Revik just lay there, breathing into the tile.
They’d been over this.
He’d lost track of answers he’d given, contradicted, lied about. He knew Terian likely no longer listened for details anyway. By now he knew exactly what Revik did and didn’t know. What he hadn’t said aloud had been ripped from his mind...about Allie, every intimate detail, every lie and truth and half-truth. Work he’d done under Vash. His job in the Guard. It wouldn’t be enough. This had become an endurance game, and he would lose.
Even as he thought it, the rod jabbed at muscles in his back, just enough that he reflexively tried to block it.
“What were you dreaming about, Revi’? Just now?”
Images swam forward. He saw Allie again, her hands on his chest, holding his arms. He remembered her pulling on him and hardened painfully.
Now that he was powerless to block it, the separation was like a drug...it brought wanting, but also regret, memory in sharp relief, emotions he could barely comprehend, much less control. The sickness worsened. For a moment, he could only lie there, half-gasping.
The collar sparked.
Terian bent down, gripping his hair, pulling his head back.
“Every time. You know, Revi’...your eyes glow every time I mention her. You really are a mess, my friend.” He relaxed his hold, adding casually, “It’s not like I have a lot of telekinetic seers to study, to see the effects they have on their mates. But the glow eye thing of yours intrigues me. So do those lights you managed to shatter on the ship...”
His eyes turned clinical, studying Revik’s with a faint edge.
“Incidentally, I was with your wife while you were fucking that human.” A half-smile tugged at his lips as Revik looked away. “If your goal was to hear her beg, I think it was working, my brother. Truly. So much so, I considered mounting her myself...” He gripped Revik’s hair tighter, forcing him to look at him. He bent closer to his ear, his voice a murmur. “The images coming off her...gods. I could have called in the whole Guard. We could have taken turns. I don’t think she would have minded a bit, Revi’...not a bit.”
Revik fought the image out of his light and the collar tripped, sending white fire down his spine. When Terian released him, he lay his face against the tile, breathed into the cold floor.
His eyes caught those of the other human in the room, who squatted in a cage next to the one where Cass lay broken against the wall. The man there looked even skinnier and paler than he was, if that were even possible. Seeing the sympathy there, Revik closed his eyes.
He felt Jon’s light reach for his, a pale comfort.
Bright...so bright for a human.
Too bright.
The yellow eyes swiveled in Jon’s direction.
“Interesting.” Terian rose, starting towards the row of cages where Jon was already moving, scurrying to put his back to the wall, as far away from the cage’s door as possible.
Revik lifted his head, writhed to his stomach.
“Fucking dirt blood,” he gasped.
Terian halted, halfway to where Jon hunched in the corner.
Revik fought for breath, pushing out words. “...You’d give your cock to be me. That’s the real reason you’re doing this. Not to find Allie. Not to learn more about any fictitious ‘succession order’...but to pretend you’re stronger than me, that you beat me. It’s pathetic, Terry...”
Terian turned. Behind him, Jon waved Revik off, his hazel eyes rounded in horror. But Revik’s gaze fixed on the human’s bandaged hand. His jaw hardened.
“It speaks.” Terian folded his arms, cocking his head with narrow eyes. “Wow, Revi’. Did you just...insult me?” His smile widened. “I confess, I didn’t think you had it in you. Not after our last go around.”
Revik’s throat was so dry he was hoarse. “You still can’t stand the fact that Galaith made me second over you. He’d still take me back, Terry...in a fucking heart beat.”
Terian smiled, gesturing him forward. “Go on.”
Revik saw the hardness beneath the smile. He’d reached him.
But not enough.
He blurted, “Feigran, right? Wasn’t that your name?”
Terian’s smile grew leaden.
“I remember.” Revik’s fingers tightened around the chains. “A shit-blood from the Ukraine. Dugress, right? A town I destroyed...on accident, I admit. I don’t remember.” He barked a laugh. “I was drunk a lot back then, but there’s no way I’d destroy a crap town of beet farmers on purpose...”
Terian’s full mouth thinned.
Behind him, Jon had gone rigid, as still as death.
“I had to study files on all of my...” Revik barked another hoarse laugh. “...subordinates. You’re one of those inbred seers with an inferiority complex, is that it? Saw too many of your relatives go to the gas chambers? I guess that would hit at your self-esteem...supposedly superior race, and you’re exterminated like rats.” He coughed, tasting blood. “Tell me, did your father really get so poor he sold his wife? Did he sell you, too, Feigran? Is that how the Rooks acquired you? For a few dead animals and—”