Page 41 of The Immortal’s Curse (Bound to the Immortals #2)

DARCIE

“How about you and I have a little chat?” Adir’s words curl through the air like smoke—casual, amused, and laced with malice.

My heart slams against my ribs.

“That’s what I came here for,” I say, forcing steel into my voice that I don’t feel.

I slowly step back, pressing into the invisible barrier behind me. It’s the only thing keeping me upright.

From the corner of my eye, Des and Alex pound against the barrier, their fists striking hard and fast, but I don’t feel a thing. Whatever magic separates us, it’s strong.

“Why don’t you come a little closer?” Adir’s voice smooths over the space between us, slick with false charm.

“I’m good here, thanks.”

His smile twitches, faltering just enough to reveal the crack beneath his mask. “You’ll remain in this containment until I say otherwise. Cooperate, and this ends quickly. Refuse, and you could be here for quite some time. Now… step forward.”

I hesitate .

He might be bluffing. He might not.

Either way, I’m trapped. If I dig in my heels, I risk being stuck with him for hours—maybe days. But if I comply, I might walk straight into whatever trap he’s laid out.

Still... I want answers. I want to know why he dragged me here, why he’s still playing games. I push off the wall and take one cautious step forward.

“I have a three-foot rule,” I say flatly.

Adir chuckles. “Acceptable.”

I move again, slow, deliberate. Back straight. Eyes locked on his. I don’t dare look behind me.

I already know what I’ll see. Des pounding against the barrier. Alex seething. And both of them, helpless.

You’re safe, I tell myself. Adir’s behind bars. He can’t touch you.

Then again, he wasn’t supposed to be able to trap me here either.

I stop and plant my feet, crossing my arms to hide how my hands shake.

“I see you’ve chosen to ignore my warnings,” Adir begins, his lip curling. “About the brothers and their treachery.”

He’s referring to what he told me when I was his prisoner, when he tried to twist the truth and convince me that the brothers were tyrants, not protectors.

“They’re not the ones whose followers attacked me two days ago,” I say, voice cold. “I think I’ll take my chances with them.”

He waves a dismissive hand. “You were never in real danger. My instructions were explicit. You were to be taken unharmed.”

So he is still pulling the rebels’ strings. How? Who’s helping him?

“Forgive me if I find that hard to believe.” I watch him closely, studying every twitch of muscle, every flicker of expression .

“Believe what you like,” he says smoothly. “It’s the truth. There’s no benefit in harming you. But kidnapping you…” His head tilts slightly, gaze sharpening. “As I told you when you were my guest , I believe the brothers might agree to a truce to ensure your safe return.”

“So you can betray them the second they let their guard down?” I scoff. “That’s the plan, isn’t it?”

Adir wanted to use me to force Thane, Lome, and Des to step down as the Council’s enforcers. Once they’re out of position, he and his rebels would strike. And all humankind would be in danger.

“Perhaps.” He shrugs. “Perhaps not. Depends on how the negotiation goes. If they relinquish their roles willingly, I may be able to convince the rebellion to show mercy. I’ll admit, I may have been overzealous in my original desire to annihilate them.”

Mercy? Overzealous? I don’t trust a single word that comes out of his mouth.

“It’s obvious Des cares for you.” His tone shifts, low, pointed, and his eyes flick behind me.

My body stiffens. I don’t want to look, but I can’t resist.

Des’s expression is a furious storm, dark and clouded. His fists hammer against the barrier, his teeth clenched and fire burning in his eyes. Next to him, Alex stands rigid, emotionless, but I catch the flicker of worry when he meets my gaze before he locks the emotion away.

I close my eyes for a heartbeat and breathe, willing Des to stop. You’re not helping.

When I turn back, Adir watches the men with far too much satisfaction.

“Des wants to keep me safe,” I say flatly.

“Hm.” His gaze lingers behind me. “As does my son, I think.”

The pause drags on.

“Interesting,” he murmurs .

I hate the way his smile curls, like he’s found a new weapon to wield.

I stay silent. I won’t let Adir trick me into revealing information with his pointed observations. Whatever web he’s spinning, I’m not stepping into it. Not this time.

After a beat of silence, his attention drifts back to me, his gaze sharpening like a blade.

“What is it about you,” he murmurs, “that draws powerful men to your side?”

I frown, unsure if it’s a genuine question or a veiled insult. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you don’t.” His stare doesn’t break. His eyelids lower slightly, brows knitting in thought. Flickers of calculation cross his face, each one more unnerving than the last, until something clicks behind his eyes.

He lunges forward. Both hands slam around the metal bars of his cell.

A burst of light explodes between his fingers, bright and crackling. Red sparks snap into the air like angry fireflies.

I jolt back, pulse skyrocketing as metal shrieks against the sudden contact. Protective magic embedded into the bars rises in the air, lashing out in self-defense.

The power strikes Adir. His tan skin sizzles, turning red, then pink, then raw. Still, he holds on to the bars with a manic grin.

I stare, horrified, as smoke curls off his fingers.

I can hear it, the searing of flesh, the violent hiss of protective enchantments doing their job. It’s worse than I remember from my vision. More violent. More real.

“Stop!” I shout, unable to look away. “Let go!”

He doesn’t.

“Something is different about you,” he says, voice low, calm—eerily untouched by the pain that should be consuming him. “I can feel it.”

The energy in the dungeon has shifted, stretched tight around us like a held breath. I don’t know what he senses. I don’t know what changed.

But the look in his eyes tells me one thing… He intends to find out.

“Tell me what has happened,” he continues. “Tell me what is different about you.”

I stare, bewildered. “ Nothing . Nothing is different!”

“Liar,” he snarls, pressing his cheek against the torturous bars. This time, the Immortal can’t conceal a grimace of pain as the magic burns his face.

I’m going to be sick.

“Don’t you want to know about your mother?” Adir asks, his voice cutting straight through me. “Tell me what’s happened, and I’ll tell you about her.”

“Y-you’re lying,” I stutter. It’s a struggle to speak—to think. His fingers are burned to the bone, white gleaming through blistered, blackened flesh. The smell is unbearable. Acrid. Like charred meat and death. “You don’t know anything about my mother.”

His smile is cruel and cold, but it isn’t deceitful. Beneath the grotesque mask of agony, something in his eyes coils with certainty. My pulse thrashes. He isn’t bluffing. “I do. Come here, and I’ll tell you all about her.”

“No!” Yearning for answers claws at me, fierce and desperate, but I force myself to dig in my heels. I can’t be that stupid.

His lips curl back in a snarl. “Fine. We’ll do this the hard way.”

He drives his arm through the bars. Wards flare, sputtering as his flesh sears. His forearm hisses and bubbles. Skin melts and drips to the floor. He screams, but doesn’t stop. A whip of red light snaps out from his palm, lashing around my arm like a living thing and yanking hard.

I shriek, stumbling forward, balance gone. In the next instant, his ruined hands clamp around my wrists—inhumanly fast, impossibly strong. Ice floods my veins.

He pulls me against the metal, slamming me into the barrier. I brace for pain, for burning, but… nothing happens. The containment spell ignores me. Whatever magic keeps Adir imprisoned doesn’t hurt me.

Adir leans back. I watch in horror as his face begins to mend. Skin regrows, smooth and unbroken, crawling over raw flesh like time reversing itself. Burns vanish. Blood dissolves. His arm, too, mends. In less than a minute, he looks untouched. Whole.

“H–how?” The question barely escapes my lips. I don’t know what I’m saying. I can’t think. Can’t breathe.

Adir’s grip tightens.

“Simple, mortal.” His lips twist into a smirk. “You may know we exist, but you still fail to grasp what it means to be Immortal, to be eternal . No spell can harm me.”

I glance down, heart thudding. His fingers, the same ones scorched to the bone moments ago, are flawless, and they’re holding onto me with unrelenting strength.

My entire body trembles as I stare into eyes that shine with madness and something far colder.

“What do you want?” I ask, my voice low and hoarse.

His lips curve higher. He leans in until his breath brushes my cheek. He whispers, “To win.”

A bolt of red light bursts from Adir’s palm, latching onto my wrists like a bracelet of fire. The energy slithers up my arms, searing, invasive, until it wraps around my entire body.

“What are you doing?” I cry out. “Stop!”

I try to wrench free, twisting, pulling, but his grip doesn’t budge. Then I note his forearms, just centimeters from the burning bars. I throw my weight sideways, driving his arms toward the glowing metal .

His skin meets the magic with a sickening hiss. The scent of scorched flesh fills the air. But he doesn’t let go.

I drop my hip, trying to use gravity, leverage— anything —to break free. Adir yanks me back up like I weigh nothing. With a subtle flick of his head, the red lightning pulses once, then plunges into my skin.

I scream. This is not pain. It’s devastation.

My nerves ignite like wires touching a live current. My knees collapse, my whole body buckling as the sensation rips through me. I get my feet under me and thrash against his grip, twisting, squirming, desperate to break free.

But there’s no escape. His hands are iron shackles.

The torture doesn’t pause, doesn’t fade. It only deepens, a relentless current ripping through my muscles, tearing through every cell. My throat is raw from screaming. My lungs burn, starving for air.

I squeeze my eyes shut. Hot, helpless tears run down my cheeks.

“What are you?” Adir rasps, breath uneven.

It takes everything I have to lift my head.

Sweat beads along the Immortal’s brow. The veins in his neck strain with effort. Whatever he’s doing, whatever this is, it’s costing him.

“You may not be his One ,” Adir growls, jaw clenched tight. “But you’re different. Something else entirely.”

I say nothing. There’s no logic in madness, no answer that will satisfy him. My head falls, my chin brushing my chest.

I have no strength left to argue. No reason to try. Every ounce of focus shifts inward, toward the pain still ripping through me like fire under my skin, desperate for it to end.

Please stop. I’d give anything for a moment of relief.

Above me, Adir curses under his breath. “It’s not working,” he grunts. “Why isn’t it working?”

Crack .

The bones in my wrist snap like twigs in his grip.

I scream again, the sound fractured and hoarse. It dissolves into a sob I can’t hold back.

Please! My mind is shouting, though my mouth won’t move. Please, make it stop!

But there is no mercy in the hands holding me. Only purpose. Only power. Only pain.