Chapter 19 #2
Pain pulsed through my fist as I weakly slammed it into the floor, but I was glad just to feel something.
We had only been aboard the End for two days, though it felt like years.
Since I was mostly left in solitude, I had more than enough time to agonize over Ash and Calinia and the crew of the Maiden.
Calinia had reached out to me to let us know that the Maiden had taken some damage, but most of the crew was unharmed. She was unconscious for a day after Shaddan knocked her out with that cannonball. Ashkade had taken good care of her.
As for Ash…She said he was beside himself with worry.
He was without his best friend and protector, and Rei was stuck here, tortured and beaten.
From the snippets of their “conversations” Rei would tell me, it sounded a lot like Vaetrik intended to bind me to him, to keep me from ever escaping him again.
Shaddan could probably manipulate the enchantment of the collar to do so, but they still needed Reiven to deactivate it first. Even worse, with the knowledge of the Voidtome’s location and a Siren who knew the Song, Vaetrik could probably steal the Tome out from under Shaddan’s nose.
The familiar clatter of the door made me jump, as the ugly, hawk-nosed pirate who guarded us hauled Reiven down the stairs and chained him back up in his cell, before locking it and throwing me a sneer.
I hugged my knees and hid my face in my skirt until he left, keys jingling at his hip as he slammed the door behind him.
The moment he was gone, I strained uselessly through the bars that our cells shared. “Rei, please, try to come closer. I can take away the pain if you just—”
He barely turned to face me, arms forced high above his head by the manacles.
His dark hair appeared even darker. Wet, dripping onto his bruised face.
He opened his mouth to speak, but only coughed and sputtered, unable to catch his breath.
My heart sunk even further into the depths of the sea beneath the End.
They were drowning him.
Reiven finally caught his breath and managed a hoarse whisper. “Sorry, Blue. You know we can't reach each other.”
Of course I knew. We had attempted several times to touch each other through the bars, but with his arms chained so, he couldn’t move an inch.
The hope that maybe this time it would work had me begging him to try every opportunity we had, and I was just about ready to dislocate my arm if it meant touching him.
For now, I settled for leaning against the bars, scanning him for new injuries.
His lower lip was cracked and bloody, and the sight only reminded me how soft his lips were when he kissed my palm a few nights ago.
The skin around his right eye was blackened, and the lacerations on his jaw, cheeks, and brow had started bright red, but faded into a sickly purple hue.
His clothing had coppery-brown stains here and there where blood had dried.
But for some stupid reason, while I stared at him with worry and guilt, he gave me a weak smile. “You alright?” he asked.
“I haven't even seen Vaetrik. Nobody's touched me since we got here.”
“Don't sound so pissed off.”
My lips tightened into a thin line. I was what Vaetrik was after. I was his prize, so the fact that he took his time torturing Reiven, yes, pissed me off. Why couldn't he just go back to treating me as his pet and leave Reiven alone—
A hint of an idea glimmered in that thought, but I filed it away for later. I wanted to focus on Reiven while I had him conscious. He still wore that idiotic smile, so I almost thought he had lost his mind from the torture.
“Ash spoke to me. Said they had the Maiden as repaired as they can get her, and that they’re trying to come up with a plan to come save us.
” He devolved into a fresh coughing fit, and when he finally stopped, his breaths rattled in his chest. “I couldn’t respond to tell him not to.
I was busy. Kid started getting emotional, saying he missed us and that I better make contact with him soon so he can stop worrying. ”
Ashkade was probably afraid Reiven was dead, since he wasn’t getting a response. I shut my eyes tightly, trying to imagine never getting to see our sweet farm boy again. “I’m so sorry. I know he’s like your little brother. I can’t imagine how hard it is for you to be away from him.”
Reiven gave a choked laugh. “Yeah.”
My lips quivered. “You were dragged into this because of me. Vaetrik is just going to keep brutalizing you for his own entertainment...”
Normally, I thought Reiven would have had some kind of sarcastic comment, but he just leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, like our conversation was exhausting him. “Don’t worry, I have a pretty high tolerance for pain.”
I growled under my breath, but I let him doze while I put together my plan.
I twisted the ring Ash had given me around my finger, trying to anticipate every one of Vaetrik’s possible reactions so I’d have a workaround.
As I told Rei, I really did know Captain Tynedall well, and I was going to have to put that knowledge to work to get us both out of here.
And if my plan failed…At least Reiven would have some time to recover while Vaetrik was engaged with me.
There was no way to tell what time it was, so all I could do was count the seconds and guess. I stood at the door of my cell, glaring at the opposite wall as I waited for that damn pirate to return.
The burst of light as the door swung open stirred Rei awake, but I didn’t flinch. My eyes followed the pirate as he came down the stairs, and he halted when he saw me in a different spot than my usual place, cowering in the corner. I spoke before he could.
“You tell Captain Tynedall that his pet misses him, and that she wants to see him. Now.”
The pirate gaped, but whirled on his heel and flew back up the stairs. No doubt Vaetrik told him to immediately report any changes in my behavior.
Reiven was fully awake now. He glowered at me. “What the fuck are you doing?”
There was hardly any time to explain, and really, the only thing I needed from Rei for my plan to work was for him to shut up and stay out of it. “No matter what, know that everything I do is to get us out of here.”
I must have stunned him into silence, because he didn’t come up with anything to say before our guard returned and unlocked my cell.
They didn’t bind me in any way; Vaetrik probably thought I wouldn’t have it in me to put up a fight.
I followed the pirate up the stairs, out of the bowels of the ship.
A slight pulse of energy from my collar urged me back towards the cells, but I lifted my chin and ignored it.
We climbed past the gun deck, where the cannons lined the wall, and barrels of gunpowder and cannonballs sat in the far corner.
Next came the main deck, and I hardly had a gulp of fresh air and a moment to drink in the sight of the sparkling water before I was shoved into Vaetrik’s captain’s quarters.
His room was lavish. Vaetrik lounged on a plush bed covered with silk sheets and cotton blankets that only made me miss the cot that Rei and I shared on the Maiden.
A desk pushed against the far wall was covered in maps, navigational tools, and a spyglass.
My gaze caught on the very thing I had been hoping to find.
Atop the desk chair lay my knife and sheath. They had been confiscated when he first took us as his prisoners.
Vaetrik smiled, swinging his legs over the bed to stand. He had ditched his long coat for a loose linen shirt that hung slightly off his muscled arms as he held out a hand to me, beckoning me closer. I cast my gaze down and dropped to my knees rather than take his hand.
“I heard you wanted to talk to me, pet,” Captain Tynedall gloated. “You know I can’t resist when it comes to you. What can I do for you?”
Terror wrapped its tentacles around my throat and squeezed my attempt at words.
There was nothing I wanted more than to do what Reiven wanted me to, to look him in the eyes and scream at him for everything he ever did to me.
For every way he hurt me. Ripping me away from my home, six years of captivity, breaking my will to fight…
But I had to muster all my courage to look up at him.
Just for a little while, I told myself. Allow yourself to be his, to be reduced to nothing, just for a while. Put on the mask he likes to see, and don’t take it off until he’s blinded by his own confidence.
“I…” I managed a squeak. “I want…to be yours again.”