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“Not with your combat skills.”

For a moment, she thought his cheeks reddened but couldn’t be certain.

“I sail on ships—or I did before this mess,” he hissed, his voice full of indignation. “I don’t make a hobby of playing hopscotch with ogres.”

“I daresay running isn’t part of any of your hobbies.”

His cheeksdidredden then. “Only you enchantresses take pleasure in that sort of torture. If you see me running, best you start running, too. Because, most likely, something is chasing me.”

The sand beneath her boots shifted as she started to descend a hill, and she nearly fell. A hand clamped on her bicep, steadying her.

“Aw, Breckett.” She glanced up as she shifted Jessamine over her shoulder. “If you keep doing stuff like that, I’ll think you care.”

He released her arm as though he’d touched open flames. “Don’t get used to it.”

“I would never.”

While she’d rather pass time by watching moss grow than talk with Breckett, there was something about the vast darkness that unsettled her. The quiet made it feel somehow heavier.

Clearing her throat, she said, “So… What was Magnus like?”

He sighed heavily. “I wondered when you’d ask.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Sorcerers are figures shrouded in mystery as much as power. Magnus was no exception.”

They strode around a large bank of sand before he continued.

“He journeyed through the lands doing fuck knows what, turning men into erox. Willing or not. Once we were turned, he’d speak of his home. In the mountains to the east, he’d somehow built a stronghold into the earth. There was no option once we were turned, not with the syphens. It was go with him ordie. Those who went with him willingly to the mountains were placed into a dormitory of sorts where we were permitted some leisure time. Those who attempted to escape or refused to follow orders were locked into cells and used as experiments.”

He cleared his throat. “We’d hear screaming for hours, sometimes days, before it finally stopped. We assumed they had died because we never saw them again.” Sighing, he paused as he navigated another mound of sand. “Elias was immediately locked away when Magnus brought him back. None of us even saw his face. Rumors spread when the experiments on the others stopped. Somehow, this new erox remained alive, and many whispered that he must be different from us. Some told tales of an erox with tentacles or the power of the ocean.”

She swallowed thickly as she tried to imagine Elias being locked away for months or years, subjected to torture at the hands of the male who’d created him.

“I became curious,” Breckett continued. “So, I used my ability to sneak into the part of the mountain where the cells were. I wanted to see the male who’d captivated Magnus’... attention. You can imagine my surprise when I saw Elias for the first time, and he seemed no different from us. Though I didn’t know what his powers were at the time.”

Breckett’s eyes grew distant, swiveling between the horizon and the sands at their feet. “We got to talking. As time passed, we formed a sort of friendship. I’d see him when I could. Eventually, I volunteered for guard duty, and I brought him offerings. He rarely fed, and when he did, he was careful never to take too much essence.”

Exhaling, he said, “One day, he just… disappeared. He’d escaped from his cell and wasn’t anywhere in the mountain. He hadn’t told me of his plans to escape. The fool probably thought it would keep me from getting in trouble with Magnus when we were brought in for questioning. And we were questioned.Thoroughly. It was some time later when I found the courage to steal Magnus’ other syphen and flee. I found an opening on a boat at the nearest port and never looked back. I never stopped moving as his erox hunted me, always looking for the syphen. That is, not until I received a summons from the fae queen. Though, I have no idea how she found me.”

A deep sadness filled Arabella, and she licked her suddenly dry lips.

Those males had been through so much—to be turned into demons and then forced to remain within Magnus’ stronghold in the mountains and be used in experiments… It was unthinkable. Had any of them wanted to be turned? Elias hadn’t. Perhaps many of the other erox hadn’t as well.

She thought of the erox who’d tried to kill her at Magnus’ behest when she’d been captured. Those men had been willing to do unspeakable things to her. Perhaps they’d wanted to become erox, or perhaps their once good hearts had eventually darkened over the years as they succumbed to the drive to feed.

But Elias… Her erox… He’d been at the center of Magnus’ experiments.

No wonder he’d been so fearful of the sorcerer. He’d had months or maybe even years of memories of what the sorcerer had done to him—using his body to learn whatever he could about erox.

Elias had survived, but at what cost? He’d bear those memories forever.

And I pressed him to tell me,she thought, recalling how she’d challenged Elias about his eagerness to fix the castle’s ward. She’d insisted on knowing just what he’d been so afraid of and why’d he’d been keen on hiding in the forest. Now that she understood more of his history with Magnus, guilt filled her. She wished she’d been more patient with him—more understanding.But she’d been so single-minded in her goal of protecting Shadowbank.

Swallowing, she forced herself to focus on the present conversation. She needed to learn as much as she could about Magnus. Anything she gleaned could be an edge against the sorcerer.

She glanced at the map, which remained unchanged. “When did Magnus start using the erox as soldiers?”

Breckett scratched his head. “Around the time I volunteered to work as a guard, I think. We were told we’d be given the chance to serve him. Some ventured out into the world to do his bidding. That’s also when the combat training began, and we learned how to feed quickly and discreetly. As well as whatever else he deemed important.”

She nodded, daring to voice a question lingering in her thoughts. “Did you choose to become an erox?”