Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 50954 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50954 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Will simply stared at Chauvelin, saying nothing. When the moment had dragged on long enough, he came up with a single word response.
“Okay.”
“Enough fraternizing with the beasts,” Ray said. “Speaking to them is a waste of time. They do not understand words, only actions.”
Will glanced back at Henry, trying to gauge his reaction. Henry said nothing. He just stared at Will with a look that might have been hateful, or might have been sad, or might just have been outright traumatized. Will was starting to have a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Anger had taken him from Maddox in a single reckless act of invitation. He was beginning to realize that he had allowed himself to be manipulated, and that the consequences of that manipulation might be much worse than death.
Ray shut the cage door behind him and left the pair of them in the dark. Will found himself looking awkwardly at Henry, wondering why he suddenly felt incredibly guilty.
“You look like shit,” Will said when he and Henry were alone.
“I have been a prisoner for two years. Lorien has been in Gideon’s grasp for two fucking years. Where the hell were you?” Henry’s teeth flashed, his upper lip curled back in an angry snarl. His fists were clenched, and for a second, it seemed like Will might be about to get his lights punched out.
“I was besieged with Maddox. We didn’t know you’d been taken.”
“Did you ask? Did you try to find us? Or did you just not care? Did it not occur to you that…”
“I literally couldn’t leave the house without Gideon killing me. As for why Maddox didn’t follow up, I just found out he’s been lying to me about my mother. And that my mother is dead now. Because Gideon killed her, purely so I couldn’t ever know her.”
“Boo fucking hoo,” Henry replied.
“Alright, well, fuck you too.”
Henry jabbed a finger at him. “We dropped everything to save you, and the moment you got what you wanted, you stopped caring about anybody else. You and Maddox. Two. Fucking. Years.”
Will had been planning to sulk most furiously about Maddox’s lie and the loss he had sustained. But now that he was confronted with a massive failing of his own, it was very disruptive to his own self pity.
“You couldn’t escape?” It was a stupid question. Obviously, he couldn’t escape. If he could escape, then he wouldn’t be there anymore.
“If one of us gets free, the other one dies,” Henry said. “And it’s all because of you. Because you pissed Gideon off so badly, he’s captured, tortured, and killed everybody you know. All without you noticing.”
“Fuck,” Will cursed. He leaned back against the cage, then leaped away with a scream. The cage walls burned his bare skin quite nastily.
“Moonsilver,” Henry said. “You remember that, don’t you.”
“Fuck. Yes. Fuck,” Will swore. “Don’t worry, Maddox won’t…”
“Maddox isn’t going to save you, and neither one of you tried to save us, so…”
“I’m sorry,” Will said. “I really fucking am. But I didn’t put you in this cage. And I probably couldn’t have gotten you out, either.”
“That last part is true,” Henry acknowledged.
“Ivan,” Will said. “Where’s Ivan?”
“I don’t know.”
“So that’s one person who might still be on the outside.”
“If Ivan is free and alive, he’s not going to help me. I tried to kill him,” Henry reminded Will.
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t try to kill people.”
“I’ll keep that in mind if I ever get out of here.”
“So they just keep you in this cage, all the time?”
“No,” Henry sighed. “They put a collar on me and parade me. They train me to behave as they wish. They’ll do the same to you. Every time I refused, they would threaten to hurt Lorien. Every time Lorien refuses to do as they tell him, they threaten to hurt me.”
“Shit,” Will cursed. “I’m kind of glad I did get myself thrown in here. I know how to do prison. I’m sorry you’ve been in here two fucking years, man. That’s way too fucking long. We should have come for you.”
“Yeah. Well.”
Will reached out. “It’s going to be okay,” he said, assuring Henry. It was strange to be the one offering reassurance to the pack master who had ruthlessly dominated him, but for the moment Will was stronger. Captivity could fuck a man up if he didn’t know how to take it. Will knew how to take it.
“We’re going to get out of here,” he said. “Next time they take us into an open area, follow my lead.”
Henry snorted, obviously thinking Will was full of shit.
On this, Will was not full of shit. His time would come, and when it did, everybody from Gideon down would regret the day they messed with him.
On a moonlit night a few days after his capture, Will was led to a back courtyard, a high-walled affair that looked and felt a lot like a prison yard. Raymond took him and Henry from the cage, putting collars of padded moonsilver around their necks. They did not make direct contact with the skin, but the second the leather touched his neck, Will felt his energy being drained.