He’d never needed her more than he did right now.
“Why is he naked?” she asked.
“His clothes fell off.” Pip laughed. “Don’t worry, though. We’ll get some beggar’s best for His Highness.”
She lifted Darling’s head off his chest so that they stared at each other. As it always did from years of his training it, his long hair fell over the left side of his face, hiding his scar from her view.
Even so, couldn’t she recognize the lips that had kissed and pleased her for countless hours?
Zarya, please help me. Please…
I love you so much.
How could she not see it in his eye?
But there was no love in her gaze. No recognition whatsoever. Only hatred and contempt.
She sneered at him. “Bastard royal scum. You’re all lying hypocrites. I hope all of you get what you deserve.” She spat in his face and released his head to fall forward again.
Darling swore his heart shattered. Surely that was the only thing that could explain the utter misery and agony he felt.
The total desolation. He’d been abandoned before in his life by people he loved, but never had it hurt as much as this did.
She can’t stand the sight of the real me… She wasn’t able to see past his birthright anymore than the others.
So much for all her brave assertions that his looks didn’t matter.
Why had he ever expected better from her? Even if everything had gone as planned, she would have never accepted Darling Cruel as the man she loved. He would have sickened her as much as he did his uncle and mother.
No matter how he mapped it, all roads led to her slapping his face and leaving him out in the cold.
He heard Maris’s bitter voice in his head. “Everyone lies. Everyone betrays, Darling. The world is eat up with selfishness and cruelty. You need to learn to accept it like the rest of us have.”
Zarya stepped back. “Clarion, report to my office.”
“What about our prisoner?”
“Take him to a holding cell. You and I need to talk. Now.”
Pip replaced Clarion who’d been holding Darling’s left arm. “You want us to wait for you?”
“Nah. Make sure His Highness”—Clarion sneered those words—“is well appointed. After I talk to Zarya, I’ll inform his uncle of our demands.”
“Will do.” Pip dragged Darling down the hallway Darling had walked a hundred times while joking with him, Clarion, and dozens of others who were here now.
None of them spoke up on his behalf. Not a one tried to help him or tell the others that what they were doing to him, a fellow human being, was wrong and beneath them.
A million regrets and condemnations tore through him. Never had he felt more betrayed by anyone.
Not until Pip chained him to the wall.
Pip raked a repugnant glare over Darling’s naked, exposed body that was covered with bruises, wounds, and scars. Some from his uncle’s hatred, the rest from his efforts to keep the Resistance safe and viable. “I never thought an aristo would look like you.” He pulled Darling’s shoulder away from the wall to examine the tattoo on his back. “You’re even marked. Anyone recognize this?”
One by one they shook their heads negatively.
“It kind of looks like an assassin’s mark,” Pip said with a frown.
“Yeah, right,” one of the others laughed. “Given its location, you can tell who’s been biting the pillows when he gets screwed. I’m sure he had it done to look tough for all of his boyfriends. Make them think they were drilling a real man when they were on top of him and not some limp-stick fag.”
Pip joined his laugher. “No kidding, right? The only thing he ever trained was his finger to press a button so that he could order someone else to come wipe his ass for him.” Pip hit him right where he was wounded.
Had Darling been able to move or speak, he would have laughed at their arrogant ignorance. That tattoo was the mark of the Sentella and an assassin’s emblem. A long knife going through the center of a skull with a snake crawling out of its right eye socket. The tail of the snake came out from the mandible and coiled around the bottom part of the blade.
It was a grim promise. Da nullam clementiam—“Give no mercy.” As his father had taught him and as the Resistance had proven to him by their actions—“ Never be afraid to kill or destroy your enemies. They would not hesitate to kill or destroy you.”
And with what they’d done today, they had just made it to the top of his kill list.
All of them.
Pip grabbed his jaw and slammed his head back into the wall as hard as he could.
Unmitigated pain exploded through his skull, blurring his vision. Gah, that hurt.
Pip tightened his hold, making sure his fingers bit deeply into Darling’s cheeks. “You better be glad we need you whole for the ransom, rich boy. If we didn’t…” He held Darling’s severed finger up for him to see. “This would be the least of your injuries.”