after breath. “It’s quiet.” There was no ear piercing note. No horrible, lone tone that made me want to curl into a ball.
Through my gasping and coughing, I smiled. “Thank the gods. It’s finally quiet.”
“Thank the—you almost died, you dick!” Flynn pushed me, and I flopped to my back.
But I couldn’t stop smiling.
I wouldn’t be the king, and a weight greater than Culann’s body lifted off my shoulders. My future stretched out in front of me, unknown.
And then it all crashed back. The weight. The fear. If I wasn’t king, that meant I’d relegated my brothers to that fate.
There was one more challenge. What if my brothers failed?
A bird flapped its wings, shaking the leaves and branches of a tree before flying overhead. I made out the shape of a crow against the blue sky. It cawed, the sound harsh and jarring.
What had I done?
Imogen
Everyone was happy I was back.
Just kidding. They were mad as hell and more than happy to take it out on me. I’d spent—hours? days?—in this cold little room. Someone threw a uniform in for me, but after the warden’s warm welcome, changing into it would have been too painful. I pulled it over myself as a makeshift blanket and shivered.
The collar had beeped at me a few times, waking me just as my eyelids started to close. Ah. New features. Collar Two-Point-Oh.
Good to see that the doctor had stayed busy while I was gone.
A couple of times, I’d been doused in water. It showered from the top of the cell, raining down on me like icy needles and gathering in puddles on the floor and beneath my body.
The first time, I’d reacted, spluttering, and tried to crawl somewhere dry. The room was small enough for my fingertips and toes to reach either end, so it was pointless. When I attempted to rise to my knees, something around my ribcage snapped, so I pressed my chest against the ground and waited for it to be over.
I blinked bleary eyes at the ceiling, trying to find the sprinklers for the water. Had it been magical? I sniffed the air, searching for the scent of magic, but there was nothing.
My shivering had stopped. That was surprising. I was lying in a puddle of water, my prison uniform half over my body, and a strange warmth was creeping up from my toes.
Shifting, I attempted to move my feet from whatever was beginning to get uncomfortable.
Ha. I was too hot in the icebox.
The warmth traveled fast and soon; it was blistering. If I’d been able to move, I’d have stripped my clothes off.
The door near my feet opened and the doctor appeared. She glanced at me and then over her shoulder. “Pull her out.”
Two guards entered, hefting me between them. I couldn’t stop the groan that left me or the cry that sounded when my collar punished me for making noise.
Their skin against mine was too much, and I fought them.
“It’s called paradoxical undressing,” Brina said as I was carried past her. “You’re irrational and your nerves are damaged from the cold. You’re actually hypothermic. But don’t worry. We’ll get you set up.”
She touched my head as I went by. My skin seared where her palm touched.
“It’s a fascinating event. And I’ve never seen it actually happen before. Banshee, you are an intriguing creature. So intriguing, I’ve gotten the warden to allow me to try all manner of experiments with you.”
With me.
Like I was going to be an active participant, a partner of the experiment who came up with new ideas and hypotheses, when I was really the guinea pig.
Hard pass.
The guards placed me on a gurney. The lights of the prison flickered over me then flashed as they pushed me down a hallway. The rolling motion was weirdly soothing, like I was floating on a boat in the middle of the loch.
Was this how Killian felt beneath the waves? Had this same peacefulness enveloped him?
Shutting my eyes, I ignored everything except the sense of motion.
There was nothing good waiting for me when we got to Brina’s office, so I might as well get some rest now.
Next to me, she spoke to the guards, but her voice matched the motion of the gurney. It came in and out of range, one minute too quiet, the next too loud. Her words held no meaning, for which I was grateful. If I could understand her, I was sure she’d be enumerating the horrible things she had planned.
I lifted my hand from the