Venclaire’s reply was steady. “The last guy to upset him over her ended up spending three days in the ground. So, you might want to run…if you think it’ll help.”
“Where is she?” Fergus’s voice bellowed through the entire jail, sounding farther away, but echoing roughly through the silvered bars.
Venclaire muttered, “Yeah, actually, I’m pretty sure it’s too late for you to run.”
“Kincaid? Venclaire?” Fergus shouted loudly. “Where the fuck are you?”
“Back here!” Kincaid called steadily, but loudly.
The jailer must have tried to run because I heard a hard grunt, then Kincaid murmured almost so quietly I couldn’t hear him, “Nope. You’re going to deal with some of this fallout because if she were my kind…and the state she’s in…I would rip everyone’s fucking head off that did this to her.”
A door banged loudly in the direction of their voices, everyone’s heads inside the different cells, all the captured ravers, staring down the hallway where they were, everyone mute to listen to their conversation. Everyone in my cell staying clear of me like the plague after Kincaid and Venclaire, and King Townsend and King Bridges, who had been by their sides, bailing them out of trouble, while all four of them had stood outside my cell, staring, Kincaid and Venclaire, arguing for a good minute on who should call Fergus, neither one of them wanting to do so. Venclaire got that honor by a lost coin toss, his conversation on the phone, apparently, relieved to have reached the King, and not Fergus, asking him to relay the message I was in jail.
That had been around fifteen minutes ago, lots more blood lost.
And, seemingly, Fergus had entered the cell room, along with many more voices, but I still heard his over the rest when he growled, “Where the fuck is she?”
“Down there.” Kincaid’s voice turned quiet and steady. “Third cell on the right.”
A flurry of voices came closer to us, but I saw Fergus first through the one eye I could still see through, the other swollen shut, and he came to a screeching halt, staring into the cell, glowing amber eyes scanning everyone’s faces while jailers followed behind him, along with King White, who was waving them off, watching his Prodigy closely. And I peered back to Fergus, unable to mutter a single word since I was fairly sure my throat had some internal injury from being choked, and I saw when his eyes landed on me. He couldn’t see all of my injuries, hair hanging in my face, and clothes covering the rest, but he completely froze, eyes dipping to the blood dripping slowly below me on the concrete floor, back to my face, and a voice void of all emotion, he asked slowly, “Who did this to you?”
“I don’t think she can talk,” Venclaire stated, voice overly tranquil.
“Alright.” Fergus’s arm snaked out to an air Elemental, voice still void, and in a second, he had the man’s face and body slammed up against the silver, making the guy cry out in pain. “You, get her out of there.” The guard instantly grabbed for the keys on his belt, apparently, the man who oversaw the inmates—which I was thinking was a blessing for him right now—so Fergus released him, slamming another Elemental guards face against the bars, asking him coolly, “Did you do this to her?”
“No,” the guy stammered instantly.
“Kincaid?”
“Truth.”
“Alright.” Fergus shoved the guy away, his eyes never leaving my face. “Get a medic here now.” The guard nodded quickly, starting to walk away, but Fergus stated steadily, “Run, not walk, before I kill you, too, for challenging my order.”
And…he was serious. I could see it in his cold eyes, the icy kind that feeds from the soul as he stared at me. Intelligently, the guard started running.
I heard the door bang again, way before the guard could have gotten there, then Elder Merrick’s voice could be heard, booming, his tone frigid, all business. “King Townsend, Kincaid, what the hell’s going on? I got a call from MIA—”
Fergus’s actions cut him off as he took a step back as the jail cell door opened, conveniently putting him in reaching distance of another Elemental guard, an air, and he shoved his face against the bars, asking him, “Did you do this to her?”
“What the fuck is going on here?” Elder Jacobs’s voice instantly cut in, apparently, having come in with Elder Merrick.
That guard didn’t answer, and I was pretty sure I vaguely remembered him as one who had been in that back room.
“Finally,” Fergus muttered, ignoring the Elder Elemental, and…in a heartbeat…the guards neck was snapped, his lifeless body falling to the ground where Fergus absently kicked the guard’s hand to rest against the silver bars. He didn’t have a shot in hell of healing, or anyone healing him, while he stood there, calmly gazing back at me as my mind screamed silently, getting nauseous in fear, not wanting his fate to be on death row, everyone having witnessed him…killing…without a trial or witnessed verdict or…anything Lawful.
“Jesus!” King White barked into the silence descending on the room, even as Fergus reached out and grabbed another guard, slamming his face against the silver bars over the dead guard’s body, making the man freak the hell out, but he shut up nicely when Fergus squeezed his throat tighter. “Fergus! Stop! Make your argument!”
“What the hell is going on?” Elder Jacobs shouted, the sound ringing throughout the room.
Kincaid’s eyes were just as cold and remote as Fergus’s when he tilted his head toward me, glancing wherever Elder Jacobs and Elder Merrick were standing behind the guards. “Sadie’s in there. It’s bad. What they did,” his head jerked back and forth, “it’s fucking wrong.”
Fergus didn’t stop, keeping his hold tight, but stated coolly, “Law seventy-one clearly states that if Law enforcement should unduly beat a Mystical, or if a Mystical unduly beats a Com, per the peace treaty, their punishment is up to death. And my ruling is that she has been unduly beaten. And I choose their deaths.” He slammed the guards face again, asking calmly, “Did you do this to her?”
“She resisted arrest!” the guard shrieked, even as I heard grunting from the mass of guards.
“They took her to a back room after she’d already been taken down and silvered, then beat her,” Venclaire stated, his voice still serene.
“Did you?” Fergus asked voice void.
No answer, except for a pitiful whimper.
His neck was snapped instantly, his body falling on top of the other dead guard, hand also kicked against the silver bars, and Fergus stated coolly to the guard inside the cell, “I said get her out of there.” The air Elemental glued to the middle of the cell snapped out of his daze of staring at the dead guards, and moved toward me, but the grunting from the guards mass was Elder Jacobs and Elder Merrick ramming through their ranks, barging into the jail cell, both of their expressions upset, the other inmates of the cell backing the hell away, actually shoving their backs against the silvers bars. It was Elder Merrick who held my attention, his face trying to be so carefully blank, but his eyes were furious navy blue orbs, his gaze hooded, his hands fisted. Both saw me at the same time, and Elder Jacobs muttered a curse, but started racing toward me while Elder Merrick froze completely until his body jerked and he leapt easily through the air, swatting the guard back onto the floor, the man smacking his head so hard he was unconscious, his own bit of blood pooling from his head. Elder Jacobs only jumped over him as he knelt next to Elder Merrick, who wasn’t saying a word, his jaw clenched tight as he blinked repeatedly before his gaze started running over my frame in a professional manner. Elder Jacobs turned, and grabbed the keys from the jailer, even as Fergus questioned another guard who said no, and it was honest, so was released from Fergus’s hold.