The curse kept trying to erase his knowledge. The magic was trying to unravel our history.
He shook his head. “There are other dragons, too, from other places or that are from the parents of different creatures, but now they come to us or stay elsewhere.”
A wave of despondency and sadness nearly overwhelmed me, but it was immediately answered by a rush of love and support riding a wave of power.
“We will get out of here,” I said softly, meeting the indigo gaze of one of the faeries across the room. “We’ll get out of here, and we will bring this fucktacular ass-basket of a kingdom to the ground.”
TWELVE
FINLEY
An hour later, the demon guests moved into the room, all of them in some sort of human-esque glamor. They held glasses of deep red brandy-wine or flutes of a yellowish sort of elixir as they perused the cages and pointed at those inside. The tamer prisoners walked amongst them, wearing blue robes open in the front, showing off their wares. What I could only think of as handlers accompanied the loose prisoners, sex demons using their magic to keep everyone agreeable and eager to please or be pleased.
The more I watched, the angrier I became. Nyfain had gone from trying to support and balance me to soaking up my anger and feeding me power. Through the bond, I got waves of his own rage. Given the time of day, he was probably in the wood taking it out on the officers’ creatures, using my anger and unease to fuel his own aggression.
“This is the best party I’ve ever been to,” Micah commented, standing in the middle of his cage and looking down at two female demons with elaborate hair. They huddled together, staring up at him with fearful yet heat-soaked gazes.
“Is my company really that intoxicating?” I said sarcastically, staring at my own audience. Three male demons and a female looked up at me with unease on their faces. The female held her nose.
I grinned at them.
“First, yes. But you knew that.”
I frowned at him. It didn’t seem like he was being sarcastic.
“Second,” he continued, “you’re pumping enough power at me to…ensure I am not alone through this.”
I knew he was talking about my effect on his animal. The demon suppression magic would continually try to punch it back in, but apparently it wasn’t working at the moment. Which meant he got a little company.
A familiar face caught my eye, and my heart sank down to my feet.
Jedrek.
Dressed to the nines with his hair slicked back and an air of importance, he strutted around like he was the richest, most important man in the room. The female demon beside him, in a human glamor, wore a sparkly black dress with a neckline that plunged down to her navel and gaped at the back. He smiled and swaggered, sipping his wine before bending over to kiss her neck.
“It seems he’d like to have a harem,” Micah said, following my gaze. “Or maybe he’s traded you in for someone willing?”
Jedrek’s hand slid down her bare back before settling on her butt. He gave her a gentle squeeze, and she turned, pushing her front against his side. Her hand lowered to his stomach.
Gross.
“They look like a couple,” I said. “He’s treating her like she’s his girlfriend.”
“Does that pain you?”
“Emotionally? No.” I glanced at the crowd of female demons now ogling Jedrek. “But any sort of watching and reporting from him isn’t going to happen. He won’t have any incentive to get out of here.”
Micah nodded and turned his face away, surveying the clusters of people moving around the room. Most of them ignored the creatures glaring down at them from the cages, opting instead to invite the nicer, less aggressive blue-robed people into their midst.
“His…decisions are not unusual.” Micah nodded to the right. “The brunette in the mauve dress is a wolf. She’s been here nearly as long as me. Didn’t take long for her to cooperate. She’s passed around, but she’s usually only with one person at a time. When one tires of her, someone else takes her.”
“It’s not her choice who takes her?”
“No. Prisoners get no choices. You know that. There are two other wolves like that, a man and a woman, and a few faeries.” He paused for a moment as Jedrek noticed me. “He’s handsome. They’ll have set him up with a nice life. As long as he’s fine living in a cage with no obvious bars, he’ll be looked after.”
Jedrek rolled his eyes at me and then bent to say something to his date. She looked around him at me, and her eyes widened. She nodded, letting him step away.
He moved through the room like he owned it, swinging his shoulders and straightening his suit. When he passed the blue-robed prisoners, he gave them pitying, condescending looks. He might’ve been back in our village, but with finer clothes and more delusions.
“A lotta swagger for a prisoner,” Micah growled.
“No shit, right?”
“I thought I’d find you in there,” Jedrek said as he reached me, glancing at Micah, now leaning against the bars closest to me. He crinkled his nose and took a couple steps back, away from my scent.
The demons ogling me gave him a smile before slowly sauntering away, heading to the next cage down the way. I had no idea why we were such fun to look at.
“And I bet you didn’t do a damn thing to keep me out of here,” I told him.
“I told them not to hurt you, but honestly, Finley, what do you expect? You fight and kill guards and—you were always wild. Well? This is what you get. Now you see. A little obedience training will go a long way, I think.”
“It truly amazes me that you haven’t killed him yet,” Micah said, pushing off the bars and straightening up, looking down at two demon females who were walking toward his cage.
Jedrek huffed and pretended to ignore Micah.
“Learn the lessons they are trying to teach you,” Jedrek said, “and then you can get out of there. You can move into my rooms.”
He said it like roomzzz. Like he’d moved up in the world and had a standing place in the hierarchy here.
“Where do you think this leads?” I demanded of him, pushing to the side of the cage. “Do you think they’re going to welcome you into their society as anything other than a pet? Get a clue, Jedrek. There is no way that you get a happily-ever-after like this.”
He shook his head a little. “Why do you insist on learning the hard way?” He tossed up his hands. “Well, enjoy this. When you’re ready to see reason, let me know.”
My anger grew, turning into blistering power. It scratched against the inside of my skin, wanting to escape. Searing pain erupted along my back before I heard a dull clang. A hand fisted in my dress and yanked me. The bars of the cage knocked into my head. Snapping my eyes open, I almost lashed out, but Micah was staring at me with his deep brown eyes.
“No,” he said, the command shocking into me and freezing me up. “Not here. Rein it in.”
He was flattened against his cage so that he could reach me, holding my dress in a tight grip.
“Break them up,” I heard, and it sounded like Govam.
Micah’s voice was low and intense. His eyes held mine. “I know you weren’t lying—you’ve never shifted before. You have no scales on your back. Do not start now. I can guide you when the time comes, but it can’t happen here. They’ll kill you inside of a minute, do you hear me? No matter who you are.”