Chapter 18
Eight.
Eight times I’ve been dragged back to my cell for my daily meal of moldy bread and slimy or gritty water.
I don’t consume any of it anymore. The sooner Death takes me, the better.
What little rest I get, the orange-haired freak interrupts whenever he feels like it.
He’ll slowly creep into my cell and kick or punch me awake.
It’s never enough sleep to recover. Then it’s back here for more agony.
“Please,” I whisper. “Please.” I’m not even sure what I’m begging for. Mercy? Death? It’s all the same to me.
Asa ignores my pleas and rounds my metal slab.
It’s slick with my sweat and I’m shivering so violently it rattles.
He places his fingers on my temples once again.
I try with what little strength I have to wriggle out of his grasp.
The bones in his fingers dig deeper, and the strap around my head chafes my forehead.
I can’t take this anymore. I don’t know what he wants, what he’s looking for.
I’ve told him who my mother was, the visions I’ve had, who my father was, where I grew up.
I even gave him Feron, knowing he could hold his own if they went looking for him.
The only thing I’ve managed to keep locked up tight in a box in the corner of my mind is Isi.
I won’t let him have her. Every time he gets close, I slam a wall down.
But that only makes him claw more violently, more desperately.
Nothing I’ve said makes the pain end. Nothing he sees brings any mercy.
I have nothing left to give him. Nothing left to hold on to.
My jaw locks down as the pain in my mind begins again.
I don’t even have it in me to scream anymore.
Before Rejuvenator Asa can really start digging this time, the door is shoved open.
The sound of it bouncing off the wall echoes in the sterile, empty room.
Filling the frame is the man from the tavern.
His emerald eyes meet mine. Unbidden, tears start flowing down my temple and soaking Asa’s hands.
This is it. This is Death. He is Death. The stories say he can take the form of someone safe.
Someone I can trust. I wonder why he wouldn’t take the form of my mother.
I don’t care. I would go with him if he was a twelve-headed monster from the abysm. Anything to escape this suffering.
I stare at him, but his face stays blank. Must be a tactic to calm the dying. “Please,” I sob. “Please take me. I can’t do this anymore.” He doesn’t react, doesn’t move, doesn’t speak. Behind him the twins materialize, confusion marring their handsome faces as they glare at my green-eyed stranger.
They can see him?
“Do you know her?” Osper asks him. The green-eyed man shakes his head, not taking his eyes off me.
“She seems to know you, little brother.” Elex nudges the man from the tavern in the ribs, pushing him aside so he can come into the room.
Brother? I’m sure now that Asa has shattered my mind. I’ve gone insane.
“You find anything yet?” Elex asks the old rejuvenator, rounding the cold slab, stopping at my side.
“Nothing of importance,” he says with a sigh.
“Well what’s taking so fucking long? Father wants to know now.” Elex looks like a petulant child demanding sweets. I can practically see the tantrum rolling off him.
Rich kids. I scoff and drag my gaze back to my mystery man.
No! Stop it Vayna. He’s not your anything. He probably put you in this mess.
This realization settles on me far too slowly but when it finally does my blood boils in my veins. I finally find my fight after days of submission. I start wrenching on my restraints, roaring.
“You son of a bitch!” I scream at him. “You did this to me! Got me to trust you, then sent your fucking dogs after me? Was getting me naked just a bonus? What the fuck do you want with me?” I’ve become completely unhinged, no longer in control of my emotions.
I’m sobbing and screaming and violent, thrashing against my binds, trying desperately to get my hands on him.
“Damn,” one of the twins says. I refuse to pull my eyes from the man at the door to see which one. “She’s really pissed at you, Caene. What does she mean by ‘getting her naked?’” I can hear the amusement in his voice.
“No idea,” Caene responds. “Zave must have completely fucked up her mind.”
I freeze.
Zave? Zave Asa?
Zave Asa isn’t just any member of the House of Rejuvenation. He’s the patriarch. How in the abysm did these guys get a patriarch to help them?
“What are you waiting for, Zave?” Elex barks, the scar on his face pulling a little with his scowl. “Get to work. I’m tired of waiting.”
“Careful how you speak to me boy,” Zave snaps. “I know just where to apply pressure to make you hurt.”
Elex rolls his eyes but shuts his mouth, his lip jutting out slightly like a pouty toddler.
Zave’s bony fingers press into my temple, and my blood runs icy.
Orange light explodes around my head. There’s no build-up to the pain this time.
He just dives right in like he’s tired of the game they seem to think I’m playing.
An ear-splitting scream tears from my already raw throat.
Just before I lose myself to the darkness crowding my vision, I feel a large, warm, calloused hand wrap around mine.
The feel of something scraping at my legs brings me around.
I’m being hauled back to my cell. Elex grips my wrist, dragging me down the thin, stone hallway, Osper follows close behind at my limp feet.
The man from the tavern, Caene, is nowhere in sight.
These assholes both have the strength to carry me, especially now that I’m roughly the weight of a bird.
They clearly think so little of me they decided to drag me.
I don’t have the strength to stand, to walk on my own, to fight.
Osper worms his way around Elex and me to open the door to my cell.
They fling me inside, my head colliding with the floor.
The door slams and I am plunged back into the dank darkness.
I don’t bother to try to sit up or move.
I lie still on the frigid floor of my cell, drenched in sweat and shaking so viciously my very bones rattle.
And I pray.
I pray to the gods above to show me mercy. I pray to the goddesses of the earth to bring me to them. I even pray to Death himself below to take me into the abysm. Anything to escape this place.
Again, no one answers. Because no one is there.
A large hand grabs my shoulder, roughly shaking me. I open my eyes to a flood of light. My heart quickens. I’m back in the white room. They didn’t even bother to wake me this time. I’m still here. The goddesses haven’t come for me. The gods have not answered my prayers. Death has ignored me.
I flinch away, bringing my hand to my eyes to block the light, only distantly aware that it isn’t bound. A face comes into focus. I look up and meet verdant green eyes.
Fuck.
I scramble as far from him as this small cell will allow, slamming my back into the wall, his eyes following me. I try to scream but my throat is so raw, no sound comes out.
“Be calm.” His deep voice coils around me. He places the lantern on the damp floor and holds his hands up as though he’s trying to calm a wild animal. “I’m here to help you.”
My eyes narrow. This feels like a trap. He has probably told them all about our little rendezvous by now and he has been sent to tempt me, to try to get whatever information they think I’ve been keeping from them.
This is just another tactic. I look behind his head and see the door is wide open.
I don’t hesitate. I leap to my feet with power I didn’t know I had and run straight for the door.
He’s fast and grabs me around the waist, pulling me to his hard chest. I continue to struggle, trying to break his hold.
It’s no use. He’s much stronger than me, and would be even when I’m at my best, which admittedly is not now.
I go limp in his hold. I’ve burned through the minor burst of adrenaline in my veins.
“Calm down. You won’t get far without me.” His breath tickles my ear. “This place is a labyrinth.”
I turn my head, scowling. He looks down at me, sincerity oozing out of him.
It’s the pain I briefly see behind his eyes that gives me pause.
Maybe he had nothing to do with this. Maybe he is truly trying to help me.
A part of me wants to believe him as his breath tickles my face.
Another part wants to melt into his arms and let someone save me for once.
No, Vayna. You don’t need anyone to save you!
The voice in the back of my mind sounds like my mother, and she’s right. I can take care of myself. I can save myself. I’ve been doing it for a long time. But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t use a little help.
“Fine!” I throw up my hands in defeat. He eases his hold and gently puts me back on my feet.
I wasn’t even aware I had been dangling off the floor.
I waver, my legs feeling like jelly beneath me.
His hands close around my biceps, steadying me.
He turns me around and takes both of my small, disgustingly dirty hands in his giant, rough ones.
I try to pull away, my face twisting in confusion, in disgust, but he grips them tighter.
He closes his eyes, a line forming between his brows, concentrating.
“What in the abysm are you—?” The question dies as I feel my body coming back to life.
My mind is clearing, my muscles feel full of vitality, and the deep ache in my head that has been my constant sidekick through this ordeal dissipates.
My eyes are wide as I watch the power flow from him.
It wraps around me like vines in a faint purple glow.
I stare at him as the light vanishes, struggling to reconcile everything I’ve seen and experienced with what I believed to be true.
How was Zave Asa able to cause so much blinding pain inside my mind?
And how can I feel so much better now? By all rights, I should be near death, but I feel as strong and limber as I did when I was much younger.
My mind reels and my knees shake as I come around to the truth.
It’s all real. The houses of Lyclaven. They truly have gifts and abilities that aren’t natural.
They have magic. The existential crisis I’ve been forcing into the back of my mind lately comes roaring to the front.
My only thoughts have been of survival for so long, it’s no wonder it’s taken this long. It’s all real.
And my premonitions? That must be magic as well. But how? I’m nothing special. Why can I see things before they happen?
“We have to move,” he says, unaware of the world shifting out from beneath my feet. He bends down, picking up the lantern. “The invulnerability I just transferred is only temporary, you’ll weaken again soon.”
Invulnerability? The word spins through my mind, trying to find the source of its familiarity. I find it. Invulnerability is one of the gifts of the House of Preservation. The Montbeths.
Gods and goddesses, this guy is a fucking Montbeth? And the twin lunatics are his brothers . . .
I look between him and the door. Do I trust a Montbeth, or do I take my chances on my own?
“How soon?” If I lose this feeling in my body while trying to escape, I’m not sure I’ll make it out.
“It’s different for each person. With how weak you are, I’d say a little over an hour.”
“Will we make it out in that time?”
He shrugs as he bends to pull a dagger from his boot and holds it out by the blade for me to take.
Immediately I recognize the snakewood handle, the silver and gold filigree.
It’s unclear if he knows he’s handing me my cherished dagger, but I refuse to react in case he decides to torment me by keeping it.
“Depends on how long we stand here talking.”
I eye the dagger.
“You know how to use it?” he asks.
I nod, taking the weapon from him. I act quickly, not giving him time to react, or myself time to think twice. I use all the strength he gave me and drive the dagger to the hilt into his chest.
He grunts and looks down at it, then back up at me. I should run; this is my chance. He rolls his eyes and sighs, wincing as he breathes. “Feel better?” he rumbles. If I didn’t know better, I could swear there was a hint of amusement in his eyes.
I watch in shock as he wraps his hand around the handle of the dagger.
He grits his teeth against the pain and pulls.
The dagger slides out, slick with blood.
Breathing raggedly, he hands it back to me.
I slowly raise my hand and wrap it around the weapon.
I know my aim was good. That dagger should have pierced his heart.
He should be dead, or at the very least dying on the cell floor.
He chuckles at the look on my face. Definitely amused then.
“Invulnerable,” he states, tapping the wound on his chest as it stitches itself back together in front of my eyes.
I mentally kick myself. Of course! With my mind finally clear, all the pieces start to click into place.
It’s so obvious to me now. Caene is invulnerable, Elex’s ability must have something to do with camouflaging, and Osper’s skill at pulling weapons out of nothing must be another gift.
All given to them by their father. Maziar Montbeth.
Does all this have something to do with my mother?
But then why wouldn’t they just kill me? What information do they think I have?
Caene holds his hand out to me. “Shall we?”
I rub my face with my free hand to clear my mind.
Now is not the time to try and figure any of this out.
“Lead the way.” I gesture toward the still-open door, not bothering to take his proffered hand or to apologize for stabbing him.
I’m not at all sorry. He slips out and I follow close on his heels.