Page 42 of Forging Darkness

Maybe because you’re only half as dumb as you look?I choose not to voice my opinion.

“Drop whatever weapon you’re holding. I want to hear it hit the ground.”

I glance between my hands. Pointy stake or makeshift mace?

Letting go of the sharpened stake, I wrap both hands around the nail-riddled piece of wood. The stake clatters on the ground before settling.

“I dropped it. Time for you to uphold your—”

The door swings open. I should have been ready, but wasn’t, and so I fumble for half a second before arching my weapon at Silver. Silver’s arm points in my direction, and something slams into my ribs. From one blink to the next I go from ready-to-land-the-mother-of-all-death-blows, to twitching defenselessly on the ground.

My body is a mess of muscle spasms and pain. My vision sputters before clearing. When it does, Silver stands over me with a self-satisfied grin, my weapon in one hand and a Taser in the other.

“You . . . cheated,” I force out between convulsions.

Just as the electricity seems to finally filter from my body, she pushes the trigger, and the pain cycle starts all over again.

“Whoops. Slip of the finger.”

“Hate . . . you.”

“Don’t care,” she sing-songs. “Now, this is how this is going to work. You’re going to get up and walk out of this room without trying anything sketch. If you look down you’ll see the probes still in your side. If you take one step that I don’t tell you to, I’ll lay you out again. If you try to rip them out, I’ll lay you out again. If you breathe funny in my direction . . . well, I think you get the point. Nod so I know we understand each other.”

Through gritted teeth I nod while flipping her the bird.

“Perf. Now stand up.”

Everything hurts.

I struggle to my feet. The soreness permeates my body on a cellular level. Even my teeth ache. I didn’t know that was possible. The electrocution caused my hands to contort into claw-like shapes. I imagine them wrapped around Silver’s thin neck. It wouldn’t take too much to break it, and I’ll bet it would make the loveliest snap.

Silver chuckles, her eyes casting over the ruins that were once a bedroom. “Nicely done.”

I bare my teeth. My hand goes to the tender area on my side where the Taser’s probes are embedded in my flesh. I’m zapped by a short bolt of electricity. The current is only a whisper of the intensity of the first few shocks, but it doesn’t tickle.

“Ah-ah.” Silver wags her finger. “I told you that’s against the rules.”

I’m too busy riding out the residual muscle spasms to bother with a witty response.

“All right, enough playtime. Let’s go for a walk.” Silver jerks her chin toward the doorway.

I have an urge to argue simply to be contrary, but rotting away in this room won’t help me escape, so I exit silently in front of Silver. My hands itch for one of the handmade weapons I’m forced to leave behind, but with this Taser still stuck in me, there’s no way I’d be able to grab one before I’m laid out again.

The hallway is made of the same colorless stone blocks as the room I was just locked in, and lit by torches of green and blue flames that jut out of the wall every ten feet or so.

“Where are we?”

“Canada. Quebec to be exact.”

My toe catches on nothing, and I have to steady myself before I pitch forward. “Oh.” What else was there to say? In no version of this conversation did I expect she would tell me that information so easily.

“Why are we still in the spirit realm?”

“Did you really think we’d lair-it-up in the mortal world?” Her tone makes clear how stupid she thinks that assumption was.

“Maybe,” I say under my breath. “Why can’t I phase back?”

“You’ll find that out soon as well.”

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