Chapter 9
Lirael
The cage was positioned right outside his door, close enough that I could hear every sound from inside his cabin. Marcus opened it and gestured for me to enter, and I did, settling onto the cushion with as much dignity as I could muster.
"Comfortable?" Sebastian asked from behind me, and I turned to find him leaning against the doorframe of his cabin, arms crossed, watching me with those unsettling amber eyes.
I didn't answer. Couldn't answer, even if I'd wanted to break my silence.
He smiled—that slight, dangerous curve of his lips that never reached his eyes. "You know what I think, little beast? I think you're far more intelligent than you want me to believe. I think that cat didn't just happen to escape. I think you had something to do with it."
Prove it, I thought, holding his gaze.
"But the thing is," he continued, straightening and moving closer, "I don't actually care. Isabella overstepped. She needed to be reminded of her place. And if you were clever enough to arrange that reminder while keeping your hands clean?" He crouched down outside my cage, bringing his face level with mine. "Well. That just makes you more interesting."
He reached through the bars and ran his fingers along my jaw, and I had to fight every instinct not to pull away.
"I'm going to figure you out," he promised softly. "Every secret. Every skill. Every thought in that clever little head of yours. And when I do, you're going to be mine in ways you can't even imagine yet."
Over my dead body, I swore silently.
He stood, brushing off his slacks. "Marcus will bring you food and water. Try to get some rest. We have a long voyage ahead, and I have a feeling you're going to need your strength."
He disappeared into his cabin, the door closing with a soft click, leaving me alone in the corridor with my racing thoughts and the distant hum of the yacht's engines cutting through dark water.
I looked down at the collar around my throat, at the golden chain attached to it, at the bars of my cage that were probably worth more than most people's houses.
This is temporary, I told myself fiercely. All of this is temporary. You're alive. You're out of the Foundation. You're—
You're in deeper shit than you've ever been in before, the honest part of my brain finished.
But I was also learning. Adapting. Finding the cracks in Sebastian's control, the weaknesses in his staff, the ways I could still fight even with magic suppressed and freedom denied.
Just wait, I promised myself, curling up on the cushion and closing my eyes. Just wait and see what happens when this caged beast finally breaks free.
---
I must have actually dozed off this time, because when I woke, the quality of light had changed. The yacht's interior was dimmer, most of the staff apparently retired for the night. The gentle roll of waves beneath us was hypnotic, and from Sebastian's cabin, I could hear the low murmur of voices.
I sat up slowly, careful not to make any noise, and pressed my ear against the bars closest to his door.
"—still insisting on her return," a male voice was saying. Not Sebastian. Someone else. "The Foundation sent another message an hour ago. They're claiming she's their property, that you had no right to take her from the island."
"My right?" Sebastian's voice was cold, dangerous in a way that made my blood freeze. "I found her on my ancestral ground. She desecrated my brother's memorial. By the old laws, that makes her mine by right of trespass and compensation."
What? I thought, my pulse quickening. The Foundation wants me back?
"They're threatening legal action," Marcus said carefully. "Citing the Specimen Recovery Act. They say she's an S-class asset, worth millions in research value alone."
"Let them threaten." I heard the clink of glass—Sebastian pouring a drink. "The Foundation can go fuck themselves. I don't care how much she's worth to their research programs. She's worth more to me."
A pause. My heart hammered against my ribs.
"They're not going to give up easily, sir," Marcus warned. "The Foundation has resources. Connections. If they really want her back—"
"Then they'll have to go through me." The absolute certainty in Sebastian's voice was terrifying. "And I'd like to see them try. Marcus, I want security doubled when we reach Ark City. No one gets near her without my explicit permission. And find out who's running the Foundation now. I want names. I want leverage."
"Already on it," Marcus said. "But Sebastian... there's something else. The research facility you co-own with Kane—the break-in last month. We found traces of the same bio-signature that was all over the Foundation's island. Whoever's running the Foundation, they're not just interested in specimens. They're studying us. The Triad."
The Triad, I thought, my mind racing. The three major werewolf families.
"I know," Sebastian said grimly. "Why do you think I've been so careful? Someone's been asking questions. Digging into our bloodlines, our weaknesses, our—" He stopped abruptly. "She's awake, isn't she?"
My breath caught.
"I can hear your heartbeat, little beast," Sebastian called out, his voice carrying easily through the door. "It changed rhythm about two minutes ago. Come in, Marcus."
The door opened, and I quickly lay back down, closing my eyes, but it was too late. I heard Sebastian's low chuckle.
"Don't bother pretending now," he said, and suddenly he was crouching outside my cage, his face level with mine even though I kept my eyes closed. "I wonder how much you understood. How much you already knew."
I felt his fingers brush against my cheek, trailing down to rest against my throat where my pulse beat frantically against my skin.
"Here's what's going to happen," he murmured, his voice soft and deadly. "The Foundation is going to keep demanding your return. And I'm going to keep refusing. Which means they'll escalate. Which means you've just become the most valuable—and most dangerous—thing I own." His thumb pressed lightly against my pulse point. "So you'd better hope I'm as good at protecting my possessions as I am at acquiring them."
He stood, and I heard him say to Marcus, "Double the security. And get me everything we have on the Genesis Foundation's current leadership. If they want a war over one elf, I'll give them a war they'll never forget."
The door closed. I waited until I was absolutely certain he was gone, then opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling of my cage, my mind whirling with everything I'd just learned.
Oh my God, I thought, my eyes widening in the darkness. Sebastian Blackwood. The Nightlord. The Alpha of the Blackwood Clan.
I'd hacked into files about him years ago, never realizing I'd end up as his captive. He was one of the three most powerful werewolves in the country. His family controlled energy and security on the entire West Coast. And according to the encrypted files I'd found, he'd personally executed his own brother when the Alpha madness took him, cementing his position through blood and necessity.
I'm owned by a monster, I realized with cold clarity. A monster who's desperately trying not to become an even worse monster. And the Foundation that tortured me for three years wants me back.
But I was also something neither of them fully understood. Something they both underestimated.
All right, Nightlord, I thought, a fierce determination settling over me like armor. You need me alive. The Foundation wants me back. That gives me leverage I didn't have before. So let's see who's really in control here when the cage door finally opens.