"Do you think he's kissed her?" Cail whispered, the harshness of his voice hissing through the damp prison.
"No." Ryland's voice was strong, but forced, his belief in his words wavering, his body still rocking as he fought whatever demons had been placed in his head.
"I saw Ilyan kiss Joclyn. I looked into the window of Sain's mind and saw her kiss him. Her hands wrapped through that hair of his as he touched her, loved her, and kissed her."
Cail spoke softly as if to a lover, but the tone of his voice only triggered Ryland’s violence. His voice cracked and broke as he cried out at Cail’s words, and he pulled at his hair and clawed at the shackles around his ankles. I moved myself away from him as if his pain would infect me. His voice opened again into that same mournful whine, the deep hollow noise of it the sound of heartbreak and betrayal. I jerked as the loud noise broke the silence of our prison, my sharp intake catching my father's attention. He glared at me in warning before returning to Ryland's fit.
"And she kissed him back." Cail barely got the words out before Ryland lunged at the door to his prison, his hands shooting through the narrow space between the bars as he reached for my brother. Ryland's fingers moved and flexed, intent on clawing out Cail's eyes, but he couldn’t reach far enough, the chains that bound him to the wall and to Sain were too restrictive. I heard my father laugh and was sure that Cail was sneering, but I couldn't look away from Ryland.
He snarled like an animal as he continued to attack Cail. His eyes were feral, his growl deep and menacing. I moved away until my shoulder could move no more, the desperate violence in his eyes scaring me.
"She loves him, Ryland. Joclyn loves Ilyan more than she loves you. What are you going to do about it?"
“Kill…kill…kill,” Ryland repeated over and over, his body rocking again.
“What. Are. You. Going. To. Do?” Cail asked, each word stronger than the last.
"I'm going to kill him!" Ryland pushed and tugged against the bars, his voice deep through his clenched teeth.
"And what about her?" Cail asked, his voice still containing that menacing taunt. "Are you going to hurt her? Make her pay?"
"Yes!" Ryland yelled, and Cail smiled more. “Hurt her…hurt her!”
"She hurt you!" Cail yelled, his voice moving into a taunt, and I knew at once what they were doing. Cail had gained full control of Ryland’s mind. He was manipulating Ryland into believing things that he wouldn't believe otherwise. The lines of reality and manipulated horror were so blurred I could tell Ryland had no idea what was what anymore. .
"Are you going to kill her?" Cail asked, the final brick in his bridgework laid.
"Yes!" Ryland yelled, his feral growling against the bars increasing for a moment before it dropped, before Sain's hand, unseen by both Cail and my father, touched his back. The touch brought him back down to earth. The frantic movements slowed. Ryland’s body settled back onto the damp floor of the prison, his hands shaking as his fingers curled around his head.
"No," Ryland gasped, his face horrified at what had just happened. “Nonononono.”
"No?" Cail asked, even though his anger at the temporary glitch was obvious, his voice still held that manipulative tone. He didn't miss a beat, and Ryland began second-guessing himself.
"But she hurt you," Cail stated, moving himself closer to the bars again.
"It wasn't her," Ryland said, yelling as he tried to convince himself as well as Cail. “Wasn’t her, wasn’t her, wasn’t her.”
"How can you be so sure?"
"I know." Ryland lunged at the bars again, but Cail didn't even flinch, even though the raw aggression had returned to Ryland’s face.
"The way she knows you didn't just try to kill her, for the second time?"
Ryland's jaw moved as he tried to get the words out, but nothing came. Finally, two words left him, the conviction almost gone from his voice, "She knows."
"How?"
"She knows, she knows," he repeated.
"Why don't you show her?" Cail asked, his lips twitching with a pleased sneer.
Ryland's eyes widened as Cail pulled a double sided blade from his pocket, the metal of the blade bright red. It had no handle and no finger hold. It almost looked like a shard of jagged stone, sharpened to a point on both sides.
Ryland looked at it as Cail extended it to him through the bars, his fingers twitching as he slowly reached to grab it. I couldn't take my eyes off the blade. I had seen these many times before I escaped, and seeing one again made my stomach turn. It was a knife made of blood and bits of soul. It had dark magic at its core, but I wasn’t sure what they were doing with the knife. I didn’t want to find out. I pulled against my chains, the metal clanking as I tried to move away, knowing there was nowhere to go. I couldn’t take my eyes off the blade, my breath coming in short little spurts as Cail held it between his fingers.