Page 128 of Elas

“August!” I scream, and his yell overlaps mine. The sound of flesh hitting flesh is sharp and brutal, leaving my mind to create its own images of his forced submission.

“Hold still, human,” Khors taunts, “or it’ll just hurt worse.” Panting, labored breaths puff through the speaker, quickly morphing into gasps of pain that deepen until he’s calling out. Invisible restraints bind my ribcage andstomach as I push what little energy I have into thrashing against the cage, but I only hurt myself.

My head droops, my chin to my chest as August cries on the other end of that speaker. So close, sofuckingclose, but so far out of reach. His shouts get louder, more desperate, as tears well in my eyes. Moisture I can’t afford to lose rains down my cheeks as the walls close in again and time ticks away, agonizingly slow.

August’s voice goes hoarse, his sobs strained and torturous when the instruments clank back onto their table. “Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Khors asks, and I know the words are directed at me. “All that fuss over a little pain.”

“Fuck you,” August whispers, his voice shaking, and Khors chuckles.

“Ah, now you’re sounding like him.”

“Fuck you,” August repeats as the door opens.

“No,” I moan, reaching blindly towards his voice as I’m wheeled away, and my own sobs come out strained. There are no more tears left in my body as I feel myself detach. Numbness spreads through my limbs, down to my very fucking soul, as they place me on the ground again. Their footsteps recede, and by the time they make it out the door, I’m so lost in my head, I’m not sure I’ll ever find my way out.

August

Mybodyshakes,butI keep my head high as the guards escort me back to my cell. Whatever they injected me with made me weak, but it didn’t stop me from fighting. I lunged at the medic and scratched him on the cheek, deep enough to break the skin. My victory was short-lived, though. Shock hit me with such force that I fell into the edge of the stainless steel countertop. My forehead throbs, a knot already forming along the faint trickle of blood.

“What did they do to you today?” Taryn asks from her cell beside mine. Her familiar presence is the one comfort I’ve had during my days imprisoned here.

“Injected me with something.” My body is growing weaker as I drop onto my cot, staring down at my trembling hands.

“Yellow or orange?”

“Orange.”

She hums sympathetically, and I can picture her nodding. “Yeah, that one’s the worst. Bright side… if anyone ever asks you if you know what it’s like to be sunburned on the inside of your body, you can say yes.” I huff an unamused laugh, and she’s quieter as she asks, “Did you see her?”

Taryn’s mate is a Bhotan woman, and hard to miss, at six and a half feet tall with dark red skin, and a booming voice that carries through the prison. Sometimes we hear her arguing with the medics, and it always makes Taryn smile.

“Yeah,” I say, “she was sleeping when we walked past, or at least resting.”

“Good,” she mumbles, more to herself than to me. “She needs to rest. Have you gotten any updates on Elas?”

My hand flies over my chest as excruciating pain slices through my heart. “They won’t tell me anything.”

“Do you think he’s even…” She trails off, and my lip pulls up in a snarl as I interrupt.

“Stop that… don’t eventhinkthat. He’s alive. Hehasto be alive. I would know it if he wasn’t.”

“Sorry,” she whispers. “I’m sorry. That was awful to say.”

The fight drains out of me as I slump against the wall. My insides sear with the lingering aftershocks of whatever poison they forced into my system. I’d fought them, too, knocking their instruments to the ground before they strapped me to the bed. Monitors were hooked up all over my body, and needles were stuck into the mark on my chest like a pincushion. Dots of blood soak through my shirt—tiny crimson reminders of what they’ve done.

“I still can’t believe he turned me in,” I whisper, the familiar sting of betrayal flaring as the sight of Xeni’simpassive face floods back. The blast of anger feeds my energy, and I stand to pace the cramped cell. “Why would he do that? What could he possibly gain from it?”

“Information is currency in this world, August. I’ve been around long enough to learn that by now. The right intel gets you further than any sort of precious metals or resources you could ever offer.”

“But Xeni was… maybe not a friend, but the closest I had to one in that hospital. Elas hated him, but there was goodness in him. He was kind to me.”

“You said he cared about you?”

“Yeah,” I say with a sigh. “He wasn’t lying about that. I could tell he was genuinely hurt when I turned him down.”

“Maybe that’s the reason why, August. Broken hearts lead to reckless decisions.”

“That isn’t it,” I argue, crossing my arms in frustration, then uncrossing them when my chest aches from the pressure. “I know it isn’t. It doesn’t make sense.”

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