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“Just wait,” Amaro says as his and Levon’s faces reveal nothing but cruel contempt.
Their cruel natures are no longer concealed behind the mask they normally wear, and it sends an icy shiver down my back. I should have known they would have something underhanded arranged for my arrival. My heartbeat kicks up a notch, waiting for the inevitable.
I frown, feeling a pull deep inside me. Glancing down at the bands, I see a glint of strange symbols slither around it, disappearing and reappearing at random.
The pull grows, drawing upon any energy I have with force. I drop to my knees, the hard marble ground aiding my fall, just as the warmth abandons my very veins and leaves behind it a cool, empty vessel.
Trying to catch my breath, I glance down at the gold bands and the retreating glow of symbols.
What just happened? What are these things, and how are they able to make me feel this cold?
There is now a dark hole inside me. Something vacant in the place where the warmth once was.
A cruel chuckle pulls me from my thoughts.
“A nice little side effect these ingenious objects have.” Amaro looks down at me with a smug expression.
“What… are… they?” My words puff out in labored breaths as I try to figure out why I feel so empty and drained.
Amaro’s smug expression only grows. “An invaluable accessory. They mute those worthless Sidus abilities. They will, of course, stay on until I decide to remove them.”
I grit my teeth, keeping my jaw shut to stop anything foul from leaving my lips. I will not let them get the better of me.
Two guards seize my arms, roughly yanking me up to my feet as Amaro steps in front of me.
“We need to takespecialcare of the captain’s daughter.” Amaro gives me a cruel smile that is mirrored among the guards. “Tell us how you were able to enter the competition,” he says, a glint of intrigue in his eyes.
Ignoring the sliver of fear that coils around me, I look at him with indifference. “I thought it was open for anyone to join?”
Amaro narrows his eyes on me. “Yes, but noSidusshould be able to.”
My back straightens at what he is implying. And even though I knew it to be true, listening to him admit it is something else entirely.
“Are you admitting that it is fixed?”
His eyes flash with anger as he realizes his little slip. “Tell me who helped you,” he grits through clenched teeth.
Quiet rage unfurls inside me. “No one helped me.”
Amaro’s eyes turn cold and calculating as he nods before composing himself and taking a step back. “A lie. Well then, I guess we will have to get a littlecreativeto find out, won’t we?” He shares a sinister smile with Levon and the guards before giving them a nod.
“Take ourguestto her new accommodations. We cannot have her wandering about the palace.” He casts me one last cold smirk before leaving with the new guard, Levon.
The guards around me shove me forward, but I catch myself before hitting the ground. Some of them chuckle, finding my forced clumsiness amusing. I whirl around, looking each in the eye, and memorize each sneering face.
Amber eyes with an arrogant smile; jaw-length muddy brown hair. Another with a shaved head and a square face. Brawny frame with a crooked nose as if it has been broken one too many times and not set right, and sandy-blond curls for the pretty boy in the back. He would be attractive if not for the malice seeping out of his glacial blue eyes.
A hand grabs me from the side, and thick fingers dig into my shoulder, pushing me back around before shoving my head down to the floor.
“Eyes downward, Sidus scum.”
I glare at the white stone marble floor as we make our way down the curving hall. I commit to memory every bend and slight turn, not only to calm the rage bubbling inside me but to remember and retrieve when the time comes.
Descending a long stairway, I watch as the lights flicker and dim and shadows pave the way. Something inside me eases at the familiar shades of darkness.
Coming through a dark passageway, we walk along the cold corridor until I am abruptly halted by a heavy hand.
“This way.” A guard pushes me down past empty cells that are enclosed with thick bars, to the very last one in the back of the room.
