Page 185 of Gift from the Stone

I hate that my head lulls back against his chest and I can’t force it to move. This feeling of being so close to him, pressed so tightly against him makes me sick and pissed.

All twelve of the other big fuckers surround me. Well, technically, they surround him, but he’s got his big, gross, meaty arm wrapped around my waist, holding me up in the center of all of them.

Fuck me, here we go again.

If I never have to transport again, it’ll be too soon.

What I assume is our final destination comes into view, and there’s a hazy gleam to the structure. I can’t tell if my eyes are playing tricks on me because of this drug or they have a very powerful, visible ward around it.

Just like the structure we rescued Tillman and Caspian from, there are no windows, I see only one door, and it’s completely made of stone. The only major difference I can easily see is the size difference.

This one is twice as large. It both rises upward to multiple floors and extends farther back than I can currently make out. Towering trees that are so thick their front line paints a canvas of darkness behind them sit about the distance of the training fields away, creating a makeshift perimeter.

There’d be no way to sneak up on this structure. If someone’s watching the woods from the building, they’d see anyone coming in plenty of time to warn everyone.

These fuckers have a single taste in their prisons, apparently.

Gish slings the door open, and we walk directly into a room. A huge, empty room. There’s nowhere for us to go from here. There are no doors, no stairs, nothing. Just bare gray stone.

He doesn’t slow his steps, and I’m utterly confused as he just continues to walk straight for the wall. If I could move my body, I’d be flipping out to get from underneath the crazy bastard’s arms.

The slightest resistance pulls at my skin when the psycho walks through the wall like it wasn’t even there. I’m sure if I could actually feel anything right now, that would’ve stung like a bitch.

What the hell?

It was an illusion. Some sort of barrier.

I try to force my head to turn back so I can look behind me at the fake wall, but it’s futile. My neck doesn’t even twitch. It’s petrifying to know this is the reaction I’m having to only half a vial. If I had gotten a full dose, I’d either be completely knocked out, or I’d be so loopy, I’d have no clue what’s happening.

My breath hitches in my throat when I turn my attention back to the hallway we’re walking down.

Cells.

This entire hall is wall to wall cells. Some are empty, others have occupants who are cradled on the floor. None of them move or even glance up at us as we make our way past them.

I don’t know if they’ve been drugged or they’ve just given up, but none waste the energy to acknowledge our existence. The sight of them makes my stomach clench painfully. The scenarios of what they’ve been through run across my mind rapidly. I’ve been conjuring up images of these faces, making them very real in my mind so I can remember the importance of what Elementra is putting on me, my men, my friends.

Seeing them like this causes tears to well in my eyes. They look broken.

It’s been impossible for us to find them. Now, that I have, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Was this the whole reason I had to do this? To find this group of people?

According to the guys, there are hundreds missing. There may be more in this compound, but there’s definitely not hundreds here in this cell block.

I lose sight of them as we enter a small stairwell and begin making our way down. Judging by the footsteps I hear behind me, the entourage we’ve had this entire journey has decreased and only a few are following us to where we’re going.

“They seriously think this bitch is dangerous enough that she needs to be placed in high security. I haven’t seen much of anything to be worried about. She has a strong air element, so fucking what?” one of the men behind me grunts.

“Don’t be ignorant. We’ve all been told of what she did in the nonmagical realm and Terravile,” Gish says begrudgingly. The tone of his voice tells me it grates on his nerves having to admit that, and I mentally smirk.

Little do you know, Fuckface.

“Yeah, but she wasn’t alone. Who’s to say it was even her who did any of what was reported to us? She’s being protected by those fucking heirs.”

The mention of my men has my chest pulling uncomfortably tight. The mere thought of them nearly causes me to sob, so I suck that shit down and try to focus on anything but them.

Note to self, they don’t know I’m more than that to them, and one of the two families are definitely reporting everything back as soon as they find out.

Gish doesn’t bother responding to the man’s words. Instead, he continues to stomp down the stairs. I’m starting to get a headache from how many times my head has bashed into his shoulder. It bobs back and forth, slamming into him every time he takes a careless step.

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