Chapter 23
PresentBressen
My mind reeled as the memory of what had happened on the island settled in my head. Magdalene must have jarred something loose when she invaded my thoughts, but how or why I’d lost the memory to begin with still bewildered me.
I quickly replayed the events on the island until it hit me.
When Miranda had kissed Cyra, we’d both been taken by surprise, and admittedly, my dick had taken control of my conscious thought for a few seconds.
If either Miranda or Ariel was a powerful mind wraith, they could’ve gotten into my head while I was distracted.
One of them had to have mind powers. It was the only way they could’ve suppressed the memory in not only me, but in Cyra, Axenus, and the entire crew of The Maidenhead.
Nemesis take me. That was powerful fucking mind magic.
I didn’t have time to fully consider the enormity of this when I was jerked to my feet by two guards.
“Let’s make one thing clear,” Talyn was saying to Magdalene as I remembered where I was. “I brought him here, so he’s my prisoner. Nothing happens to him without my say-so.”
“Fair enough,” Magdalene said after a pause, and then I was being dragged out of the room.
I was still groggy, but I forced myself to focus on my surroundings. I needed to figure out where I was and start working on an escape plan.
I was in a castle or fortress of some sort, one that appeared to be at least partially in a state of abandonment or disrepair.
There were empty spaces on the walls where paintings or tapestries had been removed, and those that still hung were damaged or dusty.
Scraps of fabric, crumbles of stone, and other pieces of litter lay here and there in the hallways, which told me there weren’t enough servants in the place to spare for cleaning.
I glanced surreptitiously at the guards dragging me down the hall as I tried to give the illusion I was still out of it. There were four of them, too many for me to take with no weapon and no powers.
We started down a set of stairs, heading – I assumed – for the dungeon. I tried to stumble to see if I could get the guards holding me off-balance, but they stayed steady and simply put my arms over their shoulders so I was being carried along instead.
We went down at least two flights of stairs before the guards exited into a dark corridor. One of the guards not carrying me lit a lantern and pushed ahead to lead the way as the fourth guard lit torches along the wall behind us.
We got to a row of cells, and the guard with the lantern used a set of keys to open one.
I had a decision to make. I could let them put me in the cell and hope I had an opportunity to escape later, I could trust the assassin – who was the reason I was here to begin with – to keep her word and find a way to help me, or I could fight now despite the odds.
When the guards tried to pull me forward into the cell, I shoved sideways so one of them was crushed against the bars.
He grunted in pain, and his hold loosened on me.
I shoved to the other side next, hoping to catch the second guard the same way, but he moved so my own shoulder hit the bars instead.
Pain radiated through the shoulder I’d been shot in, but I couldn’t let myself feel it yet. The guard who’d moved still had a hold of me, and I yanked him forward so his chest and face hit the bar instead. His head cracked against the metal and blood gushed down his face before I shoved him aside.
The other guard I’d shunted into the bars had recovered and came at me, but I grabbed his shirt and redirected his momentum into the cell. He stumbled inside, and I shut the door, trapping him. It would’ve been better to get two of the guards locked in the cell, but one would have to do for now.
By this time the other two guards had caught on, and both came at me swinging.
The corridor was too narrow for them to draw their swords, but they rushed me together, and I did my best to swing for their heads in the close quarters.
I connected with the temple of one guard, but the other guard sunk his fist into my stomach, and my breath whooshed out as nausea took its place.
I tried to swing again, ignoring the searing pain in my shoulder from the crossbow wound, but I hadn’t yet drawn in another breath, so there was no power behind my punch.
The guard I’d hit in the temple came back with a blow of his own that caught me in the jaw, and I grunted as pain shot through my head. Another punch took me in the side, then another, and soon the blows from the guards rained down on me.
“Stop!” a voice boomed through the corridor, and the blows ceased.
I was on my knees, and I looked up to see a man coming toward us.
“What’s going on?” the man asked, and I recognized it as Aidan.
Fuck. There was no way Morland was here to rescue me.
“He was trying to escape,” one of the guards explained quickly. “He attacked us.”
“Get him up, and get that cell open,” Morland ordered.
I was hauled to my feet again by two of the guards as the third unlocked the cell to let the fourth out.
“Put him in,” Morland said, “and hold him.”
I tried to struggle, but the guards wrestled me into the cell, then turned me around to hold me between them as Morland entered.
“Ah, Bressen,” he said. “I’m not sure exactly what that bitch has planned or why she brought you here, but I’ll be sure to thank her when I’m shoving my cock down her throat later tonight.”
I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure if Morland’s comment was a threat against Talyn or an admission she was working with him. I thought I’d sensed tension between them, maybe even hatred, but I could’ve been mistaken. I didn’t yet understand what was going on.
Cyra and I had both believed we could trust Talyn. Samhail had certainly believed it. I couldn’t conceive of why she’d betrayed us, especially since her welcome back with Sandrian and Magdalene had been less than warm. There was something else going on. There must be.
“What is she up to?” Morland asked as he stepped toward me.
Again I didn’t answer.
Morland’s fist sunk into my gut, and I grunted in pain as I tried to double over. The guards held me up, though, and I coughed as I struggled to draw in breath again.
Talyn had told Magdalene no one was supposed to touch me, so clearly no one knew Morland was down here right now.
“What is she up to?” Morland asked again.
“Fuck you,” I got out as I spit blood onto his boot.
Morland’s next punch was to the side of my head, but, thankfully, he didn’t hit nearly as hard as Samhail.
That was a major benefit of training with Samhail.
He might not hit as hard as he was able to when we sparred, but he still hit harder than any man I’d ever fought, and my body had gradually gotten use to taking punches from him.
Or about as used to it as a body could get when those punches were like getting knocked in the head by stones.
“I’m not supposed to kill you because we need you as leverage,” Morland said, “but I don’t think Sandrian cares much what condition you’re in. As long as you’re still breathing, that should be sufficient.”
“The assassin said you weren’t to touch me, and Magdalene agreed,” I pointed out, although it was obvious he didn’t give a shit.
“I don’t take orders from useless cunts,” he said, “and I’ll make sure the red-headed bitch learns that tonight.”
So not working together. That much was clear. I hoped Talyn was smart enough to keep an eye out for Morland. She wasn’t my favorite person right now, but – my own recent desire to kill her aside – she didn’t deserve whatever Morland obviously had planned for her.
“One last chance to tell me what the assassin is up to,” Morland said.
I huffed a laugh. “As you said, she’s the one who brought me here to get beaten. Why would I know what she has planned?”
Morland landed another punch to my stomach, and I tried to take it as best I could. He wasn’t Samhail, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
“One final question, then, and I’ll let you settle in,” Morland said. He leaned in close to me. “I have to know. What’s it like to fuck that wife of yours? Do you think she’d cry for me if I shoved my cock up her little pink ass? Would she beg me to stop? I like it when they do that.”
My teeth were clenched together so tight I was afraid they might crack. I shook with rage at the thought of Morland coming anywhere near Cyra. My only consolation was that if he got near her, she’d likely incinerate him. He couldn’t suppress her power with caronium, so he had no way to subdue her.
Unless he drugged her. Jerram had done just that shortly after Cyra had arrived at the Citadel.
I’d nearly killed him when I’d found him trying to drag her, half-conscious, from the ballroom that night.
I’d always hated Jerram, but only a supreme effort of will had held me back from ripping into his mind and ordering him to drop dead.
Morland was waiting for my answer with the hint of a grin crooking his mouth.
“That’s three questions,” I managed to grit out. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of exploding in a fit of rage and showing him just how much the thought of him touching Cyra affected me.
He paused before laughing. “Fine, I’ll just have to find out for myself if you’re not going to be helpful,” he said before turning on his heel and striding out of the cell. Then to the guards he said, “Take a few more hits, then lock him in. He just needs to be alive when you leave.”
I was in no condition to resist when the guards obeyed Morland’s order. They took turns holding me up while their companions beat and kicked me, and I lost track of how long it went on.
I passed out at some point, and when I came to, I was lying face down on the cold stone floor of the cell with a puddle of blood and saliva pooled beneath my head.
I tried to get up, and my entire body screamed in pain.
After a good minute I managed to get myself onto the cot and take stock of my injuries.
One of my teeth felt loose, and I was covered in bruises and cuts from my waist up, but by some miracle, the only thing broken was my nose. I yelled out in pain as I reset it and fought down the wave of nausea and dizziness that welled up.
I lay down on the cot and tried to stay as still as possible.
There might be internal damage I wasn’t aware of.
I closed my eyes but didn’t try to sleep yet.
For one, I almost certainly had a concussion, so staying awake was better right now.
For another, I wanted to be alert in case anyone else decided to pay me a visit.
That turned out to be a good idea when I heard Magdalene’s voice in the corridor a few hours later.
“Give me the key and leave us,” the woman told the guard.
“I can’t do that, my lady.”
“You can and you will.”
“My lady, I-”
“Do you want to know what it feels like to have your heart freeze in your chest?” Magdalene’s cold voice asked. “However unpleasant you imagine it might be, I promise it’s worse.”
I heard the jingle of keys but didn’t try to look beyond the fleeting glance I’d already taken when I first heard the voices.
“Now leave,” Magdalene said.
My next interrogator had arrived, it seemed, and I steeled myself to feel more pain because she’d get as much out of me as Morland had.
The sound of the guard’s boots faded down the hall.
“Lord Bressen. I need to speak with you,” Magdalene called out softly.
The softness surprised me, but I didn’t move. If she wanted to talk, let her come in here and face me.
“Lord Bressen,” she called a little louder, but I remained still.
I heard a sigh before the key clicked in the lock and the door creaked open on its hinges. There was the soft scuffing of shoes before the door shut again with a clang that echoed in the emptiness of the cell.
I wondered if the caronium had taken Magdalene’s powers. She was a syphon, and caronium didn’t affect Cyra, so in theory Magdalene still had all her powers.
But something nagged at me. Sandrian had made us all put caronium cuffs on at the temple when he’d taken Jasper, and they’d known Cyra was a syphon. If caronium didn’t affect syphons, Magdalene would’ve known that and planned for it. Wouldn’t she?
“Lord Bressen, we don’t have time for you to play possum. I only have a few minutes, and I need to speak with you. It’s in your best interest to hear me out.”
It took every ounce of my remaining self-control not to bolt upright off the cot. The voice wasn’t Magdalene’s. It was the assassin’s.
Well, wasn’t this convenient.
Morland had beaten the three hells out of me to find out what Talyn had planned, and I couldn’t tell him because I didn’t know.
But it was time to find out.
Tandem Read: Go to Clash of Stone and Steel (Bk 3), Chapter 36