3. Vera
Vera
SEVEN YEARS AGO
“Can we take her yet?” a harsh voice whispered. “I think her brother’s gone.”
“Then let’s move.”
My eyes popped open. Two unfamiliar bearded men hovered above my bed. Before I could scream, a hand clamped over my mouth, smothering my cry against a callused palm.
I bucked and kicked wildly, sheets twisting around my legs, but the second man quickly tied my ankles together with rope. My eyes bulged as I screamed into the hand again. “Nox!” I tried to call for my older brother, but it came out muffled. “Mama!”
I summoned phoenix fire to my hands, and the well of magic deep in my chest flared to life. I gripped my attacker’s wrist and shoved heat into his skin. He dropped me with a hiss. I sucked in a breath and shrieked, “Ma—”
This time, an oily cloth slammed over my nose and mouth. When I inhaled, acidic fumes went straight to my head. Stars burst in my vision. My flames sputtered out, and the other assailant wrenched my arms behind my back, securing them with more rope.
One of them threw me over his shoulder as if I weighed nothing.
I probably did to these Drakorum brutes.
A fifteen-year-old, underfed girl was barely a feather compared to what their Shifter strength could carry.
I thrashed in his grip, head hanging down his back and feet at his midsection, trying to land any hit I could.
But whatever oil was on the cloth made my limbs sluggish, and my head spun as my body bounced up and down.
“Mama!” I yelled again, but my voice was practically a whimper. “Nox!” Where were they? Why weren’t they in our chambers? What was going on?
I swam in and out of consciousness as the men lumbered down the servants’ stairwell leading from our wing of the mansion to the bottom floor. The Shifter carrying me made a sharp right turn, and my head swung into a door, sending sharp pain through my skull. Everything went black.
I saw Mama and Nox waiting for me at the courtyard fountain.
It was afternoon, the only time of day Kane Scarven let us have free time outside.
I skipped to my family and ran my fingers in the cool, cascading water.
Mama hummed her favorite song, one she used to sing me to sleep with, and Nox rattled a pair of dice at me.
My older brother’s mischievous blue eyes twinkled as he pulled me into a one-armed hug. “Ready to lose again, little sis?”
He was always good at hiding how bad things were with a roguish smile, but I let him anyway. These peaceful moments with them were too rare to ruin.
“I only lose because you’re a big cheater,” I said, sticking my tongue out at him.
His smile widened. “Oh, I’m a cheater?” He grabbed me around the waist, and I squealed with laughter.
“Who was the one who burned all my cards last time because you knew I was winning?” He swung around so my legs dangled in the fountain, water soaking my feet.
Mama laughed at our antics as I tickled Nox until he finally set me down, then I splashed water at his face with a giggle.
The memory disappeared, replaced by darkness. My surroundings slowly came back to me as my limbs swayed against my attacker’s back. We were already out of the main house. I blinked against the fog to see dark stone walls, a dirty, blood-stained floor, and iron bars lining the hallway.
I didn’t recognize this place. My heart thudded frantically as the oil wore off. My Shifter senses returned little by little, fear coating my tongue. I mustered as much strength as I could and kneed the guard in the abdomen, then summoned my fire to burn the rope at my wrists.
He merely stumbled, but that was enough. I bucked out of his hold and landed on the cold ground. Scrambling to my feet, I burned away the ropes around my ankles and took off at a sprint, slipping on puddles of blood splattered down the hall.
I rammed headfirst into a hard body. Muscles made of steel locked around me, not even flinching as I sent phoenix fire into every inch of his skin.
“Help!” I screamed as this new guard lifted me around the middle. “Someone, help! Nox!”
“That dragon isn’t coming for you,” he said gruffly. “Nobody is.”
He lugged me down the hall until we reached a set of iron bars. Throwing the door open, he tossed me inside a dark, rancid cell.
“Get me out of here!” I cried, rattling the cell bars. “I haven’t done anything wrong!”
The guard ignored me. He bolted the door tight, then shoved the key into a pocket in his pauldron.
“You know I can burn this down in a second,” I seethed, placing my hand on the lock. My hands burned bright orange as the iron sizzled beneath my grip.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a voice crooned. A figure appeared from the shadows of the hallway, a thick mane of black hair billowing around his head like a cloud. His pale face was chalky white in the glow of the torchlight.
“Who are you?” I spat at the strange man.
He smiled, an eerie, ghostly grin that didn’t reach his eyes. “My name is Malek Mortep.” He stepped closer, the manic expression still plastered on his face. “I’ve heard so much about you, little bird.”
A chill cascaded across my skin. I instinctively took a step back, abandoning my attempts to melt the lock. “What do you want from me? Why am I here?”
“What do I want?” He hummed and drew nearer, his pointed nose sticking through the cell bars. “Don’t you realize the magic that lies in your veins?”
My heart pounded faster. All Veridians had magic. We were born with a single type based on our bloodline and which of the six provinces we were from. I was from Drakorum, so I should have only been born with Shifter magic, just as everyone else here was.
But I wasn’t like the rest of them.
I balled my hands at my sides. “I want to see my mother.”
“Of course, you do.” Malek Mortep tapped one of the bars with a long, cracked nail. “Behave for me, and you may get to see your family again.”
Fear and wrath thrashed against my magic, which responded to my heightened emotions.
Shadows billowed around my feet and twisted up my legs until they reached my hands.
Lightning crackled between my fingers. I lunged for the bars again, heating the metal with phoenix fire.
It had only been three years since I first shifted, but my firebird was as strong as ever.
It strained to burst straight from my chest.
Metal hissed as it melted, liquifying before my very eyes. As the molten silver dripped down my arm, I lashed out a hand and gripped Mortep’s throat.
“I don’t care who you are. Let. Me. Go,” I fumed, pushing heat into my fingertips until I smelled burning flesh.
But the man simply smiled. “I suppose we’ll have to build something stronger than this,” he forced out, that smirk still on his features, “to cage you, little bird.”
Before I could act, he pulled a syringe from his pocket and plunged it into my outstretched arm.
Blinding pain tore through me. I staggered back with a yelp as my vision went gray. The world around me dimmed, and it took all my willpower to stay conscious.
“Wh-what did you do to—to me?” I gasped out as I stumbled to the ground. My quick Shifter healing should’ve kicked in by now, but whatever he injected me with was still spreading through my body.
“A new serum I’m testing,” he said. I could no longer see him. His voice was garbled when he said to someone, “Watch her until we can get the bars fixed.”
Dismay crashed around me. “Wait!” I called out, hauling myself to the bars with my last ounce of strength. “Please. Let me see my m-mother. I need to know she’s—she’s okay. Please,” I begged, my tongue heavy.
There was a pause. “Your mother is unavailable at the moment. But I will bring your concerns to Lord Scarven.”
And with that, he disappeared.
My breaths were shallow with terror. I tried to be strong, like Nox always was, but I couldn’t hold out much longer. My limbs locked, trapping me in a crouch by the bars.
When I finally went numb and collapsed to the hard ground, whatever strength I had left shattered with it.
I woke up to something hot and itchy on my arm. I raised my hand to scratch it, only to feel metal wrapped around my wrist and a heavy weight dragging it down.
My head pounded. With a groan, I pried my eyes open. A set of chains was attached to a cuff at my wrist, secured tightly to the stone wall at my back.
What in the—
I glanced around, and the memory crashed into me.
Kane Scarven had his men lock me up. I must be in the cells beneath his mansion.
My heartbeat quickened, a frenzy rising again.
Why had he put me here? I hadn’t done anything wrong.
I’d been so good. Ever since I was a kid, I did everything Scarven asked me to do—I trained with his guards, I let him run his experiments on me, I obeyed his every command so he wouldn’t hurt Mama and Nox.
So why was I here?
I tried to stand on shaky legs, barely able to move a couple feet before the chains pulled me back again.
I gritted my teeth at the little black cuffs, concentrating my phoenix fire on the metal.
But the second I summoned my magic, agony ripped through my arm.
I clamped a hand over my mouth to stifle a cry.
“Careful,” a hoarse voice said. “You can’t use your magic here.”
I jumped backward and hit the wall. “Who said that?” I hissed, looking around my empty cell.
“On your left.” I could tell the voice was male this time. I jerked my head to the left, but all I saw was the blank stone wall.
“Lower,” the voice said again. I dropped to the ground and felt along the floor. “Higher.”
“For Fate’s sake,” I mumbled. “There’s nothing there!”
“Come closer.”
I scoffed, momentarily forgetting the throbbing in my arm. “Sure, because I’m gonna listen to the invisible man in my cell.”
“I’m not invisible, and I’m not in your cell.” He sounded exasperated. “See?”
I searched the wall again, seeing nothing, but then a finger poked through a tiny hole. I got down on my knees and inched closer. There was someone in the cell next to me.