“We fucked at Kitty’s,” he replied bluntly.
It was the first time we had been intimate since I burned through the nectar. We brought it back; our connection balanced and strengthened it. And it seemed to get stronger each time we were together.
Guilt over finding pleasure just after killing my uncle and taking Zuz’s life dropped the high I was on to the floor. Despair gurgled up my throat, and emotion started to pour in.
“Stop.” He stepped up to me. I gulped back the sob wanting to take over, fighting back the emotions that were becoming louder. He didn’t ease them, and I didn’t ask. “Hating yourself is an insult to him. To all of them. Andris wouldn’t want that. You gave him time. Most humans don’t seem to cherish it even though they have just a blink of it in the scheme of things. Appreciate the extra time you got with him. Don’t let your ego get in the way, Kovacs. Don’t make this about you and your guilt.”
My first instinct was to lash out, to tell him to fuck off, but deep down, I knew he was right. My uncle could have died a month ago, under the rubble, but he lived, had more time with his family, with me, and with Ling.
A guard groaned from the floor, drawing us to him. He reached for something on his belt, a type of walkie-talkie. “Help! Level 5 latrine,” he gurgled and hissed into it. “Code one!”
Warwick’s boot slammed into his head, knocking away the device and the man out cold again.
But it was too late.
Commotion echoed from a distance. They were coming.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Anxiety funneled into my bloodstream, adding to growing panic, skirting me closer to the edge. Instinct always made you want to run, but there was nowhere to go here. After what I’d done, I knew where it would lead me, which speared my panic higher with thoughts of the hole. I was strong, but I didn’t know if I could make it through again without bending completely to Istvan.
“Hey.” Rough hands grabbed my face, forcing me to look solely at him. “Look at me. Whatever happens, we make it through, right?” He gripped me harder. “We fight.”
My nostrils burned with unshed tears, the hollers growing louder.
“No matter what.” He gritted through his teeth at me. “Right?”
Nodding, my voice cracked. “What are we going to do? What if someone finds it? I know Caden is out searching for it. What if he does and hands it to Istvan?” We were screwed.
“We do the only thing we can. We take it back.”
“How do we do that?”
“We find a way out of here and kill everything standing in our way.”
The pounding of feet and yells jerked my head to the doorway. A group of soldiers led by Boyd came through the large doorway, their gazes going from the guards strewn on the ground to us.
“About time you boys showed up. I was getting bored. They broke way too easily.” Warwick stepped away from me, putting up his arms as if he were the one who attacked the sentries.
Oh shit...
“Seize them!” Boyd pointed at us. Men with batons, guns, and whips surged for us.
Warwick’s focus stayed intently on me.
“No.” Fear tumbled down into my stomach at the realization of what he was doing.
He winked, a glint of mischievousness in his eyes, right as he whirled around on the few soldiers grabbing for him. The crack of his fist splintered across one’s face. His quickness and skill punched about five of them before their clubs reached him, dropping Warwick to his knees with the spiked batons.
“No! Stop!” I pitched forward, but a handful of sentries seized me, their faux-fae power holding me in place as I thrashed and fought to reach Warwick.
They continued to dice and chop into his skin, kicking and beating him until his face and limbs were bloody.
“Please!” I begged.
The moment Boyd approached, they all backed off, letting their leader move in.
“If you wanted back in the hole so bad, you should have asked me.” Boyd leaned over Warwick, smiling creepily. “Need to get away from the missus that bad, huh? And here I thought she had a magical pussy, able to get so many of you to trail after her like schoolboys.” Boyd glanced back, leering at me. “I didn’t get a full taste last time. Maybe I should sample it again.”
“Warwick, no!” I cried through our link. Boyd was purposely poking the beast. And it worked.
Warwick pitched up, his head slamming so hard into Boyd’s, the guard went sailing back, smacking the tile floor with a thud, as The Wolf spat and growled, climbing to his feet. Warwick parted his bloody lips, his saliva tainted red, sneering and moving for Boyd.
“Warwick, stop!” My shade touched his chest, trying to get his attention. He peered down at me, heaving in and out.
“Take him to the hole,” Boyd screeched, wobbly on his feet, touching the blood dripping from his head. “You will rot in there, Farkas.”
Without fighting, Warwick let the guards cuff him and start herding him for the door. It was what he wanted in the first place. For him to take the blame, not me.
“Warwick!” I cried out, though my mouth didn’t move.
He didn’t respond. His gaze latched onto mine, the feel of his mouth claiming mine hungrily, his fingers digging into my skin before his body was dragged from the room, shutting down the link between us.
Again, I knew if I pushed, I could break in, but before I could even contemplate it, Boyd was in my face. I tightened my shoulders, my jaw crunching together. The fresh wound on his forehead still leaked out blood as he patted it with a handkerchief.
“You have been nothing but a pain in my ass since the day you entered Halálház.” His disgust curled his lip up. “Farkas never caused a problem until you arrived. Even my lord changed when he took you in. You corrupt men’s minds, distort their beliefs, warp them. And now look, they are all either in prison or dead.”
“How easily you flipped on your lord for a pocket full of coins.” I sneered back. “Talk about warped beliefs. You are now working for a human.”
He stepped closer, his lip hitching higher, voice dropping so only I could hear. “Let them do all the work, set the stage for us, then we come in to take it all.”
“Why not just take it back now?”
“Because what they are going for, we want as well. A complete takeover. Humans think themselves so much smarter.” Boyd’s attention flashed to the four soldiers being helped up by other human guards. He watched with a smirk on his face, clearly not bothered about them being attacked. “We are predators. We lie in wait until our victims willingly step into our mouths. This fight has just begun.” Abruptly, he moved away from me. “Get this bitch out of my sight. Take her to her cell.”
My mind still wheeled with his claim as officers dragged me back to my cell, tossing me roughly inside and slamming the door.
While one game was playing in the arena, another one was being played outside these walls, and it would be far more brutal and complex than I’d first thought.
With the nectar back on the board, a deadly game of chess was now being played, and the stakes were everything.
Tonight, I would let myself cry and wallow for Andris, but tomorrow, I would shove my heartache away and focus. We had to learn everything we could from every soldier here, gossip from the outside, their routines, weaknesses, their loyalty.
Not only was our country on the precipice, but so was the world... and there were only a few of us who could stop it from falling.
Chapter 4
“No, he didn’t seem to enjoy waking up to you sucking on his fingers.”
Chirp!
A groan hummed in my throat as their voices pierced into my head, stirring me from a shallow sleep.
“Nor did he like you licking his ears.”
Chirp!
“It wasn’t me!” I could feel Opie’s foot stomp into my leg, my dried salty lashes parting fully.
Chirp! Chirp! Bitzy chewed him out from the pack on his back.
“I didn’t nibble them either.” Opie huffed. “Total misunderstanding.”
This morning their outfits were faded beige cotton, and judging by the identical fabric I had in my bathroom locker, someone was missing a towel this morning. Opie had designed it into a one-piece with strategic shapes cut out, leaving very little to the imagination, and a snake puppet with inked-in eyes and teeth covered his crotch. His hair was loose with thin braids at the front plaited in with his beard. Bitzy had snake puppets over her ears, her face twisted in irritation, her fingers flipping the world off.
“Should I even ask?” I rubbed my eyes.
“Do you like it? Needed a little whimsical fun today.” Opie twirled, showing me the thong back. “I mean, the color is so drab, so I wanted to make it fun. When I walk—look—the snake bobs and weaves.”
I groaned, rubbing my eyes harder as he pranced up and down my leg, showing me what he meant. “Not that I wasn’t scarred enough, but it’s not what I meant.”
Chirp!
Opie rolled his eyes. “Stop putting this on me. You were the one who wanted to see him.”