47
My eyes stay shut but I feel my body wake up, my consciousness finally returning to me.
My senses are suddenly filled with a familiar but dirty smell. A mix of damp stone, mud, sweat and metal.
Oh gods, no no no, I can’t be here.
The smells take me back to the days I don’t want to remember. Ones that now after everything, feel so far away.
I force my eyes open and am met with a room so dark, I can’t see anything at all.
I have to blink a few times to check that my body actually obeyed my request and my eyes aren’t still shut.
My breathing quickens and I fight to remind myself not to panic.
I’m stronger than this.
I just need to get my bearings and then find a way out.
I slowly roll up, the cold stone leaving my back inch by inch. I hear a clanging noise as I move and shift my hands to find out what it was. I hear the metal clanging yet again and feel a weight trying to bring my hands down.
“Fuck.” I swear under my breath.
I try to move my hands up to see how far they can go.
I reach just above my head before I’m stopped by a painful jolt and the feeling of harsh, tight and cold metal on my wrists.
Closely followed by the clanking of a heavy chain of metal that holds me back.
Noting the same sensation around my ankles, I stand up to try and move, to see how far I’ve been allowed.
I walk ever so slowly, movements still painful from the explosion but I must have been healed of any other injuries. My head is no longer leaking the warm liquid it was in Faystra.
I hold out my hands just in front of me to feel around for a wall. I take about six small steps before my hands meet cold stone.
“Gods, how am I getting out of this one?” I breathe.
I use the wall as a guide and feel my way around the cell.
It’s small but my chains allow me the whole way around the room. I stop when I feel the door and run my hands up and down, no handle.
“Oh gods.” I whisper as a shiver runs down my spine.
I know exactly where I am.
This confirms my fears.
My feet gain control of my body and send me stumbling backwards, almost tripping over my chains.
A small sob tries to escape but I won’t let it, I can’t. If I really am back here, I can’t show them that I’m breaking.
I keep stumbling back until the cold wall meets my body and I slide down, my legs giving out from under me. I tilt my head back, hitting the wall gently and close my eyes.
If I really am here, my escape is going to be hard, damn near impossible.
I roll my head forward and quickly try my powers, try to force it through me but it’s useless. Even if I can’t see myself in the dark, I know that they’ve drugged me to stop me turning invisible. I can’t feel the energy running through me anymore.
I sink back again, head against the stone, eyes closed. All I can do now is wait and conserve my energy.
Pain flows through my skin as I lay face down on the cold stone floor. I don’t dare look back, look at what I know all too well is creating my pain. My own dagger, used against me to show me who’s really in charge.
I sink my nails into my palms as the next carving starts. Tears start to prick my eyes but I don’t let them fall, they don’t need another reason to hurt me.
After hours I don’t feel anything anymore. Just my chest pressed against the cold stone. I don’t know how long ago he left. I don’t know where the pain begins and ends. I just feel the warmth of my wounds and the blood running down my back.
I close my eyes knowing sleep, if I get any, is the only way through the pain.
The memory wakes me with a startle. Sweat coats my skin and air leaves my body all too quickly.
I turn around and press my forehead to the cool stone for some relief and almost sigh at the feeling.
Gods, how long was I asleep for?
It can’t have been long but down here, where there’s no windows or any form of light, you can’t tell night from day. It’s one of the reasons the Agency uses this place, for prisoners and their misbehaving assassins.
I hated being down here, not just from the pain that usually followed but because I always felt so weak and powerless.
But I’m not the same person I was the last time I was here. I won’t let them affect me the same way.
Footsteps start to approach from down the hall outside this cage. Slow, steady but deep, I don’t recall these footsteps from the last time I was here, this must be someone else.
I don’t know whether I should be relieved or scared.
I quickly stand, trying not to look defenceless or weak. I put my hands up ready as the door starts to creak but I’m not prepared for the man that walks inside. One that I had only caught a glimpse of a few times.
I don’t dare drop my hands as the candle lamp he brought in lights up his face, illuminating the horror of who he is.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Maeve.” He says with a menacing smile, one that only looks more terrifying in the dim light.
Hidale.
“As it is you, your highness.” I reply bluntly, “should I bow or something? Or is that only for peasants and the army– not your prisoners? Or is the term, ‘ex soldier' more appropriate?”
Hidale lets out a small laugh but there’s no humour in his eyes. I look up at the short mixture of grey and brown hair on the top of his head that shares the same colour as his beard. The one that illuminates his menacing smile.
“You are exactly as described.” He replies and I can’t tell if he’s pleased or disappointed.
I watch him carefully as he steps further into the room and shuts the door behind him, no guards have followed him in.
He’s alone.
I tilt my head to the side, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Locking yourself in a room with me with no back up? Maybe they didn’t describe me as well as you thought.”
He chuckles slightly and looks down at my chains and then back up.
“I think given your position, I’ll be okay.”
I resist the urge to throw myself at him for that comment alone but I’m smarter than that. I need to conserve my energy for when it’s needed.
“So, to what do I owe the pleasure of a rare visit from the King of Hidale himself.”
He shrugs, a gesture much too casual for the man he is.
“You left my army while taking something very valuable from me. You should consider yourself lucky you’re meeting with me, instead of the god you’ve found yourself so close to meeting over the years.”
So he needs me alive, got it.
I look at him closely before asking my next question, one I have been thinking about for a while. But as I stare at him, I notice that there is something new in his eyes, something different. I’ve never noticed it before.
But I’ve never been this close to him either.
His eyes bear red fiery streaks in his otherwise deep brown irises. They’re highlighted by the candle light, giving away the fire wraith that shares part of him.
I look directly into those eyes when I ask my next question.
“Why me?”
Hidale scoffs. “Don’t think yourself special Maeve, you’re only a means to an end.”
“But you have a purpose for me? Something you need me to do?”
Something you need me alive for.
“Yes, that’s why I needed to take you, not just for running off or killing my soldiers in Bretton but because you have the ability to help me with something.”
Surely he knows that I would never help him, not even if it was to save myself and I was taking my last breath. If that’s their plan to make me help, it’s useless.
But there’s something else, something I’m missing.
My mind flashes back to the fight, before I was taken. Xander and Cole would have been there laying in the rubble. I never got to see them get up.
Gods, I hope they’re okay.
But the explosion that ended the fight, that might’ve hurt Xander and Cole, it wasn’t just me and them at the forefront.
“You blew up your own men.” I whisper the accusation at him.
“Their deaths were necessary to get to you.”
“Did they know!” I shout the words at him, “did they know they were walking into a trap!”
Hidale laughs at me. “Of course not, but there are many of my men that would do it even if they knew. My men would die for our cause.”
I scoff at him. “What, the one where you’re King of Aressor?”
Hidale nods. “That and the destruction of hybrids.”
“That’s a little contradictory isn’t it?” I sneer at him, tilting my head to the side. “Do the few loyal soldiers you have, know of you, the real you?”
“My Maeve, you have been busy.” He says, a bitterness lacing his tone.
Hidale stalks towards me, slowly but with precision in every step. The hair prickles on my skin but I don’t dare take a step back. Instead I lift my head and look him in the eye as he stalks closer.
“How much has your precious King told you?”
“Enough.” I spit at him.
Hidale lunges forward and grabs my hands, squeezing tight enough that I know my bones could crack at any minute.
“Like what Maeve?” He asks slowly, taunting me as he squeezes the slightest bit tighter.
I don’t dare show him the pain he causes, I clench my jaw and school my features. The practising I had done down here all those years ago, actually works in my favour.
“You killed his parents.” I sneer at him.
Hidale scoffs, the venom returning to his eyes.
“Not me personally.”
“Why?” I demand, it’s something Xander hadn’t told me and I wonder if he even knew.
“His mother was a hybrid and I didn’t like his father.” He says simply, like that’s all the reason you could need to kill someone.
I hide the surprise that would surely flicker across my face any second now. Had Xander known his mother was a hybrid? Did he think I would care if he told me? Surely he would know by now that something that trivial would never bother me.
Hidale grips my hands harder and I feel my bones creaking, on the edge of breaking.
“Your heartbeat is getting faster Maeve, perhaps you don’t know everything, least of all enough.”
The chains clang as I try to yank my hands back but his grip holds firm.
“It wouldn’t matter anyway. Nothing would bring me to your side.” I sneer at him, not wanting him to think he has the upper hand by knowing things about Xander’s life that I don’t.
Even if it does hurt that he might not have cared enough to share more of himself with me.
What if Xander’s mother was the shadow wraith he had known, the one he’d said had long since been dead? Maybe that’s why he didn’t tell me.
Or maybe he just doesn’t trust me as much as I thought he had come to.
Hidale releases his hands from my own and I almost let out a sigh of relief, before he grabs my finger and yanks hard.
I hear the pop before I feel it. My vision turns the stone cell into a room of stars and I don’t dare look down to see my dislocated finger.
I feel my chest rise and fall with my breathing increasing. My thoughts swim with anything that will distract me from the pain and throbbing.
But it’s not enough.
My finger pounds urgently at me, begging for the relief I have the ability to bring. I hate what I have to do, I’ve done it before, more times than I could ironically count on my fingers.
I take a deep breath and grab my index finger. Pain and warmth shooting right down my arm as I do. I yank the joint back into place hard and fast, the stars start swimming and coming towards me. But as quickly as they do, the pain dissipates ever so slightly, becoming a more manageable ache.
“What was she?” I seethe at Hidale through ragged breaths. He’d retreated to the corner of the room after mutilating the joint of my finger.
“Why does it matter?” He mutters, “or are you wondering what your King could be?”
I look down, not wanting to give into the King’s taunts. Could Xander have something else, another power? Surely I’d have noticed, especially with our training.
“His mother was half fae, half seer.”
I knot my brows at him, ignoring the sweat that drips down them as I look at Hidale.
I’ll admit that I’m slightly surprised to have an answer from him.
“If that were true, she would have seen you coming.”
Hidale narrows his eyes at me. “She was only half seer, her powers predicted danger but not the cause. She had thought she was safe in Erador.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Why are you telling me this?”
Hidale just shrugs and stalks towards me. He’s clearly not in the mood to answer my question, so I try another one. The question I’d been meaning to ask since Hidale walked into my cell.
“If you’re the one who took me, why am I here? At the Agency?”
Hidale lets out a low laugh as he finally reaches me.
“For matters of convenience.”
I stare at him, my gaze unflinching, willing him to continue.
“Matter of fact, let’s bring in one of those conveniences.” He calls loudly over his shoulder and the door creaks open again.
I hear muffled shouts and scuffs as someone is brought into the cell.
“Stop it!” The soldier shouts at the prisoner, who’s obviously causing him trouble.
I can’t make out who it is, I’m squinting in the candlelight but it’s no use.
Hidale watches me as the prisoner is brought in, his eyes calculating and waiting.
Like he knows that whoever this is, will spark a reaction in me.
My heart beats harder in my chest as I stare towards the two people who have just entered. The fear and anticipation grows in me as I haven’t figured out who it is yet.
It’s much too dark.
When he can tell I can’t see who it is, he stalks towards the prisoner.
Before shoving the candlelight in her face.