Page 63 of Shadows of Fate

I’d realized that I wasn’t very good at losing people I came to love, so Raiden being taken by one of our own had hit me harder than I expected. While every second counted to find him, I also knew in my heart that I had to show up as my best—or in this case, worst—self in order to do so. So, I raged in silence the night before. Now I was ready to rage out loud. And fuck, was I going to be loud.

Delano was currently naked, hanging from one thick silver chain from the ceiling. His toes just barely scraped the ground, and his head was hanging down against his chest. I’d asked Cedar to remove the blade and feed him a small amount of blood for it to heal.

He was powerless, as long as I didn’t touch his skin. Easy enough. I didn’t need magic for this.

I walked up, my shadow stone blade in hand, and tapped the tip against his cheek. “Wakey-wakey, my dear. It’s time we had a little chat.”

Delano’s entire body jerked away from me, his head pulling up between his raised arms. I could hear Cedar chuckle from behind me.

“What do you want?” His voice was rough from disuse. I shouldn’t laugh. I had left him down here strung up like this for the last two days.

Instead of answering, I used the tip of my blade to slice a small square of flesh from his chest. Peeling it off with my blade and dropping it to the floor beside him. His screams echoed throughout the cavernous space and brought a smile to my face. I moved over and did the same to the opposite side of his chest.

His entire body was shaking at that point as he tried to use the tips of his toes to push away from me. He wouldn’t get far, but it was cute that he thought so.

“What the fuck do you want?!” he screamed. “You haven’t even asked me anything.” Tears streamed down his face, which annoyed me. I hadn’t even done much. Yet.

I rolled my eyes at his pathetic sense of righteousness. The fact that he felt he had the right to ask me anything was laughable.

“I don’t plan to ask you anything, Delano. I know everything I need to know at the moment,” I said calmly. Using the tip of the dagger again, I reached up and started slicing the inside of his bicep. “I know you set up my mate to be taken. I know you met your leader somewhere to ship him off somewhere, probably another court if you’re smart. I know they didn’t have use for you after that, and instead of taking you with them, they deemed you a liability and left you for us to find. I know you won’t have any useful information because of that.”

He stared at me for a moment—all of his hope for negotiations flying out the nonexistent window of the dungeon he was chained up in.

“But—but—but what if I know something!” he whined while trying to make my blade leave his skin. I finished up the new rectangle on his bicep, letting the flesh drop to the floor.

“I don’t believe you, Delano. You see, you can thank Cedar for this whole idea. This was his threat to Aeric if he was involved with you. Said he’d flay the male alive, only to feed him and let him heal so he could repeat the task.” I glanced back at Cedar and smiled. “Truly genius.”

“Always so impressed by my genius ideas,” Cedar joked.

“Please, My Lady, I swear. I’ll tell you everything. Everything you want to know. Just… please,” Delano cried.

I sighed and took a step back. “Can I just say that the Eternal Outcasts clearly have a shit training program? They don’t teach these males a single thing about withstanding torture. It’s pathetic. Truly.”

Delano let out a breath in relief and I drove my dagger into his gut.

“Don’t be relieved, fucker. Absolutely nothing will save you. The information you cough up may help you die quicker. That’s all. So start talking,” I growled, being careful to keep space between us. I was angry, not stupid.

His groans of pain left much to be desired, though.

“You were right… it was all a setup to capture him and lead you to them,” Delano murmured.

“Who is them?” Cedar asked from behind me.

“Viktor,” Delano whispered, tears steadily streaming down his face.

“Who the fuck is Viktor?” I asked, impatient as ever.

Bastian stepped forward. “Is his name actually Viktor, Delano?”

Delano nodded his head. “Yes. Tall. Blond. Arrogant.”

Bastian looked at me for a moment. “Viktor is one of Keres’s inner circle, Silvana. At first, I didn’t think about it, the Outcasts kept referring to him as The Victor. But once Raiden mentioned Keres being a thought, I started digging through the records we had on his court. Viktor is one of the top members of his inner circle.”

“As in the ruler of the Court of Ice? One of his inner circle is leading the Eternal Outcasts? Are you fucking with me?” It all sounded ridiculous, but then Raiden had said in the beginning he thought it was Keres behind it all.

“We need to talk to Paine,” Micah said from the doorway. I hadn’t even heard him enter, but I wasn’t shocked that he’d come down to hear what Delano had to say.

Bastian nodded. “Send him a letter, quickly. See if he has any insight.”

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