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“No. If she’s truly Chosen, she can wait until Remus returns. If he decides to set her free, so be it. We’re just following orders.”
“If this girl dies, for whatever reason, it will be on your heads.”
The guards turn away from the window, and I lurch forward, my stomach sinking with their retreat.
“Tom. Tom, wait. Don’t let them leave me in here! Please!”
He appears again, his eyes stern and determined. “It hasn’t touched you so far, and I reckon it won’t. Just sit tight and be quiet. I’m gonna keep trying, but you’re gonna rile that thing up, if you keep on with that noise.”
“Okay. I’ll stay here. Just … please don’t give up, okay? Please.”
“I promise I won’t.”
* * *
Time ticks by in the span of what feels like an eternity, and my stomach growls with hunger. Lisbeth passes by my window, and I can hear her sliding the tray into Titus’s cell. The scent of meat and bread has me twisting into myself, to keep from throwing up. Hunger will make me weak, and if this thing decides to up and attack, I’m not sure what I’ll do then.
At the click of the door, and the sound of footsteps trailing off, I swallow back tears.
“Why did you do it?” The sound of my own voice echoes inside the cell, and only the click of the Ragers teeth answers. “Titus? I’m asking you. Why did you kill him?”
He doesn’t answer.
The Rager seems to grow more agitated, hissing and snapping its teeth.
“Why did you kill him!” My voice bounces off the wall, and I tip forward, coughing with a scratchy burn that lingers at the back of my throat.
The Rager peeks out from its shadow, growling and clicking.
And still, Titus doesn’t answer.
Chapter 22
More time passes. Perhaps another day, if the ache in my body from lying on concrete is anything to go by. It feels as if a sock has been stuffed down my throat, the dry cotton sensation like a lump there every time I swallow. The growling across the room is a low, droning white noise beneath the incessant static in my head.
The door clicks and swings open, and Remus stands in the opening, shielded behind a guard holding some kind of jabbing stick. “It’s true.” The air of wonderment in his voice fills me with both sickness and utter relief. “Get her out of here. Get her cleaned up immediately and fed.”
The growling intensifies, as two guards follow behind the one with the stick. They link their arms beneath mine, and the concrete scrapes across the tips of my toes, as they drag me out of the cell. It’s only once I’m clear of it that the Rager lurches toward the one with the stick, and at the first jab, it hisses and swipes out at him. Before the guard can escape, Remus slams the door shut, locking it so the guard can’t escape.
“Hey! Hey, wait!”
The growls grow louder, and the sounds of tearing flesh beat down my spine with a harrowing reminder that it could’ve been me, while Remus stands over me, his head tipped in curiosity.
“So it’s not because he wasn’t hungry.” Frowning, he waves his hand in front of his nose and gags into his palm. “Dear God, you smell like piss. We’ll get you cleaned up, and then you and I have quite a bit to talk about.”
* * *
Steam whorls above me, as Aiyana, Lisbeth’s sister, pours a bucket of boiling water into the tub that’s already cooled in the last half hour. I sit with my knees tucked up close to my chest, my thoughts wrapped around Will and the knotted sheets I’ll now have to climb alone. The river I’ll have to navigate by myself, along with whatever creatures might be hidden in the surrounding forest that lines each bank. It’s a risk I’m willing to take to leave this place, though. Whatever I face out there will be far better than what Remus and Agatha have in mind.
“Did I give you permission! Did I give you the authority!” In the next room, Remus screams at Agatha, as he’s done for the last twenty minutes. “I told you, didn’t I? She is Chosen. She will bear my child!”
“She’s not a virgin, Remus! Did she tell you that she fucked the soldier?”
I don’t even care that she told him, at this point. I don’t care about anything.
“She could’ve fucked the whole platoon, so long as it’s my baby she carries.”
“You should’ve kept her in that cell another night. I guarantee our uncle would’ve torn her to pieces by morning. Then you’d see she’s not as special as you think.”
