“Warwick, no!” I cried through our link. Boyd was purposely poking the beast. And it worked.
Warwick pitched up, his head slamming so hard into Boyd’s, the guard went sailing back, smacking the tile floor with a thud, as The Wolf spat and growled, climbing to his feet. Warwick parted his bloody lips, his saliva tainted red, sneering and moving for Boyd.
“Warwick, stop!” My shade touched his chest, trying to get his attention. He peered down at me, heaving in and out.
“Take him to the hole,” Boyd screeched, wobbly on his feet, touching the blood dripping from his head. “You will rot in there, Farkas.”
Without fighting, Warwick let the guards cuff him and start herding him for the door. It was what he wanted in the first place. For him to take the blame, not me.
“Warwick!” I cried out, though my mouth didn’t move.
He didn’t respond. His gaze latched onto mine, the feel of his mouth claiming mine hungrily, his fingers digging into my skin before his body was dragged from the room, shutting down the link between us.
Again, I knew if I pushed, I could break in, but before I could even contemplate it, Boyd was in my face. I tightened my shoulders, my jaw crunching together. The fresh wound on his forehead still leaked out blood as he patted it with a handkerchief.
“You have been nothing but a pain in my ass since the day you entered Halálház.” His disgust curled his lip up. “Farkas never caused a problem until you arrived. Even my lord changed when he took you in. You corrupt men’s minds, distort their beliefs, warp them. And now look, they are all either in prison or dead.”
“How easily you flipped on your lord for a pocket full of coins.” I sneered back. “Talk about warped beliefs. You are now working for a human.”
He stepped closer, his lip hitching higher, voice dropping so only I could hear. “Let them do all the work, set the stage for us, then we come in to take it all.”
“Why not just take it back now?”
“Because what they are going for, we want as well. A complete takeover. Humans think themselves so much smarter.” Boyd’s attention flashed to the four soldiers being helped up by other human guards. He watched with a smirk on his face, clearly not bothered about them being attacked. “We are predators. We lie in wait until our victims willingly step into our mouths. This fight has just begun.” Abruptly, he moved away from me. “Get this bitch out of my sight. Take her to her cell.”
My mind still wheeled with his claim as officers dragged me back to my cell, tossing me roughly inside and slamming the door.
While one game was playing in the arena, another one was being played outside these walls, and it would be far more brutal and complex than I’d first thought.
With the nectar back on the board, a deadly game of chess was now being played, and the stakes were everything.
Tonight, I would let myself cry and wallow for Andris, but tomorrow, I would shove my heartache away and focus. We had to learn everything we could from every soldier here, gossip from the outside, their routines, weaknesses, their loyalty.
Not only was our country on the precipice, but so was the world… and there were only a few of us who could stop it from falling.
Chapter 4
“No, he didn’t seem to enjoy waking up to you sucking on his fingers.”
Chirp!
A groan hummed in my throat as their voices pierced into my head, stirring me from a shallow sleep.
“Nor did he like you licking his ears.”
Chirp!
“It wasn’t me!” I could feel Opie’s foot stomp into my leg, my dried salty lashes parting fully.
Chirp! Chirp! Bitzy chewed him out from the pack on his back.
“I didn’t nibble them either.” Opie huffed. “Total misunderstanding.”
This morning their outfits were faded beige cotton, and judging by the identical fabric I had in my bathroom locker, someone was missing a towel this morning. Opie had designed it into a one-piece with strategic shapes cut out, leaving very little to the imagination, and a snake puppet with inked-in eyes and teeth covered his crotch. His hair was loose with thin braids at the front plaited in with his beard. Bitzy had snake puppets over her ears, her face twisted in irritation, her fingers flipping the world off.
“Should I even ask?” I rubbed my eyes.
“Do you like it? Needed a little whimsical fun today.” Opie twirled, showing me the thong back. “I mean, the color is so drab, so I wanted to make it fun. When I walk—look—the snake bobs and weaves.”
I groaned, rubbing my eyes harder as he pranced up and down my leg, showing me what he meant. “Not that I wasn’t scarred enough, but it’s not what I meant.”
Chirp!
Opie rolled his eyes. “Stop putting this on me. You were the one who wanted to see him.”
“Who?”
“The pretty one with the mushrooms.”
“Ash?” I sat up quickly, making Opie stumble.
“Yeah.” Opie centered himself on my thigh, his palms up. “Let me warn you, contrary to the noises he makes before waking up, he does not want his fingers, toes, or ears being sucked on.”
“And why were either of you sucking on them?”
“I wasn’t. She was!” Opie pointed at Bitzy.
Chirp, chirp! Bitzy motioned her middle fingers back at Opie.
“Leave Ash alone,” I scoffed.
“Wasn’t me!”
Chirrrrrrp!
“It wasn’t either of us. I was just saying, with no reason at all, there is a good possibility he doesn’t like it so much.”
Chirp!
“Right, he didn’t mind it when he was asleep.” Opie nodded to Bitz. “But again, I have no real reason or reference to saying this. Just an arbitrary passing thought.”
“Why were you there?”
“Oh, no reason.” Opie and Bitzy blinked at me innocently.
Probably hoping Ash still had remnants of mushroom on him. I wanted to believe it was because they cared about him also. They were checking in on our twisted, crazy family.
“He’s okay?”
“His vocabulary is in serious question. The names he called her? Wow.” Opie thumbed over his shoulder, shaking his head.
Chirp-chirp. Chirp, chirp-chirp! Chirp! Middle fingers flared through the air. Bitzy sounded as if she were spitting out every curse word under the sun.
Opie’s eyes went wide. “See? She shouldn’t hear such things—so impressionable at this age.”
I snorted. Bitzy was probably dozens of centuries old.
“But yes, Blondie is fine. Before he so rudely told us to vacation in a warm place, he asked if you and the big man were okay. Where is the walking grenade launcher, anyway?”
My shoulders sagged, my thoughts going to Warwick. I could still feel the remnants of him inside me, causing my body to crave more. I tried to reach out to him several times, but he was able to keep me back as if he didn’t want me to see him in pain. The moment he slipped, I would push through his barriers, taking on his agony, numbing it enough to keep him together.
It was how we made it out before. I thought he was a hallucination, but our link had bled through last time. We had helped each other survive, and I wouldn’t abandon him now. Or ever.
Last night he won the battle only because the drop of adrenaline, the dissipating of my numbness, crashed me to earth, tearing through, making me almost immobile. More pieces broke off, falling into the boiling pit in my soul. My howls of misery were drowned out last night by so many others who were grief-stricken.