Page 346 of Commanding Blood And Bonds
And on that front? They could go fuck themselves.
They’d drugged me with reaper’s venom, slicing me off from my magic, from the hierarchy. From Poe.
“You think this is funny now?”
“Kinda,” I mumbled, careful not to twitch my jugular.
The last thing I registered was his elbow coming straight for my face.
Fear is a parasite in the soul.
Poison in the well of power.
No place for fear in the heart of a Wing.
Fuck her for teaching me that and leaving me down here with this asshole.
I’d lost track—of time, of the number of times my cousin strolled in like a goddamn Bond villain, of how many times he knocked me the fuck out.
Cali once said the venom lasted twelve hours unless re-dosed. Had it been that long? Longer? Were they dosing me while I was out?
This was a special kind of bullshit.
“You know,” I coughed, every bone in my body aching. “I think I missed the part of interrogation training where you beat your subject senseless before asking questions.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Nix drove his boot into my ribs, and while I might’ve pissed myself a little, he didn’t need to know that.
Eyes squeezed shut, I grunted through the white-hot agony, dragging the pain into a vault and slamming the door. Inside the vault, it couldn’t touch me.
Outside the vault—no pain.
No pain, no fear. No poison in the well.
“If you don’t start talking—”
“Well, which is it?” I wheezed.
“What?”
“Shut the fuck up or start talking? I can’t do both.”
“Fuck you.” He leaned closer. “Tell me the truth, Cyrus. Give them what they want, or I’ll use your own blade to carve my name across your ribs.”
He traced the tip of my raven-hilted dagger across what I was pretty sure was a sprawling black-and-yellow bruise.
“How poetic would that be?”
“Just make sure you spell it right,” I rasped.
Then spat blood in his face and grinned, or tried to. My lips were too busted to know if I pulled it off.
Crack.
Gun butt to the face.
“Come on, Cyrus,” he growled later, my teeth chattering from cold. “You’re being charged with regicidal conspiracy. This isn’t a fucking joke.”
