Chapter Forty-Three Samuel

Chapter Forty-Three

Samuel

S amuel woke slowly to the sound of a bitter argument, the voices rising and falling as they went back and forth. He attempted to lift his hand to his eyes, to rub the sleep from them, only to feel it snap against a slab of cold metal, pinned by leather restraints.

Isaac.

He tried to sit up, to scream for help, but he was bound and gagged, strapped to a metal table like an offering to a dark god. Panic seized him, and he thrashed against the bindings, tugging at the leather. But they were too tight, and he collapsed back against the table, gasping into the gag.

"You're awake," Isaac said, moving into his line of sight. Beyond him, Samuel could make out that he was in some kind of laboratory, implements of Blood Working scattered around them. But unlike Shan's laboratory, or the Eternal King's, this room was dark. Cramped. Dank.

"I'm sorry," Isaac continued. "We couldn't let you…" he gestured vaguely towards the gag, and Samuel narrowed his eyes at him. Of course. They couldn't risk him using his power, marching them straight to the King and forcing them to confess—exactly like they had planned to.

Though—we?

He pushed himself up as much as he could and was just able to spot a familiar figure hanging back against the wall. Cold, ice eyes. A shorn head. The dark robes of the Guard.

"Ah." Isaac glanced over his shoulder. "Yes. I didn't do this all by myself. You know Alessi, don't you?"

She stepped forward, her face expressionless as she studied him like he was some kind of specimen. Samuel lurched away. It made too much sense—they had seen a Guard helping him flee the central square, and Alessi had been the one finding all the bodies, leading the investigation. She was perfectly positioned to deflect attention away from the real culprits.

It was brilliant.

"Listen," Isaac said, drawing Samuel's attention back to himself. "It doesn't have to be this way. You can still join us."

"You're wasting your time," Alessi said. "You're not going to convince him."

Samuel wanted to strangle her.

"We're not killing him," Isaac said, running a thumb along the back of Samuel's hand, as if to comfort him.

Samuel flinched away as best he could, and Isaac stepped back.

"Stop being weak, de la Cruz," Alessi hissed. She lifted a wicked looking dagger, long with jagged edges, and placed it over Samuel's throat. "I can do it if you're too squeamish. I'll even make it quick."

"No!" Isaac grabbed her wrist, pulling her away from Samuel and shielding him with his body. "You will not do that."

"He's not going to join us!" Alessi wrenched away, jamming her blade back into its sheath. "And you cannot let him go—you've jeopardized everything for this Aberforth." She spat his name like it was a curse.

"Let me take care of it," Isaac said, his voice soft and heavy with a dark promise that Samuel didn't want to see fulfilled. Even if his other option was facing Alessi. "When he sees what we can offer he'll reconsider."

Alessi studied him for a long moment. "You really think it will work?"

"I know it will," Isaac said. "Let me prove it."

"You'd better be right." She stalked away, leaning against the wall to watch. "Do it."

Isaac turned around, closing the distance between them. Samuel raised his head, trying to say his name, to reach him somehow, but it was only a slurred mess of sounds that carried no power or significance. Frowning, Isaac dragged the claw-tip on his thumb against Samuel's throat, the skin splitting and hot blood leaking out.

Dipping his head, Isaac sank his teeth against the soft skin of Samuel's throat, and he sucked hard enough to bruise. Samuel tilted his head back, his eyes fluttering closed, as both fear and pleasure coursed through him.

He would always be weak for Isaac, and it would be his greatest downfall.

Isaac pressed his lips to Samuel's cheek—a promise, and then whispered, "I swore to help you, and I will. But this will hurt."

A little blood glinted at the corner of his mouth, and his tongue peeked out, lapping it up. Then it began.

Fire.

It was fire.

Samuel's whole body arched against the table as the heat raged through him. Somehow, Isaac was burning him alive, and he couldn't even scream—couldn't even breathe. Sweat broke out across his skin as his blood literally boiled in his veins, burning and healing and burning and healing.

Isaac took his hand, his fingers unnaturally cool against him, and he broke the skin at Samuel's wrist. Lowering his head, he sucked the hot blood into his mouth, taking and taking and taking. Samuel watched, helpless, tears leaking from his eyes. He could feel his energy, his very life, slipping away with each pull of Isaac's mouth, only to feed back into him in the form of fire.

He could see the effects of it in his hands, the way his very veins were darkening as the blood continued to burn, standing out in stark contrast to his pale skin. He could feel it working in him, as something deep within, as delicate and ephemeral as lace, was destroyed—burned away until nothing but ashes was left. The tattered remains of the power he had carried within him for so long.

Somehow, some way, he felt the brush of Shan's mind against his—a faint and tenuous bridge. Her fear and panic seeped into him, but all he could hear was the roar of blood in his ears.

He wanted it to stop. He wanted to pass out. He wanted to die.

But Isaac's grip kept him painfully, awfully conscious, until at last Isaac stepped away, snapping the bridge of power between them like it was nothing at all.

And Samuel collapsed back on the table as the last rush of Blood Healing flowed through him, leaving him whole but spent, broken by the sudden lack of pain, but consumed by the sudden aching emptiness of loss.

No one moved—neither Isaac nor Alessi did a thing. They just stood in silence. Watching. Waiting.

"Ungag him," Alessi commanded.

Isaac swallowed hard, then did as he was told.

The mask fell from his face, and Samuel gulped down deep breaths of air. Isaac vanished, reappearing seconds later with a glass of water—it was warm, but it was clear and clean, and it felt blissful against his parched mouth.

"It's okay, Samuel," Isaac whispered as he carefully tipped more water past his lips. "Do it."

He knew what Isaac was asking for, and he reached for that power deep within him, digging through the ashes and dust. "Let me go," he commanded.

But, as he feared, it was gone. All that remained was an empty cavern in his chest where he should have found the power he had spent his entire life trying to master and control. That lived within him, creeping out and tainting his words, desperate to be used. The thing that had shaped his entire life. It simply wasn't there.

He was empty.

"No," he snarled. Not now. Not like this. Not when he actually needed it. Everything he was—everything he had, everything he fought for—was gone. "I said, let me go ."

Alessi crowed. "You actually did it! It's gone!" She clapped a hand to Isaac's shoulder. "If you can destroy the Aberforth Gift now, can you imagine what you could do with a few more blood bags? What other secrets of Blood Working we can unlock?"

Isaac turned away, wiping at the blood on his lips, but Samuel spat, "What is she talking about?"

It didn't have the power of a command. He wasn't forced to speak. But Isaac closed his eyes and let the truth fall anyway. "The murders weren't just about the trafficking. I mean, they were, but we couldn't let such an opportunity go to waste. There are things you still don't know about the Eternal King, Samuel. He's too powerful to be taken down by conventional methods. We needed more power to match his centuries of knowledge, all the power he has consumed year after year. So, yes, we killed to stop the trafficking, to make a point to the King. But we also used those deaths to ensure that we can actually take him down."

Samuel couldn't bear looking at Isaac—not after that. "So you are a monster after all."

"But I kept my promise!" Isaac whirled back on Samuel, grasping his hand. "I took this curse from you—the King would never have let you do it. He would have turned you into a weapon, forced you to do unspeakable things. But now it is gone! The Aberforth Gift is ended!"

Still staring straight up, Samuel whispered, "So instead you do unspeakable things yourself, feeding on the blood of others like they are nothing more than a tool, and then wonder why I am not pleased to hear it?"

"They were murderers," Isaac snapped, a raw desperation in his eyes that Samuel could hardly bear to see. "Murderers and slavers! Do you know how many Unblooded they sent to their deaths for just a bit of money? If it gave me the power to help you, isn't that worth the price?"

"That doesn't matter." Samuel pulled at his restraints, a snarl on his lips. "That does not justify it! This kind of Blood Working is still an atrocity!"

Alessi laughed, the sound harsh and cutting to his ears. "I told you he wouldn't change his mind." Her dagger was in her hand, and that cruel smile was back on her face. "I guess we'll have to kill him after all."

Isaac whirled on her, but before he could say anything, the walls shook. A boom echoed through the room as the wards started to flicker violently against the door, sparks flying off it in a blinding, brilliant spray.