Chapter 10 #3
Something also told me that trying to rip the heads off the orchids wouldn’t work too well. I’d lose both hands before I knew it.
Think, think, think…
“This has been interesting,” the prince said.
His smooth voice caught my attention. Now the smile had returned. A cruel grin. Oh, gods. Now we knew what was coming next.
I held onto the bars. I’d take my chances climbing out.
Fast and furious. Make that leap. If I shouted my plan to Preston, the surprise would be gone.
I had to hope he’d be thinking the same thing or something better.
Saving him wasn’t practical. Ren came first. If I died saving this fae I’d only just met, I’d be Faerie’s biggest idiot.
Gods, wouldn’t that make Dad proud!
“I didn’t have to torture you for information,” Valance said. “Which feels disappointing yet pleasing at the same time. It means I don’t have to waste more of my time with you wretched men. Well, maybe a little suffering before we part ways.”
He clicked his fingers, and the bottom of Preston’s cage opened.
He screamed, clasping the wooden bars. His legs dangled and thrashed, his screams increasing in pitch.
The orchids chattered excitedly, flower heads bunching together, mouths snapping at his boots inches away.
“I beg you, Your Highness! Show me mercy!”
Valance came down a few steps. “Would you have shown me mercy if your plan had worked? If Ren had overpowered us with his magic? If Kormac here locked me in a cage, strapped me down?”
“Please!” Preston begged.
My heart pounded against my chest, my guts in a twist. I listened for a click, any sound to indicate the dropping of me next. Waited. Ready to climb for my life and think about how I’d get to Ren later.
This piece of shit wasn’t having me. Not now. Not ever. I’d make him fucking pay for this.
Preston wailed for the three gods to save him.
“My heart tells me you would hurt me worse,” the prince said.
Preston’s cage lowered.
“No!” he roared. “Help me! Kormac! Help me!”
The prince chuckled. “This human can’t help you. You share the same predicament.”
Oh, gods. Oh, hellpissing gods.
Preston’s boots reached biting distance for the flowers. A purple one clamped its teeth down on the leather, tearing through the fabric. Soon, two more orchids joined in, savaged the boot. Between the three of them, they stripped the brown boot to nothing, a brown woolen sock left exposed.
The purple flower was the first to draw blood. It bit through the sock, blood leaking in an instant. Those teeth were deadly.
“Kormac! Please!”
Preston’s screams turned my blood cold.
Within less than a minute, the three orchids had his feet off like they’d done with his boot. Blood everywhere, pouring out of his wounds, now nothing more than a mess of flesh and bone.
The cage lowered again. Enough for…
For…
I’d seen a lot of gore in my life fighting off seelie raiding parties, creatures trying to kill us for other reasons—like hungry goblins in search of a hellpissing banquet.
The worst of all of them had been Leanna’s death.
Nothing would ever come close. But, by the gods, this came in a healthy second.
Once the flowers got more Preston to bite, it was over for him. As many orchids that could sink their teeth into him did, dragging him off the cage no matter how hard he held on. The bars snapped, and so did his wrists.
They brought him into their bed, bit and ripped and sprayed his flesh and blood everywhere.
It sprayed them, the walls, flecks of skin flung into the air, as hungry as if getting their first meal in weeks.
They didn’t slow down. Preston’s screams became gargles until his throat was gone, his lips and the rest of his face eaten.
I gagged, acid burning the back of my throat. I held it back, not giving the prince the satisfaction of seeing me bring my guts up.
The whole thing felt like hours but lasted minutes. Before I knew it, I was looking down at skeleton picked clean.
One by one, the orchids began to shrivel and die. Back to how they’d looked when I’d first arrived here. A dead fucking garden covered in blood and gore.
“Gather the bones,” Valance said, “they can make soup for the other prisoners.”
I couldn’t look at the prince, couldn’t do anything but grip the bars and try to breathe. He watched me. I felt his eyes boring into me. My body, I realized, was drenched in so much sweat. Cold sweat, not from the heat. From being scared out of my mind.
Wait…
Wait…
I met the prince’s stare. Fuck him. He wasn’t having my fear.
His head tilted, mouth curling into another one of his smirks. Then left. They all left.
As I sat there alone above the dead garden, cage swinging in the balmy breeze, I had nothing but confusion to keep me company.
I was alive, hoping Preston’s confession had been right. But what was the real plan? Why all this messiness? Things didn’t make sense anymore. Lasair’s plans, why I’d been left alive, what in seven hells was really going on.
I remained locked in the cage well beyond the sundown to think about it.