Page 11

Chapter 10

Adrian

I nsanity came from silence; I was sure of it. Ever since Archon had come that first day, the guards had been using it more and more. These few moments alone were somehow worse than anything else they'd thrown at me.

It had been a prominent torture method in the weeks since I'd been here, and it had been weeks . No matter what way I sliced it, the days kept coming.

And I was still hanging here.

They'd been gone for hours now, my stomach aching with a hunger that had started several days ago and hadn't let up since. They hadn't fed me, not that I expected them to. It wasn't like it would kill me.

Just another ache, another reminder that I was alone here. That Archon was right … no one had come.

It was just me and the silence.

This was all part of Archon's plan, no doubt, to make me go crazy in my wait for him to come back. To get me desperate so I might make a deal with him, for whatever it was that he craved so deeply. If he came back at all. It was likely that the Eternium had already come and passed, so now he had to be just biding his time.

Or he died. That would be nice.

There hadn't been a change in the bonds, Osiris's still beating strong in my chest, a constant presence that helped to soothe the aches. Maybe we'd won. Maybe Sebek was already dead and gone, too. Maybe Osiris was working on a plan to get us out as I hung here, wallowing.

I held on to that hope, desperately clinging to it like Fallon with his goddamned chocolates.

"Nine hundred ninety-nine … One thousand," I sang softly to a tune my mother used to hum, breaking the silence the best I could with busted vocal cords.

When the cell door creaked open, I hated myself for being relieved.

"Ah, back for more already? You spoil me, Eugene," I said in a singsong tone, calling out the Ghoul that had been in charge of my beatings by a name that just seemed to fit him too well. He hadn't told me his real one. None of them had said anything, but it seemed to fit.

And it pissed him off, so that helped.

I blissfully ignored the cracking of my words as anxiety came rushing back in. I waited for the fingers at my back, for salt in open wounds. For the strike of a fist against my blatantly exposed skin. Familiarity was the last thing I expected, the brush of lavender sweetness and the warm worried hands that cradled my face something Archon's prison could have never produced.

It was a vision; it had to be because there was no way I was looking the love of my life in her gentle, worried eyes.

" Aaliyah ."

The tilt to her stubborn nose, the way her hair fell over her shoulders, braided across the left side of her head in that Viking pattern she loved so much. I barely believed she was real as she glanced frantically around the cell, but the heat of her hands didn't lie, her scent identical to the one I cradled in the depths of my mind. I'd hoarded it, a reminder of her that had gotten me through some of the worst beatings. The euphoria from seeing her shattered at the realization that she was here.

In this hell with me.

"Oh, my God, love. What are you doing? You need to—" I coughed on the words, sagging forward. I strained to look over my shoulder, homing in on the sounds that leaked in from the hallway, begging that the guards would stay away a while longer.

"We're here to get you out, Adrian. Just hang on. Osiris is going to break the chains." I didn't quite understand how, but Osiris was nothing if not a man of many skills. It was a tense few moments as we waited, before the chains that held me crumbled to dust. I fell to the ground with all the subtlety of a rock. Aaliyah was quick to move, pulling one of my arms over her shoulder as I sank farther into the muck.

"Come on, there isn't much time. Osiris is getting Fallon and Eirik. We have to move before Archon realizes I'm here."

I couldn't hold back the cry when she tried to hoist me up, the humerus in my left arm still mending from Eugene's last round with the bat.

"I'm too heavy," I grunted, trying to force myself to hold some of the weight and failing rather miserably. Quite pathetic, if I did say so. I'd be taking Fallon up on his request for a sparring partner once we were out, after all. "I can wait here, go. "

I hunched on the floor, rubbing my wrists as the blood flow came rushing back to them. Pins and needles turned into knives as I hissed out a cursed breath.

But Aaliyah didn't leave, her warm touch once again finding my face. She tilted me so I could look at her. So I was able to see every inch I've been dreaming of. So … resilient. The way she put my arm over her shoulder again. Even the way she tensed, like she was unmovable, when she went to lift.

"No. I'm never leaving you again," she whispered, determination set in the line of her jaw as she moved to stand me once more. I couldn't very well say no to being rescued like some damsel in distress. "Come on, one. Two."

I braced for the pain, gritting my teeth as my eyes flashed red just briefly enough to give her some strength.

" Three, " she grunted, shaking under my weight as I tried my best to force myself to my feet for her.

The efforts bore fruit as we stumbled up, eventually finding support against one of the brick walls. I leaned into it, trembling legs barely doing anything to keep me standing. Aaliyah was my saving grace, my single point of focus in the room as my body tried to sort through all the wounds that had been inflicted on it. The ones that were still healing, courtesy of my lack of blood. My vision wavered, my breaths sharp gasps that I struggled to keep steady.

I wasn't a fighter, but I'd rather die than be any more of a burden to her.

I had so many questions, so many things on my mind, all of them pushed back as I focused on moving.

The first steps we took were slow, and I listened as closely as I was able to the hall outside the cell. Anxiety rolled in my stomach until nausea took over, but no one came. She opened the door, looking left, then right, before gently leading me outside.

The hallway didn't hold the same spell as the room, and a rush of power flooded back into me as soon as I was past the threshold of the door. It was like the hood that had been covering a fire had been pulled off, and the flood of oxygen ripped through the ashes, growing until they were out of control.

Getting it back gave me enough strength to take my weight off her, still keeping my arm wrapped tightly around her warm shoulders so I could protect her if someone did come. I wasn't powerless now, less likely to be a hindrance, and that let me breathe a little easier. My senses sharpened, and even the Flame spiraled down my veins. I breathed it in. Losing it had felt like losing a limb. Seemed all that practice I'd been doing on Fallon's paintings had its merits.

Hope flared as we set a steady pace down the hall, toward what I assumed was Osiris and an endless stream of chaos. Hopefully my other brothers, as well.

Fallon was going to be so proud when we rescued him. I wasn't going to let him live it down.

Aaliyah stopped us at an intersection, looking around before closing her eyes. I watched her carefully, worry building when her face scrunched in pain. Her lavender scent washed over me, tinted with something I couldn't quite place. It was almost acidic, and I brushed it off as a marker of these disgusting conditions.

"This way," she said, suddenly opening her eyes and pulling us off to the right.

My ears trained on the whimpers of those around me. The dank, soiled air that bled into my nose. Everything hurt, everything.

Aaliyah gentled her grip around my waist, releasing some of the pressure there, allowing me to breathe easier. She watched me closely, gauging every reaction and adjusting accordingly.

God, I loved her.

Every turn led to more cells, every inch as unfamiliar and untraceable as the last, but there were no guards, no hints that they'd ever been there. Not even footprints on the muddied floor, none beyond the ones we'd left behind us.

The sheer emptiness of it unnerved me, my senses telling me to pause when my heart just kept pushing me to go.

Where was everyone? This place was a maze, but I'd still expected to see someone . If not the guards, then the ones making those noises. The screams and the wails. Prisoners like me .

I tightened my arm around Aaliyah's shoulders as she took another turn. The hall we'd been in came to a rigid halt, with nothing at the end but another blank space.

Fuck me.

The euphoria began to wear off, the unease around everything growing as Aaliyah led us farther down the hall. Her steps were unsure now, her head jerking to look fearfully around the narrow space.

"Love, what happened at the Eternium?" I asked softly, tilting my head at her.

The way she looked at me, with those wide eyes, broke my heart. Her arms shook, sweat sliding over her face. With all the time she'd spent at Ascension, I knew she didn't have the muscle mass to carry me. Yet she tried anyway.

"We don't have time for this right now," she whispered, curling close to me as someone screamed behind us, back from the direction we'd just come. "We need to get out of here."

From the empty cells at our backs. The ones I'd let my gaze linger on. I'd searched every inch, not even finding bones. I listened again, hunting for a heartbeat to go with the scream, but there was none.

There was only the quiet. The dreadful quiet.

"Please, Ali," I begged, hoping I was wrong, that the little inconsistencies I was starting to notice about her weren't real. The scars on her face seemed more vibrant, the braid to her hair intricate and styled in a way I'd only ever seen Eirik do for her. I pulled away from her, standing on my own, even as my legs protested and shook. "What happened?"

But she didn't answer. The Aaliyah I knew dropped off this person's face. Her expression soured, her eyes going blank as the color deviated. That vivid lavender was suddenly lighter, the nuances of them lost in my mind's eye. The hint that had snaked into her scent hammered at my thoughts, hidden inside of it, souring the memory of her.

Fool's gold.

"You're not her, are you?" My vocal cords protested, tears caught in the back of my throat, Archon's latest game seeming to be a breaking point.

The walls wobbled around us, Aaliyah flinching as she jerked away, as if she'd been ripped from my arms. The force was enough to drag me to my knees, my eyes blotting as I tried to force myself back up. One was still sealed shut, the other struggling to focus as I registered the loss of her touch.

"Now, why the long face?" Archon's voice echoed, and I looked over my shoulder, finding an empty hall behind me.

I flexed my hands, focusing on where I'd been, keeping my words close to my chest. Aaliyah was a dirty trick, but I should have seen something like it coming. He'd used my own hope against me, and I'd already given him enough by showing how off center it'd made me. The last thing I needed was to say something that could be used. Archon was a Djinn, and this proved if nothing else, he was crafty enough to force a deal out of anything I might say. The reminder of his last talk, of his game, sealed my lips shut.

"It was quite fun, watching you bounce about, thinking you can get out of my game just because you got out of your cell." Archon's mocking words grated on my eardrums.

"I don't care about your fucking game!" I growled it, sucking in a breath, my eyes going red, fangs dropping as a shiver went through me. It was as vicious as the Call, my emotions reigning over my actions like they'd been whispered by Sebek himself. The anger ignited inside of me.

There was no calm to be had, no amount of breathing was going to bring back my mask. Archon had already stripped it away and found exactly what I'd wanted to hide.

Weakness. Fear.

How badly it hurt.

"That's not how this works, Collector. And you're not asking the right questions," Archon taunted, and I gritted my teeth. "My game . One question. One answer. And you can get out of here."

I felt decidedly like a trapped animal as I struggled to get myself standing. I covered my ears so I couldn't hear anything else he said.

"Where are you , Collector?" The words were whispered directly into my head.

I moved again, keeping to the wall at my left, turning as it did, tracking my steps and falling further and further into madness as the cells grew more warped. No exit in sight. The screams grew louder, more empty cells greeting me.

No relief to be found in a place like this, as if it were crafted to be my worst nightmare.

Where was I?

Such a simple question, or it should have been. I was in the basement of Fellow Manor, the dungeon that I'd heard his guards whisper about on occasion when I visited before, searching for information. The weeks of torture built, each moment clearing as the air went silent again.

I stopped moving, hands dropping to my sides. The screams had stopped at the drop of a pin on the soiled floor.

I'd been here for weeks.

He wasn't asking for any other reason than to remind me of what he'd said before. His game was as much a tactic as it was another trick. Archon was a Djinn, a proud one, an old one. The logical side of my brain that had been flipped off as I'd spiraled into fight-or-flight came back just enough for me to look around again. Really look.

The walls, made of that crumbling stone, the drip of water. Aaliyah's scent, lavender now rotten. It clung to the air, settling in with the muck and soiled cells.

Archon had never assumed he'd lose, had never even shown worry. That was a tell in itself. And he'd been so sure Osiris wouldn't come.

No .

That he wouldn't come soon enough .

"Ah, there it is," the voice echoed, and when I turned around again, the hall that I'd just come from had narrowed. No more twists and turns, only one path, and one room at the end. I could see it from here, the slight glow and sour scent of bleach, daunting in the way it seeped into the hall.

I wasn't in Fellow Manor anymore. Not really.

"So, Adrian. Where are you?" Archon asked, his voice disembodied, that smug tone following me as I moved with slow steps toward the door.

"I'm in your lamp ," I whispered, dread all consuming.

It was a process to get people inside of a Djinn's lamp, one that took up far more power than it was worth. If Archon did this, he did it with reason and strict intent. This was never just a trap to get us here. This was decades' worth of planning … something that had to have stemmed from more than just a little grudge. "This can't be happening."

The snap of the Flame disappeared from my blood once again, and the safety it brought bled out. The same invisible chains that had tied me down in the cell hit me in the chest, binding me with sickening efficiency as I gasped for breath.

"Congratulations, Adrian. You won the game." Archon clapped, the sound echoing in the air. The hallway warped, the room around me fading away into nothingness tinted with gold.

The first thing I registered was how cold I was, the rigid bite of steel under my exposed back as I opened my eyes. The lights above me beamed down, the intensity enough to stun me.

Archon came into view, looking down over me with a tilted head. "See. You're out of the lamp, just as promised."

He turned the light away, exposing more of the room. It was medical, with machines flashing against the wall, a sterile white seeming to cover every surface.

"Now, what do I want, Collector?" I was trapped like a pig destined for slaughter, and my thoughts raced with the implications. Archon was never supposed to go this far. Nothing I'd ever found suggested he would, that he'd have the spine to. "Nothing less than the fall of Osiris Vivas. I can't kill him. He's too powerful for that, even with Sebek's approval to remove him … but you ?"

He ran a hand down my cheek, gently, almost kindly.

"The brothers he values so highly. I saw what the death of that bastard Nero did to him. Tell me, what will another death do?"

We weren't supposed to die here.

Aaliyah's smiling face crossed my mind, the feel of her hand in mine as we danced, the tender brush of lips I would have kissed a thousand more times had I thought it'd be the last.

"Do you know how he got the name Rex Inferectom? " Archon whispered, rageful as he clenched the table by my head, his power crackling against it. The gold in his eyes darkened, shimmering dust slipping off his skin. "He was the first deal I ever lost—the only deal I've lost—and it damned me and my closest kin. I spent six hundred years in my lamp because of his actions, because of his name . "

He stepped back, and another man took his place. One whose face was covered in a surgical mask, a dark pair of shades over his eyes as he grinned down at me wide enough to see even through the cloth. There was a clock on his shirt, one facing me, displaying a timer marked at zero with chilling intent.

"When we get out of here—" I started, flinching away as Archon's hands cupped my cheeks in the most reminiscent way. Like Aaliyah had.

Or like I'd imagined she had.

"You'll what? Barely an hour has passed since you walked through my door, and you've already experienced being trapped for weeks . One snap of my fingers, and you're back in my lamp. You're mine, as long as I see fit," Archon said, and snapped his fingers just as he'd said. I flinched so hard the table rocked. "Be glad I want you to truly experience what comes next."

The timer started, and the man above me produced a knife. The gleaming blade glowed under the horrendous lights, and Archon walked away. "You know, there are worse fates. Like being the brother he does save."

Hope turned to despair in my stomach.

The sound of a door opening and clicking closed forever tied itself to the first slice of the knife, and the haunting laugh that followed Archon's final words. "A brother that's going to be nothing more than a shell of himself when I'm through with him."