Chapter 14
Raey
Consciousness came back to me slowly. First, sound. A quiet but persistent drip, a few feet away from my feet. My feet, where they rested on the floor, attached to my legs, tied to-
Oh.
I was yet again tied to a chair, bound with those odd chains, in yet another prison cell. This was getting very old very fast. The air was surprisingly dry, and the dripping sounds was coming from a sink it the corner. An actual sink.
And I was actually sitting up, not just thrown on the floor.
I liked these captors much better.
I slowly cracked my eyes open, expecting darkness, and was surprised at the dim light that flickered through.
The room was small, but bigger than my last cell, maybe two metres by one and a half. Tile floor leading to a drain on the back corner, table covered with a cloth, chains restraining my arms and legs, torches along the walls, illuminating the jagged shapes under the white cloth- oh.
It was a torture chamber. Whoopee. My favourite. I love torture.
Thankfully, my glamour was still intact, my body approximately 5 foot 4, short blonde hair and brown eyes. Mangled scars across my back, that stayed with me no matter what form I took. Also, it's very skinny, which is highly irritating.
The odd chains were still making me powerless, dragging my power away from my body, but containing it, not unleashing it on the world. Instead of the fear that took over me last time, all I felt now was blissful powerlessness.
As I was checking the rest of my body for injury, my attention was drawn by a pointed cough.
Cassian leaned against the door, arms folded, wings looming behind him, glaring down at me. I think it was meant to be intimidating, but the effect was just slightly lost on the person who had been there that time that Cass fell out of a tree because he was too heavy for the branch. There was much flailing and cursing involved. I've never seen someone so big and strong look so terrified as Cass's face when that branch snapped. He'll never live it down.
"Well hi there. Glad to see you're finally awake," Cass's voice echoed throughout the tiled room, deep and menacing.
I couldn't help it. I grinned. It was just so good to see him again, and it was so Cass to try to intimidate the prisoner by saying niceties.
"Nice to see you too. What happened?" it was an honest question. I couldn't remember most of what had occurred, too caught up in the rush of sensations and thoughts. I only hoped I didn't hurt anyone.
Cassian scoffed, "That's real cute, little miss. What happened is you attacked the secret city that you should not know exists, almost destroyed the wards that should be impossible to destroy, almost killed Amren by throwing her 20 meters-"
I flinched imperceptibly.
-"Terrifies everyone in the city, destroyed two buildings and injured eleven faeries, four grievously so."
I shrank down in my chair as much as I could. I hadn't wanted to hurt anybody. Whatever was in that syringe had made me almost completely lose control, and it was terrifying.
I didn't know how Astor and the stranger had access to something like that 'serum', but whatever it contained was highly dangerous. I lost control of barely a fraction of my power, I realised now, and I almost shattered Rhys' wards and destroyed two buildings easily. If all of my power had been released, I'm not entirely sure there would still be a Prythian. I could only imagine how much damage I would do if they 'improved' the serum. How many people they could injure.
"Did I hurt anyone?" My voice trembled on the end, and I could only beg to a Mother that wasn't listening that I hadn't.
Please, if anyone's listening, please have kept them safe. Please protect them, even if you don't care to protect me. Protect them from me.
I could already feel the weight of yet more lives on my shoulders.
"No. Fortunately for you."
My head jerked up. Surely I had misheard. I was never that lucky.
"The wards held up, and everyone was able to evacuate the buildings that were destroyed before they came down."
I breathed out in relief, slumping into my chains further.
Cassian grinned at me, but it was not the caring and joyful smile I had come to love. It was a horrible grin, sharp and dangerous.
This was not Cass. It was Cassian, leader of the High Lord's armies. And behind me, where he had stood since I woke up, was Azriel, the Spymaster. Rhysand's chief torturers.
I had no illusions towards what they were going to do to me here. They needed to know how I knew about the city, and they needed to know how I was powerful enough to almost destroy the wards (with a very small amount of my power, but they didn't know that), and they needed to know if I was working for anybody, and they would do anything to get that information, to protect their people.
I didn't know how they'd gotten their hands on faebane, but it was doing its job. I couldn't winnow out of these chains, and I couldn't use my power to heal myself of whatever they had done to me. But then again, I was no stranger to pain. I would be fine.
"Even though you didn't kill anyone, you hurt our people. You attacked our home. That will not go unpunished." From behind me, Az's voice promised pain.
"Are you going to torture me? That's not a very polite way to treat a guest." I chuckled, vaguely expecting them to grin.
But this wasn't Cass and Az, and I wasn't Raey. Not anymore. This was Cassian, Azriel and their prisoner Millie, who had just attacked and almost destroyed their home. They weren't going to be my friends. My brothers.
Oh well.
A fist came flying towards my face, and my jaw crunched wetly as my head snapped to the side. Cass loomed over me, holding a blade to my throat.
"Who are you working for?"
I spat blood on the floor next to his shoe, about to reply (with an incredibly witty retort) when-
The knife cut into my cheek, blade ripping through skin and flesh, along my cheekbone. I blinked in surprise. Cass, fighting dirty. Never thought I'd see the day.
The blade cut my face three more times within a few seconds, two lines down each of my cheeks, not deep enough to cut through, but still enough to leave blood dripping down my face. Even though my magic was gone, I could feel the swift-healing Illyrian blood beginning to patch up the wounds, the edge itching as flesh knitted back together.
"Who are you working for?"
This was going to be a long night.
After sixteen hours, they had broken every bone in my body, removed the skin from all of my limbs, after slicing the flesh like they were preparing a fish, pulled out all of my fingernails, twisted my neck to the point just before snapping, pulled out the hairs from my head, and stabbed one of my eyeballs, and they had gotten no information. They only left because they would have to wait for me to heal before they started again.
I drifted away into my head, stretching my mind outside of the cell, feeling the trees and the animals and rock above me. Interesting. I was underground, under-
I was under the House of Wind.
First time I had been home in centuries, and I end up in a prison cell. Typical. I could feel the figures moving through the rooms above me but didn't have enough power left to see into their minds.
Mor and Rhys were walking to the dining room where Cass and Az waited, freshly cleaned from their blood. Az was flipping Truth-Teller in his hand, possibly considering how much it didn't work on me. The only thing I had told them was,
'I want to make a deal with Rhys.'
Of course, they had ignored me. Rule number one of torture- don't give away anything except the information you want.
The only thing they had said to me was to ask who I was working for. If only I was working for someone less scary than them. As it was, the sorcerers were actually pretty weak, but I had been unconscious when they found me, and the sorceress had managed to snag some of my blood.
She needed to only say the word, and I was dead, bound by the blood magic that she used for everything that required decent amounts of power that she didn't have, dark magic that was slowly and surely corrupting her soul. Not that she cared about that.
As Rhys and Mor sat down at the table, two nymphs walked into the room, bearing platters of food. Huh. They were new.
Probably more of the creatures that Rhys rescued and gave homes.
He was too kind for his own good, but it was reassuring to see that even the darkness and pain of the years hadn't been enough to numb that spark of kindness, of caring within him.
He always was a dreamer, and it was nice to see that he was still staring at the stars.
Probably why he always complained about being tired.
I was too far away to hear what they were saying, but I could sense the frustration coming off Cass. I could still rile him up, it seemed, although he hid it well. They were most likely discussing what to do with me, whether to keep torturing me, kill me (not that they could) or hear me out.
I pulled my head back upright, snapping back into my body as a whisper filled my ear.
-should hear her out. she's powerful, might be able to help us. -
-help us what? she can't be more powerful than you, Rhys, so what would we ever need her help for? Besides, we don't want to kill the lords, just subdue them. -
-if we combined power and put on a display, it might be enough to convince the lords to stand down. We could pretend that the power was all mine, and I've been hiding my true strength all along-
-but how can we ensure that she'll stay on our side? She hasn't dropped her glamour this whole time, despite the faebane. She's tricky, she can't be trusted-
-well we could hear out her deal proposition. We have all the cards, Cass. We don't lose anything by hearing her out-
They had extinguished the torches as they left, likely to intimidate me and make me afraid, or at least uncomfortable. Instead, they just gave me an advantage.
With the total darkness of the room, the shadows were powerful here, and could apparently hear all the way to the dining room. As they whispered the conversation in my ear, I could tell how it was going to go.
Cass and Mor insisted that I be tortured more, or killed or whatever, while Rhys and Az wanted to hear me out. Amren remained silent on the topic, listening to all the arguments.
Mor was going to be swayed first, her compassionate side winning out over her logical one. She would stop arguing, and they would slowly agree to hear out my deal.
Apparently, the war was going worse than I thought. They were desperate for help, and they were right, my power was unmatched. I wondered, as part of my deal, if I could-
No. Surely there was no way. But if anyone could find a way to free me from the sorcerer, it would be them, and then maybe, just maybe, I could go home.
Be free from their command, from their torment.
I wondered what it would be like, to live with them all again. To banter with Cass, talk to Az about politics and science. Lunch dates with Mor, chatting about cute guys, and cute girls over peppermint tea, fighting lessons with Cass where I kicked his ass every time. Discussing books and lore with Amren in the familiar comfort of her apartment. What it would be like to eat dinner together.
To be a family.
And then, after dinner and everyone had gone to bed, when the sky was silent and bight with stars and hope-
to fly with Rhys.
Just like that, my stupid fantasy shattered.
I would never fly again, not after what happened to my wings. And I could never go home.
But maybe, just maybe-
I could be free.
A timid knock on the door announced someone's presence. I blinked back into my body in surprise. Who would even know I was down here?
"Come in?" I called, my voice rough from screaming.
"H-hello." A small figure slipped through the doorway, one skinny arm wrapped around her tiny figure.
Her long dusky hair flowed over her shoulders, where she carried a small basket full of medical supplies. She flitted around the room lighting the torches imbedded in the stone, filling the room with warm, golden light.
Huh. They had sent a healer.
Of course, they had no way of knowing about my accelerated healing and must have wanted to start again as soon as possible. Still, it was nice to see someone new. Someone who wasn't tainted with memories and dreams that could never be.
"I'm Alice. I've been sent here to help heal you after"- she swallowed harshly- "After their interrogation."
"It's nice to meet you, Alice. I'm Mills." I softened my voice, not wanting to scare her. She was barely more than a child. I gave her a nickname of my fake name to make her feel more comfortable, to make me seem more human. Or- more humane at least.
Alice crept forward, seemingly wary of the prisoner, even though I was thoroughly bound. I couldn't blame her. I probably looked like hell on a cracker. Her hands were careful as she pulled creams and bandages out of her basket, trembling slightly.
Her cool fingers were steady, though, as she bandaged my limbs and rubbed ointments onto my eye and my other lacerations. She gently covered my irritated head with a healing gel, and carefully and systematically stitched up the deeper wounds.
After maybe half an hour, she was done, and she packed up her supplies.
"Thank you, Alice. It was nice to meet you. Can you tell Rhys-"
The girl flinched away, probably expecting a death threat to carry. I swallowed.
"Tell him thanks. I appreciate it, and I hope we can talk soon."
Alice smiled slightly and turned away, slipping through the door.
"Good night." Echoed quietly throughout the room, coming from the outside hallway.
"Good night." I gently replied. "Say hello to the stars for me."
Quiet footsteps were my only reply.
Although we had barely exchanged ten words, I found myself hoping to see her again.
Well. Fancy that.