Page 42 of A Fate in Flames

“THEO!”His name burst from me in a chocked scream, my body curling in on itself as if I could somehow absorb his pain.“STOP!PLEASE STOP!”

I need to tell them the truth.

I was ready to beg for mercy—to offer anything.To say whatever they needed to hear to make Theo’s suffering end.

Just as my plea formed on my bloodied lips, a new voice entered my mind, soft in tone yet laced with warning.

“They are tricking you.Do not believe them.”

Zaheera.

Her presence gripped me with solid force, as real as if her hands physically seized my shoulders.The sensation was so powerful it momentarily dulled the radiating pain, replacing it with clarity.

“They are watching you,” she warned.

This wasn’t real.

They were playing with me.Using Theo as leverage.As bait.

I tasted copper and salt as I ran my tongue over my split lips.I forced my voice to steady.

“I told them everything,” I whispered, wiping the back of my trembling hand against my mouth.“I don’t think they believed me, but I swear, I told them the truth.”

Silence descended.

A heartbeat passed, then another.The torch outside my cell flared, shadows writhing across the walls like mocking spirits.

A purr of satisfaction vibrated through my consciousness.

“Well done.”

I slid down the wall of the cell, unable to support my own weight any longer, collapsing in a broken heap on the ground.I pulled my knees to my chest, ignoring how the movement sent spikes of pain through my ribs.

I muffled the sound of my wails against the torn, blood-soaked fabric that still hung from my arm.

How much of this could I take?

How much longer before I would break?

How much time had passed?Hours blurred into days, and days into weeks.

The Jinn had been unrelenting in their attempts to pry the truth from me, but I would not break.Not even when my body threatened to shatter beneath their hands.Not even when the pain blurred the edges of my sanity.

Zaheera would whisper into my mind constantly, her voice a phantom touch—reassuring me.Soothing me.

I didn’t believe her.I didn’t believeanythinganymore.

I knew nothing about Theo and Tavrik.I didn’t even know if it was day or night.The countless illusions had made me lose all sense of reality.

I just wanted to go home.

The stench had become unbearable—rot and unwashed bodies filling the air, pressing in from every direction.It clung to my skin—wormed its way into my lungs, saturating every breath with the unmistakable scent of decay.The darkness was absolute, save for the pointless flare of the single torch affixed to the mountain wall.

I lay crumpled against the cold ground, as I had since being dragged to this cursed place.My muscles were stiff with agony.I shuffled, trying to find a position that didn’t send pain shooting through me, but found none.My body had become its own prison.

The nonstopdrip-drip-dripwas slowly driving me insane.

Itwasn’twater—I’d learned that the hard way when I licked at it days ago, only to taste something metallic and foul.