She didn’t let tears fall, no matter how terrified she was to leave Titus and Costin. Sally wasn’t afraid for herself. She worried what Alston would do to her mate and child in order to get her to cooperate. Whatever he wanted, she might have to give it to him because she would not let her son suffer. Never again.
Sally squeezed Costin’s hand as she walked past him toward the fae warriors. She didn’t let him hold onto her because he might not let her go. When she reached the fae, the female took her arm firmly but not painfully and led her from the room.
She heard the door click behind them and then the lock being turned. She heard Costin’s fist against the door. Not trying to get out, but striking the wood in frustration and fear. She could feel it all coming through the bond. She tried to reassure and calm him and his wolf. They had to accept that this was their situation. There was no changing it, at least not yet.
“My name is Tenia,” the female fae said.
“I’d like to say it’s nice to meet you,” Sally said as she eyed the woman. “But under the circumstances, it would be a lie.”
Tenia bow her head slightly. “I can understand that.”
“Should you be engaging the prisoner?” The fae male with the pitch-black eyes asked.
“There is no harm in being civil,” Tenia said, her tone sharp, bordering on hostility toward her comrade.
The tall male shrugged his shoulders as if the matter wasn’t important enough to argue about. They walked down a long, wide hall. The walls were made of steel beams. Her surroundings appeared grimy and industrial, and not in a hipster way. It was simply the way the building was built, a warehouse that had been altered to be a housing space. They reached a set of stairs and descended, turning at yet another set. They walked down five flights before finally coming to the bottom floor.
Sally held her shoulders back, trying to appear confident regardless of the fact she was in the hands of the people responsible for the awful things that had happened to her. She grabbed onto her inner Jen and tried to channel her best friend’s boldness. They walked across a large expanse that had been converted into some sort of meeting area containing metal tables and chairs. On the left side, there was an industrial kitchen. Guess the Order members who weren’t vampires had to eat sometime.
They reached the far side of the room, and the large male with pale eyes unlocked a steel door. He pushed it open, and it creaked ominously. Nice touch. Creepy sounding door? Check. Warehouse full of evil vampires, fae, and other supernaturals? Check. Now they just needed the flickering lights and water to drip from the pipes lining the ceiling, and they’d have a complete horror movie set.
Sally walked into the room, which was lit by only a few dim lights that flickered sporadically. When her eyes adjusted, she saw a single chair in the middle of the room. It looked way too much like an electric chair for Sally’s tastes. She froze. “I’m not sitting in that,” she said firmly.
“You won’t have to.” Alston stepped out of the shadows from the other side of the room. Sally took him in, really looked at him for the first time, and realized his white hair was similar to Peri’s, though it lacked the shimmering quality. His eyes were steel grey, but there was a darkness lurking in them she could see from across the room. The angles of his face were sharp, and he might have been handsome if he wasn’t as rotten as a spoiled apple.
He was tall and whip thin but muscular. He wore a sleeveless leather vest, showing off sinewy arms. Much like most of the fae warriors she’d seen, he wore leather pants and calf-high boots. She noticed the handles of blades protruding from various places on his person. For some reason, she assumed he would be donned in the robes she’d seen him wear in the past. But apparently stepping down from his position on the high fae council also meant he hung up the robes and traded them in for the leathers.
“The chair is a last resort. It will only be necessary if you don’t do what we ask … and it’s not for you.”
Sally’s gut twisted. She knew what he was saying. The chair was for Costin or Titus. But