Page 84 of Kingdom of Chaos
I force my eyes open just long enough to see him fall beside me, his face twisted in rage, his body twitching as he fights thesame electric paralysis that took me down. Then everything goes dark.
Twenty-Three
My head pounds,my body aches, and someone is shouting my name, making it feel like I’m being stabbed in the skull with an icepick. I want nothing more than to slip into oblivion again, but an errant thought runs through my mind, snapping me back into full awareness.
Becks.
My eyes snap open with a gasp, and I find myself bound to a cold metal chair.
“Thank the Creator,” Talon’s voice comes from nearby. I turn to see him tied up as well.
Ropes are looped tightly around his chest, his arms secured behind the chair, each ankle lashed to a leg. One cheekbone is bruised, and a trail of dried blood runs from his split lip down his chin. His shirt is torn, and his bloodshot eyes meet mine.
The sight of him beaten and restrained sends a surge of fury through me.
“Are you all right?” Talon asks, his gaze sweeping over me.
“AmIall right? You look like you’ve been trampled in a stampede.”
He grimaces. “I look that good, huh?”
“Worse.”
“Well, you should see the other guy,” he says with a flash of his signature smirk, but it falters when the movement reopens the cut on his lip, sending a fresh trickle of blood down his chin.
“If you look like this, I can’t imagine the other guy is still alive,” I say, meaning it.
“Unfortunately, he is,” Talon says, sounding put out. “But listen, we need to get out of here,” he says, casting a glance at the door.
Besides a single unoccupied chair in front of us, the room is completely bare. No windows. No other doors. Just stark concrete block walls and a drain set into the center of the floor. It’s obviously an interrogation room, and I shudder to think what the drain is for.
“I can’t use my magic,” Talon says, and a spike of fear shoots through me. “They put some kind of device on my wrists. A gold cuff that disrupts my powers. But they think you’re human, so they didn’t bother with you. You’ll have to use your fire magic to burn through the ropes.”
My stomach drops. I’ve practiced more with my shadow magic than fire; fire still scares me. I’m afraid of losing control and accidentally hurting someone.
“You can do this, Freckles,” Talon says, easily reading the apprehension on my face.
I nod, even as tendrils of doubt put my heart in a chokehold.
“Concentrate like I taught you. Close your eyes and imagine the source of your magic deep inside, and use it to stoke your power.”
I’m just about to close my eyes and try when the door swings open. A large, objectively handsome man steps inside. He looks to be in his late twenties or early thirties, with deep brown skin, black eyes, chin-length locs, and muscles stacked on top of muscles.
He’s built like a bear shifter, like my dad, but the look of pure disgust he throws Talon tells me he’s definitely human.
“You sent three of my men to the ER tonight,” he says, his voice deep and laced with authority.
Talon lifts his chin and smirks. “Must have been an off night for me if it was only three.”
The male narrows his eyes, and for a moment I brace myself, thinking he’s about to strike Talon. But then his gaze shifts to me. There’s no open hostility in his expression, but the way he studies me makes my skin crawl. It’s like he’s trying to peel back my layers, searching for secrets I haven’t even admitted to myself. For a wild second, I second-guess my assumption that he’s human, worried instead that he’s a creature with some kind of truth-sensing magic.
The male grabs the empty metal chair, turns it around, and straddles it, planting his feet wide as he rests his arms across the back. He stares us down, unreadable, and the silence stretches, heavy with tension.
“A creature and a human break into an Order headquarters. I guess we should start with the obvious question. Who sent you?”
Talon and I keep our mouths closed.
“Are you part of the Sinclaire or Murphy clan? Or are you part of the new player’s group?”
