nodded toward the cart. “I know you must be hungry.”
I should have been. I hadn’t eaten for a while, but for some reason, my stomach rolled at the sight. Yet I knew if I didn’t eat, the food would be tossed away, fed to the pigs and horses. Swallowing the tightness in my throat, I grabbed a sandwich, taking a tiny bite, the soft fluffy bread sticking to the roof of my mouth and back of my throat.
“Bet that tastes like a steak dinner to you.” Caden’s touch directed my attention to him, his gaze holding pity. Maybe in Halálház it would have, but Killian had been feeding me exceptionally well the last few weeks.
I set the sandwich down, peering back at Istvan.
He watched me, his icy blue eyes trying to peel through my layers, seek every morsel he could against his enemy.
“What happened, Brexley? How did you survive? Where have you been?”
Shifting in my seat, a weight came down on my chest. I couldn’t even describe why a barricade popped up in my mind. I gritted my teeth together, selecting the information I would tell him.
You tell him everything. What is wrong with you? The logical part of my brain tried to unknot my tongue. You are back home with your people. You give them everything you can against the fae.
“Start from the night on the bridge.” Istvan leaned back in his chair, his fingers steepled, waiting for me to tell him the story. “Where were you taken?”
The bread lumped in my gut, feeling like the yeast was expanding around my lungs, forcing out the oxygen.
“Father…” Caden sat up, noticing my response, his hand covering mine.
“She needs to tell us, Caden. She is a soldier first. I would ask the same from you.” He leaned forward. “Brexley…?”
I nodded, sucking in. “I was taken to Halálház.”
Halálház was more than a place; it was a presence that lingered inside me. It marked me. Changed me. It was my past, present, and future. A nightmare and my reality. Long ago, but so vivid I could taste the sour stench of blood, sweat, and feces.
Both men jolted, frozen with the same violent movement, as if I had laid a bomb on the desk.
“What?” Caden’s mouth parted in horror and shock.
“Halálház?” Istvan hissed, pushing up to standing, his eyes locked onto me.
“No one survives that place.” Caden still gaped at me, his head shaking. “I don’t understand? How did you get out?”
“Where. Is. It?” Istvan leaned over the desk, his voice strained.
The strange urge to clamp my mouth together caused my jaw to ache. Halálház had stolen my humanity, tortured me, made me play a game to the death, forced me to murder a comrade, and I still fought the urge to keep it from them.
What is wrong with you? You are home, back with your family and humans. You should be giving them every morsel you can.
Halálház was gone anyway, being rebuilt in a new location; my information would not help Istvan anymore.
“The Citadel.” I clutched my hands together. “It was built into the mountain.”
“The Citadel?” Caden bolted up, knocking over his chair. “You mean right across the river from us?” He motioned dramatically in the direction. “It’s been right there the whole time.”
Istvan watched me, his gaze tearing into me, as though trying to see the full truth of my claim underneath. “There was an explosion up there about a month ago.” He was calm, but an almost accusatory tone laced the statement.
“Yes.” I nodded. “That was when I escaped.”
“A month ago? Where have you been since?”
Caden put his hand on my arm.
“Don’t mention me. You’ve never seen or heard of me.” As if Warwick was sitting next to me, I could hear his demand, my throat closing on itself as if he cursed me.
“I-I had to go into hiding.” I lifted my chin, staring bolding back at Istvan. “They, of course, were looking for me because of who I was. It took me this long to get back.”
Istvan’s scrutiny did not relent, his face a mask of stone. Only a slight twitch of his eye suggested he didn’t fully buy my story. Lying to someone like Istvan was putting enough truth in the details to make it sound real, but not so much you’d trip yourself up. HDF taught us this in training, in case we were caught by our enemies.
“I’m curious about who bombed it and why.” He tapped on the wood. “Who would have the knowledge of its location