feather as she tugs it out, her face cringing from the pain. I reach through the bars, straining with all my might, my chest and face smashed against the cold metal as I try to get to her. The edge of my fingertip barely grazes her limp hand, and I push myself more, so much so that my cheekbone and shoulder scream in protest as I press forward as hard as I can.
By sheer luck and will, I’m able to gain that desperate inch and snag her pinky finger. I latch onto it, curling my fingers around until I have a better hold, and then I yank her forward. She comes without any struggle. As soon as they’re within reach, I grab the hellish tweezers and toss them behind me, getting them as far away from her as I can.
She stares at me with her black eyes, and I freeze, her expression completely blank and creepy, not at all like the friendly and open face from before.
“Medley…”
A second later, she blinks, and then she reaches down and starts to pluck feathers out with her fingers instead, and a sob catches in my throat.
“Medley, no. You have to stop!” I say, trying to reach for her again, but she just bats me away like I’m nothing but a fly.
“You can’t fight his compulsion,” Toreon says from behind me.
“What do you know about fighting?” I snap without looking at him. “You’ve clearly given up, so I don’t want your advice.” My words are filled with so much venom that his mouth clamps shut, and then I hear shuffling on the floor.
When I chance a look back at him, I see that he’s lying down again, a hand tossed over his eyes, though his body is tight with tension. I’ll probably feel guilty about snapping at him later, but for now, Medley is my sole concern.
I wipe away a tear that escapes my eye as I look at the small pile of feathers already at her feet, a visible spot on her wings where her feathers are thinned out. A rip goes down my spine as my wings disappear again as if they want to hide from what’s happening.
Every feather she yanks out is like a grain of sand falling down an hourglass. I haven’t forgotten what Morax said is going to happen if she plucks out all her feathers and I still haven’t called my scythe.
But I’ll be damned if I let her blind herself.
My wings burst from my back again, and I let out a shocked growl, and then I grit my teeth, shoving away my black-purple hair from my face. With renewed purpose, my eyes land on the scythe in her cell, far out of reach in the other corner.
Somehow, someway, I need to make one of those hellish weapons appear. If I can do that, Medley’s compulsion will stop. I whirl around to Toreon. “Tell me how to summon a scythe!”
His arm slips down slowly until his golden eyes are looking up at me. “What makes you think I know?” he asks carefully.
I throw my hands up, grimacing when I hear Medley suck in a breath behind me. “You’re the only demon around I can ask. Just tell me. Please!” I rush to say.
He tilts his head on the floor. “Is it true you’re an Annulus?”
“I don’t know!” I retort. “I’m learning all of this as I go, but I do know that if I can’t do this, then the sister I just found is going to pull out all her feathers and then dig out her eyes. So please, please help me.” Tears track down my face, and I don’t know if he can help or not, but if he can’t, I’m desperate enough to try to reach out to the mind-speak guy next.
When Toreon just continues to stare at me, a frustrated noise bleats out of me, my anxiety going haywire. My own wings flare behind me, like they’re trying to help rid me of my panic, but then Toreon’s voice stops me from spiraling. “Close your eyes.”
My body pauses as I filter in what he said, and then I turn to look at him again. “What?”
He sits up and dips his chin, creating more shadows over his pronounced collarbone and chest. “If you are an Annulus, and if you want my help, then close your eyes, Sable.”
He says my name quietly, like he was afraid to tag it on at the end, but somehow couldn’t resist.