Page 17 of Blood and Thorns

Light penetrated the ominous dark, the strangely elegant sconces placed every few feet covered in thick cobwebs.

“Hello?” I said, but only my voice echoed back. “Hello?” I called louder, and this time there was a response.

“Arabella? Is that you?”

Following the sound, I almost burst into tears, dropping to my knees to try and reach through the bars. “Dad?” I couldn’t believe where he’d been kept, the cell so small he could stretch his arms out and touch both sides. It was just wide enough for the bed, and a bucket.

A foul-smelling tray sat on the floor beside the door, only crumbs remaining of the meal, and I swore something scurried across the floor when I’d approached.

There was barely any light this far down, but even in the darkness I could see how sick he looked after only a few days. There were bruises beneath his eyes, and his skin seemed sunken. Pale, with a slight sheen.

“Ara, how did you find me?” Dad wrapped his fingers around the bars, the skin broken and bleeding, as if he’d tried to claw his way out.

“Gabriel–”

“Did you find the money?” He licked along his dry lips, wincing a little when they cracked. “Please, you have to get me out of here.” His eyes darted around the room, as if searching for something in the shadows.

“What? No, I can’t find that much in such a–”

“Then why the fuck are you here? You’re just going to make everything worse!” his voice thundered, making me flinch.

“I’mtrying to–”

“You need to leave. Unless…” He tried to stretch through the bars. “Yes, you’ll survive so much better than me.”

My fingers brushed along the lock, even as my stomach twisted.

“You’d do anything for me, wouldn’t you, Ara?” Dad’s eyes turned wild. “You wouldn’t leave me like Mum did, would you? You can fix this.”

“Evening, Morris. I see you’re trying to escape again.” A man stepped out from the shadows, a dark brow raised. I recognised him immediately as the other man from the garage, the brunet with the hammer.

Dad shrank back in his cell. “No… of course not.”

I stood, putting myself between Dad and the man. “I’m here to speak to Sebastian.”

The stranger nodded. “Good, because he’s waiting for you.”

Chapter 10

Sebastian

I watched her on her knees, Morris’s distress clear even without sound.

“Is there a reason you showed her to his cell?” I asked Langdon, who lounged against the wall of my office with a grin. I didn’t even need to look up to know his expression, Lang having a more peculiar taste for anarchy and chaos.

A sharp whistle forced my head up.

“She must be really interesting if you’re silencing me,” Lang signed, a rough sound escaping from his lips. “Is there a reason she’s on the pre-approved list?”

“That’s none of your business,”I commented in French.

“Yeah,fuck you, Bas,” Langdon replied before flipping me his middle finger.

A laugh caught in my chest, easing some of the tension that had been growing these past few weeks. Another regular had just been found dead, likely an overdose, and it was starting to build whispers of a tainted batch. Except my stuff was pristine, clean. Either manufacturing had made an error, which was unheard of, or someone has been fucking with my supply.

Either way, someone was going to pay for it.

“You need a fight,” Langdon signed after a pause, his hands slowing slightly when he realised I wasn’t giving him my full concentration.