Chapter Four #2
“Shhh,” Reyes interrupted her, a finger pressed against his lips.
The gloves he had used to inspect the muki were gone, and she could see the same dark ink that was on his neck on the backs of his hands.
She wondered what he had deemed worthy enough to mar his skin forever, and if she could use it against him.
A flash of movement forced Solana’s eyes back to the floor. The splash of her vomit disappeared as if it had never been there to begin with.
“Thank you, Andres.”
The boy dipped into a shallow bow and then breezed out of the room.
Solana knew that gifted people existed, but seeing the actual act of it was an entirely different matter.
She glanced down at her side to where the twinges of pain had faded into a dull ache.
What skin she could see was closed and smeared with dried blood. No shredded flesh in sight.
The lives that kind of gift could save … it was devastating to think about the lack of access the people of Qhilli had.
Reyes stepped closer, but not close enough to touch even if her arms weren’t bound.
She could see that his boots had been cleaned along with the floor and immediately understood what his priorities were.
He was put together and in control. Willing to get his hands dirty but unwilling to clean up his own mess.
“You’re here because the king wants you here, and he has questions.” His voice was deep, and it would have been soothing if not for the way he ominously loomed over her.
“Can’t you untie me first?” Solana gave him a small smile. “I promise I’ll behave.”
Reyes dropped his arms and rounded the table.
She could feel him behind her back and peeked over her shoulder to see him fiddling with something out of sight.
Then his hands were on the ties at her wrists, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
With her arms free, she could slip her hands into his cloak, find her dagger, and run it through one of his colorless eyes.
The pressure of the bindings lessened and blood rushed into her fingers almost immediately, but the reprieve was short-lived. Rough hands yanked her arms above her head where cold metal snapped around her wrists. The sound was deafening in the small stone room.
“Godsdamnit!” Solana yelled, tugging at the shackles and twisting her body.
Reyes walked to her feet and she kicked out, trying to land a blow before he could catch her legs and bind them as well.
She was too weak to fight and Reyes was too determined to lose.
Shackles snapped around her ankles, one attached to each corner of the table so that she was spread out and vulnerable. Prey instead of predator.
Heart pounding viciously in her chest, Solana tried her hardest not to show a single shred of fear. “You know,” she started, tone neutral, voice firm. “This is a very specific fantasy of mine.”
Reyes paused, his eyes running over her body without a single hint of emotion.
It was insulting, really. “Then I’m glad I could grant you your greatest desire,” he said, deadpan.
He gave her his back and strolled to the cabinet along the wall, clearly in no rush, and plucked a vial of dark liquid from among a set of dozens of glass vials.
It glistened like the muki’s skin as he held it up to the weak globe light in the corner of the room.
“We’ve been following your escapades for quite some time.
The Demon Slayer of Supay with her demon-killing blade. Rumors about your gifts.”
It seemed as though the callejon wasn’t the only place with rumors. Except, while theirs were about lights that never burned down, food that replenished itself, and medicine that could save from even the worst of illnesses, it seemed Sonqo’s rumors were about … her?
“My only gifts are stubborn pride and relentless greed.” Another lie, but close enough to the truth that it was believable.
It was true her blade allowed her to do what seemingly no one else could.
It was also true that she had inherited some of her father’s skill and speed in combat, but those weren’t gifts, not like the kind that got her access to the Academy, or added to the king’s payroll.
“We can’t all be as useful as you,” she said in her sweetest tone.
But Reyes paid her no mind. “My healing is … limited,” he said, the liquid in the vial rolling back and forth as he inspected it.
“I can mend a broken bone or a punctured lung. I can even soothe mental maladies, if I’m patient and my well is full enough.
But I can’t extract nonhuman poison from human blood.
I can’t touch anything that doesn’t belong to this realm. ”
He placed the vial onto a small table pushed against the wall and then removed his cloak.
Solana stayed quiet, taking note of everything in the room and on the shelves, looking for weapons, keeping her eyes on his cloak with her dagger hidden in it, hoping there were keys for the shackles in there as well.
She would have to free herself and then navigate the dungeons to find Sami and free him.
So many things could go wrong.
A flash of metal brought Solana’s attention back to Reyes. He had a small blade in one hand and the vial in the other as he approached her. Solana yanked on her wrists once again, just for good measure, and curled her lips into a smile. “If you let me go, I can make it worth your while.”
Reyes ignored her and placed the vial and blade at the edge of her table.
With deft fingers, he rolled the sleeves of his black tunic to his elbows, exposing more of the inked designs splashed over tanned skin and corded muscle.
Solana saw words and symbols that flowed from one into the other that meant nothing to her.
A clue into who he was, but not one she knew how to read and therefore could not use against him.
When he picked up the blade once again, he finally looked into Solana’s eyes. “If you cooperate, I can ask the king to lessen your sentence.”
“You can ask the king? That doesn’t sound very promising.”
“It’s all I can give you,” he said, his eyes earnest.
Solana scoffed. He truly believed he was offering her a boon. “I don’t need the king’s mercy. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. There’s no need for all of this,” she said, using her head to gesture down at herself.
“I think I’ll decide what we need.” Slowly, he placed the blade’s edge against the top of her thigh. She felt the point through her pants. Just a tiny sting. “Are you the famed Demon Slayer of Supay?”
“No,” Solana answered quickly. Her skin gave way under the edge, and she exhaled through the sharp bite. “I told you we were attacked. Do you people really expect us not to defend ourselves?”
“You seemed to defend yourself very easily against two full-sized muki.”
“There were two of us. One-on-one isn’t really that impressive of a fight.”
The dagger pressed deeper again. A bead of sweat rolled down Solana’s temple. “Are you telling me that your friend is also guilty of killing a muki?”
“No,” she spat. “I killed them both. I severed their spinal cords all on my own.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that,” Solana repeated. “See? I’m cooperating. We can—”
“How did you control it?” Reyes watched her with narrowed eyes, drinking in every inch of her face.
She did the same to him, eyes darting between his, her own mind replaying the fight and the sequence of events to dredge up an acceptable answer to his insane question. “Control who?” she asked, brow scrunched.
Reyes sighed dramatically. “Wrong answer,” he said, and then he shoved the dagger into her thigh, parting flesh and muscle until he hit the bone with a thud.
Solana bit her tongue to keep from screaming and swallowed her own blood.
Her nails cut crescent moons into her palms. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and joined the sweat rolling down her temples.
It was cold in the room, but inside she was burning with pain and rage. With promises of revenge.
Just as slowly as he pushed it in, Reyes pulled the dagger out. A gush of warmth followed it, and she knew he had hit something vital, that she had minutes before she bled out on that table.
“I thought you needed me alive.” Already, her head was spinning and her fingers were tingling and she was so fucking angry with herself for dying like this. “When I come back as a muki, I’m eating you first.”
“You’re not dying today, Solana. I’ll make sure of that,” Reyes said, and then he slammed his hand over her thigh and poured his horrible healing gift into her body.