Page 95 of A Deception of Courts

I had no tears to shed. Grief was not the emotion that claimed me as I watched them move from side to side above me.

It felt like violence – the burning need to set the world on fire with Cedarfall power, just to get vengeance for this heinous crime.

My wrath devoured me from the inside, searching for a way out. It was all-consuming, but I had to keep it in. There was nothing I could do with the emotion here. Buried in the narrow, deep dungeon carved into the ground. A place to be left and forgotten with only the prison bars crisscrossing, out of reach, above me. There was little room to move. Only enough for me to shuffle on my feet but not to sit or lie down on the sodden ground. All I could do was look skyward and watch the haunting dance as the wind toyed with the bodies of the slain Cedarfall family.

There was nothing I could do but wait until Kayne returned for me. Altar protect the poor soul tasked to pull me out of this dungeon. I might not have access to my power, but I had my will and boiling desire for revenge. For Althea, for Lyra and her family. For every soul who had been killed as the Hunters invaded the city and claimed it as their own.

I would fight, tooth and nail, in their memory.

It was easy to lose track of time within the dungeon. It slipped away from me like sand through parted fingers. The horror of watching the hanging, dead bodies of those I’d known lost its power. I grew numb to the view. The pendulum sway within the brisk night winds entranced me, hypnotising me to the point of exhaustion.

At some point, I must’ve fallen asleep leant against the wall. I woke abruptly to my name, ready to fight the instant my eyes opened. I first thought it was Jesibel warning me from my dreams as she had many times before – warnings I didn’t listen to. But when my name came again, I recognised the voice, despite the hissing whisper it was spoken in.

I’d recognise it in this realm and the next.

I blinked away the sticky sleep that clung to my eyes as I peered toward a face looking back down at me through the dungeon’s bars.

“Good, you’re still alive, little bird.”

“Erix?” His name clawed out of my throat; my voice was painfully hoarse. My nails scratched the narrow stone walls surrounding me. If this was still some terrorising dream, then the pain should have freed me. Even as they bent back and the rough stone tore at my fingers, the vision of Erix didn’t fade away.

“What have they done to you?” He growled, reluctantly taking his eyes off me as he scanned the area out of my line of sight.

I dared to welcome the relief that rushed over me, and yet I couldn’t find the words to answer him.

“Iamgoing to get you out of there, but I need you to be patient.” Erix’s eyes glowed with his promise. I couldn’t help but believe him, cling onto the determination he emanated. “Can you do that for me?”

The pleading desperation in his steel-silver eyes was palpable. Erix radiated his urgency in undulating waves.

I opened my mouth, forcing something out. “It was Kayne. He… They’re all dead.”

There was no need to specify who exactly Kayne had seen killed. Duncan, Althea, Rafaela; I’d not seen them since I was dragged away from the forest where Hunters had been left to finish them. Perhaps I referred to the swaying bodies of Althea’s family that danced in the breeze just beyond Erix’s protruding clawed-tipped leather wings.

Erix flinched, his lips pulled taut. “He will pay for his deceptions, don’t worry.”

Our gazes locked, and I felt every shield of vehemence crumble within me.

“I’m so scared.” The revelation burst out of me in a sob.

Erix’s face pinched into a scowl that gave a view of the berserker that lurked within. His lip pulled back from his teeth, revealing the sharpened canine. “I will not let anyhing happen to you. Do you hear me?”

I held his gaze, witnessing the mask of sadness that did little to hide Erix’s own fury. The berserker lurked within him still, and I cared little if Doran’s death meant Erix had full control over himself or not. There was an entire city of Hunters. He could tear through them all, and I would never think of them again.

I nodded, swallowing down bile. “I hear you.”

“Good. Wait for me to return,” Erix said, fingers gripped around the bar far above me. “You will know when the time comes, but I need you to be ready. Remember our training, you are going to need to utilise every ounce of it.”

“No,” I half gasped and shouted. Erix didn’t pull away as I reached up to him, my fingers barely grazing his own. “Don’t… you can’t leave me again.”

“Little bird,” Erix breathed, his shoulders sagging from the weight of the world he carried. “I never left you. I never will.”

The walls could have closed in on me at that moment, and I wouldn’t have cared. “You came back for me.”

“Always. No matter what has happened, you are still my duty.” Erix unravelled his grip on the dungeon’s bar and stood tall. I watched his every move, holding my breath as he surveyed the surrounding area before speaking a final time. I thought he was going to say the final words that always followed when he referred to me as his duty.

And my pleasure.

Instead, Erix said, “Our allies live.”

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