Page 16 of The Healing Dragon
“Why did you come now?” The mood is suddenly serious.
I look down the hall. “After my failure, I felt the need for some time to myself.”
“You were asked to do something ridiculous.” He glances down the hallway. “It was suicide. Yet you’re alive.”
“I am hard to kill.” I allow a smirk.
“You have always been a survivor, my girl.” He leans over and kisses my forehead. “Do not trust a soul inside these walls.”
“I can always trust you,” I say confidently.
“If I knew it would come to this, I would have stolen you away. You would’ve known true freedom away from your name.”
The truth is, whatever the Fates have chosen for me will come to be. There’s no escaping what the stars have written for you.
A creak of a door opening has us both stepping back. The soldier I call dog steps into the hall and walks towards us with a slight smirk on his face. I want to slap it off. It’s instinctive.
“Right this way.” Oliver gestures to a door with a staircase leading down to a basement.
His tone is now stone cold and detached. The only tone he has ever used for me around guards. I don’t even flinch at the abrupt change.
I walk ahead of him down the stairs, leaving enough room for Jesse to quickly move in front of me. The stench of body odor is the first thing to hit me as my eyes make up the shapes of the basement walls. Long metal bars stretch the length of one side. Dirty, disheveled men sit behind the metal bars.
A few of them look up as we walk inside. No one makes a move closer to the cell bars. As a matter of fact, each of them seems to move even closer to the opposite wall.
“Prisoners already?” I didn’t think my father had been hiding long enough to take on hostages. As I take a closer look, I notice something else. “They aren’t human.”
“The majority are from the City of Sin. Your father’s test subjects.”
My eyes move to one man who looks slightly familiar. In his dirt-covered face and downcast expression he doesn’t jump in my memories, but my heart rate picks up alerting me to this man’s presence.
“You know the young boy?” Oliver asks behind me. “He was found wandering in the woods near the Black Castle right after the attack. He is the only one from Puerto Quinn.”
I hold back my gasp because, at the very moment his eyes shift to mine, the gaze that holds mine is no longerfilled with happiness and wonder. The warmth that once held a gentle smile is gone. The boy that taught me basic hunting skills and shared words of wisdom that saved my life more than once is looking not at me, but through me. He is now a mere shell of the boy I once briefly met in the woods.
I want to scream until my voice breaks. The fury that drives through my veins feels dangerous. It’s seething through my body. His freedom has been seized by the very same individuals who took mine.
All the prisoners are worse to wear, but he is specifically beaten and dirty. There are holes in his clothes and parts of his skin are black and blue.
“What was his crime?” I ask between clenched teeth because I know the answer.
He never committed one. My father doesn’t need a reason to do gruesome things to innocent people.
“His crime was being at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Oliver says and shakes his head. “He is a survivor. The book hasn't killed him yet. I can't say the same for the ones before him.”
“The book?” I turn to Oliver and away from the boy at the mention of the Red Book.
“Your father has the book. He used it on the boy. It didn't kill him like it did the others but he isn’t cooperating so it's unclear what happened.”
A stomp and knock on the door at the top of the stairs has us both turning towards the noise.
“I am needed.” Oliver points at a door at the end of the room. “That is a closet with cleaning supplies. Do your best. I will come help you as soon as I can.”
Before I can say anything, he is climbing up the stairs. A second later, Jesse unwraps the cloth from his body and stepscloser to the cell bars. His eyes are looking at the man inside in disbelief.
“Matias.” Jesse gasps then tries to wave in an attempt to catch the boy’s attention, but he is lost in space.
“Where do you know him from?” I take a step closer to Jesse.
