AllFreeNovel
Share Us
See, that’s the problem with Allium. It has a very distinctive smell, and a very distinctive taste. When Vee’s captors realized it didn’t work on her the way it worked on other Witches, when it became clear her Faction’s metabolism would clear the drug in a few days, they’d had to get creative.
Witches only need one dose of Allium, and snap just like that, their power was gone! Vanished! But not Shifters like her, apparently. They had to keep dosing her, day after day, to keep her power in check.
Her food, her water, every piece of sustenance that came through those cold steel bars in those first few months had been coated in it. It had been hard to eat back then, with that vile taste in the back of her throat with every bite. But that must have been expensive, or at least troublesome, because after a few months they stopped and developed a new system. Now, they dosed only one item of food, each day, seemingly at random.
Today, after smelling each piece of her dinner, one by one, Vee knew it was in the bread.
Fine. She hated the bread they gave her, anyway. It was sweet, like so much of the food that came from the palace. Strange, sweet potato rolls, coated in salted butter.
Vee was perfectly happy not eating the bread. The chicken had been especially delicious tonight.
She held the roll for hours after she’d finished the rest of her meal, staring at it. Memories clashed in her mind—hers and Kallista’s, jumbled together, tied in a knot that was difficult to tease apart, even now. Sometimes Vee wasn’t sure whose memories were whose. The Demon’s thoughts felt like her own, now. Another piece of her.
Witch. Shifter. Demon. Was she a bit of each, now? Vee had no idea. But every now and then, she could see the shadows in her cell move in ways they shouldn’t. Sometimes she could feel Kallista, could feel her thoughts and her feelings, out there beyond her cell. And wasn’t that just so interesting?
Vee pinched a piece of bread between her fingers and tore it off. She rolled it between her fingers until it formed a ball. Sweet, sweet bread, hiding a toxin meant to keep her weak as a newborn pup. Kallista had memories of enjoying sweet bread like this, from before. Long, long ago, before the bomb, before the wars. Bread with friendly pink frosting. Conchas, the word floated up into her head, from memories that weren’t her own. Yes, that was what they were called. Conchas. The princess would like something like that, wouldn’t she? Something sweet and pink.
Maybe Vee would make them for her, one day.
Pleased with that thought, Vee made her way to the bars of her cage. Pushing her arm through the steel bars, she tossed the piece of bread as far as she could, down the dungeon halls, where it disappeared into the shadows. So far, the guards hadn’t noticed the food scraps she’d thrown out there. Maybe it was gone by the morning, taken away by ants, or mice, or even?—
Vee froze, arm still pressed uncomfortably far through the bars, at the almost imperceptible sound of tiny claws against stone.
Skit skit skit.
Finally.
Vee moved with slow deliberate care. She took her time, and that was the most important part. A predator knows how to bide their time, waiting for the perfect moment. You can’t rush these things.
Pinching off another piece of bread, Vee tossed it into the dark, a little closer this time.
Silence. A long stretch of uninterrupted silence.
Then…
Skit skit skit.
Vee grinned.
The next piece of bread, she threw a little closer. And the next, even closer.
The roll wasn’t even half gone when the shadows split, and the rat ventured close enough for her to see.
A scrawny thing, like her. Half starved. Maybe that’s why the taste of the Allium didn’t bother it. It crept closer to her cell, suspicious, eyes bright and movements quick.
Rats are survivors. Vee could respect that. She was a survivor, too.
Vee gently set the rest of the roll on the ground outside of her cell and pushed it forward as far as her fingertips could reach.
A gift. She hoped the rat understood.
It watched her. Hungry, vicious eyes moved from her to the roll, and back again.
“Go on,” Vee whispered. “It’s for you.”
Cautiously, so very cautiously, he finally moved forward.
He watched her as he ate, suspicious and hesitant, but Vee didn’t mind. Her thoughts were focused on other things.
