Chapter 15
I expected to be taken to the dungeon, but instead, I was escorted to the meeting room. Madame sat alone at the table, reclining in her chair. A dozen of her men stood along the wall behind her. Sax hauled me in to stand in front of the table, keeping a tight grip on my arm.
“You interfered in the sentencing, Bones,” Madame said, “and because of that, Lem had to put down my executioner.”
Gods, she said it like Brimstone wasn’t even a human being. For the first time, I felt a flicker of pity for the giant. Madame wasn’t as angry as I’d expected, but her calm demeanor scared me more.
“Do you think you’re special, Bones? You think the rules don’t apply to you?”
Something sharp lodged in my throat, and I hesitated, unsure of what she wanted me to say. I wished she’d tell me my punishment so we could get it over with.
“No.”
Madame studied me for what felt like a very long time. I couldn’t help shifting uncomfortably in the silence. Gods, what was taking so long?
“I think you need some time to sit on that,” she finally said, a cold smile crossing her face. “Someplace nice and quiet where you can reflect as you await your punishment.”
What the fuck did that mean? I stared at her, but Sax grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the door.
“Have fun, Bones,” Lem taunted as we passed him in the hallway.
My sense of dread heightened. Sax led me down into the dungeon, past the cells full of gawking people, and toward another set of stairs I hadn’t noticed before.
“Where are we going?” I demanded.
“Solitary,” Sax grunted.
I didn’t know what that meant, but we kept descending deeper and deeper underground.
The air smelled stale and increasingly like damp dirt.
We reached the end of the electric lights, but the corridor continued.
Sax clicked on a flashlight, revealing that the walls were growing rougher and more like a rock cavern than something man-made.
My skin began to crawl. Finally, we stopped, and Sax unlocked an iron-bar door to a small single cell that looked like it’d been carved out of the mountain.
I winced as he wrenched me around to remove the handcuffs.
Then he shoved me in, slammed the door behind me, and locked it while I stood there staring at him in silent panic.
He didn’t even bother saying anything before he strode away, taking the only light with him.
I had to bite my cheek to keep from calling after him, begging him to leave the flashlight.
I listened to the sound of his footsteps growing fainter until I couldn’t hear them anymore.
For a long time, I tried to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but I couldn’t see anything.
Panic began buzzing in my head, and I took deep breaths to calm down as I sank to the floor, feeling blindly around the cell.
The small space wasn’t even large enough for a tall person to fully stretch out.
The floor and walls were rough rock. Not like the outside of the watchtower, but like I touched the very roots of the mountain.
A bucket stood in the corner, and from the smell, I guessed it was the toilet.
I curled into a ball against the cold rock wall and tried to hold myself together in the silent, pressing darkness.
—
I couldn’t keep track of the time passing. I counted in my head for a while but eventually gave up. It reminded me of being locked inside Wrangler’s safe, but at least there my eyes were able to adjust to the dark.
It’s gonna be okay. The darkness felt like it weighed on my lungs, making each breath difficult. She can’t keep me down here for long. I have to work.
I grew less sure about that as time crawled on.
I told you, don’t get involved, Wolf snarled in my head. Keep your head down.
“Fuck off,” I muttered out loud.
You’re smarter than this, he persisted. You know better.
“I’m not apologizing for trying to save that girl.”
You know she’s probably dead. All you did was delay her death a little. So what good did any of that fuckin’ do?
I closed my eyes, not that it made any difference. It was just as dark when they were open.
She’s probably gonna hurt Trey now. Or one of the kids. Is that what you wanted?
Nausea curdled in my stomach.
You don’t need them. You have me.
“No, I fucking don’t,” I snapped. “You’re not here, so stop.”
Gods, maybe I’d gone insane a long time ago. I was having a full argument with my brother’s voice in my head.
Wolf went silent, and my thoughts drifted to Sam’s ashen face. A chill brushed across my skin, and I shivered. How had I hurt him? Had I accidentally taken some of his life force? Had my powers harmed him because he wasn’t injured? But why couldn’t I heal him?
The last time I failed to heal someone, Dune had—
I slammed those thoughts back down.
I remembered that golden light pouring from my hands like sunbeams and lifted a palm, calling on my powers.
They began to flow, giving me a brief moment of hope, but then vanished as though my body knew I wasn’t trying to heal someone.
I frowned. Had I been able to throw my power like that because Trey was there, and it sought the nearest injury that wasn’t Sam like a magnet?
If that was the case, how far could it reach?
Trey. My stomach fluttered with either dread or longing, maybe both.
I brushed a finger across my lips, remembering how his mouth had perfectly fit with mine.
That was the problem with Trey, wasn’t it?
I wasn’t only attracted to him. Being with him felt like we were two halves coming together, and the rightness of it was something powerful, something dangerous.
What if Madame hurt him?
I shouldn’t have kissed him.
Fuck.
I lay down and attempted to sleep. To have little difference between being awake and being asleep nibbled away at my sanity.
As time passed, the line between being awake and asleep began to blur even further.
I tried again and again to summon my powers, desperate for some light to break the darkness, but nothing happened.
Sometimes as I lay on the ground, I would swear I could feel things crawling over my skin. I struggled not to think about what sort of bugs and creatures would live this far underground.
How long had I been in here?
My stomach ached with hunger, but the thirst worried me more. I started having flashbacks of stumbling through the desert with dry, chapped lips, desperately trying to stay on my feet.
When I first heard the footsteps, I thought I imagined them.
They were so quiet that they seemed like a dream.
Then a tiny glow of light appeared, and I scrambled up on my knees and gripped the iron bars of the cell.
It grew bigger, and I tried to convince myself I would be strong enough to keep from begging Sax to leave me a light.
Finally, someone appeared holding a flashlight. It shone into my eyes and I squeezed them shut, a sharp pain shooting through my head. Somebody cursed, and the light dropped down as they darted forward. Then Trey knelt outside the cell, reaching through the bars to grab my shoulders.
“Bones!” he whispered. “Bones, darlin’, are you alright?”
I grasped his wrists. “Are you hurt?” I demanded, my voice raspy.
He frowned at me. “What? No, I’m fine. Are you hurt?”
Relief and dread filled me as I shook my head. Madame hadn’t hurt him, but that meant she also hadn’t taken action yet.
“How long have I been in here?” My voice trembled.
“Three days,” he answered, anger clear. “I brought you some water.” He reached into the pack he was carrying and handed it to me through the bars.
I gulped it down.
“I have a second bottle, too.”
“Is Sam okay?” I asked as soon as I came up for air.
“He’s weak, but he’s not getting worse.” Trey’s hands were moving across my face and body like he had to see for himself that I wasn’t hurt.
I leaned my forehead against the metal bars, and after he finished his examination, he did the same, pressing our heads together as much as possible with the iron bars between us. The physical contact and closeness made my eyes well.
“I have some food.”
“What’s happening?” I whispered.
“Madame is refusing to tell anybody where you are, but Mac knew she’d probably stuck you down here.
She’s been keeping the corridor guarded, but I was finally able to sneak down here.
I don’t have a lot of time, but godsdamnit, I’m gonna get you out somehow.
” He passed me what felt like dried meat wrapped in a cloth, and I tore into it.
“Sorry, it’s not much. I had to be real careful. She’s watching me like a fuckin’ hawk.”
“You shouldn’t be down here.” With a little food and water, my brain shifted back into gear. “Trey, if she catches you—”
“I don’t care,” Trey interrupted, his voice tight.
“Trey!” My panic swelled. “You can’t—”
“No, Bones, you don’t—”
“She’ll punish you! Trey, please!”
I heard him take a deep breath, and then he gently took my face in his hands.
“She’s already punishin’ me,” he murmured. My heart leapt into my throat. “She knows you bein’ in here is killin’ me.”
“Please, don’t…don’t provoke her,” I begged.
“It’s okay, Bones,” he whispered. “I’ll be fine. It’s you I’m worried about.”
A radio crackled, then Mac’s voice came through. “Trey, time’s up.”
Trey swore, and I couldn’t help clinging to him again. “I’ll be back,” he promised. “Me or Mac. We’re gonna get you out.” He passed me the second bottle of water. “When you finish this, chuck it down the corridor so no one sees it.”
I tried hard not to cry. “Okay.”
“Fuck,” he muttered.
“Can you leave the light?”
“I’m afraid if Sax or Madame sees it they’ll know you had help,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Bones.”
I tried to push past the panic at the thought of being consumed by darkness again.
“I’m sorry, darlin’.” Trey sounded wrecked. “I’m so sorry.”
“Trey!” Mac’s angry voice came through the radio.
Trey spoke into it, “I’m comin’!” He turned back to me. “I gotta go. We’ll get you out, I swear it.”