Page 186 of Lady of the Drowned Empire

“Fuck you,” I said.

“Hmmm,” he said. “I’ve missed you.”

“If you think I’m coming to your bed after this—”

“You will. But I’ll wait until you’re ready.”

In the distance, metal bars rattled as if someone was being held in a cage. Magic hummed over the sound as if trying to conceal it. I recognized the sound as a magic ward. If I was hearing correctly, there were several of them. The room darkened and lightened.

He tilted my head back, washing my hair.

The bars rattled again, the metallic thuds echoing through the spring. The wards buzzed as if in distress, as if some power was fighting them. Weakening their defenses.

“What is that?” I asked.

Prisoner, he thought simply.

“Another reincarnation.”

“No. Something far more dangerous.”

I closed my eyes, trying to keep myself from panic, from the verge of tears. And I desperately tried to keep my mind blank as he washed the weeks’ worth of grime from my hair. I was lathered, shampooed, and conditioned, until for the first time in as long as I could remember, I felt clean. Almost like myself.

A mage stepped into the cavern, carrying a tray. “I have her food, Maraak.”

“You bitch!” I yelled, recognizing her at once. This was the chayatim, the mage with the sigil of the Emperor tattooed across her cheek. The vorakh who’d herded me and Meera to the beach—to the very spot where the akadim took us. She wasn’t working for the Emperor. She was working for him. For Moriel. She’d tricked us.

I felt his hands wrap around me, a gentle restraint.

The mage sneered, but set down the tray on a small table by the bed with her stave. Pointing it back toward the entrance, she muttered an incantation and a silky black dress floated into the room as well.

“For you to wear when you’re clean.” She bowed. “Is it time?”

He nodded. “Go now.” Then stroking my hair, he said, “All clean.” He reached for some oils scented with jasmine. My favorite, and began rubbing the oils through my hair.

The same noise from earlier sounded again. Like prison bars rattling.

“I’m going to check on that,” he said, standing and pushing his tunic back over his head. He brought fresh towels from a table to the spring and patted them. “Dry off when you’re ready, kitten. Get dressed and eat. Then we’ll talk some more.”

“And what if I decide to leave?” I asked, staring at the open cavern. No guards were present. And other than Meera, and that bitch who’d betrayed us—Parthenay. I’d pulled her name quickly from his mind, there were no other Lumerians here.

“My akadim will not let you.”

“They can’t touch me.”

“They couldn’t,” he said. “But now they can. I’ve shared my blood with them.”

“What!”

“Call it a kind of kashonim. It gives them the ability to fight the blood-cursed, those with divine blood, those who were Guardians. And it allows me to draw on their strength. You’ll never get out.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. The bars rattled in the distance, more violently forceful than before. The sound echoing.

“Where’s Meera?” I demanded, worried he’d lied again—that she was now behind bars.

“She is safe. Fed. Clean. You have my word. I’ll be back soon.”

I waited for him to leave, before I stood and toweled off, still rubbing at my skin until I was raw and red.