Chapter 13 – Zaide
CHAPTER 13
ZAIDE
A bead of water hung so precariously from the ceiling above me that it seemed to vibrate for an age until it collected one droplet too many and fell, splashing against my forehead.
I was alone, on a metal-framed surface, my arms stretched above me with thick manacles around my wrists chaining me to the bars of the cage. Manacles also gripped my ankles, pinning my legs to the bottom of the platform. It was a vulnerable position which made me dread the arrival of my captors.
However, I could stretch my fingers out and grip the bars of the cage with the edges of my fingers. There was little space between the bars, which seemed thicker, but I could touch them. The blue hue of magic didn’t tinge the darkness, and my fingers didn’t suffer the consequences of a spelled cage.
The council spoke of an escape plan and gave away our strengths and power. Which is why I assumed they separated me and felt confident I couldn’t escape using my power. But we also revealed information on the nearby task team and my bond with Clawdia.
I wracked my mind to remember whether I mentioned her by name.
You gave up information on her. Even from inside a cage, even as she is free, you can’t protect her properly.
With each moment I spent alone, without distraction, with only a drip for company, the cruel voices of my mind encroached. My scars glowed a dim purple in the unending darkness of my new cage and reminded me of how I got them. And for a moment, my mind flashed back to the darkness of Akar’s fighting rings, where I awaited my battles and, worse, the blooding.
The chains chimed as they shook from my trembling, I cataloged every difference from my cave in Akar to this cage, and my heart eventually calmed and stilled. But without Clawdia’s bond glowing in my soul, I felt more lost than ever before. My thoughts clouded my mind in a thick smog, and the voices there whispered evil things.
You are going to die here. Die a weak, pathetic titan.
You had the chance to be great. Your gods offered you a way to save the entire universe, your race, your soul pair, and yet you’ll die in a cage because you couldn’t escape a powerless bunch of humans.
You deserve to be here. Whatever the humans do to you, you deserve that too. You’ve let down your gods, your race, your siblings, and your newfound family.
They await their doom now because you are trapped. You are going to cause their death.
You had the greatest gift of a soul pair and a soul mate, and you wasted it.
I tried to ignore them and pushed through the smog to clear my mind. I focused on my breathing, closing my eyes, shutting out the world.
When the fifteenth drop splashed on my forehead, I finally heard a voice not from inside my mind and strained my ears to listen. Although muffled, I could discern the conversation was between two people.
A man with a rough voice said, “They were speaking of a dragon on the island. Reports from the hunters have confirmed this, too. They avoided it, but this doesn’t bode well for your ability to control it, Darren. Were you even aware the beast had wandered off, or were you just too afraid to admit your failing?”
What does that mean? The hunters believe they have Fafnir under their control?
“Failing? The dragon wasn’t on the island the night of the attack. You’ll have to check your sources.” Darren’s voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place it when I was so interested in the conversation itself.
“I did. I checked the cameras in their uniforms. There was a dragon.”
I hadn’t hallucinated, then. There was a dragon. And I just confirmed that information by asking Joseph about it.
There was a long pause. “You have this? Here?” Darren asked, a dangerous tone to his voice.
Silence echoed around my cage. Then I heard muffled and small screams and gasps, which sounded as though they were through the tinny speaker of a phone.
“There is another,” Darren announced with an eager hitch.
The other hunter was not excited. “Where the fuck did this one come from?”
“I can’t imagine, but I must know. I will find it, capture it, and ensure it is under hunter control. That, I can promise you.”
“You’ll have it here for the presentation?”
They are presenting dragons? Are there more than just Fafnir? Fafnir can’t be the one they have captured.
“I hope so. If not, we can still go ahead with our plan. All the hunters are here?”
“We have a few more arriving from their scouting missions.”
“How goes that?”
“I’ll be able to give you a full report once the last team checks in with me. But it’s looking very good. The portals are practically unguarded. Considering how many witches we have just captured, fighting the two or three at each portal gate will not be a problem.”
They know about the portals? My heart thundered as I thought about the ramifications. They were scoping them out and watching the family that guarded them. Charlie’s birth family. How do they know about that? Are they planning to go through and kill the races in their homeland? Or worse, destroy the portals? What would that do to the realms? To magic itself?
“Excellent. I look forward to your report.”
The other man chuckled, and I heard a pat. “Good luck with your dragon hunt. Let me know if you need any support for it. I can send a few layabouts with you, should you need them.”
“I do my best work alone.”
Their exchange seemed like they were equals, coworkers. They shared information, had mutual respect for each other, and, from what they were saying, seemed senior in the organization. An organization we vastly underestimated. If they had another dragon, they may have been deliberately using it to confuse the task teams.
The next words made the blood in my body feel as though it had turned to ice. “Before you go, the titan … didn’t you want to see him?”
Don’t come to see me. Don’t come in here.
“Ah, he’ll be here when I get back. Don’t kill him before I do, and be careful with your experiments.”
I will survive. I focused on that thought but couldn’t help the sliver of fear that made me question the pain I might suffer while I await my death.
The other man scoffed. “It’s not us you need to warn. It’s that crazed witch you have doing the spells. She’s getting a bit too big for her boots. I’d have a word with her if I were you.”
So they are using a witch to do the spells? My heart lurched at the thought of the torture they must have inflicted on the supernatural for her to turn against their own kind, or the leverage the hunters must have against her. It must be a great pain. Perhaps that is the plan for us all, why we were all captured instead of killed, so we could be turned to their cause. Maybe as their dragon has been too.
I swallowed thickly. The thought of their army charging into the portals was not so ridiculous now that I knew they were recruiting supernaturals.
“If you give me evidence of her misconduct, I will address those with her.” The response was steady, civil, but suggested he didn’t care for this opinion. “I’ll be leaving now.”
His footsteps echoed away, and it went quiet. My mind turned over all I had just learned before a female laugh sounded. It wasn’t a pleasant laugh. “You tried to get me in trouble with him? That’s very sly of you, Jeremy. I thought we were on the same team.”
The witch? She doesn’t sound tortured. No, in fact, she sounded teasing, sarcastic. Is that because she is so tortured she now believes herself a hunter?
The man hissed, his tone completely different from with the male he had conversed with only moments ago. “I could never be on the same team as someone so unnatural. You are our slave. Your purpose here is only to further our cause, so don’t think of yourself so highly. You might have Darren’s support, but only he has any regard for you. He won’t be able to defend you always. Step out of line, and one day, you will be as dead as the rest of your kind. Don’t think you are any more likely to survive this just because you serve us. Our cause is of greater importance than allowing supernaturals to live on whim.”
“So, you are saying, if your cause allowed it, you would let me live? So kind of you Jeremy. I didn’t know you liked me so much.” Slow, clicking footsteps followed her teasing voice.
“Don’t touch me, filth,” he shouted. There was a sharp slap, and then he continued with another low hiss. “I don’t like you. I hate you. And the day we feed you to that dragon is going to be a fucking celebration.”
She laughed. “A fucking celebration. Sounds fun.”
“Shame you’ll have to miss it,” he remarked dully.
“Well, in the meantime, I have business with the titan.” Her voice was light and airy, but I shivered in fear. Whatever her business with me, it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
“You heard your master. Don’t kill him.”
“I won’t. I know my master’s needs.” She chuckled. “I’d be happy to attend to yours, too.”
He scoffed. “Did you not kill your last lover? You are a black widow, and everyone knows it.”
“I rather like that.” I could hear the smile in her voice, and then she paused before asking, “Are you coming?”
“No,” the hunter spat. “Don’t step out of line, Mary. You’ll make it too easy for me to kill you.”
Mary? My mind conjured the image of a short human with short brown hair at the mention of the name. It couldn’t be … could it?
But as the clank of a heavy door opened, it revealed a woman I saw in my nightmares. A woman who slit the throat of my soul pair’s first witch and caused me to witness her and Clawdia gasping to death as they died together. Mary, the witch who’d slaughtered her lover, Winnie, then gave Fafnir the knife as a present.
With my mouth agape and the air in my lungs seeming to evaporate, I watched, horrified, as she walked into the room and smiled cruelly at me. I couldn’t feel fear, the shock was so great. It was a good thing, but I knew it was only a temporary reprieve.
Did Mary say her master’s name was Darren? Was that not the name of Clawdia’s husband? Is Fafnir disguised as a hunter? And is he indeed the dragon they are discussing controlling? Is he working with them as both a human and a dragon? But then who is the other one?
The answer came to me in a flash as Mary slowly walked over to a small camera in the room's corner before reaching up and pressing the side of it.
Charlie. It must be Charlie. His birth mother feared it would happen, and something on the island had caused his change.
My worry for my friend and our family increased tenfold, and my limbs trembled as my thoughts swirled.
If Charlie was indeed the dragon, then he was now being hunted by Fafnir to be brought into the hunter’s fold. If Baelen kept his promise, Clawdia, Charlie, and Baelen would all be together. Which meant they were all now in grave danger.
Gods, we really have underestimated our enemies. This is too much.
My breathing had quickened to the point of panic as Mary entered my cage. While I didn’t want her to believe I was afraid of her, I couldn’t calm down enough to cover my reaction. She stood over me with sharp eyes; it was too late to hide anything. She could see my wide eyes and gaping mouth, and the twinkle in her eyes told me how she relished in it. This revelation was a pleasure for her.
“I’m so glad you’re here. He’s going to love you. A golden meal rather than the snacks he’s been munching on.” My fists clenched as everything I assumed was confirmed. Fafnir was indeed working as a hunter and draining magic from the captive witches to satisfy his desires.
Being drained by him would offer him the power of a titan and their soul mate, and who knows what he could do then?
I was silent as she circled, her heels clicking loudly against the stone floor. The noise seemed to echo around and the mental bars chimed. “Do you remember me? I know it’s been a while, but I’ve been told I make an impression.” Her mocking smirk made me grit my teeth.
I couldn’t stay quiet. “I know exactly who you are. You are the evil witch who stole my friend’s fire and murdered Clawdia’s witch.”
“Winnie had outlived her usefulness. Although, it was such an interesting development to learn that Clawdia survived. Transferred her bond to another witch and survived because she had a bond to the titan who cried over her dying body. A soul pair.” My heart pulsed loudly in my ears as she leaned close to me. “Fafnir was most interested in learning the cat he saw in the warehouse, spying on him, the cat that turned into a human which resembled his ex-wife, was, in fact, his ex-wife. Finding you was a stroke of luck. He won’t stop looking for her. Call him sentimental, but he’s looking forward to a reunion.”
My breath caught, and my fists clenched. The powerlessness I felt made me nauseated, but I couldn’t hold my tongue against her smug expression. I growled, “You won’t find her. He won’t touch her.”
“You can’t do anything to protect her here. Worry about yourself.”
“You are underestimating her.”
“Her? That whimpering mess of a girl?” She laughed loudly and threw her head back. “She probably wets herself at the sound of Fafnir’s name. Winnie told me she killed herself in her past life, and Fafnir’s diary mentioned a wife that took her life on their wedding night. She’s a coward through and through. She’d flinch when I slammed a door. She won’t stop anything.”
I wanted to defend her. My little cat was anything but cowardly. She was so strong and so fierce and had grown so much since Mary saw her as a frightened cat and human. But it was better for us all that she underestimated us.
Instead, I asked, “Why are you doing this? You are a witch. You should help your people.”
She huffed as she stood up and walked out of the cage and into a corner I couldn’t see. “Helping them doesn’t serve me. I’m a descendent of dragons and portals. I should have more power than I do.”
“And Fafnir is going to help you get it?” I asked as she came back into view pulling a small trolley with metal trays on it. The squeaky wheels made my hair stand on end. I was so distracted trying to see what the trolley had on it that I almost missed her next words.
“He’s going to help us gain the dragons we should have.”
I blinked. It was possible, especially if Charlie was a dragon, but Fafnir definitely didn’t cause that since he wasn’t even aware of him …
“You want more power? Being a witch is not powerful enough? You want to be a dragon, too?”
“Witches have no power. My family, for all they say they have power, do not use it. They hide. We all hide. From hunters. And for what? They are a blind bunch. They’ve not once questioned the man who claims to control the supernaturals supporting their cause.” She laughed, and it sent shivers down my spine.
She truly believed herself untouchable.
“And has he told you how you become a dragon? How might you gain this power? Because you have already had power. You held the fire of a daemon, and nothing is as powerful as that. Why is Fafnir claiming he can give you power?”
“You ask a lot of questions for a captive. Why should I tell you anything? I didn’t come here to monologue.”
“Perhaps not. But you cannot tell the hunters and have probably exhausted your family’s ear. Satisfy my curiosity, because if I die here, the mystery of it all will make my spirit restless.”
“I don’t care about your spirit.” I said nothing, and she continued to stare at me until, eventually, she shrugged, and said, “But I suppose you’ll be dead as soon as Fafnir finds Clawdia and your merry band of freaks, so there’s no harm in telling you. He’s going to unlock our power. Our dragon is locked up inside of us, and he is going to free it.”
“Fafnir is going to free your dragon?” I repeated slowly. Can he do that? That doesn’t sound like something he can do, but what do I know?
“Of course. Dragons need other dragons to help them become freed.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t sound correct. Otherwise, why would your family be so concerned about the births of boys?”
The silence was frigid. As was the glare she leveled me with as she crouched again to get close to my face and hissed, “What do you know about my family?”
“While you have been following Fafnir, we have been doing our own research. And you are foolish to believe in his power on faith alone.”
“It is not faith. We’ve seen his power. Felt it.”
“But none of you are dragons yet. Why?”
“He needs more magic first.”
“There is a cage full of witches here, yet he is not using them to turn you into dragons. I’m sure I just heard him say he’s discovered another dragon, and he’s gone to find them.”
Mary’s face turned red and pinched as she spluttered, “That was a lie. He’s going to turn one of us so it doesn’t look strange when another dragon shows up.”
“So he has already turned one of you and told them to keep it a secret for days?”
I knew this wasn’t the case since I’d heard Fafnir’s genuine surprise at the video of the dragon on the island, but Mary clearly hadn’t heard that part, but all I could do while I was captive was cause dissent in the family. Make her question Fafnir and his motives. Because he didn’t care about anything but his own goals and was just using the witches and the hunters to achieve them.
“No, no. They wouldn’t—He wouldn’t—” She pressed her lips together and let out a slow, angry breath. “I know what you are doing, and I won’t fall for it. You should be less concerned about me and my goals and more concerned about your fate.” Her evil smile creeped over her face again as she picked up something from the tray. My breathing stuttered.
A needle.
“This isn’t even the worst part. Look at you, shaking like a leaf.” She cackled wickedly. “Such a big man afraid of tiny needle.”
I was afraid. I was shaking. And I wasn’t ashamed.
Why is it always blood? Why can’t they take anything else? Blood is sacred. Blood is life. Haven’t I suffered this indignity enough?
“You won’t even feel this. Stop being so dramatic.” But as the needle brushed my skin, I panted, and my vision blurred. Too many emotions I associated with my past came rushing to the surface of my mind, along with the memories. I tried to push them away. I didn’t want to remember.
I didn’t want to react to something that seemed so nonchalant to her. Perhaps it was here. I knew little about the human realm. The few weeks I’d been here, I spent most of the time running for my life. Regardless, I didn’t want to look weak. But I felt it.
The thick metal around my wrists seemed to tighten and pin my body, and I whimpered as the needle pierced my skin and glowing purple left my body in a thin tube, continuously flowing into a plastic bag.
“Your veins glow with power, yet you’re being such a crybaby about it.”
“Why?” I choked out.
“I don’t know why you’re being a baby—” She stopped looking at the tubed liquid, and her gaze found mine. “Oh, you mean why are we taking blood? To learn more about titan blood, obviously. The hunters want to know where your power comes from, its properties, what it could do for humans. They aren’t just a group in the shadows these days. They have access to labs and scientists, politicians. They can do whatever they please.”
“And yet you believe they will let you go once you’ve helped them. Once you are a dragon,” I breathed, no longer hiding my disgust at her. “You’ve fallen into their trap, and there is no way out for you, just as there isn’t for me. You might walk freely around these halls, doing their work for them, but don’t get comfortable. You’ll be just another chained animal before long.”
Her eyes blazed, and she punched my stomach hard and fast, taking all the air from my lungs. But it was a welcome distraction from the blood draw and proved one thing; she, too, knew her freedom was limited. My chains clinked against my metal bed as I panted and stared at her.
“Don’t worry about me. Terry will be here soon, and he’s going to help the scientists figure out how glowing blood can help you heal faster. He’s going to start with your toes and work his way up until every bone has been broken and every healing time has been accounted for and your blood has been drained over and over again. Until, of course, your soul pair is captured. Then we’ll do the same to her.”
I closed my eyes and imagined myself elsewhere, ignoring Mary, but as the door opened and Mary greeted the male, “Terry,” I knew I wouldn’t be able to ignore what came next. I steeled myself, but you cannot temper torture.