Shade’s panting grows panicked. “You won’t break me. But theywillbreak your little toy behind you. You cut off my fucking arm, and Idefinitelywon’t help you there.”
I backhand him so hard it nearly sprains my wrist, his head hanging limp in a daze, his cheek bleeding from one of my rings.
“Must be embarrassing for a gladiator to be backhanded like that. Someone get some water,” Bones chides.
It doesn’t take long before someone is dumping water over Shade, his naked body jolting. He sharply inhales, his teeth chattering.
My head pivots as if honing in on something—among the calmer, excited energy, bleeds something entirely wrought with fear and dread. I narrow my eyes on Shade, and it’s like a vast ocean of one’s soul opens up before it closes back off.
Something faltered in the magic that binds him.
I lean forward to grab his chin and shake his head, to which he groans. I laugh. “It’s in his fucking teeth. Someone, hold his head still.”
It takes two to hold him still enough that I can pry his bleeding mouth open by shoving a block of wood in, sliding it around until I spot a golden tooth. It looks like any other, but I can feel something emanating from it—if anything, it looks loosened with how it bleeds.
Basilisk steps into the dim lighting. “Now that’s fascinating. It’s a suppressant.”
“You’re familiar with that?” I ask, looking up at him.
“Not as common over here, but they’re everywhere across the ocean. There’s more of us over there, too. So there’s a natural counter. It’s only the second one I’ve seen over here.”
I glance up at Tempest. “You have any smithing pliers? Or anyone on board that handles tooth extraction?”
“Aye… Fred, take care of that,” she says, still leaning on her knees, and one of the men takes off quickly.
We don’t wait for long before someone is back with dental tools. Shade beginning to hyperventilate over the wooden block still shoved into his mouth.
The belly of the ship becomes an echo of blood-curdling screams, muffled by the wood in his mouth. When the tooth is removed—his cries morphing into shrieks—Shade slumps over once more when they release him, blood spilling out of his mouth. His chest rapidly rises and falls.
Immediately, I can feel the depths of Shade, every corner of his fears revealing themselves to me. Taking the bloody tooth encased in metal to a nearby lantern, I hold it up so it glints in the light—naprese gold.
Blackwell.
I don’t understand. How can he possibly use our metal to create this effect? Tempest has naprese caps, but to imbue them withothermagic… When Shade comes to with a slow, hoarse groan, I can read him beautifully, handing the tooth to Bones to hold it for now. “So… now thatthatis out of the way.”
The truth bleeds out in his aura like how his mouth does, the man spitting multiple times to clear it. “I’m still,” he says through a pant. “Not talking.”
Squatting down once more, I lock eyes with his frantic ones, gripping his chin tightly and feeling the warmth of his trickling blood on my fingers. “You are protecting someone,” I state, as if reading a map that finally makes sense. “How original.”
His dark brows upturn. “Are you really going to be pissed that I am choosing someone I love over you?” he asks, his voice cracking with exhaustion. “I’m desperate, you cunt.”
I raise an eyebrow. “So are we.”
“Is there any way that I live?” he pleads, reeking of anguish. Some last bit of survival breaks through the warrior’s facade.
His gaze swiftly flicks over my shoulder, and I follow the direction to see that he looks up at Jane, who watches very carefully.
“You should understand, Shade,” I slowly say, looking back at him. “That I am going to learn what is happening to you. The duration, and extent, of your torture is completely within your control.”Blackwell. I get Blackwell and another dark figure, who has to be Misery. “Unless you’re waiting on someone to rescue you.” His eyes flash up at me. “In these circumstances, I sometimes have the patience to break a man. We, unfortunately, do not possess that time, which means I’ll have to threatenanotherwhose pain would break you. It will not take me long to learn who that is to you, and it just takes one hawk to reach the right people from here.”
There it is. A flash of heat and worry, but as I invade his energy and look over his scars, I know when I’m across from someone who will takeweeksto break.
He will take time.
I stand, my leather crinkling with the motion. I still don’t understandhowBlackwell did it, or why, but if Ritter is doing something similar, then this is also not impossible. And Basilisk says this is more common across the sea.
I should have known. Triumphant magic is only dominating until someone learns to manipulate it.
“If I die,” he sputters out. “Without telling a word of what was done to me by Misery, then people I care about live. The words that come out of my mouth matter, no matter what happens to my flesh.”
