“Prisoner, my ass. Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy your time there, princess.” He snarled into the back of my neck, shivers spreading over my arms. “Seemed to me you were loving being his captive. Though you liked me watching, didn’t you? Make your pussy wet?”
I sucked in.
“Jealous?” I muttered under my breath.
“Of Killian or that little pretend soldier boy you have downstairs or even Captain One-Pump back at HDF?” Warwick snorted; the feel of his fingers glided up my thigh. “Not even a little.”
“Brexley?” My uncle’s voice snapped me back to the world outside of Warwick and me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ash’s head shake, sensing what was going on between us.
“Sorry.” I cleared my throat. “Killian started testing the pills on human subjects.” With a quick decision, I pulled my part from the narrative. “They all came willingly, but I saw what they did.” I shook my head, the memory of the people down in those cells forever haunting me. “It changes people.”
“What do you mean changes?”
Picking up one of the pills I stole, I peered at it. So small, yet so devastating.
“They turn humans into mindless drones. They give humans fae-like strength. They no longer understand pain, and they are a lot harder to kill. Their minds were vacant, just waiting for orders.”
Mykel’s head jerked. “What do you mean orders?”
“The ones I saw, after a few days, mentally shut down. They would stand there like robots, but as soon as they were given an order to attack...” I swallowed, recalling how the woman clawed and scratched to get to me, almost forcing her bones through the cell bars. “They became feral, and their only thought was to kill and destroy.”
I could see the doubt and fear warring inside Mykel. It was hard to believe. “I know.” I shook my head with a sigh. “It sounds like a made-up story, but I promise you, it’s true. I saw every stage, from beginning to end.”
“End?” Mykel asked.
“Every one of them died after a week. Horrifically.” I had a flash of that woman becoming an empty shell, her brains leaking out of her ears and nose.
“If this is true, you are saying General Markos is producing these and loading crates with them, sending them to Prime Minister Leon, and Lord Killian has them as well.”
“Yes.” I cringed. “But I don’t believe Killian is our worry.”
Both Ash and Warwick snorted as Mykel let out a dry laugh.
“Killian would love to end the human reign and make us nothing more than slaves.” Mykel’s nose wrinkled with disgust.
Everyone kept telling me that, but I couldn’t bring myself to think the worst of Killian. Maybe I was a fool, and he had tricked me the whole time. But why? Why would he bother? If I was so beneath him, why would he try to play me? Kiss me...
“Before I left HDF, I found documents Istvan was hiding. Documents that back up the idea he has someone making these pills.”
“Documents? What kind?” Mykel asked.
“Notes from some quack doctor and scientists from long ago.” I tried to recall his name. “Fringe stuff about taking fae DNA and trying to create some kind of superior soldiers.”
Mykel’s face blanched, his jaw rolling. “Dr. Rapava?”
My stomach sank hearing the man’s name and wondering how my uncle knew it. “How do you know about him?”
“I learned about his experiments from my research of a Dr. Novikov.” He stared at me in awe. I remembered Dr. Novikov’s name from the letter as well. Another scientist searching for ways to make humans stronger. “They stopped working together when Rapava’s went to the States, where he became radicalized and unstable.” He licked his lips. “Istvan is studying Rapava’s work?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “Not just studying.” I pointed to the pills. “He has Rapava’s formula.”
“These?” Mykel gestured at the blue pills, his reaction icing my veins. “These are made up from the Rapava formula? He found it?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
Mykel started pacing, his hand running through his hair. “The doctor was crazy, and though some of his testing resulted in some interesting headway, almost everyone died. Also horrendously. He was known around the science community as Dr. Death. It was some of the reason Dr. Novikov parted ways with him.” He pinched his nose. “Are you saying Markos is using this nutjob’s theories for an actual purpose?”
“It wasn’t until I came back from Halálház that I saw how obsessed Istvan was with becoming the most powerful ruler of the East and ending the fae, no matter the costs.” I dipped my head. “Actually, I think he was always like that. Guess I didn’t notice or care before.” Because I also believed fae were soulless and should be killed. I was another mindless minion Istvan had been grooming into a soldier. Not much different from the living corpses in Killian’s cells.
“Fuck,” he hissed, his hand running over his dark mop, with silver sprinkled through it. “Fuck!” He started pacing behind his desk. “This is so much worse than I thought.” He paused, taking a breath before he pushed a button on his phone. “Bring in the Novikov file,” he spoke into the speaker.
“Yes, sir.”
Only about thirty seconds later, Oskar, the man who brought his tea the day I arrived, came in carrying a file and placed it on the desk.
“Here you go, Kaptain.”
“Thank you.” Mykel nodded as the man left the room. “At least fifteen years ago, talk was going around about a ‘fae-like nectar’ that was found, which caught my notice.”
Nectar... The word dropped into my stomach like cement.
“It was said to be the only thing left after the barrier fell, which could give humans fae-like qualities: infinite life, no diseases or sickness, harder to kill... basically turning a human to ‘fae’ without any consequences.” Mykel shifted on his feet. Something about his demeanor told me there was more to his story. “That was when I noticed Dr. Novikov’s research. He was one of them leading the charge to find it. Many of us thought he had.”
“What happened to him?”
Mykel flipped the folder open, pushing it out for us to see. Both Ash and Warwick moved in, all of us peering down at the paper.
On top was an old, grainy newspaper clipping with a picture of an older man, dated over fifteen years ago. The headline stated:
Dr. Novikov Goes Missing After He Is Said to Have Found the Nectar of The Gods.
Dr. Novikov, a well-known scientist and partner of Dr. Rapava, has disappeared in China after claims of finding the fae nectar, which is said to give humans fae qualities. This nectar is reported to make humans stronger and faster and end disease, sickness, and aging. For a long time, the idea of fae food was considered a myth, which died when the barrier between the Otherworld and Earth fell. But before his disappearance, Dr. Novikov claimed he had found the last known object to give humans eternal life, along with strength and power similar to a fae’s.
The clipping was cut, leaving out the rest of the article, but it was all I needed to read. A memory slunk in—the night of Caden’s engagement, when he declared he loved me.