Page 46 of Realm of Crows (Wings of Ink #5)

Thirty-Four

Herinor

If Ephegos believes two days in a comfortable room with luxurious meals are enough to earn my loyalty back, he has no idea how wrong he is.

Even if this place was made from solid gold, it wouldn’t change a thing about who I call my king and my queen.

Having Ennis and Gorrey as company doesn’t help either.

So far, they haven’t spoken a word to me that isn’t glorifying Ephegos and the new Realm of Crows he’s building for all of us.

I respond to each of their direct questions with a noncommittal grumble and stare at the gray walls for the better part of the days—and nights.

There’s really no point in pretending when their loyalty is so obviously on Ephegos’s side.

After the dinner with the self-appointed Emperor of Crows, I have heard and seen enough.

Ephegos will stop at nothing to force my hand.

First, he’ll try to dazzle me with a lifestyle I truly don’t care for and promises for whatever position in court he believes I desire.

Then, if I refuse to work with him, he’ll remind me of my bargain by having me do small deeds, seemingly harmless ones, and then, he’ll turn me directly against everything I stand for.

The snippet of gray sky peeking through the bars of my window blends perfectly with the gray of the walls. A sad backdrop for my misery. If only I could reach Kaira over distance, I’d let her know I’m ready to unhinge Ephegos’s plans from the inside. That I won’t disappoint her.

Perhaps playing pretend isn’t so stupid after all.

“Ennis,” I call from where I’m lounging on the too-comfortable bed, pushing up onto my elbows. “Any chance I get out of this shit hole for an hour?”

Ennis took the first watch today, leaving him to sit in silence on the stool by the door for hours.

I decided not to talk to him or Gorrey until they talk to me again, see how much Ephegos tries to use them to lure me back in.

So far, neither of them has tried to convince me to do anything but eat the glorious food a servant brings for breakfast, lunch, and dinner like clockwork.

Ennis’s eyes snap up from the sword lying over his knees, boring into mine with onyx intensity.

“The only way you get out of this fortress is if Ephegos sends you on a mission.” He cocks his head, his mop of black curls shifting to the other side and bouncing for a few heartbeats. “But I don’t think you’re ready. ”

With a fake groan, I sit up on the edge of the bed, lacing my fingers between my knees, and face him. “What missions is he sending people on?” Playing the innocent, uninformed Crow might not work, so I put some bite into the words to make it a provocation.

The gray leather crinkles on his shoulders as he shrugs. “As I said—you’re not ready.”

“To go out and kill in his name?” Another provocation, perhaps a stupid, useless one the way I’m stupid and useless, but I can’t help it.

I need to do something, and Ephegos made it clear when he sent me back to my room after dinner that I wouldn’t leave unless he told me to.

That command messed entirely with his plan to charm me into submission, but what else would I have expected from the traitor Crow?

“Perhaps.” Ennis gets to his feet, prowling to the window so high up it’s hard to peer over the edge of the windowsill. He’s an inch shorter than me, which makes him need to lift to his toes to get a view of the land outside.

I took a long hard look on the first morning I spent in this place and found it impossible to locate this fortress on a map.

Ennis grips his sword harder as if half-expecting me to attack the moment he turns his back on me. “Perhaps he sends his soldiers out to kill. Perhaps to conquer.”

“Same fucking thing,” I grumble, earning a sideways glance over Ennis’s shoulder.

“If you look at how Carius used to conquer land, then yes, it is.” He doesn’t say anything else—no indication whether Ephegos is doing the same thing or if he has found a smarter, less bloody way to force the lands into submission .

“I can only speak to what I’ve seen out there, and that was a lot of blood.

” I keep my voice level, my tone unemotional.

Relying on facts rather than on drama. If Ennis has a shred of decency in him, he’ll know this isn’t right.

What Ephegos does is barbaric and wrong, and we need to stop him, or Eherea won’t be the last continent he’ll aspire to rule.

And under his care, none of the realms he takes will thrive; there will be no prosperous future.

Turning the armies into a nondescript gray mass is only the first step into a society without any individualization.

It won’t matter to him what a people needs and what their identity used to be—he’ll smother them all under his power.

“Ephegos isn’t the only one sending soldiers into this war.”

Truth. “I know. The King of Askarea is pushing his forces, too. But he is defending his territory—a territory Ephegos is trying to forcefully take.”

“Ephegos isn’t taking anything,” Ennis objects, but it’s so half-hearted, I almost believe he doesn’t agree with Ephegos’s methods.

“What would you call his actions then?”

“Doing his job as Erina’s general,” Ennis suggests, and I’ve got to give it to him, he knows how to bend truths and twist words in order to make things sound better than what they are.

“Then he is taking them in Tavras’s name,” I insist. “And he’ll betray Erina the way he betrayed all of us.”

It’s the first time I dare to propose something like this, and I hold my breath, keeping my expression smooth as I wait for Ennis’s reaction—which doesn’t come.

He merely turns back to the window as if there’s something fascinating out there to observe—a lot more fascinating than my atrocious statements for sure.

Ennis doesn’t talk to me again for the rest of his shift, and when Gorrey takes over halfway through the day, he nods a brief goodbye before leaving my room to probably report to Ephegos exactly what I said.

Gorrey sits down where Ennis was sitting the entire morning, drawing his sword and laying it across his knees as he studies me pacing under the window.

His pale-blue eyes follow my every move like a predator ready to pounce, even when I don’t have a weapon on me—other than my claws, should I decide to use them, and my powers, of course.

In my mind, a million questions are squirming, the reason why Frenius, Lebius, and Kabulakhi didn’t use the drug on Ayna and Myron top of my list. It’s almost like they wanted them to get away.

Naturally, I can’t ask Gorrey that, even when the expression on his handsome, tan face suggests he doesn’t despise me.

At least, inside this fortress, the guards aren’t wearing those hideous headpieces, and I can see their faces properly.

The scar on Gorrey’s neck stands proud against his otherwise smooth skin, his new, short haircut exposing the relic from the last Crow War.

I’m not sure who gave him the injury, but it might as well have been Clio or Tori or Rogue himself.

It would explain why he is fighting on Ephegos’s side to take a realm that has never belonged to us Crows—and never should.

If there is anyone I want to truly talk to, it’s the only Crow left from the battle at the inn—Frenius.

If I’m wrong, and they merely forgot to use the serum on Ayna and Myron, he will surely tell me so, and I will know I have no allies in this place.

But if it wasn’t an accident—if they intentionally spared the rest of my court, I might not need to fight my way out of here on my own.

As a seed of hope implants in my chest, I try not to think of what it feels like to wrap Kaira in my arms, of the warmth of her breath on my tongue, the fire burning inside my belly that I may very well never be able to extinguish again.

Shoving down any softness blooming at the thought of the Flameling, I square my shoulders and stop in front of Gorrey. “Where are the others?”

He doesn’t as much as lift his sword, a flicker of silver power dancing at his fingertips instead. “By others, you mean Myron and his band of misfits?”

The mocking in his tone is obvious, but there’s a spark in his eyes that reminds me of the rebels when I woke tied up and freezing in Ephegos’s camp.

I lower my voice to a growl, summoning a hint of my own power, only enough to show I’m serious, but not ready to attack if he doesn’t give me a reason to. “The rest of the Crows,” I specify. “Are they all here?”

Gorrey doesn’t shake his head. He doesn’t say no in words either. Just—“It’s none of your business where they are, but rest assured, there are enough guards in this place to make sure you’ll never make it to an exit in one piece.”

His face doesn’t change, neither does his tone of voice, like he’s making casual conversation. Something about it is off, but I’m not ready to call him out on it, because he’s given me more information than he’s probably hoped for.

This fortress has many exits, and Ephegos expects me to try and make an escape. So that’s the one thing I won’t do—for now.

I’ll play along and learn as much as I can about my surroundings while I try to find Frenius and get the truth out of him.

The next day, Ennis doesn’t come alone for his shift. The Crow in question is at his side, Frenius’s shoulder-length black hair tied back at the nape of his neck, and his chocolate brown eyes alert as he scans my room from the threshold as if expecting to find signs of violence.

“Ready to go for a walk?” Ennis asks, gesturing to Gorrey that he’s relieved of his duty.

Gorrey throws him a questioning look before hopping to his feet and flexing his arms on the way out. As he steps past Frenius, he whispers something at the Crow that I can’t understand but leaves a dead expression on the male’s tan features.

Pretending I didn’t notice, I pick up the jacket Ennis tosses at me, slipping into the soft, gray leather and buckling it at the front.

Now I’m wearing a piece of Ephegos’s armor of choice.

If the others see me on the battlefield, they might mistake me for a Tavrasian soldier and kill me on the spot. “Where are we going? ”

Ennis merely waves me through the door, leading the way along the corridor with Frenius falling into step behind me.

“As I said, for a walk,” Ennis grumbles, turning a corner where I was taken straight the first night for dinner with Ephegos.

“All right.” I roll my shoulders, hand casually wandering to my hip where my sword usually hangs like an extension of myself, and find it more than mildly concerning that I’ve come so dependent on steel to win my battles.

Before the curse was broken, my talons used to be my best weapon.

Perhaps I should go back to a more savage fighting style.

Shaelak knows Ephegos’s Crows don’t seem to shy away from their more primal sides, and they seem to be faring well enough in battle.

“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t even try,” Frenius warns from behind me, his silver power slinging around my wrists like shackles as he pulls them behind my back and secures them there with a singeing flash of magic.

“Ephegos doesn’t take kindly to traitors, and you’ve already betrayed him, so trying to escape won’t put you back in his favor. ”

I want to tell him I don’t give a fuck about getting back on Ephegos’s good side.

All I care about is finding out what he’s planning and how to destroy him before I return to my king and queen and bring him down.

So I continue walking, forcing my magic to remain still and my anger to simmer invisibly, the best way to honor my promise to Myron and Ayna.

The guards spaced out along the walls eye me curiously when Ennis and Frenius walk me toward the narrow door at the dark end of the corridor.

I’m not even trying to anticipate what I’ll find behind it, given the large dining room is situated behind a similar door.

For all I know, this could be the door to a throne room—or to a torture chamber.

“In here.” Ennis opens the metal barrier and steps aside as Frenius pushes me into what indeed looks like a torture chamber.

The stench of fear and anguish meets my nose in a symphony with iron, rust, and candle wax. At Frenius’s shove, I stumble into a wooden table long enough to fit a male of my own size and leather straps for arms and legs.

“It’s not enough to hold magical creatures such as us, but it’s useful,” Ephegos’s voice sounds from the dim corner of the windowless room, where the shadows swallow the candle light between two shelves.

Squinting my eyes, I make out another door made of the same dark metal and not much wider than the one I entered through.

Ephegos’s outline appears in a shimmer of silver as he summons some of his power. “It will do just fine for this purpose.” At his nod, Ennis and Frenius drag me onto the table, pinning down my wrists and ankles with brute strength.

I could use my powers to break free, but I’m not certain that will serve my purpose better than enduring whatever Ephegos is ready to do to me, so I hold it in—the panic rising in my chest at the memories of being strapped to a table at Jeseida’s estate for weeks while they experimented on me.

With all the hatred I have for the male now hovering by the side of the table, leaning over me with a sneer, I steel myself for the pain.