City of Spells (Into the Crooked Place #2) - Alexandra Christo Page 0,26

their hearts gave way to the Kingpin’s power. Their eyes as black as the endless night that had stained his, their resolve withering like dying flowers.

One by one.

Wesley looked at Zekia with every harsh angle he had left. Staying here was getting to be too much and Wesley wasn’t sure how much longer he could do nothing while his world burned.

“Why don’t you just shove your little mind control elixir down my throat?” he asked. “Then I wouldn’t care about any of this.”

Zekia’s eyes glistened with an odd kind of sadness. Wesley couldn’t believe the girl he had once cared for had been the cause of this pain. He couldn’t believe the person in front of him was the same child who wanted so desperately to prove there was good inside of him.

He couldn’t believe that he had turned her into this.

“It never works on you,” she said. “I’d do it if I could, but we’ve tried too many times and it only makes you angrier.”

Wesley leaned back against the brick wall and slumped slowly to the floor. He tried to shut out the screaming of his people outside, but it was sharper than any knife he had used to cut through his enemies.

Zekia was right. She had tried to give Wesley the elixir before, but it had barely made him blink. Wesley wasn’t sure whether it was because his magic had finally found its way back home inside his heart, taking root so deep that it couldn’t bear to be lost again to numbness, or if he really was just a stubborn bastard. Perhaps his mind refused to be conquered so easily.

“We’ll find another way to bring you to our side,” Zekia said. “And you won’t have to listen to these people anymore. We’re moving to another city soon and there will be wind and water and you’ll get some fresh air.”

She tugged on the thin thread wrapped around Wesley’s hands like a leash. The magical string glowed bright silver under the moon, like a row of stars tethering him to his captor. Wesley missed the handcuffs, but he’d slipped them enough times that now the thread of magic was the only thing they trusted to secure him.

Not that it would stop him. Not that anything could.

“After that you’ll come to us the old-fashioned way,” Zekia said. “I’ll make sure of it. Pure grit, like you always told me.”

“And if that doesn’t work, then we will carve him up piece by piece until the only parts left are the loyal ones.”

Wesley jerked his eyes up as Dante Ashwood approached. The shadow man who had made him into one of the most powerful people in the realms. Wesley should have been used to being Ashwood’s slave, since an underboss was basically a glorified skivvy, but he hated the fact that he was on the ground while the Kingpin towered over him, as though he may as well have been on his knees.

Part of the ruse, Wesley thought. Let him think I’m breaking.

“Just make sure you don’t touch my smile,” Wesley said. “It’s far too charming to be cut to pieces.”

Ashwood made a sound that was almost a laugh, but also very nearly a scream.

“Do you know what makes you different from the rest of the people in this forsaken city?” he asked.

Wesley rested his chin on his knees. “My sunny disposition?”

“Your loyalty,” Ashwood said, unaffected by his wry tone. “These people can be bought and bargained for. They can be swayed and subdued. They can be changed by magic and madness. Soldiers are easy to come by, my boy, but family must be earned.”

Wesley’s gut twisted at the mention of family. Right now, the only family he wanted was far across the realm, a lifetime away.

“I will earn your loyalty once more, Wesley. Just like I earned your sister’s.”

Wesley spat out a laugh. “We’re not a family,” he said. “And if we were, then it would make me proud to be an orphan.”

Ashwood’s shadows did not flinch around his hidden face.

He took a step closer to Wesley, until his magic felt like oil in the air. “I chose you,” he said. “When you were young and unaware of your power. I nurtured all of the sparks inside of you and soon you’ll repay me for that. Soon you’ll see that I’m the only family you’ve ever had. I’m the only one who understands the things inside your heart.”

Wesley’s jaw clenched, teeth grinding together with such force that he felt like