“Well, that I agree with.” Comenius frowned. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like me to come with you to Turain tomorrow, Naya? I don’t know that it’s safe for you to go.”
I waved a hand. “No, you’ve got a shop to run. Besides, I’ve already been up there twice and nothing happened. You know I can take care of myself. I haven’t seen anything there yet that I can’t handle with either my magic or my weapons.”
“Alright,” Comenius relented. “Just, be careful, won’t you? It’s only been two months since your last brush with death.”
I smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
The next day, I stopped at a deli to grab a sandwich, then took off for the gambling den. As I rode my bike up the long, hilly road, I thought about simply investigating on my own to find out where the missing shifters were being held. If I could find Mika and the others before the next Royale was scheduled, maybe I could find a way to smuggle the captives out. After all, I was resourceful, and I had a decent amount of magic at my disposal, not to mention my weapons. Surely it was worth a shot?
The hot summer sun beat down from above as I rode into Turain, bathing my skin in a light sweat beneath my leather jacket. I parked my bike around the block from the Dirty Habit in an alley behind a row of shops, then reached for my magic so I could put on my illusion. I’d have to pick something different than the blonde bimbo, since she wouldn’t show up here without Annia. If I thought I could fake Annia’s confidence with gambling, I’d even pretend to be her.
But just as I was taking off my helmet, I heard a tiny zip, the sound of something flying through the air at top speed, and then a sharp pain burst into the side of my neck.
“Oww!” I grabbed at the dart that had lodged itself into my flesh. “What the fuck?”
A human dropped down from the rooftop, dressed in black with a scarf wrapped around his face despite the warm weather. My vision started to blur as the drug in the dart began to take effect, spreading icy-hot fire through my veins, but I heard the sneer in his voice as he approached.
“Sorry Miss Enforcer, but Mr. Danrian told us to watch out in case you ever came around here. Looks like you’re not making it to your destination today.”
“Fuck you.” I grabbed one of the chakrams from my pouch and threw it at him, but my arms were growing shaky, and my throw flew wide. My assailant laughed as the chakram embedded itself in the brick wall ten feet from him, and I cursed as I dropped to my knees, my legs too rubbery to hold me any longer.
“HELP!” I cried out mentally, hoping, praying there was a shifter nearby who might hear my call. But there was no one, and I kicked myself for my foolish decision to come here without backup. Of course Danrian would have known I was looking for him. What was I thinking?
“Sweet dreams,” my assailant said, toeing me with his booted foot, and I fell right over, through the ground and into the darkness.
18
The sensation of something pounding at my temples woke me, and it took me a second to realize that it was pain. Deep, throbbing pain, banging mercilessly at my skull. My mouth was dry as dust, my nerves were raw, and when I tried to move the pounding on my temples increased.
“Hello? Are you awake already?”
My eyes popped open at the sound of the voice, and as my vision focused, I saw a pair of orange eyes staring at me through a set of bars. No, two sets of bars, I realized as sharp panic bit into me. One set was from her cage, and the other one was from mine.
“I am.” I rolled onto my side and looked around. We were in a dark chamber, the only source of light coming from a single bulb hanging from the ceiling. It gave enough light for me to see the rows and rows of cages, nearly all of them filled with shifters, and my heart grew cold as I realized there were probably seventy others in the room with us. “Where am I?”
“I don’t know. None of us do. This is just where they keep us between fights.”
“Great.” I tried to struggle up into a sitting position, and that’s when I noticed the manacles around my wrists. Concentrating my attention on them, I tried to use fire to soften up the metal enough to break the restraints, but though I could feel the magic flowing just beneath my skin, it refused to manifest.
“No.” The panic in my chest tripled, and I jerked the chain binding my wrists together in a futile attempt to break them. “No, no, no!”