A low groan came out of my mouth as I clung to my head. My hair was stuck to my forehead, and I couldn’t tell whether it was with sweat or blood. Carefully, I tried to sit up- a pained cry came out of my mouth as pain lanced through me, from my wings and from my head. I dropped back to the ground, powerless as my wings trembled.
“Eli!”
All I could do was turn my head to find the source of the panicked, rusty voice. Devin was chained to the stone wall; the chains were stretched as far as they would go, and he still strained at them, blood dripping down his arms as the rough cuffs sliced into his wrists.
“Stop that,” I muttered, my hand clamping tighter over my forehead. “If you bleed out, we won’t be able to escape.” The words slurred together, my tongue heavy in my mouth, as numb as my wings.
Devin made an aggravated noise. “We won’t be able to escape, anyway. Look at your wings, Eli.”
“What?” A frown scrunched up my face, and I struggled to turn my head far enough to see my wings.
A choking sound came past my clenched teeth. Somebody had butchered my wings. Blood pasted the feathers to the skin beneath, and I knew by looking at the sweep of the top that more than a few of the delicate bones had been snapped. It was no wonder they hurt. I wasn’t going to be flying for a while; it would take at least three days for the bones to heal, longer if they weren’t set properly.
“Shit,” I hissed, turning my head so I was starting up at the ceiling again. It was all rough wood and plaster, the kind I usually saw in the basement of the historic buildings in Elozan, the ones that had survived the war. The kind that had rough basements. But why would we be kept in a basement, of all places?
The chains rattled again, pulling my gaze to Devin as he swore furiously, his voice broken as tears filled his eyes. “I’ve been trying to get free for hours, to help you. But… I can’t get these damn cuffs off!”
“Relax,” I said, forcing my voice to be calm and cool. I was the collected leader of the group; I couldn’t let Devin fall apart.
Devin’s eyes flashed up to me, their bright blue almost glowing in the dim light that filtered through a dirty window that was a good five feet above his head. “Don’t tell me to relax,” he snapped. “You’re wounded, and that filthy son of a bitch who hurt you is going to pay.”
“Devin-”
“You know,” a terribly familiar voice rumbled, “That’s not a nice way to speak about somebody you barely know.”
“Bastard!” The chains squealed as Devin tried to throw himself forward, the cuffs biting deeper into his skin so the blood flowed faster. “What did you to do Eli?!”
The man laughed, low in his throat. His eyes, a lighter and clearer blue, truly did glow as he grinned at us. “I poisoned him. I thought that was obvious. And then I shredded his wings so he couldn’t get away. You really needed me to explain that?”
Devin’s angry shout was void of words, fading into a snarl. I tried to sit up again, and the same agonized groan slid past my lips. I didn’t fall back that time; the groan turned into whimpers as I kept trying to get myself into a sitting position.
“Easy there, bird boy, you’re making yourself bleed.”
I flinched as the strange man puts his hands on me; my eyes shut immediately, and I gritted my teeth, waiting for more pain. It came, but not in the way I expected. The man hooked his arms under mine and pulled me up so I was sitting. He let me go as soon as I was up. I wobbled at first, my balance off with my wings simply dead weight.
“What do you want from us?” My words still slurred together, and it might have been worse than before. The room was swimming in front of my eyes.
The man made a strange clucking sound, followed by a sigh. “I don’t want anything from you. If it were my choice, you would still be locked up in your little metal trap of a city, slowly smothering to death. But. It wasn’t my choice.”
“Then…whose choice was it?” I threw my hands out when I started to wobble again; they pressed against the cement floor, the rough texture of it painful, but at least I wasn’t falling over.
He sighed again. “The Grey Queen. Demanding, whiny little bitch,” he muttered, crossing his arms.
It shook a laugh out of me. The man raised an eyebrow, questioning, but a slow smile formed in return. “So… who are you, then? The White King?”
“God no!” The man held up his hands, looking horrified. “Me, the White King? No, no, no. Not ever. God.”
I could only stare at him, shocked by his vehement refusal. It was as if I’d just accused him of mass murder. “Okay. Then who are you?”
“My name is Kieran,” he answered.
“Kieran…” I let his name roll of my tongue as he took him in. He looked just the same as he had in the alley the first time he attacked me. His hair was pink, turning gold at the tips and falling into his face. That face had sharp features, a mouth suited to smirks, his clear blue eyes the kind that looked right giving people haughty looks. He reminded me of Devin.
Kieran smirked at me, stretching his arms above his head, making his shirt ride up so I could see the muscles he had no doubt worked hard to cultivate. “Usually, I make people pay for staring at me like that. But I don’t mind when it’s you.”
“Don’t you dare touch him! I’ll rip your hands off!”
Kieran and I both stared at Devin, Kieran’s hand frozen in the air between us. Then his smirk was back. He drew away from me with a soft laugh. “I assume he’s your property, then, guardian?”
“I am charged with his protection. And that means keeping him safe from the filthy hands of men like you,” Devin spat.
Kieran laughed again, but the sound was harsh that time, even bitter. “Protection? Does he still believe that lie?”
“Stop.”
Everything had changed in a second. My gaze flicked between Devin, who was pale and leaning back against the wall like he’d been punched, and Kieran, whose glare was deadly. “It’s not a lie,” I said, jumping to his defense. I couldn’t stand that look in Devin’s eyes, like somebody had dangled a cart of ice cream in front of his face and then chucked it in the trash. “He does protect me. He’s saved my life before.”
“Tch. Saved your life. You believe their lies so easily, bird boy,” Kieran scoffed.
I frowned at him, irritated with the way his words made Devin swallow hard. I was the only one allowed to hurt him like that. “They aren’t lies!”
“Oh, but they are. There are so many things you believe you know. All these lies that keep you safe and sound in your little metal trap. But you’re not in Elozan anymore, Eli. You’re in Kyrn, home of the Grey Blade, and we’re going to grind those lies to dust for you.”
“And if I don’t want you to?” I challenged, wishing I could stand to threaten him, and settling for a glare.
Kieran looked shocked for a second, but he always pulled that smile right back to his face. “You can choose whether you want to believe the truth. But you’ll hear it whether you like it or not.”
“Tell me your truth, then, Kieran.”
“Oh, I won’t be the one to smash your world to pieces. That pleasure isn’t mine.”
“Whose is it?”
Kieran hesitated, his wicked smile saying he was drawing out the moment on purpose. And his words, when he answered, were as shocking as the arrows that had driven through my wings.
“That, would be the Grey Queen.”
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