Page 27 of Fate and Flame
“Tell me, Temir, where are the rebels?”
I pinched my lips and looked at the floor. He would eventually get his answers anyway, but I would not give them to him willingly.
He circled around and struck me hard across the face. Still, I did not answer. There was nothing worse he could do to me than what he had already done.
“Where are the fucking rebels?”
He stormed around the room and I flinched when he threw a chair. I had no idea how close he had gotten to Nadra. He was distracted though. He hated that he would have to use his magic on me. Autus wanted to believe that fear alone would work.
“I need the seamstress. Do not make me force it from your lips like I should have forced her. I try.” He seethed. “I try to be generous. I try to be a good king, and this is how you choose to repay me.” He ground his teeth together as his face slowly turned from red to purple with rage. “I saved you from that barn. I saved you from a life you deserved.” His spittle caught the light before landing on my face. He took a deep breath and pulled his melody forward. “Tell me where the rebels are.”
The will was suddenly pulled out from under me as I answered. I fought him, but in the end, there was no choice. There was a flurry of concern down the bond as Nadra brought me straight back to the room. The king’s enchantment had put me into a distant state of confusion. I knew what I was saying but could not help but release the words. I could think about them but could not control them. My body was merely a puppet, his voice, the strings.
“Briar’s Keep.”
“Finally.” He threw his hands into the air and sat before me, thrumming his fingers along the arm of the chair, and shook his head. “It didn’t have to come to this, but now that we are here, you will kneel.”
I felt my body jerk as I slammed into the ground with my bound hands in my naked lap. I hung my head. I would single-handily be the downfall of the entire rebellion.
“How do I enter the building?”
I explained in detail the rebellion compound. I felt my stomach coil as the words flowed from me. He made me tell him who to look for. He made me tell him the numbers of rebels, the reach of the rebellion. Every single thing I knew about it until I was eventually giving him Roe and Iva’s names and the few others still in the castle.
I hated myself. I hated how weak I was. That I could not fight him. That I had chosen to come back for Nadra’s mother when I should have left her. But then I remembered her crying on the floor of the castle and I knew, given the chance, I would have done it again.
“Where is Gaea?” His melodious voice grated on my ears.
“I don’t know.”
“Fuck.” He rose and slammed his hand into the council’s table. “What did she tell you of her plans?”
“Nothing.”
For the first time, I stopped thinking about myself long enough to realize why Gaea hadn’t told me where she was going or even when. She knew Oleonis had seen me cuffed. She knew I wouldn’t leave the rebellion. She knew anything she told me would be a betrayal to herself eventually. She protected herself from me, far better than I had protected myself from her. It was the same reason she kept her room so bare. Her fear of attachment had saved her.
“Tell me who blew up the tunnels, Temir.” His voice brought me back to the room.
“I did.”
“How?”
“When the acidic compound of a flixeler leaf mixes with the compressed oil of—”
“I don’t need the fucking molecular breakdown. I mean how did you manage it?”
“I had explosive chemicals placed at every entrance and had them all activated at once. I personally snuck around your guards to ignite one myself.”
“Did you, now?” he asked, grinning. “And is this compound something you can duplicate?”
“Yes.”
“You will begin as soon as we are done here. Just one final question, Temir. Where the fuck is my consort?”
Chapter Seven
Ara
“It’s beautiful,” Gaea said as we finally approached the draconian village.
