Chapter 26

Azran

Twenty-seven.

I’ve spent twenty-seven days rotting away in this cell since my re-capture.

With only spoiled chunks of bread the guards throw through the bars of my cage to keep count, the last of my sanity holds by a thread, but I am no longer alone.

I roll over with a grunt, crushing my broken ribs under my own weight in the process.

Pain explodes in my chest as I swallow a scream and stare at the ceiling of my cell until the yellow dots disappear from the corner of my eyes.

I never thought seeing stars would bring me such comfort. It’s the only familiar and least alarming thing here. And the dots do add a decorative touch to the bland walls. Being trapped in this hellhole gets boring pretty quickly. Cal would hate it. A grin tugs my split lips as I picture him in the opposite corner of my cell, but the flickers of light return and my brother’s face vanishes from the grime-covered stone.

It is when shadows viciously eclipse my vision that dread latches itself around my pounding heart, for it is a good indicator of when I’m about to lose consciousness—one of the first lessons my genitor taught me, when I was barely four.

I’ve got to hand it to him, his teachings have proven useful in the past months. Were it not for him, my wasted body would be naught but bone and memory beneath the cold earth by now.

Gratitude for the years of torture inflicted in my youth floods my scarred mind, revealing how deep Airdan’s claws have sunk into my broken spirit. Maybe Nylren had it worse than me, after all.

A hoarse laugh escapes my dry throat, lighting it on fire and transforming into a cough.

I spit out the blood before I choke on it and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.

Ragged breathing in the cell next to mine draws my attention and I turn my head in its direction.

With no light in the dungeons, not even the glimmer of a torch, I can’t make out if the stranger is human or Fae through the metal bars.

Pain is still ringing in my head and coursing my body, so I wait a while longer before attempting to move. I’ve got nothing but time in here. Another chuckle tears through me, rapidly turning into a bark.

Most days, my resolve dangles from the same thread as my sanity. Others, madness comes along for a ride. Today I’m not certain which will win.

I finally find the strength to prop myself up on my elbow and sit up. I drag myself over to the bars of my cell, one of my legs limp behind me, my knee bent at a weird angle.

I forgot about Airdan’s twisted sense of humor. My cellmate shall wait a little longer.

I stare at my leg, assessing the damage and probing with my fingers. I need to twist the knee cap back in place. Better that, than for it to heal this way.

I let out a shaky breath and brace myself for the pain. This is merely another round of caring for my destroyed body, and another lesson I owe to my father. The mean bastard certainly taught me a lot.

I stifle the laugh forming in my throat, for the agonized cackles promise only sharper pangs, and I have no interest in putting myself through another grueling round of pointless suffering.

I clench my jaw as I grab hold of my thigh and shin with both hands. Without thinking, I snap the bones back in place with a savage roar.

Fire travels my leg and vertebrae and I breathe through each wave until the pain settles to a more bearable level.

When I’m recovered enough, I focus on the shape on the other side of the bars. I can’t make out their face, but my stomach drops at the sight of the small female body splayed across the stone.

A pointy ear sticks out of the mass of brown hair on their head, and my blood freezes.

“Can you hear me?” My voice trembles as I call out to her.

Her breath remains irregular and ragged, but she’s too far for me to assess the damage to her body.

Tears trail down my dirt-smudged cheeks, flowing free as I fall perfectly still. Recognition ignites every cell in my body as the truth shatters all flimsy barricades erected around this sealed-off corner of my soul. The bond stopped flaring the moment I set eyes on her.

“Ela.” The whisper barely leaves my lips before my voice breaks.

My mate lies crushed before me—her shattered body haunting evidence of the torment inflicted on her by my fault.

Reaching through the metal bars of my cell, I extend both arms with enough force to rip my shoulders from their moorings—anything to close the few impossible inches separating us.

My blood turns to acid as my fingers grasp at air and she remains but a breath away from me.

I roar hoarse pleas into the echoing dungeon and call her name again and again, in vain.

What have they done to her?

I’d convinced myself she made it out, but the iron force of her will met its match in Airdan. And she paid the ultimate price for gambling her freedom against my condemned soul.

The knowledge of my culpability shreds the last of my sanity, for her presence here is my doing.

I draw blood scratching my nails on the stone of Ela’s cell, helplessly looking for a way to save her.

“Ela.”

My scream drowns under the sound of footsteps. Boots hit the ground, but my gaze remains on her body.

“Ela.”

The door to my cell opens and guards pull me off the ground. With a snarl, I push them away, rage gnawing at my soul. I won’t be separated from her, not again.

“Let’s go,” one of them barks.

A pair of soldiers grab me. I topple over the edge when I can’t hear her breathing over their shouts. Unleashing my power, I thrash in their arms uselessly, and what’s left of my strength leaves me in seconds.

They’re all protected against me, and I’m no more than a Fae whose body has been broken too many times.

“Ela.”

My screams fills the dark halls of the dungeons as I spit curses and threats. They may mutilate me beyond salvation, but breath by breath I will crawl over bloodied stone and scale hellfire ramparts to reclaim her soul.

I only stop when no sound comes out anymore, my throat so dried I can barely suck in breath.

“I see you found my gift.”

Airdan’s cold voice fills the air as guards strap me to the metal chair in our usual torture room. The same instruments line the walls, most covered in dark crimson.

I attempt a snarl, unable to repress my fury, but only choke on it.

Airdan snaps his fingers and a guard walks in with a pitcher of water they throw in my face.

“Get a grip, Azran. I need you lucid today.” He snaps his fingers again, and a funnel is stuck down my throat. “Let’s talk, shall we?”

I gargle and choke on water poured too rapidly down my throat until the funnel is removed.

“So, how do you find her?”

I’m still catching my breath when my head snaps to the side from the force of Airdan’s slap. Strands of my hair dangle weakly in front of my face as I see stars.

“You realize this is all on you? Had you not tried to take me on, Elanor would be safe and sound, enjoying Nyths, and… other things.”

He shoots me a wink, and this time a growl tears from my lips.

“Keep her fucking name out of your mouth,” I breathe through my ravaged throat.

“We both know she would be better off with me.” Airdan leans against a wall, his arms crossed over his chest. “I think she started realizing that, too.”

“You could never be worthy of her.” I eye him up and down, baring my teeth. “Were your crimes avenged and your body dragged across all Zetrea until your bones turn to ashes, you would never be enough.”

“Her cheeks used to redden at my words before your ridiculous attempt at contacting her.” Airdan’s fingers go to his mouth to rub his lips slowly. “But now, we’re back on track. If only you knew the things I tease her with in her dreams. I just love the feigned innocence in her eyes.”

“I will kill you and destroy everything you’ve built. Then, I will let humans tear your body to pieces and bathe in your blood.”

Airdan’s laugh fills the air. “As if you could. Who is not enough, now, Azran?”

I suck in a breath, trying to push back the memory of Ela’s body in a cell.

“Why?” A smile blooms on Airdan’s face as my question echoes in the cold room. “Haven’t you taken enough?”

“Oh, this little rendezvous? It’s merely for my amusement. You know ruling can get tedious at times. You, I keep for when I need something to take the edge off.”

My power holds no secret to him anymore. I couldn’t fight it very long; the bloodlust has always been too strong. I’ve been its servant ever since it claimed me.

“Let us get started, shall we?”

Airdan selects a pair of scissors, and my brows furrow. That’s an unusual pick, even for him.

“We’re going to play a game. I’ll tell you what I plan on doing to our dear Ela and you tell me if you think she’ll like it.”

I stretch my neck, trying to ease the tension forming between my shoulder blades.

“And what happens if I don’t want to play?”

He snaps the scissors in the air twice.

“First, I will let her do whatever she wants to me. Cut, slice, and hurt me as much as it pleases her until she learns to trust me.” Airdan grabs a handful of my hair and lifts my head. “I like a little pain, and I know she does, too. She will be on her knees begging me to take her before long. What do you think?”

He lets go to stare me down, revealing nothing but evil in his emerald eyes.

“Hm, nothing?”

I hear the snap of the scissors before I realize what he’s doing.

A long strand of my hair falls to the ground, joining the dirt and dried blood. I pinch my eyes shut as a piece of my soul goes with it. It’s just hair. It will grow again, no matter what it means to me.

“What about that lovely mouth of hers? I bet she knows how to make good use of it, doesn’t she?”

Memories flash in my mind, now tainted by his snake tongue.

Scissors snap again. And again.

Alarm seizes my pounding heart as the wounds of the battered boy I once was tear open anew. I was robbed of my free will before, but my spirit endured. I will cling by bloodied fingernails to this nightmare’s edge until I stand atop the smoking pyre of Airdan’s legacy—his glassy, lifeless eyes reflecting the ravaged ruin in my wake.

“Or should I take her ass?”

A bestial rumble tears from my chest, the sound of primal fury straining against its mortal cage of bone and flesh.

“Oh. I’ve hit a nerve, it seems.” Airdan’s retched laugh sounds behind me. “Yes, I’ll claim that round ass of hers next.”

With each second passing, weight lifts from my head, like a year taken off my life. And sure enough, I feel like I’m back in Morilanthe.

Each of Airdan’s taunts eat at me, waking my rage, destroying every bit of me left.

Cold runs down my cheek in a single tear, the only one I’ll allow to mourn my strength, my fight, my path, and my hair.

This stops here.

Ela needs me. Insanity is no longer an option, and neither is giving up. As long as my lungs hold a breath, I will hold on for her.

I’m thrown back in my cage hours later, feeling like a stranger in my own body and mind, robbed of my identity and courage.

“Az.”

Everything else disappears the moment Ela’s voice rings through the cold air.

I crawl to her, scraping my knees and palm on the rough stone until my arms can reach through the bars of my cell.

She’s still lying on the ground, same as I left her.

“Ela.” I extend my fingers towards her, but she barely lifts her head and her eyes remain hidden under her hair. “I’m here.”

Fire shoots through my shoulders as I attempt to touch her, comfort her.

“I’m so tired, Az.”

Her once vibrant voice emerges mangled, unrecognizable, each labored rasp carving fresh wounds across my heart. Were it not for the bond flaring inside me, I wouldn’t believe my own eyes. Her shaky legs are an inch from the tip of my fingers, my absolution so close, yet so far as her broken body clings stubbornly to life.

“I know, little one.”

My voice breaks as my heart shatters for her. I’m lying there, powerless, while her fire goes out. I would not wish this torment on my worst enemy.

The distant, dank chill enveloping our cells seeps deeper into my soul with that realization as her parched lips move gently, shaping words too garbled for me to decipher.

I failed. I couldn’t save her or protect her, and now we’ll endure this hell until Airdan gets what he wants or tires of us. It might as well be until the end of time.