Chapter 19 Xerxes
Xerxes
My handler eyed me with disdain as I ran my fingers over the strange metal dish.
We had weapons made of the same substance, forged by the southern clans who still had fire in their veins from the elemental witches who once roamed my world.
But to see the same metal we fought hard to uncover used to make something so easily crafted from clay had me… curious.
“It’s a fucking plate,” Handler snapped, deep voice cutting through my thoughts. I glanced up from the slop that covered the plate. “You eat off it.”
The soldier sitting next to my handler laughed. “He’s a fucking beast from the Old World,” the male said, slapping my handler on the shoulder. “Give him a break. They probably still live in caves.”
I gritted my teeth to keep from correcting him.
The male likely believed I didn’t understand him, but we had Fae blood, and that gave most of us the ability to understand the evolution of languages.
My understanding of them was likely even better than his own—better than most, except for the Winter Fae, where the ability stemmed from.
I couldn’t help but wonder if they realised I knew enough about them to know what they were now.
That my handler was a traitor to those with magic in their veins.
In my world, we knew only of females having magic at their fingertips, but that’d clearly changed when the Queen of Nyx made her creatures flee their home and create another.
My handler was not a witch, but what they referred to as a mage.
The other soldier, one I knew only from these meals, was a demon. Traitors, both of them.
My handler rolled his eyes as I brought the fork to my lips. Whatever they were feeding us tasted like shit. But I didn’t say that aloud. The food was barren of any flavour or actual substance. Even if we lived in caves, we still ate better than this.
“I don’t even know why he’s still here,” my handler muttered. “He should be in the cages with the rest of the beasts.”
The other soldier groaned. “Not this again. You know as a beast he can talk? That makes him pretty damned cool if you ask me.” I felt the bright eyes of the soldier on me. “How does that work?”
I dropped the fork with a grimace as I swallowed the tasteless grit. “I don’t know,” I replied, barely looking at him as I fidgeted with the charmed twine beneath the table where it was tied to my belt. “It is something we have always had the ability to do. Why do your beasts not speak?”
The soldier snorted. “Fair question.” He pushed his tray away and leaned back. “Is it true you also don’t have a dick?”
I narrowed my eyes as I met his stare. The other agents turned to watch us. There weren’t many this time of night, as we were preparing for the day shift, but those who were present turned to listen to our conversation.
“I have a cock,” I replied evenly. “Do you?”
Again, he laughed. It wasn’t meant to be funny. But surely, none of them had their balls if they could so easily turn their backs on their Queen. But I didn’t say that out loud, either.
I was learning quickly to hold my tongue when it came to my fated.
If I were to protect her, I needed to hold back from revealing our bond.
None knew she claimed me as her mate, and that was the only reason I wasn’t in a cage with the other beasts, forced to remain in my Primal form.
Now, I understood the strange, small female better.
Now, I knew why she’d placed the rune upon my flesh.
The soldier stood, his smile arrogant. And without taking his eyes off me, he placed his hands on his belt. “You want to see what a real cock looks like?”
“Not fucking happening,” my handler groaned. “We’re all going to lose our appetites if you whip it out, Othar.”
I rarely shied away from nudity; it happened so easily in my realm that we grew to see it normally. But the last thing I wanted to see was his dick at the dining table. It also brought on a discomfort I barely recognised.
Maybe it was the knowledge that I had a mate waiting for me, needing me to save her from her prison. My Primal yearned for her in ways I’d never felt before. My Primal side wanted to claim her in the only way it knew how, but even the side of me that was male wanted her, too.
It also felt like a betrayal to my world. I was meant to be protecting the Primals, and although I had yet to learn any of the false king’s plans regarding my home, it felt like I wasn’t doing enough.
The soldier, Othar, grabbed his groin. “Oh, come on, he asked!”
“You asked first,” a female said, appearing by our table with a look of disgust. “Why do you want him to see your baby dick anyway?”
“My dick—”
She cut him off with a wave of her hand.
“As someone who has seen it—not with consent—I can confirm that it’s no bigger than a baby carrot.
” The female, a shifter I believed, crossed her arms. Short red hair curled around her chin, and her eyes, which were almost a similar shade of orange, flickered to meet mine.
Her skin was dark like mine, though not the same.
Where mine was like the dark sanded beaches of the old palace, hers was warm, like bark.
But it was her eyes that captured my attention. They weren’t as cruel or sinister as those working for the false king. But they weren’t dead, either, like those under his spell.
Her eyes were sharp, calculating.
Like she did not belong.
“What do they call you?” she asked, cocking her head. “I’m sure you have names where you’re from.”
“Xerxes,” I replied.
She nodded once before turning her attention back to my handler and Othar. “Keep your pants on and don’t embarrass yourself. When he came in and shifted, I got a look. You’d be surprised by what’s down there.”
With that, she walked away. I couldn’t help the discomfort at her words. It felt like a small betrayal to my fated. But her parting line seemed to have the desired effect on the demon, because he sat with a huff.
“What a bitch,” he growled. “Sunniva Storm can go fuck herself.”
My handler rose at that. “She’s higher ranking than you are, Othar.”
“She’s a bitch,” the demon snapped back. “Fucked her way to that position if you ask me. If it weren’t for her, we’d have had the bitch queen and her weird friend from the beginning.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, before Handler could tell him to shut up.
Othar’s eyes met mine. “I mean,” he started, leaning forward, perhaps too caught up in his indigence to care that he was providing me valuable information, “she was on the team to go get the queen in the human realm. We had one chance to get her, especially because she was unmated, and Storm blew it. Got shot and everything.”
Handler grabbed my tray and his own. “Storm didn’t die, is what you’re pissed about. Unlike the others who crossed her path. Took out like five agents before her team came in to save her. That’s what you should be pissed about.”
“I still doubt she did it,” Othar muttered. “She was too weak to manage that.”
“You didn’t see the blood,” Handler replied. His eyes found mine, and he gave me a nod. “Let’s go. We have rotations.”
I didn’t argue, sliding from the bench seat and rising. Othar watched us, the weight of his gaze almost overwhelming.
“I guess there is more to his hatred of the female, Storm, than what happened with the Queen?” I knew I shouldn’t ask, but I was curious.
Especially because this female wasn’t like Othar or my handler.
Handler glanced at me as he dumped our trays. It was a shame, wasting the food, though I couldn’t bring myself to feel too guilty with how horrible it’d been.
He waved a hand, and we started for the exit. A set of double doors opened at our approach, automated somehow. I hid my curiosity well enough.
“She’s one of the few females here. Most don’t make it to this compound because they aren’t strong enough, but Storm is brilliant—I’ll give her that.
And she’s a shifter, which means some believe she should be in the cages.
But that also means some of the males here want a pussy they can sink their cocks in, and she won’t put out.
Pretty sure she’s only into chicks, and not enough males here go for both. ”
I had no idea what most of that meant, but I supposed I could figure it out. Othar wanted to fuck Storm, but she wanted nothing to do with him.
Understandable. I doubted there were many who would want to touch him, especially after the show he tried to put on in the dining hall. How anyone put up with him was beyond me.
When males wanted to prove their worth back home, they had to fight for it. Not whip out their cocks and compare them.
I shook my head as we entered one of the many long halls making up the compound. “Where are we going?”
We came to a stop at the elevator, which I had to admit, could be a helpful device back home.
The thought of my world made my stomach twist.
“We’ve been instructed to go down to the cages,” he said, crossing his arms with a grimace. “I fucking hate it down there.”
I didn’t need to ask why, though it was strange. Sometimes, I had to wonder if he really wanted to be a soldier in the false king’s army, if he even believed at all in what he was fighting for.
My handler spared me a look as the doors to the elevator opened. Without a word, he stepped in, and I followed. There was no one else in the brightly lit chamber. Handler hit a button, taking us down into the mountain.
That was the only significant detail I’d gleaned from my time with the rest of the false king’s army. Most were unaware of where we were, and those who were deeply loyal didn’t talk about it. But there were some—arrogant, foolish, like Othar—who spoke without care of who might be listening.
So, all I knew was that we were in a mountain somewhere, hidden beneath its peaks, deep below the earth.
My power was muted somehow; I supposed thanks to whatever the false king used to keep my fated hidden within these walls.
But I also had a feeling it was more than that.
My ability to see through the dirt and stone was unusable here, and it felt like a kind of blindness.
I’d rarely used it in my own realm. It was never needed, unless we were searching for thrax nests to eliminate.
But now that I needed it, I couldn’t reach it.
The doors to the elevator opened, my handler eerily quiet now. His annoyance over Othar and his comments seemed to be gone, replaced with a cold, calculated mask he wore when on duty.
“Keep quiet and don’t draw any attention to yourself,” he said, voice harsh. “I don’t want a repeat of this morning. Ask your questions later.”
I pressed my lips together, even though I knew I needed to learn something.
I didn’t care about the different creatures down here. What I cared about was finding my fated and learning what the false king planned for my people.
There were dozens of soldiers milling around the prison doors. It set my Primal on edge; my other side rose to the surface, his presence rippling across my skin. It took all my strength to keep him buried and not let him out in front of these creatures.
I knew my fated claimed I wouldn’t die, not with our mate bond revealing itself, but she wasn’t here. And I wasn’t sure if her promise still held any weight.
“What the fuck?” Handler muttered, coming to a stop.
I halted behind him, my eyes searching the soldiers.
I recognised none of them; the winged one wasn’t present.
I’d seen him briefly before; always with the same red-eyed male.
The winged one had the same dead look as those under the false king’s spell.
My Primal fought with me each time to seek him out, to find out where our fated was, but I controlled those urges.
My Primal remained close to the surface as my handler pushed through the crowd. They fell silent, any conversation they might have had about why they were at the cages ceasing. Unrecognisable fear rose within me.
Handler pushed into the prison without a word or looking back to make sure I followed.
What we found within made my blood run cold.
Because in the centre of the prison, in a cage barely hidden by the creatures around her, was a poorly dressed female. A female I recognised instantly. There was no way to hide the sweetness of her scent or the rage that came with seeing her in chains.
My fated, locked in a cage, for all to see.
And not a soul did anything about it.