Page 31
Lilah’s mastery brushed over Saren. “He wants to kill us.”
“Damn it, let me go!” Saren yanked and yanked, trembling with the need to act. To do anything. “Patryn! Wake up!”
“Someone help me restrain him,” Avis ordered. Viktor scoffed, and Saren’s entire body went stiff. He rose a few inches off the ground, suspended and completely immobile. He couldn’t even blink.
Viktor was said to be the most talented with telekinesis in New Grove, more skilled than even Horris. Saren tried to fight it, but his emotions were pulling him in every direction, and Lilah was still in his mind. Blood leaked from his nose as pain shot through his temples. How could he have let himself become so weak?
Matthias took the opportunity to caress his cheek. Saren couldn’t speak or scream. That man’s fingers on his skin may as well have been acid. “There are two choices and only two, boy. The first choice is to kill you for treason. I personally think it’s a waste of time and…assets.” He continued to pet Saren, boldly moving his touch to his lips now. “The second isn’t so favorable to the council, but seeing as I discovered this plot, I think they’ll consider it if you can be…molded. Are you malleable, boy?”
Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck YOU!
“I think you are,” he purred, dragging his palm down Saren’s chest. “My proposal is simple,” he started, finally abandoning Saren and facing the council. “Public lashing for the boy, to showcase that while breaking laws is inexcusable, he is young and prone to fall victim to rebel propaganda. Public execution for his guardian, as a warning to others. And,” he paused to take a rattling inhale, “we ship the Other to Ivory Hill.”
“Why?” Eran asked. “Why them? What if he escapes?”
Viktor nodded along. “Even one Other is too many. He should die.”
Horris hummed, considering the proposal, and said, “Ivory Hill has precautions in place for a creature like that. Far more advanced than what we have here. And it would secure our relationship and trades.”
“And what of him?” Lilah sneered. “Lashings? After all he’s done to keep this hidden? He’s just as culpable, if not worse. He’s in love with the beast.”
Matthias whirled around and slapped Saren. He could only suck in a sharp breath through his nose. Pain radiated over his cheek and temple. “Give him to me, and I’ll break him of it.”
Saren wet himself. As the front of his pants grew dark, Matthias’s grin widened. “Then we are decided? Unanimously?”
“Not quite,” Horris said through a wet cough. “What if the boy can’t be saved? We will lose our Maven and the community will have…some unrest.”
Eran sighed, as if it was only now occurring to him. “And a public lashing will showcase a lack of faith in our Maven. They will not trust him.”
Growing angrier now, Matthias growled, “Fine. We will do it here. Now.”
The council nodded.
“Oh, do not look so disheartened, pet.” The mangled scar on Matthias’s neck was the sole focus of Saren’s gaze. He would claw through it with his bare hands once he was free. “Patryn is already dead. Viktor will make him squirm so the crowd has a good show.”
Saren’s eyes darted to his guardian, his only family, and the realization that Patryn wasn’t moving speared through his heart. He tried to scream, but nothing came out. He couldn’t move his lips. Tears flowed freely down his cheeks, though. His heart bled, and the impossible was made true.
Patryn was dead. Ryx had been taken.
No, no, no. Please. I can’t be alone again.
Leaning closer and whispering, Matthias said, “No one threatens me and remains breathing.”
***
The gauze ripped at Saren’s back, the wounds already healing, but with each step he took, they burst back open. Telex healed much faster than humans, but the cost was energy and consumption. Since Matthias wasn’t keen on allowing him to feed, he was exhausted and seeing spots. As horrible as his new guardian was, he was also arrogant, which was how Saren knew he had one last chance to make things right. He left the infirmary and ran.
They were sending Ryx away to Ivory Hill. And they were doing it now.
Please, I didn’t mean to. By the First Seer, I swear I didn’t!
His silent pleas went unanswered as he forced his body to move faster, get down to the gate before Ryx was gone. The council decided against making a spectacle, favoring secrecy so there’d be no riots in the community. Not that Saren had ever seen one, but he knew from his lessons that some had happened before he was born. The Telex fist quickly squashed those efforts. But with a missing council member and a questionable Maven, it was safer to keep it quiet. Hence why Saren was sneaking out in the middle of the night.
They’d locked the doors to his former home and moved him in with Matthias all over the span of two hours. He kept replaying how it all happened, how stupid he’d been and how selfish. Too selfish, and it cost him everything. He should’ve stayed with Patryn and made sure Matthias wouldn’t or couldn’t talk. He should have told Ryx what was going to happen instead of professing his feelings and kissing him. Because he knew Ryx. He knew how he operated and thought—how he questioned everything unless hard evidence supported it.
The evidence showed that Saren fooled him and tricked him with pretty words and a first kiss.
He wasn’t sure how he couldn’t possibly cry again, but the tears came anyway. Dodging patrols and onlookers, he clung to the shadows like a ghoul until he reached the gate and a single truck carrying the most precious cargo.
