Page 163 of Of Blood and Banes
The cold firmness pressed to my right cheek and underneath my chest tells me I’m lying face down. I fight to keep my eyes closed and face still, despite my skipping pulse. When I reach out for my bond with Daeja, it’s like a door is closed between us. Slowly, I shift my ring finger and sense I’m still wearing the Blood Ring.
They can’t be Arterians in the Dragon Lands, considering they know I’m wearing the ring, and they’re still willing to kill me. Which means they have to be Vitalan rebels.
A tight fist grips my shoulder and flips me onto my back. I let my head roll lazily, keeping my eyes closed. Fingers scrape my chest as someone grabs the front of my shirt and lifts me a few inches off the ground. A tight, hot flash of pain rips in my cheek as someone slaps me. I can’t fight against the natural hiss that slips out of my mouth, nor my eyes flinging open.
A woman is crouched over me. Her pale hand fisted in my shirt. She puffs her short cropped black hair out of her face, her calculating blue eyes piercing me. A sinister grin splits her thin lips as our eyes connect. I glance to my left, looking for Archie. He’s face down on the wooden floor, knocked out. Another slap across my face spins my attention back to the woman.
“Eyes here,” she commands. “I’m going to ask you some questions. If you fail to answer me in a timely manner, your little boyfriend over here dies first. Second strike, and I’ll kill your dragon. Do you understand?”
Biting into my tongue, I fight against the rage boiling up through my chest and screaming to rip out of my mouth. Thinking better of it, I nod, holding her gaze without a lick offear. She smiles. And it takes everything in me to not smack it off her face.
“First question. Which ring do you bear?”
Tapping the wooden floor with my fingertips to channel my anger into some other movement, I search for the magic underneath us. And find nothing. We must be far away from a ley line.
I focus on my peripheral vision while locked into her eyes. We’re in a dimly-lit room, with daylight spilling through a dusted window on my left. Which means I’ve either been out long enough it’s been a full day or it’s been very brief.
Farther back in the room behind the woman are several guards with their attention trained on us through their masks. The rest of the space looks to be a makeshift gathering room with chairs, a table, a desk with a stack of books on the surface, and a wardrobe.
“Do not have me ask you a second time,” the woman warns.
“The Blood Ring.”
“Good. Where is the Bone Ring?”
I can’t help but laugh. And she tightens her grip on my shirt and shakes me until I quiet.
“King Aaric has it,” I reply.
“Who?”
I blink at such a simple question. How would she not know who King Aaric is? I respond again, in case she didn’t hear me clearly, “King Aaric…”
“And where is he?”
“I’d imagine in his castle back in Arterias. But I’ve never seen him, nor have I ever been to the capital, so I can’t be certain.”
“Daeja…can you hear me?”I call out into the chasm of my mind.
Silence.
The woman pulls out a small, round golden object from her side. And for the first time since I’ve been awake, she tears her gaze away from me. Flicking open the object’s lid, I get a glimpse of what looks like a compass. Details etched into the back of it whisper of something foreign. Something ancient, and ethereal. Whatever she sees in the compass, she snaps it closed and slides it back into her pocket with a grin. Then she retrieves a dagger and points it at my chin. Releasing her hold on my shirt, she backs off, holding me hostage with her dagger all the while. “Get up.”
Sliding up off my back and rising to my feet, I hold her stare. Trying not to worry myself with Archie slumped on the ground. The slow rise and fall of his back is the only thing keeping me calm right now.
“What do you know of the god relics?” the woman asks as she taps her blade underneath my chin. She’s only a few inches taller than I am.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Are you sure about that?” She tips her head to the side, and two guards slink away from the shadows toward Archie.
“I swear, I don’t know what you’re talking about?—”
Archie groans and stirs when two masked people lift him off the floorboards. His eyes are half-lidded as he blinks through the haze until his attention settles on me. Those brown eyes flash wide-open, and he tries to slip out of the masked soldiers’ grip.
I shake my head at him to warn him, before looking back at the woman. “Please don’t hurt him. I’m trying to cooperate, but I don’t know what the hells you want from me.”
“I’m losing my patience here. Tell me what I want to know, and we’ll let you go.”
