He noticed Alina’s glare, and his features hardened. “My greatest obstacle can be my greatest weapon, when used wisely.”
“And what’s your greatest obstacle?” Alina asked.
“I’ve told you. The mind. It threatens me every day. Although I generally succeed in making people selfish and passive, occasionally one thinks outside the box. They believe something is missing in their lives, though they don’t know what it is. They become increasingly dissatisfied until, before they know what happened, they’re here in my dungeon begging to go home.”
“And how is that your greatest weapon?” Alina hoped to keep him talking as she twisted the rope behind her into a ball.
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t you get it? I meddle with their pampered brains. I can’t hurt them physically, but it’s easy to hurt them mentally. Mind torture is much more effective. I’ve learned quite a bit about the immortal mind through my experiments.”
Alina took a step away from him. “How many prisoners do you have?”
“Oh, a decent number. But I can’t hold them here forever. Carthem is vital—I need a place to send them if they’re of no use to me. How else would I keep Pria from overpopulation? I send them to Carthem before they go completely mad, so they have some awareness of their suffering once they’re there. Otherwise, what’s the point? But I admit, once or twice I’ve waited too long.” He chuckled.
Alina felt sick.
His smile vanished. “Now, are you ready to see your friends for the last time?”
She lowered her head and whispered, “Yes.”
Darkness filled the hallway ahead, but as Sampson led her, dim lights brightened their path as if responding to a silent command. The wailing grew louder as they passed the small, barred windows. Many hands shoved through them and Alina heard anxious, unintelligible requests. She clenched the rope at her back and looked ahead, too frightened to meet the feverish eyes around her, until she heard her name.
“Alina!” a woman’s voice screamed, her white knuckles gripping the bars. Stunned, Alina stopped and stared at her.
“Do you know this woman?” asked Sampson.
Alina looked closer. She possessed the beauty of an immortal, but her eyes glared with the wildness of a madwoman. Alina knew those eyes back when they were gentle. Miss Vivian.
Alina faced Sampson. “Yes. She was my teacher. You’ve kept her locked up all these years?”
“She’s a tough one to crack. Very valuable. I don’t think I’ll ever let her go. She has kept her wits much longer than most—as you see, she even remembers you.”
Alina seethed as Sampson studied her with a smug, conceited smile. When he turned back down the corridor, she glanced once more at Miss Vivian. The hollow eyes stared at Alina, as if trying to remember how they knew her. “You’re right. I’m Alina,” she whispered, swallowing hard. “You were once the only friend I had.”
She blinked back tears as she followed Sampson and focused her eyes on the dagger’s hilt, secured at his waist.
Jade’s scream erupted from a cell window. “NO! Alina, get out of here!”
Another face appeared across the hallway from her. Rex gripped the steel bars and clamped his teeth. “Not you, too,” he squeezed out.
Alina wanted to run to Jade but couldn’t turn away from Sampson. She needed to wait for the right moment.
“You aren’t the only ones I’ve captured tonight,” Sampson gloated. “I’ve saved the best for last.”
“Who?” Alina sneered. “There’s no one else I care about.”
“Are you sure?” Sampson raised an eyebrow, hiding a smirk.
He pointed to the cell next to Rex. Alina glared at him as she shuffled to the door with her back against the wall. A boy huddled inside with his face hidden.
“Turn into the light,” Sampson demanded. The prisoner shifted, and Alina started, almost betraying her loose hands.
“Zaiden!” she exclaimed. “What’s he doing here? He hasn’t done anything wrong!”
“Ask him yourself,” Sampson responded.
Alina looked at Zaiden in shock. She could feel the disc inside the bodice of her gown, his life’s story secure against her pounding heart. She hadn’t expected to see him again, but now hope fluttered inside her. If she did this right, he could come to Carthem with her, and they would be the same: mortal and flawed.
“Zaiden?”
He didn’t answer but stared at the ground in front of him. The light from the hallway cast a shadow under his eyebrows.
Alina whipped back to face Sampson. “Do you mean you imprisoned him because I—” She broke off. She couldn’t confess her feelings, not where Zaiden could hear.
“Certainly not,” Sampson chuckled, “though anyone who catches your eye is worth watching. We took him because he came here tonight. After he peeled Eris off, he followed you the entire way. We knew what he was doing, of course, but we humored him a bit before catching him. Too bad he didn’t get a chance to rescue you.”
She glowered at Sampson. Was he toying with her? Did Zaiden come to rescue her?
She peered back into his cell and found him staring hard at her, as if he wanted to memorize every part of her face. His gaze made her knees go weak, and she shuffled to maintain her balance.
“I’m sorry, Alina,” Zaiden said.
Sampson smirked at her, reading every emotion on her flushed face. His haughty smile and the adrenaline from Zaiden’s gaze gave her the push she needed.
She snatched the dagger from Sampson’s waist and placed it against her wrist.
“Let them out. Now. Or I’ll cut myself.”
Sampson’s eyes widened at the sight of her unbound hands. Then he went rigid and forced a laugh. “You wouldn’t leave without your friends.”
“Oh, yes she will!” Rex blurted out. “Do it, Alina!”
Panic flickered in Sampson’s eyes. “If you choose to leave Pria now,” his voice trembled, “then they never will. They’ll be driven to madness in these cells, with no escape. Forever.”
“Don’t listen
