Page 93 of Keeping Sarah

He chuckled deviously. “Youareimpudent, aren’t you? Rex is going to have fun breaking you, Jac. And I’m going to have fun helping him.”

“Come in here and say that,” I dared him.

“I’d rather not stand in the filth of the dead, thank you. How’s the floor? Comfortable?”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ve had worse.”

“Damn. I had hoped we would exceed your past. I suppose we will have to try harder. Maybe give you a cell near the moat. I hear you had a hell of a time in there.”

I fought a wave of nausea, thinking of that damned moat and the beasts in it that tried to drown me and eat me. Instead of letting my fear show, I focused on the man in front of me. “The funny thing about being unclassed and a bit of a miscreant is that I’ve learned a thing or two about how people like you work.”

“You’ve never met anyone like me,” he said arrogantly.

I smirked, just to irritate him further. “No matter where I’ve gone in the universe, there are always sad little men like you.”

“Then tell me, ohwise prisoner,” he mocked, “what have you learned?”

“Whenever a pitiful person with a fraction of power doesn’t like me, before they even speak to me, they already know what they are going to do with me, so conversation with them is pointless, because whatever limited authority they have prescribes what they are allowed to do.” I watched as he narrowed his gaze at me. “You do not have full authority here—you’re Rex’s simpering minion. He will allow you only so much power over me, and whatever that is, it’s not as much as you want. People like you can never get enough power, because it’s too easy for Rex to keep you under control with the pathetichopeof more power.”

A snarl curled his upper lip. “Is that right?”

“Mm, hmm,” I went on, crossing my arms over my chest. “So, you’ll threaten me and posture, as though you are some kind of threat, but really, whatever you do to me is limited by Rex. You are impotent. You have no real authority, and you never will. You, Tantalus, are no one of importance. And since you’re not the man in charge, I’m bored of you. We’re done here.”

He scoffed a laugh. “You piece of shit, you have no idea who you’re talking to!”

“I know exactly who I’m talking to, and I am done pretending care.”

He lunged forward to scream in my face, and I grabbed his collar, pulling him hard enough to slam his head against the metal bars. He blinked, trying to figure out what just happened. I did it again, and blood dripped over his eye.

Before I had a chance for a third pull, a guard stabbed my hand, forcing me to release him, while another braced Tantalus from falling. I hissed, “Ah, fuck!”

The two guards eased Tantalus to the floor, safely behind the green line I had baited him into crossing. The stabbing guard snarled, “You’ll die for this!”

“What else is new?” I rolled my eyes, then ripped a corner of the robe Sarah had given me to wrap my bloody hand.

Tantalus shook off the guards and snapped, “I’ll fucking kill you myself!”

“You’re repeating yourself. Maybe you should get your head examined.”

“Oh, fuck you!” he raged.

He lunged toward me from the floor, over the green line again. So, I thrust my leg out between the bars and stomped on his hand with my bare foot, feeling the bones crunch beneath my heel. I jerked my leg back in, before the guards could stab me there, too. Tantalus let out a considerable shriek.

A new guard shouted down the stairwell at the far end of the dungeon, “He’s dead. He’s fucking dead!”

One looked to the other and barked back, “That’s what we’ve been saying—"

The guard at the stairs shouted louder, “Rex Terianis dead! Someone stabbed him with a bone knife and killed him!”

A surge of panic shot through me, and I yelled from my cell, “Was he with the contra when it happened?”

The stair guard yelled, “Yes, what does it matter? Rex is dead!”

I shook my head over and over, dread filling me. “No, this can’t…no.”

“Your beloved consort is dead,” Tantalus gloated as he stood and cradled his broken hand. “A pity I didn’t get to do her myself.”

“No, no, no,” I mumbled in disbelief as I backed up in the cell. My spine hit the wall, and I slid down it until my tail hit the floor and my knees were close to my chest. “No, no, no—"

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