Scorched Treachery (Imdalind, #3)(27)

Papa? Mama? I fought the confusion that threatened to overtake me. I pushed the need to know more aside and just focused on the girl, desperate to take something beautiful with me from the dream. I needed something happy to hold on to when morning came and I awoke on a cold stone floor.

“Here, Wynifred,” the man said, suddenly closer as he handed me a large piece of chocolate. He smiled, and I felt my cheeks turn up in a laugh. No, no laughing. I wanted to look back to the girl, but I couldn’t, there was only the man. Once again, I had no control.

The vision jumped again. This time the man was by my side, the girl back dancing in the meadow.

“We should go,” he said, his voice repeating what I had already heard. This scene, those words, this imagery, I had already had this dream before.

“Go where?” my voice said. I tried to fight the words, but they came automatically, whether I wanted them to or not.

The image of the girl jumped a bit, her dancing moving statically as she appeared and reappeared.

“We can run,” he said, and I felt his hand on my shoulder. My body turned to face him, the pleading in his eyes cutting through me, but I knew the emotion wasn’t my own. I wanted to yell at him for taking my eyes away from the beautiful girl again.

“He would find us,” my voice was simple, defeated.

“He will kill her.”

“I know.” My vision flashed once, twice, and again and again. The images changed from the market, to the man in the meadow, a walk by the lake, and more, flash after flash.

I wanted to scream for it to stop, but I had no control over this version of me in the dream. The flashes continued until I woke up, screaming.

I heard my own voice fill the dungeon, heard Sain yell something over my screams, and then felt Talon’s large hand clasp over my mouth. He pulled me against the bars, the gritty texture of his skin and the pain of the bars against my back alerting me to where I actually was and what danger I had just put myself in. My scream stopped as quickly as it had come.

It was not my scream we had to worry about now. My yell had awakened Ryland. His animal instinct took over, and his wails filled the air that mine had so recently vacated. Talon tensed as Ryland yelled and howled. He clanged his chains against the bars and rammed his head into them repeatedly.

“Let me at her!” he screamed. “Hurt…hurt…hurt…”

I could feel Talon’s fear escalate as he grasped me to him tighter, his arms weak enough that it only felt like a gentle tug. He had heard Ryland scream once before, but it had been nothing like this. Ryland’s panic at being awoken had opened up into a full blown attack. His messed up brain had unlocked, and he rambled and mumbled and pleaded and yelled.

“I have to save her,” he howled, his chains colliding with the bars of his cell loudly. “Protect her…I have to hurt her…”

“Leave him,” I heard Sain hiss through the dark, and my tension grew. I watched what little movement I could make out, Talons arms encircling me and holding me close to him, when a bright yellow light suddenly ignited the prison.

The light burned my eyes, and I shied away from it, my hands moving to cover my face in an attempt to keep the light out.

“Who woke him up?” Cail hissed, and I withdrew into myself even further.

No one answered him. We let Ryland’s continued screams eat up the sound. I kept my face away from him, my eyes buried in my shoulder as my ears perked to hear any noise.

“You hurt her,” Ryland screamed through the silence of Cail’s unanswered question.

I waited for the clunk of a chain, the hinge of a door. Nothing, but Ryland’s continued howls filled the damp air of our prison.

“Who screamed before Ryland did?” Cail asked again, the wicked pleasure in his voice evident even above Ryland’s screams.

Talon’s fingers dug into me as he tried to move me closer to him, the bars digging further into my back at his attempt.

“What?” Cail said, the mock disbelief in his voice unnerving. “No one going to answer me?”

“You killed her!” Ryland roared, the metal of his cell clanging once more before his screams turned to sobs. “Killed her…she’s gone…dead… Dead…”

“That’s all right,” he trilled, the wicked pleasure dancing in his voice. “I’ll find out anyway. More importantly, we have a new arrival in Prague. Did you know that?”

Ryland had all but stopped now. His sobs turned to whimpers as he rocked himself back and forth, his hands clasped through his long hair. I could hear each step of Cail’s shoes against the ground as he paced in front of us. I could hear the gentle clicks of his tongue as he contemplated what to say next. But I stayed still, knowing that Sain and Talon were doing the same, each of our secrets held inside of our hearts.

“Oh yes, our visitor has just come back from seeing Ilyan and Joclyn.” The single word woke Ryland up again.

He jumped up, his hands hitting against the bars as he lunged for Cail.

“Ovailia just saw Joclyn, Ryland, and I guess Joclyn wants you back…do you want to go?” Cail’s voice was quiet, and I felt my entire spine solidify. No. Cail was about to succeed, he had built a weapon and now was able to let it go.

“Yes!” Ryland yelled his voice cracking in desperation.

“What are you going to do when you see her, Ryland?” Cail asked. I curled inside of myself, not wanting to hear what was coming. “What are you going to do when you see her, when you see Ilyan’s arms around her?”