Chapter 41
Forty-One
Anna
I know that voice.
“In the wilds you say?” the voice was saying as it approached the dark room where I was lashed to a chair. “Impossible. It’s not her.”
“She’s got purple eyes. How many purple-eyed clippys do you people think are out there?” Keiren growled angrily. “If it’s not her, you need to be more specific next time.”
“They’re coming to collar you,” Milly cried. “Stay strong, Na. Stay strong!”
“You never said the elite was a she,” I said, trying to quell the quickly rising panic. “Milly, you never said it was a she!”
“I didn’t? What difference does it make?” Milly whimpered as footsteps came to a stop just outside.
“A lot,” I hissed, a second before the door opened abruptly, flooding the room with bright light. I winced, squeezing my eyes shut against the brilliance.
I let out another frantic call to Caz, pushing my renewed fear and anxiety into it. I had yet to feel anything from him, but I wasn’t giving up. Not yet. Not while I could still try.
Keiren walked in to the room and yanked the hood off me. I blinked rapidly until I could see. The hunter was still standing in front of me, but now he stepped aside.
“See. Purple eyes,” he grunted. “Pay up.”
Behind him, a woman’s cold face lit up with an ugly light. I would never be able to think of something so bright as pure ever again. She twisted everything on its head, and the longer she stared at me without speaking, the more my stomach dropped out from under me.
“Found in the wilds, you say?” she purred, eyeing me up like a wolf and I was the sheep. Only she was a dragon shifter with unimaginable power, and I was a rabbit, at best.
“That’s what I said. I’ll take my payment now.” Keiren clearly didn’t understand or care about anything besides getting paid. Typical hunter.
“Yes, yes, of course.” White-Eyes, or Bryna, I supposed, was entirely focused on me. “Did she put up much of a fight?”
Keiren just stared at Bryna until the elite turned to look at him. He held up a hand and rubbed his fingers together.
“Yes, fine,” she snapped impatiently. “You’ll get your reward.”
Keiren nodded. “Then no, she didn’t put up any more of a fight than any other useless clippy.”
Bryna pondered that and then turned abruptly and left, motioning for Keiren to follow. The door was left open, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think it meant a chance to escape.
“What was that all about?” Milly asked the second they were gone.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, making my way over to her while trying not to wince as I took in the beaten and emaciated form of my best friend. “Bryna is her name. She’s the one who’s been running and organizing the hunters’ markets in Kylma, or so we think.”
Milly was silent for a bit, her eyes sunken and exhausted, missing their usual vibrancy. “Why is she looking for you?”
“I don’t know. That’s new. Did you see the way she looked at me?”
“Yes.” Fresh torment scraped its way down my spine.
“Why?”
“That is the question, Mil. She had all the hunters looking for someone with purple eyes. She wanted me here. But why? I’m nothing to her. We’re nothing.”
Milly cleared her throat.
I glanced over, seeing fresh bruises around her left eye this time as it turned more toward the door.
“What?”
“What if it’s not about you, Na?”
I stiffened. “Caz?”
“What better way to get him to come here?” Milly suggested. “Away from his power base in the citadel.”
“A trap. It’s all a trap,” I whispered, understanding flooding me. “But Caz would tear her apart. He won’t come alone. She can’t realistically expect to win.”
Bryna reappeared in the doorway, a silver band of metal in her hand. “Oh, but I can. And I will. You’ll see.”
Two trios of bearded men with wild hair filed in past her, taking up positions on either side of me. Two of them hauled me to my feet by my arms, holding them out wide.
I looked left and right. They weren’t dragons. That much was obvious from the start. I sniffed at the air.
“Weres?” I hissed as the thick, musky smell of wolf hit me like a cloying stink. “What are you thinking?”
Another of the wolf shifters moved behind me, gathering my hair up on top of my head and then yanking it back painfully to expose my neck.
“I think we have been looking forward to what is to come for years.” Bryna spat, advancing on me with measured steps.
The ends of the collar clinked against one another ominously with every step, announcing her intentions.
I summoned every ounce of energy I had, focusing it on one thing while I still had free will.
Caz!