I didn’t budge. “I’ll stay with him.”
“Grath said to keep everyone separate. He’ll have my head if I let you stay.”
“He won’t have your head, he’ll have mine.”
“Get out, Regar! I mean it.”
With a look back at Kar, who’d turned pale, I pushed past Hiko and Sinister and stalked into the cell next to his. Dragging the bed to the bars closest to Kar, I sat down to watch over his disquiet slumber.
Hiko hesitated. “Regar, I—”
I looked back at the prince who lingered at the entrance to my prison cell, all the while Sinister locked the door to Kar’s. “Save it, Hiko.”
Punching the bars, he cursed. “I’ll get you out.”
I begrudgingly nodded and turned my eyes back on Kar. He’d picked up panting. His rasped groans vibrated through the underground in eerie echoes. It was going to be a long, long day.
Chapter 32
KARMUTH
MY WHOLE BODY WAS SHREDDED. PAIN LIKE I’D NEVER FELT BEFORE throbbed through every nerve ending as if giving me a complete close-up introductory course of my own anatomy.
I would’ve enjoyed a different approach a whole lot more. A lesson through pleasure. With Isay, specifically. Instead, I felt like I’d gone through a meat grinder.
Musty, humid air surrounded me, and I knew right away that I was in the dungeon. I was not pleased to be here, because that meant that the king still didn’t trust me. Even after all the pain I’d drawn through the bond I hadn’t known we’d created, not that I’d done that for the king.
No, that was for Isay’s benefit. Only for Isay’s benefit. The more I hurt, the less she’d suffer. That’s how the mating bond worked if used properly.
Mated to Isay. It had a delightful ring that made some of my pain flee, and my lips curled up in a smile. Nobody could say she wasn’t mine. Our souls had decided we belonged together, something I’d known the moment I saw her, no matter how hard I’d tried to deny it. I was never going to disaffirm it ever again.
Despite the pain, despite the evident imprisonment, there was nothing brighter than the love I felt for Isay.
In a world full of death, finding something to live for was the hardest challenge, and Isay was it for me. I’d go through another torment for her, anything, everything.
“You’re awake?” a rough voice asked close to my face.
I tried to push myself off the bed, and a cool wet towel slid off my face and dropped on the thin pillow I’d been using.
Other than an awkward sit-up, I didn’t manage a whole lot of movement. My muscles were toast. Completely useless pieces of shit that couldn’t carry my weight. I dropped my head back on the pillow, with that wet towel now underneath my head.
“Regar?” I asked back. He didn’t sound like himself. All the laughter and joy were drawn out of his voice, leaving behind an echo of who he was. My own voice didn’t sound much better now coming out in a raw croak.
“Yeah,” he replied hoarsely. “You okay, man?”
“Been better,” I murmured back. “How long was I out?”
“Hard to tell. At least a few hours. Hiko brought cold water when you started burning up.”
That explained the towel under my head. I rolled my head and was surprised to see him on a similar bed, but in another cell. He’d have to push his hands through the bars to get that fabric on my forehead, all the while pressed against the iron that worked to weaken him the moment he touched it.
I have no clue how often he had replaced the cooling towel over my head, but being regularly exposed to the bars was not good for either of us.
If we were to rescue Isay, we needed our strength.
Not all metal hurt us, and not even all iron. We’d learned to work it into a safer and less reactive substance. The cells, however, had not gone through any treatment. The bars were meant to keep us in.
I searched the dungeon for Hiko but didn’t see him. “Where’s he now?” I asked.
“Fuck if I know. He was livid and wouldn’t tell me a thing. He comes and goes regularly, though. Brooding and avoiding all conversation.”
“What about Isay?” I’d tried to connect to her but could only catch flashes of what was done to her.
I had no idea how to work the bond to my advantage. I’d done everything I could, but she was impossible to find, or maybe our bond wasn’t fully matured yet. Likely the latter.
He sighed, “You have more deets on her than any of us put together. Except for Ferro, perhaps.”
I cursed. “Let me get this straight. We’ve been rotting here for hours, and nobody has done shit to find out where my mate is?”
“Sounds ‘bout right.”
Frustration made my blood boil in a completely different way than it had before. I was able to push myself to a sitting position, my back against a stone wall and slumped while my muscles continued their throbbing. Whatever damage I’d taken was drawing on my ecos to fix the ache faster, but I wasn’t physically hurt.
The ecos streamed through my body, searching for wounds to heal without finding any. With so many disturbing sensations all at once, I felt like I was going to puke.
“We need to get her out.” I meant to have more force behind my words, but it came out as a plea. “She won’t last if they’ll keep this up.”
“What did they do to her?” Regar asked just as defeatedly.
