Chapter 47
Jaxom had no idea what the thing was Ksenia had so urgently moved to the cell.
He only knew she was special and needed his help.
Maybe that thing was something that could help them.
Jaxom had to get her out of this place. Renz was the last person who needed to see how special Ksenia really was. He’d ruin her.
“Do I have a treat for you today,” Renz leered at Jaxom. “This big brute is Clipper. Clipper is one of the best interrogators I’ve ever seen. He is very excited to make your acquaintance. I just wanted to make sure proper introductions were made.”
Jaxom refused to acknowledge the Maggot King for a moment. He didn’t want to look up. Two guards dragged him out of the cell. Arms and legs spread to the four walls. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
“Say hello to Clipper, mate,” Maggot King Renz mocked him.
Jaxom finally lifted his eyes. Anger and hate bled out of every pour. “One day you’ll be known as the Maggot King, you piece of shit.”
Renz drove his fist into Jaxom’s stomach. “You’ll never leave this dungeon alive to spread that name. Soon I’m going to kill you, but not before you show me the death mark,” Renz screamed. “Clipper, bring this bitch to heal.”
Renz stomped to the door. “You’re the fucking Maggot King, Renz. Maggot King!” Jaxom’s voice was low and hoarse but still followed Renz out the door. A chorus of Maggot King was taken up by other prisoners down the hallway.
Jaxom looked over his shoulder to see Ksenia huddled in the corner of her cell, rocking. He needed to keep her away from Renz. They needed to get out. She didn’t need to see them torturing him anymore. And he didn’t need to see her get tortured, either.
“So, you’ve been a quiet one, I’ve been told,” Clipper said in a deep bass voice. “Glad to know you have a voice to work with for the moment. We’ll see if you have a voice left when I get done.”
Jaxom watch his new torturer roll out a leather full of knives and what looked to be needles. They were bright, shiny, oiled. Blades well used, sharp and cared for. This man had an emotional attachment to his weapons. He took out a long thin, needle like knife.
“I’ve been told you have a mark. Our King needs to see the mark. Show me and we can skip the rest. Deny me and I deny you a stop to the pain.”
A skittering against the wall got Jaxom’s attention but he didn’t look. Clipper had poised the needle knife in front of his bicep. Waiting.
“I’ve been told to avoid the parts that will kill you. That leaves me plenty of parts that won’t,” he said quietly.
Another skitter across the floor. “Do your worst, asshole.”
Clipper slowly impaled Jaxom’s bicep. He clung to the chains and failed to keep from screaming. His whole body shook. The pain seared through his bicep as the needle knife popped out the back of his arm.
Clipper stepped back and screamed in pain.
The man sat down heavily on the floor. A knife shard was sticking out of the bottom of his foot. The soft leather of his boot was no protection from Ksenia. Jaxom chuckled deep and gravely. Even with the needle knife piercing his bicep, seeing the torturer grimacing in pain was satisfying.
The man put his hand down to push up off the floor. He screamed again as his knee landed on another shard of metal. A good chunk jammed into his knee. He sat back down heavily causing another shard to pierce his buttocks.
The howls of pain was amusing. Would have been more so if Jaxom wasn’t in such pain. He flicked a glance at Ksenia and waved her off. She rocked into the corner and picked her nose, seemingly oblivious.
Clipper carefully got up off the floor. He was dripping blood everywhere. A few other shards of metal caught his attention and he threw them in the bin.
“Fucking assholes don’t clean up their mess down here,” he fumed as he sat on a bench to take his shoe off. Blood dripped to the floor. The wound was visibly healing. The man obviously didn’t have wolf’s bane in his blood, Jaxom thought bitterly.
He put his boot back on and gingerly limped to Jaxom. The needle knife coming out was swift and felt a lot better than the going in. Neither was great.
Jaxom held his breath as the knife was slowly forced into his shoulder. He couldn’t stop another scream of pain as the point met his shoulder blade on the inside of his body. The pain blurred his vision as he briefly considered fainting.
He lost track of Clipper while he debated.
A roar of anger and frustration almost shook the little dungeon. Clipper was sitting on the bench again with his other boot off. A shard of bloody blade was sitting in his hand.
“What’s the problem?” Jaxom laughed in his shredded voice. “You can dish it but you can’t take it?”
The man looked at him like he’d seen a ghost. Jaxom twitched his fingers and a metal shard skittered to the middle of the dungeon. Another twitch and the shard hammered into the side of Clipper’s foot.
Jaxom’s laughter mocked him as the guy screamed in pain and fear. His eyes were the size of plates as he stared at Jaxom. Jaxom twitched his fingers again and a piece of metal jumped out of the bucket and skittered towards the asshole.
Clipper dropped his boot and fled with bloody footprints out of the dungeon. Jaxom howled in laughter.
“Death to the Maggot King!” He yelled and heard the chant taken up down the hallway.
Jaxom stood in his chains as he waited for a guard to come put him back in his cell.
The needle knife an ever-present source of pain and irritation in his shoulder.
He hung his head and tried to concentrate on the mate-bond.
Even if he couldn’t really feel his mates, he knew they were still connected.
The least he could do was remember Drake’s command to remember them together.
It was better than concentrating on the pain radiating all over his body.
The knife in his shoulder occasionally wiggle as he breathed or moved to a slightly different position.
Ksenia moved restlessly in the corner but she didn’t get up.
She didn’t try to talk to him. She too, was waiting for the guards to arrive.
Jaxom could only imagine the story Clipper was telling them.
And again, Jaxom didn’t know how she’d read his mind, but she’d moved the metal shards with every twitch of his fingers.
Amusement from scaring the shit out of Clipper still had his attention.
Clipper didn’t deserve his compassion. He made hurting people his job.
It was time some of that pain had been dealt back in kind.
The last rays of the sun flashed in the dungeon.
Finally, a young guard timidly slunk in.
He must have drawn the short straw. The guard was white as a sheet as he quickly got Jaxom out of the chains and shoved him into the cell.
He had enough presence of mind to grab Clipper’s boot and run. His footsteps echoed up the hallway.
Ksenia scooted over to Jaxom the moment the guard was gone.
She gently took the handle of the needle knife and pulled it out.
Jaxom breathed hard as pain radiated from the wound.
It took a fair amount of time for the wound to quiet down.
It throbbed along with the stab wound in his bicep.
Nausea rolled in his empty stomach. It was a small mercy he had nothing to throw up.
The pain from his wounds would have multiplied with retching.
Ksenia said something to him. She’d been talking to him but the pain had overridden his ability to concentrate on her.
Finally, he was able to open his eyes to see that she was pointing to the wall where he’d stashed the thing she’d moved.
The urgency in her voice gave him the impetus to move.
She’d been trying to take care of him. Her ripped shirt was a testament to that.
However, getting the thing she wanted out of the crack was a struggle.
Muscles protested as he twisted to stick his fingers in the crack.
He couldn’t stop the moan of pain as he got the thing out and handed it to her.
Ksenia nodded and said something soothing.
The sound of her voice was so much better than listening to the blood rushing through his ears.
She took the thing as she continued to talk, and then grabbed his hand.
He thought she wanted to hold hands so he reached for hers.
She shook her head no and latched on to his wrist.
Jaxom’s jaw dropped as she took his bracer off.
She turned his hand over palm up and pointed at the death mark.
He had no idea how she knew about it, let alone actually saw through the magic keeping the bracers secret.
Her voice drew him in as she ran a finger over the death mark.
Somehow, all the pain and irritation in his body faded away as this amazing woman tried to explain something about the mark.
Ksenia pointed at each line and said a word with it.
Then, she picked up the long thin object and took a piece off.
It was some odd sort of pen. She wrote on her hand to demonstrate.
Then she pointed at the death mark. Jaxom slowly nodded his head in permission as he stared at her.
Fear of the unknown and excitement of the possibility she knew what she was doing warred within him.
Nausea got replaced by butterflies as prophecy was being fulfilled in a dungeon.
The pen was smooth and soft against his skin, a little cool to the touch.
The mark changed as she wrote, the translation formed underneath her writing.
Jaxom could feel the translation rising up under his skin, just like when the death mark first appeared.
He wanted to itch it but that would harm the magic the Moon Goddess had put into play a thousand years ago. He couldn’t touch, but he could read.
‘THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS MY FRIEND’.
Jaxom felt a rush of power racing through him, into the mate-bond and straight to Drake and Hayden.
It felt like the power was cleaning him out of the evil the witch and Renz had done to him.
It took a few seconds, but the well being rushing through him was making him feel healed, despite his wounds.
Relief swept though him as he had the energy to move, to stand, for the first time in two weeks.
The wolf’s bane had just lost the war in his body.
He grabbed the silver keeping him caged and ripped the flimsy pieces off his body.
The mate-bond clicked into focus for the first time in two weeks.
Hayden and Drake were near. He could feel their surprise as the change flowed through them, too.
He’d never been more relieved to feel his mates then he was at that moment.
Nothing could keep them apart, especially not some flimsy silver.
Flowers and summer rain flooded his senses as he took in a deep breath. Jaxom looked at beautiful Ksenia. He drank in the sight and smell of her in. His Luna had been sitting beside him all along. Beautiful, kind, smart, courageous, and a wonderful sense of humor. Ksenia had set them free.
Jaxom stood up, still hurt, still very wounded, but strong enough to get them out. He had to get his Luna to safety. It was the least he could do for the woman sent by the Moon Goddess to bring balance back to the eight divided realms.
Jaxom Bane put the bracer back on and tore the cell door off its hinges.