"Power," Talon said. "Power and revenge. Aren't those the reasons for everything? And your wife, she is very special. You don't realize how special, you with your pack and your rules and your limitations. You would keep her from her greatness. With me, she will rule the world. She will be queen."
One of the paranormals from the city walked up behind Talon, a teenage kid who looked like he was coming out here to smoke. His eyes widened as Talon turned on him. "Wrong place, wrong time," Talon said as he shifted into a massive werewolf and tore through the throat of the kid, feeding on his blood, eating his heart, devouring him as I watched helplessly.
And all I could think of was Rose. She trusted him. He mentored her. And he was killing everyone we loved.
TWENTY SIX
In Our Wills
DRAKE
authority of this lies in our wills.
— William Shakespeare, Othello
I SHOULD HAVE fed before I got captured.
That's what I kept thinking.
As if I knew this would happen.
As if I could have stopped it.
As if it would have even helped.
The thirst was drying me out, and it hadn't been that long. Not nearly long enough to feel like this already. I suspected magic. That this prison somehow accelerated the rate at which the prisoners felt the need to feed. It was a unique kind of torture and it didn't take me long to realize I would go mad.
I analyzed my surroundings as soon as I was thrown into this hell. We floated in a concrete prison, an orb of self-contained cells that made it impossible to escape. A prison designed with Nephilim powers in mind.
I couldn't decide what would drive me mad first. The thirst, or the insanity of the prisoner to my left.
He screamed day and night. When he passed out he still screamed in his sleep. He uttered madness and nonsensical stories about Nephilim and The Gray Watcher. A savior for the Nephilim. Children's stories Beleth told Ana during their visits together. Small comfort in the reality of this world.
From the small glimpses I caught of the man, I could see the years stretching behind him hadn't been kind. He'd been beaten. Abused. Mutilated until he was hardly recognizable as a man at all. I wondered what he'd done. If he'd done anything at all.
They hadn't started torturing me yet. Unless you counted the thirst. And the madness. I did count both. But I hadn't been beaten. Just starved.
And deprived of any news of my wife and child.
Was Sam okay? Did they really release her? What happened to her after I was taken away?
I had only one consolation. That they took me in her place. That she wasn't executed on the spot. I'm not sure I could have gone on living had they taken her life. I had to hold onto the hope that she was still alive and safe and free.
And that she wouldn't do anything stupid.
Like try to rescue me.
TWENTY SEVEN
To Mourn A Mischief
SAM
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
— William Shakespeare, Othello
ROSE PACED THE stone room, her hands fluttering before her as she glanced at the door. "Derek should be back by now. He wouldn't stay away this long, no matter how mad he was."
Talon sat in a meditative pose in the corner. "He said he couldn't be part of this, that it went against his conscience. I don't think he's going to come back until it's over."
"I should go look for him," Rose said, stepping toward the door.
I didn't know what to do. "I understand if you need to go look for Derek. I really do," I told her. "But from our surveillance, the shift change is about to happen at the Stone Prison, and we need to act soon if we're going to rescue Drake. If you can't come, I get it. I'm okay with that. But we have to go now."
Talon walked over to Rose and smiled. "Your husband is strong and sensible. He's just cooling off. He will likely be here waiting for us when we return with your friend. But Sam is right, if we are to do this, it must be now."
"This is a safe place," Beleth said. "No harm will come to him within the walls of the Forbidden City."
Rose nodded. "I'm in. Let's go."
I squeezed her hand. "Thank you." I knew the sacrifice she was making.
Beleth carried Rose, who still couldn't shift, and Talon and I flew through the night toward the prison. It floated in mid-air like a giant rock, or an asteroid that stopped and froze above the ground. Doors and stairs were carved into the outside. Beleth explained that the inside is carved into tunnels. We made good time and arrived moments before the shift change of guards.
Beleth set Rose down on a cliff that overlooked the prison and was close enough that she could see everything we were doing. She drew symbols around herself that emanated golden light and disappeared, leaving her skin lightly aglow.
"Nothing can come in or out of this protection," she said. "I'll be safe alone."
I nodded. "I'll stay in contact mentally so you can warn us if something goes awry."
She squeezed my hand and I could feel the magic buzzing around her like living electricity. "Let's hope nothing does. Be safe."