Chapter Eleven
Daxton Aegaeon
The chains binding my hands to the shackles at my ankles clinked against the floor, creating a brash echo across the chasm of despair that seemed to grow with each painstaking breath I forced myself to take.
Sleep would bring me little to no comfort. I could feel the iron from the water already beginning to take effect. Still, it was a welcome relief, despite the aftertaste and lingering effects on my magic.
Two pairs of footsteps echoed along the corridor. I recognized the rhythm of Anjani’s gait, full of arrogance and false authority.
But the second surprised me.
“You’ve brought company with you today, Anjani?” I rasped, fighting back the pain in my hands and feet as I shifted onto my knees. “I didn’t take you for the torturing soul, Rhett.”
Peering through the bars leading down the hallway, I was stunned to see a torchlight, not a fae light, flickering along the cavern walls. The torch in Rhett’s hand burned a deep blue, magically enchanted, but the Gods only knew what for.
Rhett appeared somewhat unamused at first, but then he glanced at Anjani. Together, they shared a spine-curling smirk, silently relishing in the joys of my pain and suffering.
“Oh, how the mighty have truly fallen, High Prince of Silver Meadows.” Rhett snickered, exaggerating a well-practiced bow with a wide saccharine grin. His steel-blue eyes churned like the flames of the torch in his hand.
I knew we shouldn’t have trusted him.
After he gifted Skylar the Aegis armor, I thought maybe, just maybe, we could recruit him for our efforts. But, no, he was just as twisted as his overseers. Even though Rhett was a distant relative of my mother’s, it was clear where his loyalties truly lay.
“Are you going to behave?” Anjani asked as she leaned a slender arm against the bars. Her stump, where her hand once was, was wrapped and bound in a shiny metallic covering. She tapped it against the iron bars, displaying her impatience at my silence. “Well?”
My cold stare did not waver. “Fuck off.”
“That’s a no,” Rhett said, sighing and leaning against the wall of dark stone. “I can’t believe you managed to pull me out of bed for this—”
“You asked to come,” Anjani spat, rolling her eyes. “I could’ve done this myself. I didn’t need you here.”
“I couldn’t help it. I was curious about what you were doing with him,” Rhett answered with an edge to his tone.
“Hence why I knocked on your door.”
“I was pleasantly entertained with—”
“I’m aware,” Anjani groaned and turned on Rhett, her eyes glowing with menace.
“You’re always welcome to join. I wouldn’t dream of turning away a beauty such as yourself, and I’m sure the others wouldn’t mind.”
I shook my head, barely able to stomach listening to them.
“My personal tastes are not as adventurous as yours, Rhett.”
“You’re missing out. To live unattached is freeing.” Rhett narrowed his eyes, playfully cocking his brow and shamelessly flirting with Anjani.
Brave, if not slightly psychotic.
“This session was sanctioned by Queen Minaeve,” Anjani said. “So, pay attention.”
“I’m aware of what the queen wishes for me to document,” Rhett answered in a low growl.
Rhett was not trained to wield a sword or a blade like Seamus or Anjani. His skillset resided in his vast web of knowledge. Only a fool would dare overlook it. The mind was a deadly weapon, and when utilized correctly, it could prove sharper and more lethal than any blade.
“Guards!” Anjani shouted up the corridor. “Restrain him in his cell.”
“No special outing this time?” I snarled, never once dropping my stare.
“Not just yet,” Anjani answered. “I want you to relive this over and over again. You will finally know what true suffering is, Aegaeon.”
“Please,” I huffed, “I’ve had the pleasure of your company for an entire week now. Trust me, I know what true suffering is.”
“You will break,” Anjani said.
The cloaked guards arrived just as Anjani glanced at the leaking wooden pail outside my cell.
“Good,” she said with a vicious grin.
My eyes widened as my body began to convulse, roaring as a blinding pain shot through my center.
“I told you the iron would hide the taste,” Rhett said as his smile began to widen. “It won’t be long now before he falls asleep. We may not even need the guards to transport him. The portal will do the trick.”
“No.” I shifted forward, my forehead kissing the stone as my body began to betray me.
“Sleep, Prince,” Rhett whispered as he knelt against the bars.
I collapsed onto my side, looking up at them through the iron.
“You will break,” Anjani repeated, her eyes widening with a sickening delight.
Rhett’s expression didn’t waver. I watched as his cold eyes darkened, and the world around me faded to black.