Page 43 of Beg the Night

“What happened?” The words were barely audible. My lips were cracked, my head pounding. As my vision cleared, I pushed myself to sitting and quickly assessed my surroundings.

From the look of things, the two of us had been locked in a smaller cave-like room. It was large enough to fit one of those tiny cots from the dungeon, but not much else. There were only a few feet of stone floor between it and a padlocked prison door. At least this door was made of bars, and we could see the hallway lit with exposed hanging bulbs, but nothing else.

Sinner pushed a cup of water in my direction with his foot. He sat on the ground with his arms crossed over his chest and his back resting against the wall. And, of course, he looked as annoyed as ever.

“I know just as much as you do. Someone must have used their power to incapacitate us. Couldn’t tell you why, but now we’re here.”

“Only us? Why would they separate us?” I downed the water in two gulps.

Sinner cocked his head to the side like that was the stupidest question I could have asked.

“Oh, right,” I answered for him. “Because we’re supposed to be doing this stupid claiming ritual in two weeks.”

“I’d say that’s a decent guess.” He rested his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. His throat bobbed as he swallowed.

His lack of general concern for our well-being was seriously starting to concern me. “And you’re…what? You’re letting them?”

A second passed. Then another. Rage built inside of me with every lingering moment of silence. How was he not absolutely freaking out right now?

“It’s not like we have a choice, New Girl. We never did.”

“Don’t say that.” I stood and immediately swayed. My vision darkened, and for a moment I was sure I’d pass out. I breathed through it, willing myself to stay conscious, and when my vision returned, I made my way to the cage door that secured our new little prison. I yanked once on the bars, rattling them loudly, but it didn’t budge. That was unsurprising, of course, but damn. At least I was willing to try.

“Can’t you use your magic? Have you tried? You could… You could?—”

“I couldnothing,” he whispered, sounding far too serpent-like for my liking. His eyes locked on mine. “You forget who we are down here. We are pawns. Toys. We are powerless.”

I shrugged, annoyed. “You didn’t look powerless earlier tonight. That’s all.”

“You truly believe I haven’t thought about using my power to escape?”

I gave up on the bars and kneeled in front of him so we were eye to eye. “Why not? You could do it. We could get out of here!”

He assessed me, his lips tugged down in an expression that appeared to be annoyance but then morphed into sadness. “There’s too much at risk. It’s not only my life I’m worried about. Fuck, if it was, I would’ve burned this place to the ground and taken myself with it.”

Then I remembered the sad realization of Sinner’s situation. “You comply because of your sister.”

He dipped his chin, then rested his head on the wall again. “Bingo.”

“You think she’ll get hurt if you try to leave.”

“Trust me, I don’t just think it. Director has made her intentions very clear to me.”

I sat back on my heels, my heart rate picking up, and cleared my throat. “I guess this is probably a good time to tell you that they’re freeing her, then. If they haven’t already.”

He eyed me like a predator assessing its prey, searching for every one of my weaknesses and finding them with ease. “What are you talking about?”

“My sister, the woman I spoke to at the ball. She told me she would release Margaret.”

He scoffed, his lip curling in disgust. “And why would she do something like that?”

“Because she wants me to perform the claiming willingly.”

Sinner straightened and inspected me, the intensity in his eyes so fierce I swear to god he made time stop. I nearly crawled out of my skin as he sat, silently shooting daggers at me.

“You agreed to claim with me in return for Mags’s safety?”

“I did.”

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