Page 10

CHAPTER 10

S asha

The sound of a door opening jolts me awake and my eyelids open wide, shedding the fog of sleep in a split second. The first thing I’m aware of is the way my shoulders hurt, the pain like a longing, spreading from my elbows to my lower back and down my shoulder blades.

Sleeping tied up with my legs open didn’t make for the best power nap, for sure.

I don’t dwell on the pain, though, not with the hulking form backlit in the doorway. A hulking form with deadly spikes, rising all along his shoulders and arms.

I open my mouth to say something, but the words fade from my mind as he steps forward. His sharper-than-a-god’s features are cast in shadows, but even with the low light I can tell his expression is closed off and cold. His blue on blue gaze is on me without a trace of mercy.

Not that I expect any.

He walks calmly all the way to my side and takes his sweet time, looking down at my naked body like he owns it. Which he kind of does at the moment, so there’s that. I squirm, not used to feeling so vulnerable, but I’m tied up too well to hide anything. I’m on fucking display.

And it makes me mad. Mad is good. I can use some anger to soften how scared I am.

“It hurts,” I grit between my teeth, my voice sharp and my tone cutting. Not that he seems impressed, but it gives me some semblance of confidence to talk to him like I’m not about to faint from fear. “I can barely feel my arms.”

His eyes flash to me and his brows furrow, but he doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he just stands there, like he’s not sure what he wants to do with me. Then he moves to my feet, his spike cutting the restraints around my ankles. He’s barely touching me, his fingers brushing my skin for just a fleeting moment.

It’s enough to set my heart racing, but he doesn’t show any signs that he’s aroused by my nakedness. I should be ashamed of myself, but my body starts humming as he bends over me, his form large and wide, looming over me. His scent comes to my nose, dry and musky, like good leather and whiskey. Like a dark room full of smoke and forbidden things.

His nostrils flare as he locks gazes with me and I’m glad it’s too dark for him to see that I’m blushing as furiously as he’s frowning.

Then his thumb presses on the shackles’ locks and a metallic click announces my freedom. I lose no time and sit upright in the bed, rubbing my wrists as I glare at him with all I’m worth.

Which is, yeah, not a lot. I’m no threat to this man and we both know it. It doesn’t prevent me from giving him the dirtiest look I can muster.

“Better?” he asks, still standing right beside the bed.

“You know what would make me feel better? If you let me go,” I retort, my eyes scanning the wide room and rapidly concluding that I’ve got exactly zero chances of escaping.

His full lips curve down and I get the impression he’s not past spanking me again. Or more. Just the idea of what he did to me sends a rush of heat to my face. And lower, too.

Too much heat.

“Look, I’m no one.” I shake my head and drag a corner of the bedsheet up to my chest, covering my body from view. The Huugwor’s blue stare follows each of my movements, but he doesn’t stop me. He doesn’t even try. In fact, he doesn’t move a muscle. It gives me a bit of hope and the next time I speak, my voice is stronger.

“All I know is that I was supposed to steal some stupid statue.” I’m not lying. There’s no reason to and I’m suspecting that the Huugwor can tell, anyway. My only hope for survival now is to make him see that I’m not a threat. “This is much bigger than me. I’m just the girl they hired to steal your stuff. I know nothing. I don’t even know who hired me.”

Now this is not exactly true, and when the Huugwor huffs a quick breath through his nose, I know he knows.

“Lies will not be tolerated.”

He says that with a flat tone and my belly quivers with fear. With fear and with something else that I will never admit, not even to myself.

“Okay, I won’t lie to you.” I take a shaky breath, coming to terms with the fact that I am completely and utterly fucked. “I might not tell you everything you want, but I won’t lie.”

I don’t like lying, anyway. I may be a thief, but I’m not a liar. At least, not a good one. It’s the silver lining to my rotten soul, I guess.

He squints at me and his face sets in those harsh, terrible lines, but I lift my chin and I hold my head high. I’m really a stupid girl.

“I’m afraid this won’t be good enough. You don’t seem to understand what’s happening here, little thief. I make the rules. I ask the questions and you answer them. No negotiation, no backtalk. Just answers.”

He bends toward me, so close his hot breath fans my face and I grip the sheet tighter around me. Not because I think he’s going to touch me again. No, I’m afraid my hands will move by themselves, my fingers itching to touch that hard, muscled chest. Itching to see if it feels as hard and smooth as it looks.

I’m a stupid girl, again. It goes on full circle.

“Who wants the sculpture?” he asks with a velvet voice that’s filled with so much danger, my skin erupts in goosebumps.

“I don’t know.”

I tell him the truth and after a moment where he stares right into my soul, he nods. Reassured by his self-control, I keep talking.

“I never know who the actual client is or why they want what they want. Most of the time, it’s something obvious, like jewelry or trade secrets from one of the big merchants in the city. Sometimes, I can’t tell why the client wants what they want, but if they pay, I deliver. No one pays me to ask questions, because no one wants me to be able to answer questions like yours if I’m caught.”

Those eyes. Those blue on blue eyes seem to shine with a light from within, glowing like beacons, and I find myself inching forward like a moth to a flame.

“Then who would know who the actual client is?” Eirik asks, enunciating the words slowly, carefully. His gaze never wavers as he pins me down to the bed with only his eyes. “Someone gave you this job, someone had contact with you. Who is it, Sasha?”

I feel the stone settling in the pit of my stomach again. “What are you going to do if I give you that information?” I have no idea where I find the strength to ask, but I do.

I get my answer by the hard, murderous turn of Eirik’s lips.

“I won’t do anything they don’t deserve, little thief. That’s all you need to know.”

I know what he wants from me. I know what will happen if I give it to him. He wants me to give them up to save myself.

He will kill every single one of them, starting with Sargul, and he won’t even bat an eye about it. It’ll be like taking out the trash for him.

That’s what he sees when he looks at me. A thief, a criminal. A woman willing to sacrifice others to save herself. No one of value.

He should have been right. Only he’s not. Maitlin is not my sister. Sargul was never much of a father, and Naeve isn’t anything a mother should be. But as flawed as they are, they are my family.

When the Huugwor’s jaw tightens again at my silence, I know I can’t just keep my mouth shut, either. No one is coming for me. No one can save me except myself.

That means I’m as good as dead. I might as well accept it.

“I can’t,” I say with barely a breath.

There’s a moment when Ambassador Eirik’s eyes glow with danger, then his mouth flattens to a fine line and he shakes his head in disbelief.

“You’re willing to sacrifice yourself for that person?” That stare holds me down, digging right into my soul. “Would they do the same for you, I wonder?”

No. They wouldn’t. They wouldn’t even hesitate. Still, I can’t bring myself to do it.

“Probably not,” I answer flatly, knowing there’s nothing else I can say that will save me now. “But it doesn’t matter. They saved my life once. Now I’m repaying that debt.”

Eirik stays unmoving in that unsettling way of his, his entire, powerful body completely still. The only thing betraying any emotion on his face is a vein pulsing at his temple.

This isn’t going the way he thought it would.

“What if I make a deal with you?” His voice is low and deep and I get a sense he hates what he’s saying to me.

“What kind of deal?” Hope flutters from that tiny, stubborn place deep between my ribs that doesn’t want to die. It’s a stupid thing, hope, but I cling to it like a drowning woman.

“I won’t kill them. I won’t even raise a finger to any of them.”

“How can I know you’re not lying to me?”

His eyes reduce to slits and I just know I insulted him. “You have the word of a Huugwor warrior. There is no better insurance I can give you.”

I let that settle in as I push saliva down my painfully clenched throat, the pain acting like an anchor to reality. I expected violence, torture, even. But not this.

“His name is Sargul.” The name burns my tongue and my stomach coils as I feel the betrayal deep in my bones. Tears sting my eyelids and I bat them away furiously. “But he won’t give you the name of the actual client. He’d rather die.”

Eirik holds my gaze for long seconds before I find the courage to speak again.

“He’s the biggest smuggler in Tartarus. His compound is called the Fortress for a reason. No one gets in without his say.”

“But you can.” That voice, so soft, so full of terror. “Because you’re one of them.”

I bat my eyelids again and feel a single tear streak down my cheek. Eirik’s gaze flicks to it for a split second, then he glares right back into my eyes.

“Yes,” I say with a voice just a bit stronger. “I can get inside and retrieve the information you need, but I’ll need more in exchange than just your words that you won’t hurt them.”

Danger hovers between Eirik and me, and I know I need to speak fast before things take a turn for the worse.

“They will know I gave them up,” I tell him, licking my lips, thoughts racing through my mind at a thousand miles an hour, powered by that stubborn hope. “I’ll never find work in Tartarus again. I’ll need enough money to pay for my passage out of Valcan. Enough to start a new life, somewhere far away from here and from the Empire.”

Eirik glares at me for what feels like hours. Somehow, I glare right back.

“Passage out of Valcan and my word that I won’t kill your so-called friends in exchange for the name of the person who hired you,” he muses, but there’s a darkness in his tone. “I will agree to those terms, little thief. But know this: a Huugwor’s word is binding. We do not make a deal lightly.”

I understand that I may not die today, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to die very soon.

But at least that stubborn flutter of hope is still beating between my ribs.

“I cheat, I die. Got it,” I answer, inhaling a deep breath that doesn’t alleviate the heaviness settling inside my bones. “You got yourself a deal, Huugwor.”

“There are clothes for you in the bathroom,” he says as he gets to his feet. “Get dressed. We’re leaving right away.”

He doesn’t wait or look back. He doesn’t even bother to warn me not to try to run. We both know I wouldn’t make it far, anyway.

As I get to my feet, wrapped in the bedsheet and shaking, I know.

Even without shackles, I’m still his prisoner.