Page 147 of Soulmateless
I need to send her there now!
Then, only then could I be confident that she’ll survive.
Chapter 50
Ignatia
“This isn't fair!" I hiss through the metal bars. I bare my shiny white daggers at Erasmus leaning the opposite wall from me, outside of this cage. "I didn’t do anything."
Usually I’d be more afraid of being in a cage after what Vasilisa did to me, but with the puny enemy in my field of view, I'm more pissed off. Being in dreamscreecher form fits the occasion.
He just stands there in the dim light of old style torches with his hands in his pockets. He's scowling with one cheek swollen and bruised. "You don't get to decide what's fair in our kingdom. Besides, you should be grateful you're still alive, dreamscreecher. Usually we'd kill you on sight."
I flex my claws irritatedly. “So what's your plan? What are you planning to do with me?"
He shrugs. "That's for my mother to decide."
"Oh lovely," I roll my eyes and glare at the iron bars. “ Cause we know she’ll treat me just great!”
“Your kind has been nothing but cruel and selfish! You don't deserve her good will." His eyes are deep indigo like a cold bottomless ocean, waiting to drown me. "You plotted against my brother. You manipulated him."
"I didn't!” I narrow my eyes at him, putting my muzzle back through the bars of iron. I don't dare to look away as he stares me down, baring my shiny daggers once more.
He approaches the cage, his growing scowl making him look cold and ugly. He leans his forearm against the bars, the black fabric of his skull tee shirt pressing against it too. “It's because of you, Amias is now falling apart and falling deeper into mental insanity.” His voice quivers with anger. “It's because of you, that my brother may never be the same and I have to watch as this tears him apart. I've seen how dreamscreechers crush people's souls.”
Mental insanity? What? Are they seriously claiming he's insane for supporting me and my kind? “He's not insane! He just sees the truth, unlike you!”
“Oh trust me, you're just the beginning of his mental suffering,” he growls. “People who support dreamscreechers always end up losing themselves.” He closes his eyes and he lets out a shaky breath. “But you wouldn't care, would you? That's what you find entertaining about this!”
My heart jumps, pleading to see Amias. Would he really go mentally insane? I can't leave him to suffer too. “Is he okay?”
He rubs his swollen cheek and scowls. “What do you think?”
I squint at his cheek. Had Amias caused that swelling? Had he punched him or something? He wouldn't do that to his own brother… Would he?
Not that I blame him, but that's not the kind of man he is.
There's a sudden creaking down the hall from my cage. Taking my muzzle from between the bars, I look in that direction.
Coming forth in the rusted earthy halls are men wearing all white clothes. They have coats that end right below their hips and a white belt across them. Long guns are held in another beltaround their waists. Their hands are covered in matching gloves and their hair is brushed over to one side, shiny with grease. One was blond and one was black-haired.
"Amorette's orders, she wants the creature in her presence at once." The black haired one says.
"I have a name," I hiss. "I am not just some animal."
"Alrightcreature, it looks like you're getting your judgment," Erasmus mutters. He steps aside for the soldiers.
They look down at me with one brow perked. The black-haired one bends down on his knees to be eye level with me. I bare my teeth at him.
"You're going to have to pick. Either you stay in dreamscreecher form and we bring you out in a muzzle and leash," He pulls out a leather muzzle from his belt. “Or you turn into your human form and we bring you out in handcuffs." He pulls out a pair of cuffs and dangles them. "Your choice."
I glance between the two options, but my eyes linger on the muzzle. There is no way I'm letting them treat me like a dog.
I let an itch in my skin consume me as I turn back into my human form, wearing a purple jumpsuit they gave me for jail.
They open the door and take me by the arms, cuffing them behind my back as they walk me out to Amorette herself.
???
