Chapter 79 Zion
ZION
The chains sliced the inside of my elbows as I leaned forward as much as the restraints allowed. Whoever worked in Ardaton’s prison had experience in tying people up.
“Kali,” I rasped.
In response, her features tensed, determination raising her chin as she set her shoulders back.
Nobody could put out the fire in her.
“I’m going to get you,” I promised her, not knowing whether the speakers on her side were working. “Hold on for me. Just hold—”
The glass wall became matte, then went completely dark. Blackness clouded the space they had her contained in, concealing her shape.
In what now appeared to be a mirror wall, all I could see was the reflection of a shirtless man staring back at me. Belts of silver wrapped around his limbs stood out in the sea of reds and purples and blues marring his skin.
I didn’t have time to scrutinize my appearance further as a soft click to my left warned me of incoming visitors. The plastic door opened without a creak or a squeak of hinges, and the people who’d been assigned to extract information from Kali entered.
I ran my tongue over my gums. Iron exploded on my taste buds—a hint of the piquant life essence flowing inside my enemies.
The taller of the two wheeled in a cart, the metal structure covered in sheets of white tissue. I could understand the need for them—easier to clean up. They got the points from me there.
“So.” I popped my lips. “Are we going to introduce ourselves? I would tap my chest but, as you can see, I’m a bit immobilized. I’m Zion.” I flashed them a grin, ignoring how the gesture contorted my cheek and the laceration dividing it in two. “I’m sure you’ve heard of me.”
“We have.” The man plucked a set of white gloves off the cart. As he pulled them on, the latex slapped his wrists. “The stories about you and your basement are quite prevalent, even in Ardaton.”
So I was right. We’d been transported to another city.
Ilasall was officially destroyed. Gone.
“That’s enough.” The woman lifted a flat frame off the cart, unfolded it into a stool and plopped down in the corner, leaning against the wall and straightening her short legs. “Don’t give him the satisfaction,” she said, contempt soaking each syllable. “He doesn’t deserve it.”
Too late. I’d invested loads of time into upholding my reputation, and meeting an admirer of mine was like a pat on my back.
“Would you like me to show you how it’s done?” I purred. “I don’t mind sharing.”
“You…” The woman rubbed the only visible part of her face—the forehead, her eyebrows so light they bordered being invisible. “I need a nap.” Gesturing at me, she asked her colleague, “Can you just do your thing and make him talk?”
I pouted. “Did you know that taking long naps is actually not beneficial for you?”
“Then we’ll make sure yours are short ones.” The man adjusted the rubber bands around his ears. Clearly, his mask was uncomfortable.
“You know, you don’t have to wear it.” I reclined in my chair. Or more like, moved an increment as the chain running across my chest limited my range of motion. “I wouldn’t mind knowing who I’ll be working with.”
After some deliberation, he shrugged. “As you’re not walking out of here, I guess it’s fine. The mask will stay on, but my name is Lenus.”
“That’s an interesting name. Never heard of it before.” Like no one was going to hear of him after I was done turning him into a meal.
No, an entire course. To start, fried toes with a sauce of whisked balls. Then a plate of his thigh meat wrapped in his lungs and roasted over an open fire. And to top it off, a croissant with his mashed kidneys as the filling.
His friends working in Ardaton’s prison were going to be served a feat. Hopefully, no one would choke on their vomit and take all the fun out of my game.
Disregarding my remark, the slender-as-a-reed man studied the instruments laid out atop the cart.
“Ooh, what do you have there?” I strained to take a better look. Rows upon rows of steel sparkled in the dim light. “I need a copy of your arsenal for my basement,” I said, though none of the tools were unique. Merely the essentials.
Boring.
Why couldn’t they send someone with experience? At least then, they’d get my instincts on alert. It’d been a while since I'd felt an adrenaline rush as intoxicating as when my life was on the line.
Lenus picked out a set of pliers. “Ezra is quite mad for his lack of teeth.”
Gedeon’s brother could certainly hold a grudge. But what he lacked was creativity. For example, I hadn’t yanked a few of his teeth out for no reason.
I’d planned to shatter them and then force him to swallow the bits in an experiment to see if the fragments would tear his esophagus and intestines or not.
Lenus grasped my jaw, craning my neck so the gaping wound in my cheek came into the light. Cold warred with heat as he poked and prodded the gash.
Warmth dribbled onto my abdomen like syrup over pancakes, but I willed myself to stay still.
Frowning, he paused, and I spat out a blob of red saliva near his boots. “Can you try the pliers on my toes first? I’m rather fond of my face.” Anything to keep him here. I didn’t give one fuck what he and his colleague were planning to do to me.
As long as the target was me and not Kali.
Spreading the slash apart, Lenus shoved the instrument inside my mouth and positioned the jaws around my molar—the tooth with the strongest roots. The most difficult to remove.
Exhaling, I relaxed. He was going to rip it out one way or another, but if I didn’t resist, it would go quicker. I knew it from experience. Granted, I usually was in Lenus’s position, but still, I was intimately familiar with such matters.
They usually kindled my hatred of zippers in jeans—
Stinging pain shot down my nerves, tightening my muscles. Cursing, Lenus tugged and twisted and wrenched my molar. Sparks flew behind my eyes as creaks and cracks accompanied his grunts.
A scream began to vibrate my vocal cords, but before it could spill out, I squashed it. Lenus didn’t deserve to bathe in my howls.
He’d touched Kali.
His actions had brought him the fate of delighting in the strokes of my blade as it peeled exceptionally long strings of his muscles so I could weave a crown out of them. Kali would appreciate such a present.
With a final jerk, Lenus prised my tooth out.
“This should placate Ezra.” Turning the pliers, he surveyed the crimson smearing the ivory surface.
Pleased with his inspection, he dropped it into a bowl on the cart and returned to me.
“With this out of the way, we can begin. Where did your people go? We went to your compound, only to find it abandoned.”
My fists unclenched. About half of our total numbers had managed to reach Ilasall either through the catacombs or the city gates before they’d shut down both. But if Ardaton had sent their forces to our location and found nothing…
Gedeon’s last-minute agreement with Damia had worked. In the case of failure, he’d tasked her with evacuating our compound and anyone who’d returned to it. And the woman always fulfilled her duties.
I licked the hole where my molar used to be. Hot liquid filled my mouth, giving me an idea.
“I—” I started to cough, pushing past the soreness, the throbbing in my head, and the flames in my wrist as convulsions rattled my fractured joint. “We,” I whispered, and for an added effect, croaked out, “To—”
“What?” Gripping my chair, Lenus leaned in so close I could feel his breaths on my mouth. “Speak up.”
Clearing my throat, I spat the pool flooding my mouth at him.
He froze.
Bloody drool ran down his forehead, down the left crease of his nose and beneath his medical mask, drenching in from the inside.
Mute, he gaped at me, causing laughter to rumble from my chest. As I shook, saliva mixed with blood dripped onto my bare front.
Tap, tap, tap, it hit my flesh in rhythm to my cackle.
The sound reverberated off the bare walls, closing us in a vortex of high spirits, and I unleashed a bout of snickers at the perfection of acoustics. Loud enough to bust your eardrums.
Lenus unhooked the soaked mask from his ears. “I’m going to take my time with you.”
I coughed, this time for real. “Good luck with that.”
“I don’t need luck.” Smiling, he brushed down my pectorals, until he located my nipple—
A twinge rocked through me, and then fire erupted in the sensitive tissue. My jaw flexed as a pained grunt threatened to flee me. Lenus had proved me wrong—he had some creativity juice in him, after all.
“That was my favorite nipple,” I muttered as he studied the barbel. The jerk had ripped my piercing out.
Taking his time, he discarded the small metal bar on the cart, instead selecting another instrument, a much heavier one than the pliers he’d used before.
My abused nipple pulsed in tandem with Lenus’s steps as he approached me again. “We couldn’t do much to her”—he pointed to the mirror-like wall hiding Kali—“but our orders for you are different. They consist of two words: anything goes.”