Time was ticking.
“You don’t have to be so rough. I was happy playing dead!”
The voice reverberated down the steps and across the open space, pinging around my mind and quickening my heart.
“What’s up with this area? The top room was so nice and then, what, your builders decided they didn’t care about doing a good job anymore? Fuck—”
I lifted my head as two feet came into view, covered in mud and grime. The person stumbled but caught themself. Two bare knees came into view next, and then the body that belonged to them, covered in a sort of maid outfit caked with mud.
My heart stopped, and I couldn’t process the face, with his hair mussed and dark brown growth all over his face. His thin mustache was longer now, not having been trimmed and taken care of.
Hadriel.
He’d come with me after all…in a maid outfit, as promised.
Tears came to my eyes, and laughing sobs racked my tired body. Then just sobs. No matter how good it felt to see him, I didn’t want this for him. He couldn’t handle the sort of life that this part of the dungeon endured. It would be a death sentence for him.
“Go back,” I struggled to say, but whom was I talking to? It was too late. He was here now.
But…why? How?
He looked behind him, both hands free. “I am going, you red-robed fuckbumper. Can’t you see I’m going? Eat a fucking carrot once in a while, and you’d see that.” He straightened up and smoothed his maid dress down his front. Clumps of mud dropped to the ground. “First that fucking bridge of absolute terror—what the fuck was up with that thing?” he muttered, continuing down the stairs. “And why do all you fuckers look the same? What is going on here? And if you wanted to look the same, why choose ugly as the common theme?”
The first officer behind him shoved again, and he jumped two steps down to the bottom.
“Ha! Nice try, jackass. I didn’t land on my head this time.”
“Shh.” Leala came down after him, her hair covered in mud and sticking out every which way, her trim frame dressed all in black. She glanced behind her with a hesitant smile, her eyes tight. Her officer followed with his whip in hand, clearly not intending to use it. They’d already realized these two weren’t going to harm them.
And then my world wobbled.
“No.” Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Please, no!”
Hannon came last, his face hard and determined. He had two sheaths hanging from a belt, both empty. The second he could, he looked down the row of cells, finding me almost immediately.
My heart wrenched in my chest. Power pulsed out all around me.
“Damn it, Hannon.” I struggled to get up, accidentally shoving an everlass plant. They grew in my cell now, and I’d be lying if I said they weren’t helping me cling hard to my duty.
“Go.” The first officer shoved Hadriel farther into the room.
“Every time you touch me, I feel like showering.” He wiped off his shoulder with a glare at the first officer before slinking into the center of the dungeon, looking absolutely ridiculous and totally comfortable with that fact. I was back to laugh-crying.
Leala held back, as did Hannon, though I saw that Hannon’s wrists had been cuffed behind his back, probably because of his size. His shoulders were hunched, like he was unsure about this whole setup. His aura of calm acceptance thrived even here, as he watched the goings-on with a still body and obvious patience. That had clearly given the officers, and maybe the guards before them, the illusion that he wasn’t dangerous. It had kept him from being pushed down the stairs.
Of the three, Hadriel was the one they’d decided they needed to watch out for.
My laugh-crying intensified.
Micah reached through the bars, like he often did, and the movement attracted Hadriel’s gaze. Startling, he scampered to the other side, finding Tamara standing in the center of her cage, staring at him like she’d seen a ghost.
“Ah, fuck me,” Hadriel said with a groan, scurrying back to the center. “Please don’t tell me this area is for the dragons.”
One of the officers stepped forward, whip in hand. He moved his arm in a circle, and I wanted to shout for Hadriel to get out of the way, but I knew there was nowhere for him to go.
Crack.
The slash landed somewhere on Hadriel’s front.
“What in the holy fucking hell, you goblin cumsplat! Ahh!” Hadriel scurried backward, fell onto his ass, and then crab-walked away as the officer stepped forward.
Hadriel stuck out his hand. “No! No more. I was playing dead! I was playing dead!”
“Stop.” The first officer, not smiling, stepped away from the wall, approaching the whip-toting officer. “Leave him. He has no power, just a mouth. Try one of the others.”