Chapter 14 | Kincade
Bagras Castle. I’d been here far too much. I’d trained men here. Lived here for a time before I was sent to dispatch the new Keeper of the Holy Relics. Before I knew who that was.
As soon as we’d arrived, I was taken to the prison cells. A place I’d seen men chained up and left to starve and die. Deserters. Burned assets. Men who would rather die than live another day under the control of the Brotherhood. I didn’t understand then.
I understood now.
I understood what I was willing to do to become one of those men.
The knowledge sat heavy in my gut. Not fear. Not regret. Certainty. The kind that strips a man down to bone and leaves him standing, anyway.
There were no windows. No markers. No sunrise or sunset to cling to.
Just stone and iron and the steady ache of chains pulling my arms wide enough to keep my muscles taut and burning.
They hadn’t chained my legs. That was deliberate.
I could stand. Shift my weight. Pace the length of the cell like a caged animal allowed enough room to remember movement.
They weren’t trying to weaken me.
They were waiting.
The cell door opened, casting light where there was darkness. Sebastian stepped into the cell, pausing in the doorway, the light at his back. Making him nothing more than a silhouette. Behind him, more guards. As if I was some common criminal that needed watching.
“Welcome back,” he said, his tone even.
“You came yourself,” I said. “That means you’re scared.”
His eyes sharpened. “Of you?”
“Of what you’ll have to do to keep her.”
He smiled without humor. “I don’t think so. You’re lucky,” he said. “The Brotherhood has killed men for less.”
He took one more step farther into the cell. The faint light flickered over his face illuminating the hard lines of a man who was beyond reason.
It was pointless to ask where she was. Because that’s what he wanted. He wanted me to ask.
“She’s strong. Defiant. I like it.” His grin said he was pleased with his latest pet project.
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing yet.” His voice was calm, even.
Yet.
“You brought her here to get to me,” I said. “Let her go.”
“I brought her here because of you,” he corrected. “And now she’ll be something we can use.”
“She’s not a tool,” I said.
My hands curled into fists. The truth scraped raw against everything I’d done to keep her out of this.
“You refused the call. Trying to be noble and protect her from the inevitable. She’ll resist. She’ll fight. And she’ll bleed for it, too.”
“Touch her,” I said, voice low, “and you won’t walk out of here.”
“You can try. She’s the one I can break.”
I surged forward, pain ripping through my arms.
White flared behind my eyes. Something in me tore loose, feral and unforgiving. Every instinct in me narrowed to one objective—end him.
“I’ll bring her to you soon enough. So you can see what your resistance means.” He stepped toward the door, then turned back. “Oh, and one more thing? When she begs you not to give us what we want…” A pause. A smile. “That’s when the lesson begins.”
And then he was gone, the cell door slamming shut with a finality.
Time passed. The cell was quiet. There was no movement on the other side of the door either.
I exhaled and rode the pain in my arms until it dulled into something manageable.
Pain I could work with. Pain was familiar.
It grounded me. Kept my mind from going where Sebastian wanted it to go.
It was everything else Sebastian had said that lodged deep, like a festering wound that wouldn’t heal.
Faint footsteps echoed through the hall in the cell block. I remained still, listening. Waiting. There was a muffled thud, then the clink of a key.
Then the door opened.
Silas stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. I looked at him for a long moment, wondering if he was recruited back or if he was still loyal to me.
Trust was a luxury I couldn’t afford, but losing him would hit deeper than I was ready to name.
“I was too late,” Silas said. “To stop what was coming.”
“We both were,” I said, bitterly. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“You need someone on the inside,” he said, voice low.
The tightness in my chest eased. If Silas was here, I still had a line out. He managed to infiltrate their ranks without attracting attention to himself—that’s what he did best.
He cut a glance back toward the door. “The guard is out right now, but he’ll wake soon with one hell of a headache.”
So, he’d taken him out to talk to me.
“They have her,” I said.
“I know.” He gave a nod. “Sebastian took her to the new wing.”
That got my attention. “What new wing?”
“Not sure the function yet. I’m still trying to find out. I don’t have access. I don’t have much time. I’ll do what I can for both of you. They think you’re isolated,” he said. “You’re not.”
“You made contact?”
He nodded. Once. Sharp. “I reminded them why they went quiet in the first place. They know you’re here and you’re alive.”
He was talking about the Quiet Watch. Men who had vanished into shadow. Men who only surfaced when the world was already on fire.
“They can’t move yet,” I said.
“No,” he agreed. “Too many eyes. But when the time comes… they’ll be ready. And so will I.”
He met my gaze now. “I hope you’re ready for a war.”
“I’ve been ready. If anything happens to her—”
“I’ll find a way,” he added. “I always do.”
The door creaked.
Silas stepped back, already fading into the role he wore best.
“Hold,” he said. “I’ll be back when the time is right.”
The door opened wider. The lock slid home and Silas was gone. I was alone again with the certainty that the next door to open would not be kind.