Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Beyond, the area opened into a narrow hall two stories high. Cells existed on each side, and darkness waited through the rusted bars. At the top were more cells, and one had long, spindly fingers curving around the bars.
“Lovely,” Daisy murmured. Her stomach fluttered. She’d never been kept in a genuine dungeon before. Zorn had tossed her into a jail cell or two and left her there for a couple days to sleep on the floor and use a bucket for waste, but that hadn’t held a candle to this. It hadn’t had the smell, the splatter of dried and cracking blood, the pockets of midnight with strange species wasting away inside. It hadn’t had an utter lack of safety like this. Zorn had trained her, but he’d never hurt her. The new Tarian and the dungeon masters of this place presented a different situation.
She let out a very slow breath as fear threatened to overwhelm her.
There is no point wasting one’s last moments to fear, she said to herself.
But these weren’t her last moments. Not by far. She’d need to endure this. If things went bad, death wouldn’t quickly embrace her; first would be pain. Incredible, horrible pain.
She pulled in a deep breath and let it out again. Her goal was not to break. No matter what happened, she couldn’t break. Survival meant keeping an intact mind. Pain was merely a device to alert a person that they were still alive. If it came to it, she’d have to remember that pain was living. Living was protecting her family. She could do this.
A stooped figure with wispy white hair falling down to its mid-chest waited along the wall. Wrinkles sagged along the arms and overlapped at the neck. Its face was lost to shadow, even though the rest of its body was visible in the dim lighting. That shadow had to be magically created.
“Prisoner,” Kayla told the creature in a rough voice.
The creature shook, as though it were being electrocuted, before raising a bone-thin arm and pointing down the tunnel into the blackness beyond.
“No!” Revana barked. “This is a human. They require a window or they will wither. His Highness Tarianthiel Drystan Windryker’s orders. He needs it alive for the court games.”
The creature started to shake again. Its voice came out like a wave of insects skittering over a dusty stone floor. “But if it lives, it will kill us all.”
“Even if that weren’t preposterous,” Kayla replied fiercely, “if you don’t do what His Highness asks, you’ll be dead long before a human can bring down an entire court.”
The creature stalled for a long moment, and then the shaking elicited a new finger point, this one aiming higher. Somewhere above, a loud click preceded the whine of hinges.
The females didn’t react. They turned Daisy, still carrying her, and headed for a set of narrow, curving steps.
That has to be the chalice magic, Revana said, her mental voice uneasy. That creature has been lost to the blight for some time. It senses Daisy’s danger. The chalice’s danger.
Kayla’s fingers tightened on Daisy’s arms with unease. We need to let Tarian know. He hasn’t prepared for that.
Do fae not know much about humans, then? Daisy asked, collecting each scrap of information she could.
Most fae know almost nothing, Revana said, looking to the right as they reached the top of the stairwell. They took her left, though, to an opened cell door down the way. They’ll think you are weak and useless and, because of that, that you can die easily. We’ll use that for as long as we can. Once you start killing fae in the games, we’ll need to pivot.
If she started killing fae in the games. There was that small issue of magic. They had some. She did not. And while in the human world she could get around some of it, she had no idea about fae magic. She didn’t know any of the nuances or how to combat it. She was flying blind when up against life and death. It was far from the best-case scenario.
They walked her into the dank cell. A barred window at the top of the high ceiling let in a sliver of bluish moonlight. A flat stone slab lay at an angle with manacles attached to chains. The females walked her to it before turning her and pushing her against it. They fastened the manacles and pushed the stone so she was essentially lying down.
Toilets? she asked with very little hope.
Kayla shook her head, lips pinched. She didn’t elaborate.
Food? Daisy tried. Water?
One of us will deliver it when it is safe, Revana replied. Remember, do not eat what they give you. They won’t push. You’ll be hungry and thirsty until we can get you out of here. We just need to get some things ready. We can’t release you to the main floor until we can hide your thoughts.