But…why? How?
He looked behind him, both hands free. “I am going, you red-robed fuckbumper. Can’t you see I’m going? Eat a fucking carrot once in a while, and you’d see that.” He straightened up and smoothed his maid dress down his front. Clumps of mud dropped to the ground. “First that fucking bridge of absolute terror—what the fuck was up with that thing?” he muttered, continuing down the stairs. “And why do all you fuckers look the same? What is going on here? And if you wanted to look the same, why choose ugly as the common theme?”
The first officer behind him shoved again, and he jumped two steps down to the bottom.
“Ha! Nice try, jackass. I didn’t land on my head this time.”
“Shh.” Leala came down after him, her hair covered in mud and sticking out every which way, her trim frame dressed all in black. She glanced behind her with a hesitant smile, her eyes tight. Her officer followed with his whip in hand, clearly not intending to use it. They’d already realized these two weren’t going to harm them.
And then my world wobbled.
“No.” Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Please, no!”
Hannon came last, his face hard and determined. He had two sheaths hanging from a belt, both empty. The second he could, he looked down the row of cells, finding me almost immediately.
My heart wrenched in my chest. Power pulsed out all around me.
“Damn it, Hannon.” I struggled to get up, accidentally shoving an everlass plant. They grew in my cell now, and I’d be lying if I said they weren’t helping me cling hard to my duty.
“Go.” The first officer shoved Hadriel farther into the room.
“Every time you touch me, I feel like showering.” He wiped off his shoulder with a glare at the first officer before slinking into the center of the dungeon, looking absolutely ridiculous and totally comfortable with that fact. I was back to laugh-crying.
Leala held back, as did Hannon, though I saw that Hannon’s wrists had been cuffed behind his back, probably because of his size. His shoulders were hunched, like he was unsure about this whole setup. His aura of calm acceptance thrived even here, as he watched the goings-on with a still body and obvious patience. That had clearly given the officers, and maybe the guards before them, the illusion that he wasn’t dangerous. It had kept him from being pushed down the stairs.
Of the three, Hadriel was the one they’d decided they needed to watch out for.
My laugh-crying intensified.
Micah reached through the bars, like he often did, and the movement attracted Hadriel’s gaze. Startling, he scampered to the other side, finding Tamara standing in the center of her cage, staring at him like she’d seen a ghost.
“Ah, fuck me,” Hadriel said with a groan, scurrying back to the center. “Please don’t tell me this area is for the dragons.”
One of the officers stepped forward, whip in hand. He moved his arm in a circle, and I wanted to shout for Hadriel to get out of the way, but I knew there was nowhere for him to go.
Crack.
The slash landed somewhere on Hadriel’s front.
“What in the holy fucking hell, you goblin cumsplat! Ahh!” Hadriel scurried backward, fell onto his ass, and then crab-walked away as the officer stepped forward.
Hadriel stuck out his hand. “No! No more. I was playing dead! I was playing dead!”
“Stop.” The first officer, not smiling, stepped away from the wall, approaching the whip-toting officer. “Leave him. He has no power, just a mouth. Try one of the others.”
One of the other officers shoved Leala toward the center of the space.
“Yes, yes,” Hadriel panted, turning over and crawling in my general direction. “Yes, she’s the one who likes the whips.”
I crawled toward the bars, wrapping my fingers around them and watching Hadriel come closer. The crack rang out, and I looked up as Leala cried out. My gut twisted. And then she murmured, “Mmm, yes, Daddy. A little lower.”
Leala turned halfway and pushed out her butt. I could see that pain tightened her features, but the swell of pleasure in her voice was unmistakable. This was probably rougher treatment than she was used to, but she was going for it all the same, probably out of a sense of survival.
The guard froze, lowering his whip arm slightly, and flicked his gaze toward the first officer. Dragons came to the bars now, looking out, many with shocked faces.
“I. Am. In. Love,” Vemar gushed, scooting over to sit in his favorite place next to the bars.
The first officer, his brow furrowed in concentration, gestured. “Try again.”
The officer with the whip moved a little more slowly this time, as if unsure, then let loose. The point must’ve struck where Leala had desired, because after the initial pinching of her expression, a smile slowly soaked up her lips. “Yes, please. Again!”
The first officer’s brow creased further. He shook his head in frustration. “No. No power. She needs to be a level up, too. Try the last.”
“Hey.”
I belatedly noticed that Hadriel had made it to my cell.
I sat back onto my butt, a wave of pain rising up, but my latest wounds were already healing.
“Oh, honey.” He tsked, looking over my face and then down to my chest. “I can see your tits in that top. I thought we went over this? Running around showing off your tits is no way to go through life.” He smiled sadly and reached out to grab one of the bars.
I closed my hand over his. “Why are you here?”
“Look at this! You’re crying for me? I’m honored.” He pulled at the hem of his outfit. “I told you I would go with you. When you took too long to come back, I decided to do just that.”
“But…how?”
“Finding that portal wasn’t too hard. The journey here wasn’t great, but whatever. I am thoroughly knowledgeable about their whole boat setup now. Or…Hannon is. The master has apparently been delivering books to your brother—who knew? Sneaky fucker. Anyway, most of those books were about the demons. The master didn’t have time to study up, but he knew your family would. Hannon was filling in the gaps of his knowledge on the way here without them being any the wiser. He doesn’t say much, but he watches plenty. I do the talking, take all the focus, and Hannon…notices things. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t think he and I are as great of a team as you and him, but he’ll have to make do.”
“But…why? Why did you come? I would’ve gotten out.”
I didn’t voice the somehow or the someday, and definitely not the maybe.
Hadriel’s smile was still sad but determined. “I’m the brains, love. I’m the master puzzle-smith. I mean…I’m the fucking butler! Of course I had to be here. And don’t worry, I excel at mediocrity to the point where that whip strike was literally the worst thing that’s happened to me so far. It’s been rotten, but not that rotten, you know?”
He glanced around as Hannon walked slowly to the center of the space, his eyes on Hadriel and me. He was giving us time to talk.
I started crying fresh tears.
Hadriel reached through the bars and wiped them away. “Where’s that rat Jeddick? Or whatever his name was.”
“He’s playing pet. They keep him in his own rooms, plural. He’s passed from one person to the next.”