18. Maya
Maya
“You are a dumb girl,” Demon hissed out, his anger making me flinch as he looked away from me, pacing in front of my chair.
I swallowed as he walked closer and put his hands on either side of the table behind me.
“Why the fuck would you come to France, Maya? What the hell would possess you to walk right into his fucking trap?”
I felt my eyes water, his tone making me feel stupid.
His face flashed with panic, and he stepped back. “Do not cry.”
“You’re yelling at me,” I whispered, “and calling me stupid. I didn’t mean to get myself and my mates trapped here. I just wanted to save the other phoenixes. I didn’t want them to live like I had.”
I had no idea why I felt comfortable expressing this to the man, but whatever I said seemed to cause him physical pain because he groaned and leaned against the wall, sliding down it before putting his head against his knees.
The position was vulnerable, and I found myself leaving my chair and going to sit on the floor with him, feeling instinctively that talking to him was a good move for getting out of here.
I didn’t understand why, but that was the gut reaction I had.
“You were safe in Seattle,” he muttered, his jaw tight. “You were safe, and then you went to that fucking party and let him get it into your head that you weren’t.”
I felt my eyes widen. “How do you know about the party?”
His eyes flashed silver as he looked up at me, a faint rune visible right under his eye, as he seemed to consider something. “That man, Lorn, the bear shifter—what happened with him scared you, didn’t it? Convinced you to come here?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Whose men do you think those were?” he asked dryly.
I swallowed. “The Master’s?” I didn’t know what else to call him.
“Yep,” he bit out.
“He would have let me get…” I breathed out, thinking about Lorn. “I mean, what if I hadn’t killed Lorn? What if he had really hurt me?”
The man’s gaze lit up with cynical humor. “You think you killed him, little one?”
“He’s not dead?” My face went completely pale as I went dizzy, ignoring the jab at me being ‘little.’ I knew it was meant to be demeaning. I put a hand down to steady myself as the man eyed me with concern.
“He is,” he responded softly, “but your magic wasn’t responsible for his death.”
“I burned him up,” I admitted, barely loud enough to hear.
“No, you thought you did,” he stated patiently. “The illusion you experienced made you believe that. I killed him, mon lapin, and then procured ashes so you believed that was the case. Your innocent soul is still free from the stain of death.”
I tried processing his news, but he continued.
“If you were wondering, though—yes. He suffered greatly.”
“But you were part of the plan…” I spoke softly, feeling a weird sense of betrayal.
“I am part of no plan,” he snapped. “I am doing what I am told to do. What I have to do. I was told to make sure Lorn had the opportunity to scare you. That was all. He chose how, and I deemed that unacceptable and ripped out his spine. Simple, really.”
“His spine,” I repeated in a daze.
“You should have stayed where you were safe, mon lapin. I can’t keep your soul untarnished here like I did then.” His voice was soft and tormented.
“Can’t we escape?” I whispered.
His bark of laughter was sad and dull. “Believe me, if there was a way, I would have pushed your little ass out of here.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” He frowned.
“Why would you save me?”
His eyes turned into silver coins for a minute, filled with intense emotions, as I heard the ruffling of feathers around me…
before he was back to normal. He stood up without answering, grabbing my forearm so I followed.
He didn’t say anything else as I let him lead me back towards the cell, trying to process how we were going to handle this.
I needed to get my boys out of here as soon as possible.
Before we got to the door, I turned into him, stumbling back slightly. “What’s your name?”
He offered me a dry, amused expression that didn’t fit the situation. “I sort of prefer you calling me Mr. I Put Kittens In Danger.”
My mouth dropped open, realizing that he had somehow heard what I was thinking. That was bad. That was all types of bad.
When he opened the door, my boys scrambled to their feet, staring at me with panic.
Almost immediately, I felt the change in Mr. I Put Kittens In Danger.
He opened my cell and I turned, his eyes moving to my collar as he offered me a look that essentially said there was nothing he could do about it.
I stepped back as he closed the door and seemed to shake himself of whatever was going on in his head.
He offered me a tight expression, looking back right before he left the room. “Make sure to make your decision quickly… He won’t wait, and the guards will come tonight and want to know who they can fuck with.”
The door slammed shut as I leaned my head against the iron bars, trying to push down a weird sense of dizziness. I was worried that if my mating heat started… No, I couldn’t think of that right now. Hopefully the drain on my magic would keep it at bay for a time.
Something occurred to me as I turned to look at the other cages. “Which of you have been here the longest?”
“Me,” the older girl stated, her eyes flashing gold. “I was born here.”
“Is it true? Has he been breeding phoenixes and dragons here for years?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “All I know is that my parents had me, and then we were separated when I was around five. I used to be allowed to see them…but I don’t think…I don’t think they are around anymore.”
I tried to not focus on her words just yet, because they made me unbearably sad for her. Instead, I stuck to my effort at gathering information. “Who is this Master?” I asked, and all of them seemed to tense.
The older girl spoke again. “He’s a monster. Some say he’s a dragon god, but rarely do people see him. I heard he eats the dragons that he no longer needs. Power hungry and willing to get it however he can. Apparently he can steal magic.”
“Which is why he thinks this will work,” I whispered quietly, knowing that if we did mate, he would probably be able to access all of my magic.
“Maya.” Marco’s voice was hard, and I looked back to find all of them staring at me.
“Yes?” I knew what he was going to ask.
“What choice do you need to make?”
“Which one of you I am going to mate with and which ones he is going to kill.”