Page 159 of Prince of Darkness and Deceit

Ice floods my veins as his evil grin grows. “Now, Elara, it’s your turn.”

31

The cell walls close in, squeezing the air from my lungs until there’s no space left to breathe.

My ribs throb from the ghost of Fief’s boot. The echo of splintered bone pierces my eardrums.

My chest heaves too fast, too shallow. Spots swim in my vision. I dig my nails into my palms, desperate to anchor myself to something real. Anything to stop the panic from swallowing me whole.

I can’t do it. I can’t let him torture me again. I’ll break.

“You will not touch her,” Juniper snaps.

Rage flows off her body, making her seem much more formidable than her frail stature otherwise conveys.

“Oh, but I will.” Fief smirks. “Until Elara gives up what she knows of our enemies, she will be questioned every day, two times a day, until she breaks.”

My hands tremble violently.

“Elara is a vital member of our community,” Juniper shouts. “Verdanthia needs its healer. Blood already runs in the streets. Who will help your soldiers if not her?”

Blood?

Her words break through the veil of panic.

I guess the coup wasn’t peaceful…

“Our men will figure it out,” Fief snaps. “We don’t need a woman to treat us.”

“This woman saved your son’s leg! Or are you forgetting that?”

I don’t wonder how Juniper knows about Rolf. She knows everything that goes on in Verdanthia.

“What we need is answers,” he growls, taking a threatening step forward, “and if I have to peel the skin from her bones to get them, I will.”

My mind begins to separate from my body, preparing for the pain it knows will come.

Through the haze, I hear Juniper say, “Then I will personally see to it that poison finds its way into your next beer at Odden’s.”

“Are you threatening me, witch?”

“It’s a promise.”

“Enough!”

I come back from dissociation and find Lev glaring at the man hovering over my adoptive mother.

“That’s enough, Fief,” he clips out. “I’ll take it from here.”

Every muscle in Fief’s body grows taut. He doesn’t want to defer to Lev, but there is just enough lingering respect for the Ironheart name banging against his thick skull that he releases a disgruntled sound and stomps out of the cell.

I watch Fief go, but my fear doesn’t abate until the sound of the door closing reaches my ears. Then my shoulders slump, and a lone tear rolls down my cheek.

Lev asks, “Are you all right, Juniper?”

“Don’t you dare speak to me, boy,” she hisses.

He clenches his jaw. “It’s Major Ironheart.”