Chapter Nine
Keryth
M y head felt like it was filled with cotton balls, and my mouth was as dry as a desert as I tried to blink my eyes open. Everything on my body ached. My head hurt the worst, but my back felt like it had bruises all over it.
I tried to swallow as I finally managed to open one eye. Confusion swarmed me when all I saw was… metal? What the hell was that?
Curiosity forced my other eye open, even though the bright light made my head hurt even more.
But the confusion didn’t clear right away. Not until I tilted my head and saw…a cage. I was… in a cage?
What the actual fuck?
Was this some kind of cruel joke?
A groan came out of my mouth as I rolled onto my side and tried to push myself up to a seated position. It took a few tries, but eventually, I was able to sit with my back against one side of the cage.
The cage was barely big enough for me, a small person, to sit fully up, but luckily, I could. Anxiety made it hard to breathe, but I did my best to tamp it down until I knew exactly what the fuck was goin’ on. Where was I? Why was I here?
And what the actual fuck was I doing inside a motherfuckin’ cage?
Oh, Mother of All, I was inside a motherfuckin’ cage. A. Fucking. Cage.
Sucking in a shaky breath, I glanced around and saw there were cages on either side of me and one below me. Oh no. No, no, no. What the hell? Why was I being caged like an animal?
Fuck, I couldn’t breathe.
Something moved in the cage below me, and horror rushed through my entire being. It… it was a person. There was another person in the cage.
I glanced at the cages on either side of me, and my chin trembled.
People.
More people.
And not just any people.
Fae.
They were all fae.
Fear and anxiety made my chest clench tighter. What the actual fuck was going on? Where was I? Why was I here?
I sucked in a breath.
My kids.
Oh fuck.
My kids.
Tears threatened as I pictured their worried faces wondering where I was.
My poor babies.
Oh, Mother of All, please let my kids be okay.
Please let them be safe and far, far, far away from this place.
Please!
Pain lanced my heart as I thought about them.
What would they do when I didn’t come home?
Alsira would call Bel.
Yes. She’d call Bel, and Bel and Remi would take them home with them.
Which meant they were at the most well-protected, highly warded place in all of Sedoba. Bel and Remi’s property was safe. My girls would be safe there.
And I had no doubt that no matter what happened to me, my cousin and his viramore would take care of my beautiful girls.
They wouldn’t be alone. They’d be loved and cared for. If nothin’ else, I knew that. My cousin would take them in, and he and Remi would treat them like their own.
A few tears leaked over and fell down my cheeks, so I angrily wiped them away. I just wanted to go home. I just wanted to see my kids. Hug them. Hold them. Be with them.
For a brief moment, Anton’s face flashed through my mind’s eye, and the pain in my heart intensified.
I’d finally decided to let him in, and this happened.
I would never have a chance to explore where this pull to Anton led.
Not if I didn’t find a way out of here.
Fuck. I needed to get out of here.
I needed to get out and get home to my family.
And then I needed to call Anton and maybe… maybe ask him to hold me for a little while.
With my chest full of fear and anxiety, I turned to the person in the cage beside me and whispered, “Where are we?”
They didn’t respond, and I couldn’t tell if they were ignoring me or asleep because their back was to me.
“Fuck,” I breathed out before scooting to the end of the cage and trying to open the door. I grimaced when I found a padlock. “What the fuck?”
I pulled on it, yanked as hard as I could, but it didn’t budge. I pushed on the cage door, but it only made a small crack in the bars, not anything remotely big enough to slip through.
After shaking it for a few minutes, I finally slammed my palm against it. “ Fuck .” I gave it a kick for good measure, then winced because all that movement made my head and back hurt.
Dammit. What did they do to my back while I was unconscious? Maybe it was from… throwing me in here? I could only assume they hadn’t been gentle with me because I ached all over.
“Fuck you,” I told the cage door and kicked it again, then glanced down at the fae below me. “Do you know where we are?”
They ignored me too, and that made my eyes fill once again. Couldn’t they at least talk to me? Maybe make me feel… a little less alone?
“Please… where are we?” No one answered for a long time, and I wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“None of us knows where we are,” a voice said from the other side of me a few seconds later. They sounded young.
I turned and found a fellow fae staring at me with pink hair, pink eyes, and a familiar face. I blinked. “Trayben?”
He sent me a sad smile. “Hey, Mr. Ker.”
“You don’t have to call me Mister,” I said for the millionth time to Alsira’s best friend and the absolute last person I’d expected to see here.
Trayben was a really sweet and good kid. He was smart too. He’d spent as much time, if not more, at our apartment the past few years than he did at his own house. What the hell was he doing here? Mother of All, a child shouldn’t be here. None of us should, but a kid? What the actual fuck?
My heart ached, seeing him inside a cage of his own. Oh, my fuck. Why in the ever-loving hell is there a kid here?
I whispered, “What’s going on? Where are we? How did we even get here?”
He sighed. “Some crazed maniac werewolf and his cronies have been capturing fae, caging, torturing, and killin’ us. And the ones they don’t kill just… disappear to who the hell knows where.” He shrugged like he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me. “I’ve been here for three days, which probably means I’m done for soon.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but I had no fuckin’ idea what to say or do.
He looked at me, a sad smile on his face. “It’s okay, Mr. Ker. I know there’s nothing you can do to help me. There’s nothin’ any of us can do.”
I swallowed thickly at the look of hopelessness on his face. He’d been here for three days? I hadn’t even known he was missing, for fuck’s sake. Although… I remembered Alsira saying he wasn’t in school and wasn’t answering texts or something, but fuck, did his parents not report him as missing? That was the only explanation I could think of as to why his picture hadn’t been blasted everywhere and why my sister hadn’t been freaking out about it.
Fuckin’ hell. If I would’ve known, I would’ve called everyone, including the damn king himself, to start a search party. I wouldn’t have stopped searching until we found him.
My heart broke. This poor child. He deserved so much better than the cards he’d been dealt.
I grimaced because, to be honest, I wouldn’t even be surprised if his parents hadn’t reported it.
It was clear to me that he was neglected, to the point that sometimes the only food he had access to was at my house. It was why I always slipped an extra lunch into Alsira’s bag, just in case Trayben needed it.
He always did.
And right now, this poor kid looked pale, exhausted, and worn down. He looked like he’d given up days ago.
It broke my heart, and I didn’t know how to comfort him when I couldn’t even reach him. And I had no clue how to get out of here.
But I needed to figure it out. Not only for Trayben’s sake, but for my own, and for my kids. Fuck, they must be so worried.
Alsira was watching her sisters after school, but it was only supposed to be for two hours, tops. Surely, she would’ve called Bel by now, right?
Which meant Remi would know, and he… he knew people.
So… hopefully that meant someone was looking for me.
But that didn’t mean they’d find me.
Fuck, was this some kind of fae trafficking ring?
That thought sent a new spike of fear through me. How often were people really found once they were taken?
The number was close to zero, wasn’t it?
So I needed to get myself, Trayben, and all these other fae out of here before we were shipped off or sold or tortured or whatever the hell this was.
I slid to the cage door again, reached through the bars, and pulled on the lock with all of my might. It didn’t budge. There was no way I was going to be able to break this lock. No way.
But maybe I could… grow a vine and put it in the keyhole? I… didn’t know if that’d do anything, but it was worth a shot.
So I held my palms open in front of me, closed my eyes, and called on my magic, growing a small vine. Then I reached through, aimed the vine, and asked it to grow again. It took three tries for me to get the thing inside the keyhole, and once it was in there, it… didn’t do a damn thing. I couldn’t figure out how to make it grow into the right shape, and even if I did, how the hell would I turn it? It wasn’t like a vine was strong enough to hold shape like that.
Fuck.
I glanced around the room again. Maybe something was in reach that I could use.
When I pushed my face against the bars, I could see a table, and when I realized exactly what I was seeing on top of that table, I started gagging.
Oh, my Mother of All.
There was a dead fae who looked… absolutely mutilated. Cut up, missing fingers, missing an arm, had open wounds, slices, and bruises.
I gagged again.
Holy shit. Holy shit.
This was bad. This was so fuckin’ bad.
“Told you,” Trayben said. “There’s nothin’ any of us can do about it.”
My eyes started to water because he was… he was right.
There was nothing I or anyone could do. We were trapped.
Trapped with a fuckin’ psycho.
Since there was nothing else I could do, I crawled back to the side of the cage closest to Trayben’s, reached my arm through his cage, and held my hand up in offer. I didn’t want to force any kind of touch or comfort on him, but I really hoped he took my hand. I could use the comfort myself.
He stared at my hand for so long I didn’t think he’d take it, but just as I was thinking of pulling back, he grabbed my hand and squeezed.
When his pained gaze met mine, his eyes watered, and my heart broke further.
Silent tears fell down my cheeks.
I was the adult here. I was supposed to be able to keep him safe.
But I didn’t know how.
I had no idea how much time had passed, but when I heard a loud metal door open and slam shut, I tensed.
Trayben tensed as well, and all the other fae around us stirred. Everyone looked ten times more terrified than they had a moment ago, which only escalated my own fear.
The tightness in my chest intensified, and I could feel a slight tremor in my hands.
A few seconds later, a tall man—definitely a werewolf—walked into the room, and I gasped.
I knew that face. It’d been posted literally everywhere for the last two weeks.
Ex-Speaker of the Tower, Aaron Ralodove.
Holy shit .
Ralodove kidnapped me?
But that wasn’t who’d attacked me. So did that mean Ralodove had someone else he was working with? He had to, I supposed. Who was the guy that’d attacked me in my own car? Did they have others helping them?
And what the hell were they up to?
Were they… were they murdering fae?
Why? What in all the hells did I or any of these fae ever do to him or the stranger who’d kidnapped me?
Someone let out a small cry, and Ralodove banged on their cage, yelling, “Shut the fuck up or you’re next.”
The fae whimpered quietly and moved to the back of their cage, getting as far away from Ralodove as they could. The werewolf bared his teeth at them, then walked to the next cage and peered inside without a word.
Then, to my horror, he walked farther down and stopped right in front of my cage, staring at me with cruel eyes. I didn’t know what to do, so I sat completely still and stared back. He didn’t say anything for a long time, but I had the feeling he expected me to speak first.
But what the hell was I supposed to say? He had me in a fucking cage, for crap’s sake. Should I try to beg? There was no way that would work. Obviously. I was sure everyone here had already tried it, so why would I be any different?
“Keryth Bixidor…”
Oh shit. He knew exactly who I was. For some reason, I wasn’t expecting that. I’d thought… well, I’d thought it was just a convenience thing. Like the stranger happened to be in the area, saw me alone, and decided to grab me. But if they knew who I was, did that mean they’d targeted me?
Why? Why in the world would they want me? I was a gardener, for fuck’s sake. It wasn’t like I was anyone special.
He sneered at me. “I’m glad to see he grabbed at least one of you.”
What the hell did that mean? “O-one of who?”
“I hoped he’d grab both you and Belryn Bixidor, but beggars can’t be choosers and all that.”
Why the fuck would he want Bel and me? I worked with plants, and Bel was a music teacher. What the hell? “Wh-why do you want us?”
Anger flashed over his face, and he moved closer to the cage, slamming his palm against it and making me jump. “He has to pay for what he did to me. The king never should’ve gotten away with it.” A creepy grin grew over his lips. “You two are the fae closest to that bastard.”
He wanted to hurt us because of the king? I took a moment to absorb that information. “But why? Why are you hurting us? We haven’t done anything to you.”
He slammed his palm against my cage again. “You have taken everything from me!”
“I haven’t done anything to you.”
He growled, and his eyes flashed yellow. “A fae tricked my daughter and put an obligation on her. I traded myself for her freedom, and he…” He growled again. “He let her go, but he had her and my wife killed.” He banged on the cage again. “I vowed to take everything from you people, and I was, I was doing it. I did it until Garrick Von Stein”—he said the king’s name like he was worse than the dirt on his shoe—“came down from his perch and fired me. Now he’s undoing all of my work.”
This man was insane . A fae hurt him, and now he was punishing all of us? I understood that something horrible had happened to the man, but how could he possibly hold the actions of one fae against all of us? Most of us weren’t like that. I certainly wasn’t, and I knew poor Trayben wasn’t like that either.
None of us deserved to pay in blood for what that fae did to him. It was awful and terrible and disgusting, and I couldn’t say that I wouldn’t have lost my mind if something like that had happened to me, but that didn’t make any of this okay.
I already knew that he’d been behind all of the unfair laws that allowed people to discriminate against the fae—laws that Garrick had gotten rid of—but I’d never really known why he’d done it in the first place. Until now.
Ralodove growled and banged the cage one more time before moving farther down the line and stopping in front of Trayben.
When he used a key to unlock Trayben’s cage, panic gripped my throat, and I flung myself to the end of my cage, yelling, “No! Please. Don’t hurt him. He’s just a kid. Take me. Please, Ralodove, take me.”
The man growled at me, “Do not use my name.” Then he reached for Trayben.
The kid flailed and kicked out, getting Ralodove in the jaw, but all that did was make the crazed man growl more angrily and go after him with more vigor.
Trayben quickly whispered to me, “Mr. Ker, it’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.” Then he sent me a sad smile before Ralodove dragged him out of his cage.
I screamed, yelled, and banged on my cage, and I was surprised when the others joined in. None of us wanted the werewolf to hurt the kid. Tears burned in my eyes as I begged with everything I was.
But then Ralodove backhanded Trayben across the face so hard the kid fell to the ground with a cry, and the werewolf said, “Keep quiet, or I’ll make it hurt even more!”
Everyone went silent, and tears streamed down my face as I watched the evil werewolf strap a flailing Trayben to a chair, pick up a long knife, and reach for the kid.
Bile rose up, but I didn’t look away. I couldn’t because Trayben was staring right at me with tears of pain streaming down his own cheeks.