Blood Lands (Savage Lands #5)(13)

Oh shit...

“Seize them!” Boyd pointed at us. Men with batons, guns, and whips surged for us.

Warwick’s focus stayed intently on me.

“No.” Fear tumbled down into my stomach at the realization of what he was doing.

He winked, a glint of mischievousness in his eyes, right as he whirled around on the few soldiers grabbing for him. The crack of his fist splintered across one’s face. His quickness and skill punched about five of them before their clubs reached him, dropping Warwick to his knees with the spiked batons.

“No! Stop!” I pitched forward, but a handful of sentries seized me, their faux-fae power holding me in place as I thrashed and fought to reach Warwick.

They continued to dice and chop into his skin, kicking and beating him until his face and limbs were bloody.

“Please!” I begged.

The moment Boyd approached, they all backed off, letting their leader move in.

“If you wanted back in the hole so bad, you should have asked me.” Boyd leaned over Warwick, smiling creepily. “Need to get away from the missus that bad, huh? And here I thought she had a magical pussy, able to get so many of you to trail after her like schoolboys.” Boyd glanced back, leering at me. “I didn’t get a full taste last time. Maybe I should sample it again.”

“Warwick, no!” I cried through our link. Boyd was purposely poking the beast. And it worked.

Warwick pitched up, his head slamming so hard into Boyd’s, the guard went sailing back, smacking the tile floor with a thud, as The Wolf spat and growled, climbing to his feet. Warwick parted his bloody lips, his saliva tainted red, sneering and moving for Boyd.

“Warwick, stop!” My shade touched his chest, trying to get his attention. He peered down at me, heaving in and out.

“Take him to the hole,” Boyd screeched, wobbly on his feet, touching the blood dripping from his head. “You will rot in there, Farkas.”

Without fighting, Warwick let the guards cuff him and start herding him for the door. It was what he wanted in the first place. For him to take the blame, not me.

“Warwick!” I cried out, though my mouth didn’t move.

He didn’t respond. His gaze latched onto mine, the feel of his mouth claiming mine hungrily, his fingers digging into my skin before his body was dragged from the room, shutting down the link between us.

Again, I knew if I pushed, I could break in, but before I could even contemplate it, Boyd was in my face. I tightened my shoulders, my jaw crunching together. The fresh wound on his forehead still leaked out blood as he patted it with a handkerchief.

“You have been nothing but a pain in my ass since the day you entered Halálház.” His disgust curled his lip up. “Farkas never caused a problem until you arrived. Even my lord changed when he took you in. You corrupt men’s minds, distort their beliefs, warp them. And now look, they are all either in prison or dead.”

“How easily you flipped on your lord for a pocket full of coins.” I sneered back. “Talk about warped beliefs. You are now working for a human.”

He stepped closer, his lip hitching higher, voice dropping so only I could hear. “Let them do all the work, set the stage for us, then we come in to take it all.”

“Why not just take it back now?”

“Because what they are going for, we want as well. A complete takeover. Humans think themselves so much smarter.” Boyd’s attention flashed to the four soldiers being helped up by other human guards. He watched with a smirk on his face, clearly not bothered about them being attacked. “We are predators. We lie in wait until our victims willingly step into our mouths. This fight has just begun.” Abruptly, he moved away from me. “Get this bitch out of my sight. Take her to her cell.”

My mind still wheeled with his claim as officers dragged me back to my cell, tossing me roughly inside and slamming the door.

While one game was playing in the arena, another one was being played outside these walls, and it would be far more brutal and complex than I’d first thought.

With the nectar back on the board, a deadly game of chess was now being played, and the stakes were everything.

Tonight, I would let myself cry and wallow for Andris, but tomorrow, I would shove my heartache away and focus. We had to learn everything we could from every soldier here, gossip from the outside, their routines, weaknesses, their loyalty.

Not only was our country on the precipice, but so was the world... and there were only a few of us who could stop it from falling.





Chapter 4





“No, he didn’t seem to enjoy waking up to you sucking on his fingers.”

Chirp!

A groan hummed in my throat as their voices pierced into my head, stirring me from a shallow sleep.

“Nor did he like you licking his ears.”

Chirp!

“It wasn’t me!” I could feel Opie’s foot stomp into my leg, my dried salty lashes parting fully.

Chirp! Chirp! Bitzy chewed him out from the pack on his back.

“I didn’t nibble them either.” Opie huffed. “Total misunderstanding.”

This morning their outfits were faded beige cotton, and judging by the identical fabric I had in my bathroom locker, someone was missing a towel this morning. Opie had designed it into a one-piece with strategic shapes cut out, leaving very little to the imagination, and a snake puppet with inked-in eyes and teeth covered his crotch. His hair was loose with thin braids at the front plaited in with his beard. Bitzy had snake puppets over her ears, her face twisted in irritation, her fingers flipping the world off.