My heart cracked into pieces.
“Asinia?”
She didn’t reply. My hands shook as I shoved the key into the lock, swinging her cell door open. Crouching next to her, I leaned down.
“Asinia. Please be okay. Asinia, open your eyes.”
She cracked them open. “Pris?” she whispered, her voice so quiet I could barely make out her words. “Dreaming?”
“No, you’re not dreaming.” I pushed Asinia’s hair off her face, and my blood froze in my veins. “You’re burning up.”
“Miss you.”
I had to get her some medicine.
Her eyes met mine, blurry and lost. “My mother is dead.” They sharpened. “So is yours.”
My breath hitched. “I know.”
And then her head was lolling once more.
“She’s not going to last,” a weary voice said, and I turned my head.
The man in the cell to the right of Asinia’s looked about Tibris’s age, although he was little more than skin and bones. I could barely make out his face in this light, but a beard covered most of the lower half of it.
“She will last,” I snarled.
He smiled. “Perhaps she will, with a friend as fierce as you.”
I glanced around us. The cell to the left of Asinia’s was empty. Across the narrow corridor, most of the cells were occupied by more prisoners who lay as if already dead.
Turning my attention back to the prisoner, I surveyed him. The light was too dim to see much, but I could tell his hair was dark and his clothes were in even worse condition than most of the other prisoners I’d seen so far.
“How can you hold a conversation and no one else can?”
He twisted his lips. “I’ve built up somewhat of a tolerance to the guards’ poison.”
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “What’s your name?”
“Demos.”
I closed my eyes. This was the man Vicer had ordered me to get out when I freed Asinia.
“I’m—”
“Don’t tell me.”
Because if he was tortured for that information, he would be forced to give it up.
I blew out a breath. “How long have you been here?”
“Almost two years.” He must have seen the surprise on my face. “I was caught days after Gods Day. For some unknown reason, I was spared during the next Gods Day. I doubt I’ll be as lucky this time.”
He didn’t look all that concerned about it. I had a feeling he was ready to end his existence in this cell.
“Why can’t any of you use your powers?”
“Iron poisoning.”
I frowned, peeking at his ears, which were most definitely not pointed. “We’re not fae. We can tolerate fae iron.”
He nodded. “We can tolerate it. But the first thing they do when we’re brought here is slice at our skin and push fae iron into our wounds. Then they crush it into dust and feed it to us in what little food they give us.”
I stored that information away, attempting to distance myself from the sickening reality of it. If I was going to get them both out of here, I needed them to be able to walk.
“Is the iron still in your body?”
He shifted closer, and for a moment, he seemed so familiar I had to blink. Then he was holding up his arm once more, the rags he wore shifting back to show me his shoulder.
The world dimmed around me. Demos was cursing, covering up the wound, but I could still see it in my mind. Could still see the infection that had spread through his entire shoulder. Could still see the pus that wept from it.
I leaned over Asinia, pushing her tunic off her shoulder. She had a wound in the same place, although it was nowhere near as infected as Demos’s.
Blowing out a breath, I met his gaze. “Why is yours so much worse?”
“I may have decided to dig the fae iron out myself. Turns out, that wasn’t a good idea. Still, dying of infection is a better way to go than burning alive.” He gave me a grim smile.
I couldn’t disagree. “The guards still only feed you once a day, in the mornings?”
Surprise flickered across his face. “Yes. Keeps us hungry for the next bellyful of iron.”
“Don’t eat for the next few days. Try to make sure Asinia doesn’t either.” It was risky, given that she didn’t have any weight left on her to lose. But a few bites of food tainted with fae iron would likely do more harm than good.
He canted his head. “You have some kind of plan. Usually, I would laugh at you. But the fact that you managed to get down here tells me you might be my only hope in this place.”