Greed and ego perfumed off Markos, and he gave his guards on one side a slight nod.
A cry bellowed from my lips as they swarmed around Warwick, my body curving forward.
Istvan smirked. “Take them both.”
A gun was primed at my head, my teeth crunching together at every pothole or bit of rough terrain the armored car rolled over, thinking this would be the time the guard’s finger would slip, and he’d blow my brains all over the seat.
My muscles were locked tight. I hadn’t moved a hair as the caravan headed back to the city, afraid of any notice from the soldiers I was jammed in with. They were high off their catch and buzzing with toxic male adrenaline, which was never good for a lone female.
There were no windows in the back of the armored truck, and with my slight view of the front windshield, all I could see was darkness.
Istvan, Olena, and Caden were in the car in front of ours. Iain, Sonya, and Leon were behind us, and somewhere after them, they had Warwick. Purposely keeping us separate. And of course, I couldn’t contact him or see if he was all right. The worst time to have our link burned out.
The car finally slowed, and through the front windshield, I could see us slip out of the night and into another dark tunnel, following down a passage adorned with fire bulbs every few yards.
My heart started to race when we pulled into a wider area, the caravan of armored cars parking together. Some stayed back in Věrhăza as Istvan ordered more guards on the gate we had tried to break out of earlier.
The heavy car door unlocked and opened, my stomach twisting as he shoved the gun into my head.
“Move.”
Climbing out of the car, I immediately searched for Warwick. He was brought out of the car next to ours, his eyes already on me. To others, he’d appear cold, callous, and even bored, but I could sense all the colors of him. His rage, apprehension, and exhaustion. His love, life, and determination. He bristled with carnage and violence, and I knew I was the only thing keeping it from spilling out.
“Take them to the cells.” Istvan directed the men around us, already turning his back on me as if I were nothing—worse than a stranger. One he had never spent hours teaching, never sat across from dinner, on holidays. I lived with them for years, but all those memories were gone.
Several guards walked me toward our prison.
Istvan, with Olena on his arm, spoke to Leon. “I’m sure the ladies would prefer to head back to HDF where they can talk dresses and plan for the gala.” So many human males were sexists. Istvan’s misogyny was legendary. “But I want to show you what I’m doing down in the labs.”
Labs. I figured he’d bring us here, but now I knew for sure exactly where I was—under the factory in the industrial area in the 9th district.
Olena grinned with delight at the idea, her face a pretty picture of vapid emptiness, while I physically saw Sonya stiffen at his words, the muscles in her face twitching and tightening.
Fae did not think of women as less than men. They were warriors. Leaders. Generals. But many human males thought females were just interested in pretty things, to be patted on the head and protected.
“Actually, I would be interested in seeing the labs,” Sonya replied rigidly. “I need to understand what is going on and am quite interested in the process.”
I watched Istvan shift on his feet, his lips pinching.
“Of course.” He nodded, tension running through his tone as well, his gaze darting to Leon as if he should put his woman in place. Leon stood there with a blank expression, but I could sense the threads of his own self-importance and resentment billowing off him. The prime minister might appear to be accepting his alliance with Markos, but he didn’t like it one bit. Two huge wannabe alphas in the room puffing up their chests at each other when the real one was behind me, being propelled down a hallway to another prison—all for me.
Glancing over my shoulder, trying to spot Warwick, my eyes landed on Caden. He stood there watching me intently, his features hiding his feelings, but for one second, I thought I saw the boy I knew in his eyes. The softness and love that had looked upon me so many times. A friendship that was supposed to stand the test of time.
“Move it!” A guard shoved me harder, breaking the connection, and taking me further away from freedom.
We were escorted through a long, dim corridor and down another flight of stairs. My skin prickled with a chill you only experienced far underground. I bit down on my lip. The smell of damp earth and stagnant air doubled my pulse.
The guards herded us through several security doors and guard posts, walking us into a room lined with small cells. The blueprint reminded me of the brig at HDF. The holding cells were similar, little more than cement and iron bars. Cold and harsh. Except in HDF, they were modern, sterile, and brighter.
Just a few bulbs lit up these underground cells, and prisoners were only given a bucket to relieve themselves. Even Věrhăza gave you a blanket and a hole to piss in.
Figures moved up close to the bars, peering out at the new arrivals. Adult women and men looking to be of various ages and races.
All fae.
“Put them in the back two cells.” One guard took lead, pointing to the furthest ones. “They can’t escape those.” If this was similar to HDF, the back lockups were built with multiple heavy-duty locks and thicker iron bars to contain the stronger and more dangerous fae criminals.
A pair of soldiers pushed me roughly into a cell while a group shoved Warwick in the one beside mine, the wall between us over two feet thick.
Our eyes caught right before we were pushed inside.
The link wasn’t there yet, but I could feel it thrum through me, hinting on the horizon. Although it didn’t feel necessary at this time, I knew he could read everything in my eyes without it, feel my emotions from afar. And know that once again, we would get through this.
We would fight.
We would kill.
We would survive.
My lids fluttered when murmuring reached my ears. My eyes burned, and my head pounded with exhaustion, only drifting in moments of surface sleep. My body ached, and my muscles were locked up from the cold concrete floor.
Sensing a figure on the other side of my cage, my eyes bolted wide open. I spotted a familiar man peering through his glasses down at me. The lights were very dim here, but I would recognize the pudgy, short stature of Dr. Karl anywhere. Two guards were on either side of him.
Not reacting, I watched him write notes on his clipboard before he tucked it under his arm, reaching for an object in his white coat pocket.
“I will need to run a primary test on her blood first,” he spoke to the men. “Restrain her.”
I didn’t fight as the men banged into my cell, grabbing me by the arms and pinning me against the wall. I could feel the hum of Warwick jolting in the cage over, a breeze of him brushing over my skin.
“Kovacs?” he growled through the bars to me.
“I’m fine,” I replied to him, my voice steady. The guards were of no consequence to me. The only focus I had was on the doctor I had grown up with. He had been there for all my vaccinations, my wounds, and broken bones, giving me lollipops and smiles. At one time, I thought he was a kind man.
“What happened to you?” I sneered as he moved closer to me, a syringe in his hand. “I thought doctors wanted to help people?”
“That’s what I’m doing.” He wrapped a rubber band around my arm, popping out my veins. “I am helping people. Humans. How do you know fae essence isn’t the future of vaccinations for human diseases? The cure for cancer?”
“For erectile dysfunction?” I arched my brow at him.
He huffed like I was a silly girl. “Science is ever-evolving. Sacrifices have to be made along the way.”
I tried not to flinch when he jabbed my arm with the needle.
“You can make it sound as sensible and pretty as you want, but there is a fine line between true science and a quack. You sound exactly like Dr. Rapava. Whatever he started out to do, he went off the deep end, pushing his experiments further and further. Where is your line, doctor? Do you have one anymore? When does killing innocent children and sucking the essence out of beings, killing an entire species to enhance another, too far for science?”
“They aren’t innocent. They shouldn’t even exist. They go against science and nature.”
“Says who? You? Other humans? Weren’t they technically on the earth first? Who gives you the right to say they don’t deserve to exist?” I sneered. “They were here before us. Maybe it’s the humans who go against nature.” I thought of someone like Ash—he was nature, beauty, and kindness. One with the earth. He could never be against nature. Fae believed in harmony with other living things, to give back to the environment as much as they took.