Vasili should not have to endure the same torture again but from people he trusted this time.
The elf in the opposite cell was standing now. He peered through the bars, watching Niko pace.
“What are you staring at?”
The elf blinked slowly, then knelt, reached through his bars, and picked up the can. He eyed Niko, as though making sure he watched, and discreetly tucked the can inside his clothes. He smiled, backed away from the bars, and tucked himself against the back of his cell where the shadows were thickest. There the elf stayed, staring back at Niko, mouth displaying a satisfied grin.
Chapter 26
Niko didn’t fully sleep, but he did dream, and in those waking dreams, a wolf circled the Yazdan house, larger than natural wolves and made from shadows. It circled around and around, looking for a weak point.
Niko snapped open his eyes. Still in the cell.
The elf stared through the bars. He sniffed and snuffled, tasting Niko’s scent.
Niko turned away and stared at the ceiling.
It was no mystery why Leila left. Perhaps she’d hoped to find more sense in the Cavilles, only to discover they were equally as twisted. It would explain why she didn’t make herself known to her sister when she came looking and why she’d never told Niko any of this. If only she was alive to speak with him, to tell him all the things he didn’t know. If only elves hadn’t killed her.
The elf tapped the bars with a nail, drawing Niko’s eye. He produced a twisted piece of metal from under his shirt and grinned like he’d won a prize.
The creature had fashioned a lockpick from the can.
He raised his chains and set to work gouging the metal pick into the lock. By Etara, he was going to escape. Niko slowly crawled toward his bars, watching the elf work. A few twitches and jerks, and the elf’s chains clunked and fell free. “Shit…” Niko mumbled.
The elf set to work on his cell door lock.
By the time Niko had hauled himself to his feet, the door swung open with a creak, and the elf stepped free. He was taller, taller than Niko, heavier too. Niko looked the creature in the eyes and wondered, if it came to it, whether he’d be able to fight him off. Niko had no weapon, but he was safe inside the cell.
The elf stepped up to Niko’s cell door and worked his metal pick into the lock.
Well shit…
Niko backed to the rear of his cell, keeping his hands loose at his sides. He’d wrestled many elves, driven their faces into the dirt, pounded bones to splinters, and beaten them into a bloody mess. But none as big as this one.
The cell door clunked and swung open.
Niko readied his stance for attack and cleared his head of everything but what he needed to do to kill.
The elf jerked his chin, then stepped back, out of the cell. He grunted a low noise and gestured at the empty doorway. Niko wasn’t falling for that bullshit. The elf sniffed, slid his gaze away, and approached the main door.
What the fuck was this?
Niko approached his open door and leaned out.
The elf was working on the lock for the main door. His back turned.
Niko stepped from the cell. The elf glanced back, checking his location before concentrating on the lock again. Niko could rush him, wrap an arm around his neck, and choke him from behind.
He flexed his fingers.
But not before the elf got that lock open.
The lock clunked over and the door swung inward.
“Hey!” A guard appeared. The elf grabbed the man, hauled him into a brutal headbutt, and shoved him sprawling into Niko. It was almost too simple a thing to grab the unbalanced man and shove him into the empty cell, then slam the door closed.
“Escape!” the guard barked, dabbing at his cut forehead. “Guards!”
A smile lifted Niko’s lips, and when he glanced back at the elf, a similar lift of the lips was echoed on his face, then the elf dashed out the door. He was gone when Niko walked free, vanished somewhere inside the Yazdans’ sprawling house. A loose elf wasn’t Niko’s problem, not anymore.
The house was quiet, its corridors almost empty but for a few passing staff. Niko slipped into a few side rooms, avoiding any attention. He made it to Roksana’s room, and with no sign of her, he checked various tables and dresser-tops for any clue as to Vasili’s whereabouts. They’d surely keep him near the