Page 29 of Broken Fate
Clive hauled me to my feet. “We have to get out of here.”
“Too late for that, I think,” Andracis said, chuckling delightfully as he and a dozen guards with swords materialized out of the smoke.
Chapter Fifteen
Istared up at the Arcadian Beta, my mind too numb to properly process what I was seeing as his guards rushed in, forming a circle with weapons drawn. Some part of me recognized that trying to fight our way out would result in us being cut down in seconds. We weren’t going anywhere.
“Please!” Clive said, stepping forward and leaving me to stand on my own. “You have to help us. There are people trapped in there. They need help!”
Andracis backhanded Clive hard enough to split his lips as my best friend spun away to the ground in a spray of blood.
“Silence!” he roared, stabbing the fingers of his mailed fist at my friend. Two of the guards moved their swords to rest inches away from Clive.
A rage deeper than anything I’d ever known raced through my system, burning the fear and shock from my system as it went. I snarled violently, taking a step toward Andracis. A hand around my shin stopped me.
I glanced down at Clive. Why had he stopped me? The same anger burning a hole in me simmered deep in his eyes, sitting there, building, but somehow, he kept it restrained. His head shook ever so slightly.
My eyes flared at him. I wanted toattack, to fight, to resist. We couldn’t just let them take us! Didn’t he know what that would mean? They would take us right back to prison, a place Clive had just helped me break out of. Returning would mean death for both of us. There was no way Kiel could free us a second time.
Even as I tensed to attack, Clive’s fingers tightened on my shin, clamping down harder. His eyes widened slightly, urging me to comply, to cease resisting. There was no way Clive would just give up, was there? Had one blow broken his spine? I doubted it. So, perhaps he had a plan?
I relented, standing down, letting my anger ground itself.
“Smart choice,” Andracis said. “That will spare your life … for now. Now, get up and don’t try anything funny.”
Clive didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn’t do a damn thing, so neither did I. We stood there, glaring at the Beta, forcing him to make the next move. He might have us at sword point, but if we were going to die anyway, why bother making his life easy?
With a frustrated growl, Andracis gestured for his men to bring us to our feet. I was already standing, but strong hands seized me by the arms anyway and dragged me in the Beta’s wake as he headed away from the funeral pyre of my old life.
Andracis stopped once we were a more comfortable distance away from the pyre. I was sure it was no accident he used it as a backdrop while staring at us with what he must have assumed was a terrifying glare.
He looks kind of constipated in this light, a little voice said inside me.
Stopping the snicker that followed was a task that not even the mightiest of heroes could have done. Angry at the show of disrespect, Andracis stepped forward and slapped me twice, fast.
My head reeled, and I saw stars from the blow, feeling the tangy iron taste of blood fill my mouth. Clive shouted and lunged for Andracis, but the guards held him firm, and all he earned from his efforts was a mailed fist to the stomach, which doubled him over.
“Now,” Andracis said, stepping forward and grabbing my chin tight enough that my bones groaned in protest. “I know who you are. Tell me, who is your friend there?”
I contemplated spitting in his face, but Andracis was impatient and took my thinking as a lack of an answer.
“Cut off his ear if she doesn’t answer,” he growled at a guard, whose sword came up without hesitation, while another stepped in to hold tight to Clive’s ear, ready to pull it from his scalp as it was severed.
Kiel’s words about the lack of ignorance of the men who served Arcadus came back to me. The guard was well aware of what he was about to do. So was Andracis, who, in fact, looked quite pleased with himself.
Probably didn’t expect to actually catch anyone here. And he wouldn’t have if I wasn’t so rash and stupid. Always rushing into things without thinking them through. This. My Fate Night … That day on the ice.
“Don’t tell them anything,” Clive said as the sword nicked his ear.
“Ah, so thereissomething to tell,” Andracis said, lifting a finger with overemphasized surprise. “Elaborate.”
I glared at him but kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to see Clive lose an ear but giving up Kiel and the others wasn’t an option, either.
Could it?
I wasn’t beholden to them. I owed them nothing. They’dchosento rescue me from the prison, but only in hopes of recruiting me. Being used for someone else’s ends was not a good way to ingratiate me into their rebellion.
Yet despite that, they had treated me well. Never threatened me. If I had to choose between Andracis and the man he represented or Kiel and the others, the choice was clear.
