Page 20 of The Bonds of Indigo

I breathe in sharply and glance down. One step more and I would’ve fallen. The sight doesn’t scare me. The dizzying drop, the jagged rocks waiting below. None of it stirs fear. My heart stays steady.

Part of me wishes they’d let go, even if all it would do is hurt me.

I’m sure I have fear somewhere inside me, but falling from here doesn’t elicit that feeling.

My lips part, and as I release a sigh of relief, I mutter, “Vendra?”

That was stupid—I know it was—yet I still felt the impulse to call to my God, hoping she might hear me.

The moment my chain jerks back, my eyes squeeze shut and I hit the ground hard. Pain explodes across my lower back as a few of my fingers crush against the metal grid beneath me.

“Told you!” Anders shouts.

“No, no—” I try to push up, but a heavy boot slams into my shoulder, rolling me onto my stomach. “I-I was just⁠—”

The words die as my face is driven into the grate. Metal bites deep, cutting skin. “Stop!” I barely choke out.

Whoever’s foot presses into the back of my neck grinds my cheek deeper into the grid until the skin splits open.

“Enough! This is wasting my fucking time.”

The pressure lifts, and suddenly I’m weightless and hoisted off the ground like a ragdoll. A moment later I’m slung over a broad shoulder, and by the smell of him, it’s the Vampire.

I’d been right. He’s massive. My gods.

“Put it down, it can walk!” Jozier shouts.

With my ass in the air and my hands bound, my head keeps bouncing against Butcher’s back. I want to tell him to just toss me into the sea, but we’re already inside. Besides, I could probably ask him to spit on me, and he still wouldn’t.

“Butcher!” someone shouts, but he doesn’t stop. He’s moving fast, climbing the stairs, and I can tell when we reach my floor. The air shifts, the sound dulls, and the wards snap back around me.

His grip slides to my hips as he lowers me down, moving so quickly I barely have time to catch myself. Actually, I don’t. He grabs my arms and forces my back straight.

“Give me your name.”

I swallow hard, eyes squeezing shut. “Pen and paper.”

“Just—godsdamnit!” He vanishes from in front of me, and I stumble back. My hip clips the edge of the table, and when I brace a hand against it, something slick coats my palm.

My feet slip, skidding on the cold floor, but I manage to catch myself before I hit the ground. My pinky screams in protest. Broken? Probably. I’m bleeding, that much I know. It hurts like the Beyond, and moving it just makes it worse.

After a few beats, his heavy footsteps approach. “They’re grabbing it.”

“They need to be…” Pain flickers through my face as my split cheek shifts when I speak. “Out of the room. They can’t have my n⁠—”

“Yeah, yeah. This is so fucking weird.” His tone drips with frustration. “You do understand how weird this is? The name thing.”

I shake my head. I don’t find it strange at all. Our names are sacred, the truest thing we own. It’s the first gift our parents give us after life itself, and the only thing we carry into death.

Choosing to ignore his ignorance, I stand still, waiting. A minute passes before footsteps return, faint but growing louder.

“Get out,” the Vampire snaps, his voice sharp enough to cut through the air. He sounds more like the warden, than the warden himself.

“Butcher—” Sook goes to protest.

“I’m so over this place and you. Just go and once she’s done, I’m gone.”

Once the warden leaves, the scrape of paper against metal breaks the silence, followed by Butcher’s hand closing around my wrist. He presses a pen into my palm and folds my fingers over it, his grip firm, impatient.