Javed turned to his guards, gesturing dismissively at me. “Take him to the camp. Perhaps he’ll prove a useful bit of bait to bring my bride home.”
Red smoke swirled and we materialized in what looked like a basement holding area, all scratched concrete walls and sturdy supports. Harsh fluorescent lights cast stark shadows across the windowless space, with more blank-eyed guards posted at regular intervals. My captors marched me into a cell sectionedoff by thick iron bars. The gate clanged shut behind us, the sound echoing off the bare walls.
For several long minutes, no one moved. No one spoke. The brothers might as well have been carved from stone, every muscle locked in place. The unnatural stillness made my skin crawl.
Then something shifted in the air. The rigid postures loosened fractionally, though they still couldn’t move freely. The tallest brother—Kaz—turned his head with visible effort, his eyes showing the first hints of awareness I’d seen.
“Sorry about the accommodations.” The words came out strained, like speaking through gravel. “Can’t exactly... offer better at the moment.”
Another brother twitched, fighting to turn his head. “Fucking ring. Can feel... everything. Can’t stop any of it.”
Kaz’s gaze sharpened, studying me. “You were with our sister. Why?”
His question hung in the stale air. I paused, studying his face. The muscle jumping in his jaw, the sheen of sweat in the dim light. Each tiny movement seemed to drain him. The iron bars and posted guards made it clear they were just as much prisoners as I was.
Or pets,I thought with disgust. Dogs locked back in their kennel until their master needed them again.
The mate bond burned beneath my ribs, but I kept my voice steady. “She needed help recovering something that was stolen.”
“The pendant.” Kaz’s eyes flashed with something like recognition. “She came to you... instead of us.”
“Came to me by accident.” I met his gaze. “What I don’t understand is why her own brothers are helping the man hunting her.”
Silence stretched between us. The other brothers shifted restlessly in their magical bonds while Kaz seemed to gather his strength. Finally, he spoke.
“Came to our compound,” he ground out, bitterness twisting his features. “Demanding... Rava.”
“Told him to fuck off.” Pride briefly flickered across another brother’s rigid features. “Should’ve seen his face.”
Kaz made a sound between a laugh and a groan. “Then he... Ring. Didn’t know... he had one. Ancient relic.”
“Should’ve known.” The third brother’s bitter words were barely more than a breath. “He’s not... satisfied just giving orders. Requires perfect loyalty.”
The hair on my neck rose. “What are you saying?”
“Makes us fight... each other,” Kaz managed, his eyes bright with fury. “Tests what commands... we can resist. What breaks us.” His gaze hardened. “Won’t let her... defy him.”
Not her. Not her brothers. Probably not those siblings that turned up dead or vanished, either.
My gut churned. This was about a sadistic prince’s wounded pride, about breaking someone who dared tell him no. The thought of her under his control, being forced to fight her own brothers...
The brothers suddenly went rigid, their bodies snapping to attention like marionettes. Kaz’s eyes met mine, raw panic breaking through the magical haze.
“He’s coming.”
RAVA
Crimson smoke choked my lungs as I materialized behind the waterfall. My knees hit stone, hands bracing against cold, wet rock as my stomach heaved. The roar of falling water drowned out my gasping breaths, but nothing could silence the screams echoing in my mind.
Zane’s unseeing eyes. Malak’s blank face. Kaz’s hollow voice calling me ‘sister’ while he tried to break my wrist.
My brothers—proud, stubborn, infuriating—reduced to puppets. And I’d left them there. Left them with Javed.
Left Zral.
The mate bond pulsed with each frantic heartbeat. One night was all I promised him. One night, with an uncertain future ahead. And with all the predictability of uncertainty, it arrived with all the pleasantness of a kick to the twat.
I hadn’t meant to trust him. Hadn’t meant to stay.
