Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
VERA
Isit on a hard, damp floor surrounded by darkness. My back rests against a cold stone wall, the uneven edges pressing uncomfortably into my aching muscles and bones.
Time doesn’t exist here.
Not a single sliver of light leaks through the heavy iron door that’s supposed to be on the wall opposite me. After they threw me in here, I tried to map out my cell with my fingertips. Memorize my surroundings, so even if I can’t see it, I can feel it.
But the thing about being in the darkness is that after some time, your mind starts playing tricks on you.
The door that was in the middle of the wall in front of you starts appearing on the wall on your right. Or maybe your left. It’s disorienting.
After a while, I stopped trying. Instead, I found a corner and folded myself into a ball.
While I know I’m alone, sometimes the heavy air shifts. The hairs on the back of my neck rise, and goose bumps skitter all over my skin. I swear, I can feel something out of this world breathe down my neck.
In those moments, I hug my knees tighter to my chest and hum a tune under my breath. A soothing, nostalgia-drenched melody that conjures images of me and Kitajo, on the roof of my studio, counting the stars while he plays the guitar.
Seeing him hold in his hands a guitar carved out of ivory bone instead of his broadsword always jarred me, even as I got used to it. Despite that, the way his fingers caressed the taut strings, drawing the tune out of them, hypnotized me every time.
He played that guitar just as sensual and gentle as he played my body. Each caress of those long, quick fingers taunting gasps and moans out of me like nobody else ever could.
Under the sky full of stars, we wore no armor around our hearts. They were bare and open for each other. The way Kitajo’s gaze lingered over my face…as if I were the one who put those stars above our heads in the dark night’s sky.
In those scarce moments, he wasn’t the great General carrying the weight of the world on his broad shoulders, and I wasn’t the highly esteemed Caetra by day, and justice-seeking vigilante at night.
It was just him, and me.
Two souls in love, desperately clinging to each other, despite the odds stacked against us.
My cheeks are wet, the salty tears stinging my sensitive skin. I draw more air into my lungs, greedily filling them up to the brim. With the exhale, I try to rid myself of those painful memories.
Yet they cling to me, refusing to leave me alone.
I have yet to have any food or water. My throat is scratchy, and there is a pit in my stomach as deep as the darkest trench in the ocean. Yet I’m still alive. Which means, it hasn’t been as long since I arrived here as my mind makes it out to be.
I doubt Caligos brought me here to starve me to death. They want something from me. I just need to figure out what.
And what then? a quiet voice at the back of my head whispers. I swat it away. I don’t want to think about what’s next just yet.
The walls rumble and my heart drops. I’ve been sitting in silence for so long, the sound threatens to overwhelm my senses. I cover my ears with my palms, trying to dull the rumble.
Metal creaks, and then the dark wall in front of me erupts with light. It’s blinding, painfully searing my eyes. With a hiss, I shut my eyes tight and hide my face between my knees.
Steps shuffle around me. Someone’s iron-clad grip locks around both my arms and pulls me up. I thrash against the grip, to no avail.
I’m dragged through my cell, trying to blink away the blinding light. My handler sits me on a hard surface. I can make out the shape of a chair. They secure my wrists to the arms of it, and even bind my ankles to the feet of the chair.
I test the strength of my restraints. They’re tight. No way I can manage to free myself. At least not without a proper meal to fuel my strength.
A tall, broad figure emerges in the middle of the open doorway. As it approaches, my sight finally adjusts to the light.
“I must say, you look awful, Vera D’Argent.” Reizei Talbot, Daegel’s father and the head of the Talbot family, says, eyeing me down his nose. “You’re used to lavish life and royal treatment, aren’t you?”
I don’t answer him.
“Is this how it’s going to go, then?” Reizei cocks his head to the side. Daegel was a stark image of his father. No wonder I detested the young Ezkai that Phoenix fell for. “If you collaborate, this will be much more pleasant for everyone involved.”
I open my mouth to speak, but no sound comes out. I clear my throat and try again, but fail. Reizei gestures for someone behind him, and a heavily tattooed woman steps forward with a copper cup full of water.
She fists the braids at the back of my head and pulls on them. “Open your mouth, whore.”
Before I even do as she says, she pours the fresh, cool water onto my face. I open my mouth, desperate to quench my thirst. It’s too much water too suddenly, so I choke on some.
She lets go of my braids and I lift my head. My chest burns as I cough, gasping for air.
“Now, you were saying.” Reizei waves his hand for me to continue.
Drawing a ragged breath, I manage the words “What do you want from me? Revenge for Daegel’s death? Go ahead, kill me. It won’t bring your son back, though.”
A corner of Reizei’s lips curves up. It’s a chilling smirk that makes my insides twist. He doesn’t look like a father mourning the loss of his son.
“You’re right. Revenge will not bring Daegel back. Neither will it fix the grave mistake he made when he got obsessed with and underestimated that rabid human girl from the barbarian lands who rules our country right now.”
My chest heaves. At least Phoenix is safe. At least one of us made it. Our efforts have not gone to waste. I can only hope she’ll carry out my one request and do her best to pass the law I worked so hard on.
I settle more comfortably into my seat. “Then what is it, Reizei? You want to teach Noire or Phoenix a lesson? Show off your power?”
“I see you’re eager to know my motivation,” he says.
He gestures to one of his lapdogs. The Caligos brings a chair and sets it a couple of steps away from me.
Reizei lowers himself into his seat and gets comfortable.
“I’m just as eager to know things about you, Vera D’Argent. Or should I call you Savage King?”
I press my lips into a thin line and lift my chin. So, that’s what this is all about. Information.
When I don’t answer him, Reizei huffs a humorless laugh.
“For so many years, we hunted the legendary ghost who jeopardized my business. My men had so many theories who it could be…A rival Caligos family. Kitajo’s special unit.
Foreign crime gang looking to take over our city and market.
” He tsks. Slowly, he leans forward until he rests his elbows on his knees.
“Imagine my surprise when I find out that the biggest thorn in my side is a godsdamned General’s whore. ”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Reizei’s dark eyes flicker with anger. My little operation really pissed him off. I had no clue. To me, all that youth we worked hard to save always seemed insignificant. Like we were barely scratching the surface.
Apparently, it wasn’t as insignificant as I thought. I can’t help the satisfaction that blooms in my chest like the mountain flower after a rainy night. That warm feeling nourishes my soul better than a plate of warm food ever could.
“I wouldn’t gloat if I were you,” Reizei says. I don’t miss the warning note in his voice. He’s an agitated snake, ready to strike. “Don’t forget where you are right now.”
“Keeping me here won’t eliminate your problem,” I say, amused. “Savage King might have started as a one-person operation. But it has grown since then. I nurtured it until it sprouted into a network of capable people, passionate about the same goal.”
Reizei’s smirk awakens fear inside me, its cold fingers squeezing my stomach.
“Are you sure your little network of whores is capable of surviving without you leading them? Kitajo was an arrogant man, often overestimating his abilities and how far his influence and power stretched. That’s what got him killed in the end. I thought you’d be wiser than that.”
I inhale a sharp breath and purse my lips. His words are like a sharp blade, sinking deeper into my chest with each passing moment. Rage coils inside my belly like a hungry snake. It’s eager to be unleashed to the world.
Reizei is not wrong about one thing. I’m better than my impulses.
“We will have to see, I guess,” I say, calmly.
Reizei leans back in his chair and weaves his fingers in front of his chest. “Tell me, Vera D’Argent, how vast is that network you’re so proud of? Who leads all the whores in your absence?”
I bark a laugh. “You really expect me to tell you? I thought you’d be wiser than that.”
I hold his cold-as-the-depths-of-winter gaze. The silence stretches between us. Reizei’s the first to break eye contact. He jerks his chin at his men. Two Caligos unsheathe the blades strapped to their belts and step forward.
My heart drops.
“When you do what I do for long enough, you learn many different ways to make people comfortable enough to want to speak their minds,” Reizei says, his voice light as a feather. “With some, it takes less time, with others more. But the thing is—sooner or later it always happens.”
Another step closer to me. I strain against the bindings on my wrists. I can’t help but flinch away from the danger that’s approaching.
“How long will it take for you, Vera D’Argent?” Reizei waves his hand dismissively before I can even answer. “No matter. Because you’re my special guest, I would like to start with my favorite method to make people sing.”
“I’m honored,” I say, the words coming out breathless.
Two Caligos are a step away from me. Their blades are polished and poised to slice me open.
“They call it a death by a thousand cuts. Poetic, isn’t it?”
A scream wretches its way out of my throat when the first blade slides over the outside of my forearm. I fist my hands, my breathing labored. I have no time to recover, because the second Caligos presses the blade to the skin right below my collarbone and cuts through my chest diagonally.
“Nine hundred ninety-eight,” Reizei says, cocking his head to the side.
I’m breathing through my clenched teeth, every muscle in my body tense. But I don’t yield. The third cut goes from the middle of my chest, down through the valley between my breasts.
My skin burns, and I can’t hold the scream inside.
“Nine hundred ninety-seven.” I pant the words out, glaring at Reizei.
“As a Caetra, you ought to be more concerned about your appearance and how each cut on your body will look once it’s healed,” he says. His gaze slithers down my body and back up. “No noble or Ezkai will want to pay a premium to feel scarred flesh under their fingertips.”
I sneer at him. “You worry about your business, and I’ll worry about mine.”
Reizei smirks, resting his chin on the back of his fist. His lapdogs don’t need to be ordered to continue. They continue to slice my forearms, and my chest. Each cut is as painful as the last one, each scream just as filled with agony as the next one.
“Nine hundred ninety,” Reizei says. “Ready to sing yet, little bird?”
I lean forward in my chair. “Fuck. You.”
Reizei’s eyes flash. One of the Caligos takes hold of my wrist and pries my fist open. When I realize what he’s about to do, I thrash against the restraints.
Of course, it does me no good.
The pain of the blade slicing through the skin, the flesh, and the bone of my pinky finger is greater than I could have ever imagined. I scream so loud my vocal cords threaten to rip into shreds.
So much blood.
It gushes down onto the stone floor. My stomach twists. I dry heave, because there is nothing in my stomach but acid.
Reizei only arches an eyebrow as his lapdog hands him the severed finger—my fucking finger—on a blood-soaked cloth.
“I think your career as the most prominent Caetra in Jaakii is officially over, Vera D’Argent. The scars, a talented mender might have fixed. A mutilated limb, not so much, I’m afraid.”
I’m dizzy, barely able to keep my head up. I don’t get the mercy of falling unconscious. Not yet. The sear of the next cut between my shoulder blades forces another scream out of me.
I scream, and scream.
But nobody comes to my aid.