27. Clover

Chapter 27

Clover

M y head hurts. It feels like it never stops pounding. The little nugget of power inside me thrums away constantly, like an electrical current, and I reach for it over and over, seizing the magic and then letting go of it. I'm getting stronger. Every day they push me to the edge of what I can do, and every day I find I can do a little more.

A scream reverberates through the walls. I glance up at the ceiling of my cell, hugging my knees closer to my chest. They are breeding them more and more, the cries of the females a constant soundtrack lately.

I hate it, even as I thank my lucky stars that I am not one of them. I feel guilty for even thinking that, for wishing bad things on other people, other females, other males too, but I don't want anyone to force pregnancy on me.

"Clover," a voice hisses through the vent in my wall.

I clamber off the bed, kneeling on the tile in front of it. Cooler air passes between the grate in front of it, and I get a whiff of her scent. I can smell her.

"What's wrong?"

We try not to talk this way, knowing we're always being watched and that at any point someone could walk in or see us through the glass in the door, so the fact that she's risking it tells me everything I need to know.

"Something's happening. All the guards are running around like headless chickens," Eden says, her voice sounding disembodied as it travels between the two walls.

I push up to my feet, moving over to the door and peering through the glass window. I have to stand on my tiptoes to reach it, and it only gives me a narrow view of the corridor beyond, but she's right. There is a flurry of movement, guards running about, their mouths moving as if they are shouting.

I hurry back over to the vent, dropping down in front of it. "If they come into your cell, you fight them with everything you have," I order her.

"I know what to do," she assures me. "I'm more worried about you. They've been hitting you hard lately with the training."

Training is a fancy word for torture. They spend every minute of the day forcing my magic out of me, pushing me beyond the boundaries of what I'm able to do. But they don't care about us. We're disposable, or so they tell us.

"I'll be fine," I assure her, resting my forehead against the cold wall. "Eden?"

It's not her real name. None of us remember who we were before we came here, though there are small grains of memory that stick in my thoughts sometimes. A dark-haired woman… Fear. I remember that emotion well. But every time I try to remember more, it sends shards of agony through my skull. Maybe one day my past will be revealed to me, and I will remember who I am and where I belong, but for now, my only aspiration is to survive this hell.

And take my friends with me.

"Yeah?"

"No matter what happens, if you have the chance to run, you go, okay?"

She makes a scoffing sound. "I'm not leaving you behind. You wouldn't leave the rest of us."

I wouldn't, but that's not the point.

"Shit…" she hisses. "They're opening my door. I have to go."

No, no, no.

I heave myself off the cold tiles, rushing to the door and again rolling to my tiptoes to look through the glass. Two guards are moving down the hallway, dragging a huge male between them. He is so big there is no doubt he is vargr, and they must have subdued him pretty hard, considering his head is dangling onto his chest.

My stomach twists into a knot as they move past Eden's room, leading him in the direction of the breeding suites. My heart pounds beneath my ribs as two other guards seem to be having a heated debate with another standing in front of Eden's cell.

I can't hear her shrieks through the door, but they filter through the vent as they enter her space. I hammer my fists against the door, yelling her name over and over, demanding they let me out, even though I know they won't be able to hear me on the other side.

So I rush to the vent and scream into that, but her voice is silenced, and that pushes me back to the window. I need to see what is happening. As I peer through it, I have just enough room to see them leading her in the same direction as the big male they just brought in.

They could be taking her to training… That's what I want to believe, but I don't. In my heart, I know she is about to be sacrificed to him, and her belly will swell with his young. Another soldier added to the list.

I beat my fists against the door until I run out of energy, and then I sag against it, sobbing. I hate this place. I want to burn it to the ground. I want my vengeance on every single person who has so much as harmed anyone in these walls, and I will have it. I grit my teeth, grinding my molars together as I make this pledge.

They are all going to die.

A ripple of power spreads through my body, like a tidal wave. My back arches, my neck hyperextending as I convulse on my feet. Pain spreads through every cell in my body, nausea churning my gut. My legs give out, and I slam into the tile beneath me, my knees aching fiercely as I gulp in air like a fish on land.

The pain in my head is like a wrecking ball, slamming back and forth until I see stars. I clutch my head, bringing it down to my knees as I scream through the agony. It feels as if someone is trying to crawl into my mind, and they are not being careful about it either.

I try to push them back with my magic, drawing on that little nugget of power inside my chest, but I'm not strong enough, and so the awareness slides between the folds of my mind, settling into the background.

There you are, a voice says. I've been looking for you.

And then the pain drags me under.