The Struggle(25)

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

I had no idea how much time had passed since Hyperion had brought me here. A day? Longer? Shorter? My empty stomach rumbled. I was hungry, but the mere thought of eating twisted my insides.

Forcing my eyes open, I wearily scanned the dark room. I could see the forms of the other two prisoners. I wasn’t alone. Letting out a shaky breath, I placed my palm against the dirt floor and winced as I pushed myself up into a sitting position. It felt like my ribs were on fire as I scooted back and leaned against the wall. I’d barely moved, but I felt out of breath and disoriented as my vision adjusted to the low light.

I cleared my raw throat and it hurt. “Hello . . . ?”

Each time I was awake, each time I was alone, I called out to the other two. I never got a response. I honestly didn’t expect this time to be any different. But it was.

Something in the shadows stirred. Clothing rustled against the floor. The form slowly, painfully pushed into a sitting position. “Who . . . who are you?”

It was the male.

Relief nearly made me cry out. He was alive and could talk. That was . . . good. Gingerly tipping my head back against the wall, I swallowed hard. “I’m . . . I’m Josie. You?”

A few moments passed. “Mitchell. My name is Mitchell Cousins.”

I repeated his name in my head.

“Do you . . .” His breath hitched. “Do you know what they are, why they have you?”

Resting my arms in my lap, I focused on the shadowy outline of Mitchell. “They’re Titans and they . . . they’re feeding on us.”

He coughed out a broken, dry laugh. “So I’m not crazy, and what’s been happening is . . . is really happening.”

“Yeah. It’s really happening. You’re a . . . a bound demigod,” I told him, flinching as sharp pain stabbed the back of my head. “We were looking for . . . you guys. We knew you two had been taken—”

“You knew about this before they got you?” Surprise colored his tone.

“I . . . I found out what I was about a year ago.” I wasn’t sure how much I should tell or how much even sounded believable to a guy who had been in here for nearly a year. “My father sent someone to protect me, but Hyperion found me. We fought him off, and we couldn’t find you two.”

Mitchell didn’t respond for a long moment. “Will . . . will someone be looking for you?”

My chest ached. “Yes.”

“Will they find us?”

“They . . . they will try,” I said, hurting for him and the girl who hadn’t moved once since I’d been here. I’d told the truth. Alex and Aiden would try to find me. So would Deacon and Luke, and if Seth knew, he’d try. I believed that. I really did. But I had no idea how they could find us. I strained to see him through the muggy darkness. “Do you know who the other person is?”

“That’s Lauren.” His voice sounded like sandpaper. “I don’t know her well.”

Glancing at where she lay, I didn’t see a single part of her move. “Do . . . you know how long you’ve been here?”

He shuddered. “I don’t know. It’s been . . . a while. She was here before me, and they . . .”

“They what?” I whispered.

Mitchell didn’t respond right away. “The big dude . . . Not the one who brought you in.”

“Hyperion?” Just saying his name made me want to vomit.

“Yeah, not him. There’s another. He’s got a mohawk. Blue hair, I think.” Mitchell paused and seemed to rally up the strength to continue. “He comes for her. Not so much anymore, but in the beginning, it was like . . . every time I was awake he was in here and he’d . . .”

Part of me didn’t want to hear it, but I didn’t stop him.

“He’d drag her out of here and I don’t think they’d go very far. She would scream, and I could tell she’d fight him . . . or she used to. I could hear the things he was doing to her.” His voice cracked, and my breath caught. “He . . . he would hurt her. He would do things to her. I could hear it.”

Oh gods.

Horror robbed me of the ability to speak as my heart thundered against my chest. All those horrible things Hyperion had said to me had been repeatedly carried out on her.

“I tried . . . I tried to stop him when he would come for her. You have got to believe me. I tried. I really—”

“I believe you.” Tears burned my eyes as I tried to see the girl in the shadows, lying against the wall. “I believe you.”

When he spoke, his voice was hoarser than before. “He . . . he just feeds off her now. Does it right here, and I . . . I can’t stop him.”