One of the guards gestured to the other that he should open the door. They were the younger of the sentries that had been posted to watch me. I watched as a servant girl stepped out of the gloom and walked toward me, her eyes fearful. I recognized her from Hellswan castle. She had been one of the servants there, and was as thick as a tree stump.
The guard tore the barrier, allowing the girl to place the food between a small, oblong slit at the bottom of my cage. She did so hastily, but before she could withdraw I reached out, swift as a viper, and grabbed her wrist, yanking her against the bars of my cell. Instantly the guards started to syphon off me, but they couldn’t do it as forcefully or as effectively as I could to the young servant girl. Her energy was delicious, sweet like berries, and she smelt of sunshine.
“Stop! Stop! Please,” she whimpered, her beautiful blue eyes rolling back into her skull.
“Jenus! Stop instantly!” one of the guards bellowed. I paid him no heed. Once I was full of her, I released her arm and she fell backward onto the stone floor. The guards began to re-build the barriers, moving the servant girl out of the way.
“No, you don’t!” I laughed. I started to syphon off the both of them, draining them as quickly as I could. With a heavy thump the guard holding the keys fell to the floor, and then the other followed, howling out with pain.
I stood up, enjoying the surge of energy that ran through me.
It was short-lived. A moment later, the hatch to the room was torn off. Guards clattered down the stairs, the broadswords clattering against the stone walls as they surrounded me.
“Back!” I screamed. “BACK!”
Most of them laughed at me, simultaneously syphoning all the energy I had just gained. I tried to reverse it, to take from them what they were taking from me, but it was no use. There were too many.
The servant girl was cradled in the arms of one of the guards, who looked up at me in disgust.
“Don’t think you’ll be getting fed for a long time, Jenus,” one of them said as the ground rushed up to meet me.
“You will pay for this,” I spat, growling on the floor. “My master will come—come and destroy you all. You will regret the day you were dragged from your mother’s wombs! I will END you!”
“I think it’s starting to get to him,” one of the guards muttered to the other.
“Nah. He was always mad. Always missing a piece.” The guard tapped his head, laughing at me.
Fool!
How dare he laugh at me? How dare my brother subject me to this mockery? Didn’t he care that by tarnishing my name, he hurt his own? How would his people respect him if they continued to disrespect me?
I lay helpless on the stone floor of my cage, every bone in my body hurting, my head feeling like a million ice pricks were piercing into the soft tissue of my brain.
Master…why have you forsaken me?
Was this to be my future? Would I have to wait here till the end of days, never able to prove myself worthy of my master’s love? What then? Would I still get the rewards I had been promised? I doubted it.
“We’ll get some ministers down here…prevent him from doing this again. And no more servants—guards only. Make sure the barriers remain strong in the meantime.”
“Will do,” the other said.
“I can promise you riches!” I cried out before the barriers could be erected. “I can promise you a life beyond your wildest dreams!”
“What? Like the one you’re living?” The guard burst out laughing.
“My master, he will be here. He will come and you never need work for another man again. You will be a free man!”
The guards just laughed harder, and carried on putting the barrier in place.
Justice will be swift, I promised myself. When my master rescues me, justice will be swift and merciless.
As I laid my head back on the floor, I realized that my impulsive actions had perhaps ruined my only viable escape route. Tejus would never let Hazel down here with just the two of them when he heard of this. Not unless his arrogance let him believe himself completely omnipotent. Perhaps there was still a chance. No doubt his ego grew every day that his ex-human believed herself to love him.
Brother, come to me, I prayed. Come believing you are invincible so that when I take you down it is that much harder to bear.
Benedict
The meeting had been called, and for once I had actually been asked to attend. I’d known our joining Ragnhild’s mission would pay off. Though it was only because the rest of his army was dead that Julian, Yelena and I were the only ones who knew what had taken place at the cove—maybe I shouldn’t gloat too much. But it was exciting—having GASP here, knowing that we had an unstoppable force that was going to come up against the entity. I couldn’t wait for them to come face-to-face with the evil that had possessed me and made my life completely miserable and terrifying for so long. If the entity thought it was great and all-powerful, wait till it met my grandpa.