Fortunately, the first few cells were empty.
But my luck could only last for so long.
We stopped in front of the largest cell, one that housed six individuals. Each one had red hair, various shades that ranged from garnet red to a carrot orange. Each was a male. Each was naked.
And each was covered in blood.
“What the hell?” I whispered, eyes tracking each of the men’s movements. Their dirty bodies ran towards the bars of their cage, hands extending as they pleaded to be let out. There was a wide-range of ages too, I noted. The youngest appeared to be sixteen and the oldest was in his mid-forties.
“What is this, Tavvy?” Dair’s voice was tight with disgust and horror. Lupe had gone still beside me, and I knew he was fighting his beast. He was a gentle soul by nature. It must’ve been difficult for him to see so many people distressed. I knew it was for me.
“This is her task.” Despite addressing Dair, Tavvy’s eyes remained fixed on me. “Choose one.”
“What?” I breathed, staggering back a step. My movement landed me against Bash’s hard chest, and his hands came to wrap around me. I leaned into his embrace, any and all anger I felt for him disappearing at his comfort.
“One’s a traitor. The others are innocent.” His smile widened, sharklike. Predatory. Malevolent. “Twenty-four hours. Choose one to die.”
TWENTY-FIVE
Z
The muscles in my stomach tightened to the point of pain. All I could do was stare at Tavvy - a fucked up soul wrapped in a pretty face and body.
Ice slithered down my spine, encasing me. It felt as if I was standing in a tundra with wind howling through my hair. Distantly, I could hear the men crying and screaming and begging, but their voices began to blur together.
God...
They were all humans! Powerless and defenseless against the Nightmares.
One of them was a child...
I must’ve said the last thought out loud, for Tavvy’s lips twisted into a grin.
“So you would choose to spare him because of his age, even if he was a traitor? Even if you were condemning an innocent man to die in his place?”
The tightening in my stomach reached exponential levels, threatening to expel the contents of my last meal. I heaved, and Bash hugged me tighter to him.
“This is sick, Tavvy. Even for you,” Dair whispered, aghast.
At that, his smile fled to be replaced by something colder. Darker.
“In this world, you have to be sicker. Harsher. Crueler.” He spat on the ground, near my feet, and Bash lifted me slightly to move us both backwards. “All I ever wanted was Father’s attention, but did he spare me an ounce of the time he gave you? No. You got all his fucking attention. Perfect Dair.” He twisted the last words, spittle clumping at the corner of his mouth.
Dair’s eyes were comically wide in his face.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he snapped at last. “The attention...you can fucking have it!”
I didn’t understand what was happening, but I knew the confrontation stemmed from years of pent-up aggression. On both ends.
Before I could blink, Dair lunged forward and tackled Tavvy to the ground. For a man who had just gotten legs, he sure knew how to use them.
Eyes radiating an incandescent fury, he punched at Tavvy’s face.
And something inside me broke.
Running forward, I grabbed Dair’s shoulder, preparing to pull him back, only to use my free hand and punch him square in the face.
What the hell?
Even as panic settled in my chest, I felt my body move instinctively, protectively, in front of Tavvy’s prone form. A gurgled laugh escaped the evil prince as the others looked at me in shock. Blood coated Dair’s lips from my fist, and I would forever hate myself for being the cause.
I tried to convey with my eyes how sorry I was, how I had no idea what was happening, how my body’s reaction was instinctual.
Understanding dawned on Bash’s face first - the slightest widening of his eyes and sharp intake of breath.
Behind me, Tavvy still laughed maniacally.
“It’s the spell, dumbass,” he said, and I glanced over my shoulder. Tavvy was staring at his brother, eyes slitted. “The bonding one. It makes her incapable of harming anyone in any of the royal families.” He staggered to his feet and brushed a hand down my arm. Lupe growled at the contact but did not dare take a step closer. “It makes her first reaction to protect them.”
“It doesn’t mean I’m going to play along with your sick games,” I snapped, pivoting to face him. Instead of the anger I expected, his eyes danced with amusement.
“Then you die.” This was all said with an indifferent shrug of his shoulders. “Refuse a task given to you by the Kings, and you explode. Another caveat of the little binding spell.”
The smug bastard sounded giddy. I wanted to punch him in the face repeatedly.
Huh. At least I could still mentally harm him.
“You son of a bitch,” Lupe hissed through clenched teeth. He looked as if he was seconds away from tearing the blond prince’s head off his body.
“Twenty-four hours,” Tavvy cooed, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. Throwing me a wink, he glanced once more at the red-headed prisoners. They screamed at him, but their words ran together. One emotion was painstakingly clear: anguish.
It cleaved my heart in two.
“Find the traitor,” Tavvy told me. “And then kill him.”
I PACED the bedroom that had once felt homey but now resembled a prison.
That was what I was, after all. A prisoner. A piece of clay that the Kings could mold and shape until they had their perfect, obedient assassin.
And because of the binding spell, there was nothing I could do.
“Fuck!” I shouted, throwing something at the door. I didn’t even bother to see what it was as glass shattered. Hopefully, it was another expensive
