Chapter 34
Thirty-Four
Avery
She knew this school had fucking dungeons.
The salt rusted bars snarled upwards into a stone roof as Avery sat on the floor of a jail cell.
Cold stone bit into her thighs, and rats scurried across the back.
The only light was the flickering of candles and a tiny barred window that led to nowhere but ocean.
Beside her in another cell, Felix lay unconscious.
But he was breathing, that was all that mattered.
They had dressed them in brown prison clothes, which she was sure did a good job of hiding the bloodstains of whoever they tortured down here.
There were still dark patches on the floor that she didn’t want to think about.
If they ever released the shifters, was this be where they would keep them?
What did they do with them when they came out?
The muscles in her spine went rigid as footsteps echoed through the cells. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Callum appear, holding a glass of water.
Callum seethed at her—he had been the one to put the cuffs on her.
To walk her down like a prisoner. At the end of the day, he was only doing his job.
She would like to think that he would at least hear someone out.
All these people who claimed to love and care about her, only to abandon her when she really needed them.
It wasn’t surprising anymore. But just maybe, he would help her. If she played it right.
“Callum!” Avery said, pretending with all her being to be nice to this fucker who had left her in the woods without a jacket. But his usually bright complexion darkened, his face as stony as her sister’s.
“Here,” he said, shoving a glass of water through the bars at her, some of it spilling over the rim. The gruffness in his voice belonged to a stranger. The fox at his feet whined, as if it wanted to come to Avery to say hello, but was unable to do so.
She took the glass of water and downed half of it, leaving the rest for Felix.
She made sure the water dribbled down below her neckline and postured herself in a way that her prison clothes showed off her curves.
Any integrity had fallen through the floor the day she met Felix.
She didn’t give a fuck anymore. “Do you think you could let me out?” Avery said, batting her eyelashes.
It was a slim chance, but a chance nonetheless.
Callum laughed in her face. “If you think I would go anywhere near a shifter fucking whore, you’d be sorely mistaken.”
She couldn’t hide the disgust crawling over her face.
“Really? Shifter fucker? How creative.” Still, it didn’t mask the hurt crawling up her chest, and the heat prickling behind her eyes.
The man before her was no longer her friend.
It hit her like whiplash. Goddess, he had practically proposed the last time they were together.
The shiny regalia on his uniform was polished, down to his shoes, the candlelight reflecting off it like a mirror as he turned to walk away.
Instead, he twisted on his heels and pointed a finger towards Avery.
“We could have been something. Both of our parents sit on the council. We could have been a power couple.”
It took everything in her not to laugh. “So you never really wanted me, just my seat.”
“Your sister made it clear that she would never be interested. So you were the next best thing.”
Ahhh. There it was. Always an ulterior motivation.
It was easy to lose trust, especially in this world where people seemed to go out of their way to ram a cock down your throat.
Still, she wanted to love them, trust them, even when everything was begging her not to.
Was that courage or stupidity? She supposed she had to live to find out.
And by the fucking goddess, she wouldn’t die in a dark, damp hole.
“You really know how to make a girl swoon,” Avery said flatly.
Disgust twisted across his face as he turned away, walking close to the iron bars, far too close. In a split second, Felix shot out his arm, grabbed Callum by the collar, and slammed his head against the bars. A sickening crack rang out. Felix was awake and fucking pissed.
“There are many ways to be fucked by a shifter,” he said, voice laced with rage.
When did he wake up? His morning voice was sexy. Not really the priority to be thinking about right now, Avery.
The hit didn’t knock Callum unconscious, at least not yet. The fox growled and snapped at the bars, trying to get to Felix.
Now that was how to make a girl swoon. But Avery still raised her hand for Felix to stop.
“Please, don’t hurt him.”
He really did deserve it. Avery had seen enough bloodshed tonight, though.
Felix glared at the enforcer. “Can I at least take his eyes?”
“No.”
“Fine,” he said, settling for spitting in his face and pushing him back against the wall with a thud. The enforcer ran like a puppy with his tail between his legs, his fox bounding after him.
Felix stumbled backward, clutching his shoulder, blood seeping from his sleeve.
“You’re hurt,” Avery said, going to the bars that separated their cells.
“It’s just a flesh wound.”
“Let me look at it.”
“It’s kind of sexy when you order me around.” A smirk pulled at his lips, but she could still see the hurt he was masking. The breaths he took were shallow and pained, and he gripped his arm like he was holding the very thing together.
“Shut up and come here.”
“Reoww,” he purred.
Avery only rolled her eyes as he moved closer to the bars so that she could reach between them to touch her hand to his shoulder.
He winced at the contact as she touched it and tried to draw on the well of power like she had practiced.
She searched deep inside herself, but nothing came when she called upon it.
It was like she was empty. Even her mating marks had faded. Like she had been a few weeks ago.
Again, she reached for that dark current inside her—nothing. Nada. Fuck all. Frustration bloomed through her.
“Try using your magic,” she bit out.
Lifting up his hand, he tried to summon a shadow. Again, nothing happened. “There must be some kind of ward against magic down here,” he said. Felix looked around, sensing something she couldn’t.
Avery’s chest crumbled inward like loose rocks as she took stock of the situation. In the plainest of terms, they were utterly fucked.
A smile curved across his face, slightly obscured by the bars. On what seemed like instinct alone, his hand reached out for hers like he could sense the panic that was threatening to overtake her once again. Even though the bond seemed to be suppressed, he still knew her.
This time, she swallowed her own anxiety down, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath through her nose, smelling the fresh pine of Felix, mixed with pungent damp stone, until the churning sea inside of her calmed.
“Good girl,” Felix said.
The words sent her mind into a frenzy. How was she so easily affected by him? She loved the praise. No. She loved him. She fucking loved him. It had been that way for longer than she wanted to admit.
Felix winced as he pulled her gently into the bars and wrapped his arms around her. A warmth spread through her despite the cool metal keeping them apart. He planted a soft kiss on her forehead. She wanted to laugh at the irony. In her whole life, she had never felt safer than she did now.
“I’m sorry,” Avery said, choked.
“Why?” Felix said, only holding her tighter.
A tremor worked through her bottom lip as she tried to hold back the burning tears threatening to fall. “If you’d never met me, you would have been safe.”
“Avery.” The sound rumbled through his chest as his hand stroked her hair. “Did you know, before you, I was lost, so completely fucking lost. If I had never met you, I would have lived every life searching for you. Thank you for putting me out of my eternal misery.”
If her heart were a garden, a thousand roses would have bloomed. At first, she thought he was a weed, a thorn in her side; now she would do anything to be suffocated by those vines.
The clacking of boots had Felix’s ears swiveling in their direction. Avery shifted closer to the bars, her spine straightening as if pulled taut by an invisible thread, her body recognizing the footsteps before her mind could place them.
And when she saw who rounded the corner, she understood why. Her mother, dressed in full decorated enforcer attire, with medals that shone in the low light.
A feral growl ripped from Felix’s throat, the sound echoing through the stone walls and vibrating through her bones.
Her mother let out a cold laugh.
She felt an icy fury come down the bond as if it were her own, rushing through her veins. Felix slammed himself against the bars so hard that dust fell from the stone ceiling, falling on the high councilor.
Her mother only raised her eyebrows as if he were some unruly kitten and brushed the dust off her shoulders. Unbothered, she walked with her hands behind her back, stopping at Avery’s cell. “Now, what should I do with you, my daughter?”
“Let us go?” Avery suggested almost hopefully. Worth a shot. Maybe somewhere in her mother’s heart, she might hold some love still for her own daughter. Doubtful. Very, very doubtful.
“Your dear familiar just killed twenty enforcers back there, plus the chancellor’s son.”
Avery breathed out. “That’s how you knew…Julian’s body.”
“I knew far before that; I just didn’t know the extent to which he was awake. He has become more trouble than he’s worth, I’m afraid.”
Avery furrowed her brows, confused by the statement. But then, realization slammed through her with the fury of a ram. Oh, fuck no.