matter where she goes, she's in my empire.”
His eyes closed at the peace and relief melting away everything else. All this was worth it, then. The Phaedra didn't have Kira. And Mom could rest well with her free.
Even though Zayne had never been more helpless, a defiant hope kept him from falling apart. The kind of defiant hope that only Kira could have planted within him.
She'd live.
The Phaedra couldn't destroy the woman who seized his skies.
“If I kill her, you'll never get over it.” The Phaedra sat forward, dominating Zayne's view so he only saw him. “But there's so many more fun games we can play.”
Fear coiled his insides.
“I promise you this.” A cruel sneer twisted his lips and darkened his eyes. “You will never be with her. That was never going to happen.” The Phaedra's deep chuckle vibrated in his chest. “You're so short-sighted that you think you'll be satisfied with her freedom. That you can let her go.”
Zayne let the words slide off him. The Phaedra could say whatever he wanted. That didn't change that Kira was safe.
The chuckle returned and built into a full laugh that shook the Phaedra's shoulders. “I bonded you and Kira so tightly in this prison.” His head tilted back with the throaty bellow. “She'll suffer every day of her life without you, and seeing her pain will torture you.”
His nails dug into his sheets. Of course, Zayne knew Kira suffered right now. He knew loss. He knew how badly this would hurt her and for how long. If the Phaedra thought she couldn't live a full life despite that, then he didn't know her. Nothing would break her. “You're… wrong… about her…”
The laughter had started to die, but now it sparked again. “Oh, Zayne. Naive Zayne. If I let her live, it will only be for my pleasure. The pleasure of tormenting her soul for as long as I wish.”
His vision swam with fury and fear and dizziness.
“One day, you'll understand. You'll see what a fool you are right now.” The Phaedra looked gleeful.
“For however long I allow you two to live, whether it is one day or ten thousand, I'll spend every second of your sad lives tearing you both apart.
You broke our vow. Kira's blood is mine. And I am not in the mood to drain it out so quickly.”
The confidence battered Zayne's weakened heart. What if the Phaedra was right, and there was no escape for Kira?
The most menacing whisper he'd ever heard slithered out from the Phaedra's bared teeth. “If you ever have the misfortune to find yourself anywhere near her, then run. Run for her life because I will punish her for every second she's in your presence.”
Such cruelty in his eyes.
The laughter and snickering faded, and the Phaedra's voice boomed off the walls, echoing in Zayne's mind. “If I cannot have you, then she never fucking will.”
Silence bent its knee to the Phaedra's will, and the entire world spun only at his direction. His power felt absolute.
None of that mattered. It didn't matter that Zayne sacrificed every bit of his own power and that he'd rendered himself entirely useless, lying helpless in the Phaedra's captivity. Weak and dying. Zayne wouldn't allow him to threaten her.
“You'll never… t-touch…”
The Phaedra waited, allowing Zayne to finish, looking more amused than ever when his voice failed, and he couldn't muster the breath to finish his threat. The threat he meant more than any other uttered before.
Pain ate away at him ruthlessly. Darkness crackled at the edge of his vision.
“It's no fun when you pass out, boy.” The Phaedra jabbed his finger against Zayne's forehead, voice mocking. “Stay awake and finish your pathetic threat. I'm dying to hear what you plan to do to me.”
A low growl built in his throat, the sound so breathless and weak that it was barely audible. Pathetic.
“Poor thing.” Long fingers snaked into his hair. “This is only the beginning. It's going to get so much worse for you. But you chose this for yourself.”
Darkness was spreading over his vision. Zayne croaked in enough of a breath to wheeze out two words while looking into the Phaedra's eyes. “Fuck… you…”
A snort. The Phaedra shook his head. “Don't believe me?” He raised his fingers and snapped. “How about a little taste of what your future holds?”
In his bleary vision, he saw Nadia emerge from shadows that slithered around her to suck her back in and destroy her.
Shock jolted through him.
He was hallucinating. Or dead.
What was she doing here?
“She's the reason you're alive,” the Phaedra said. “She came to help you with your foolish plan and stayed behind to take care of you. How selfless. I wonder if that makes up for her fucking your brother.” Another disgusting chuckle.
Nadia couldn't be here. This couldn't be real. She wasn't involved in this.
For the first time in three years, Zayne looked into the eyes of the woman he'd planned to spend his life with, and knew the Phaedra was right.
This all just got so much worse.
“Nadia…” Zayne strained to keep his eyes open.
Why? He needed to ask her so many questions.
“Get control of your heart rate,” Nadia said. “It's beating too hard for your condition. If you want to help me, you have to slow it down and survive.”