CHAPTER 86
ZARKHAN’S POINT OF VIEW
My shoulders slumped, the last of my defiance leaking out of me like air from a punctured lung. The cold of the steel bars was a bitter kiss against my skin, the only real sensation in this wolfsbane-induced numbness. I was trapped, and every route my scrambled mind tried to trace led to the same, sickening conclusion.
If only I hadn't been such a fucking reckless idiot. The thought was a hammer blow to my pride. If I’d just told Hakkan everything instead of playing the lone wolf… we could’ve stormed this place with an army. But no. I had to be the hero. I had to prove I could protect her alone. And look where it got us. Both of us in cages. Her, because of me. Me, because of my own staggering arrogance.
A dull, throbbing ache had taken up permanent residence behind my eyes. Two days without food, surviving on sips of water laced with more of that debilitating poison. My body was a traitorous, weak shell. I could barely keep my head up, let alone summon the strength to bend these fucking bars. Every muscle screamed in protest with the slightest movement. This wasn’t just wolfsbane. This was something more insidious, something designed to corrode from the inside out, just as he’d said.
There was only one path forward, and it made my stomach churn with a nausea that had nothing to do with the drugs. I had to play his game. For now.
I lifted a hand that felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and brought my knuckles to the cold steel. The sound it made was pathetic, a weak, scraping tap. But in the dead silence of this place, it echoed like a gunshot.
I didn’t have to wait long.
The soft scuff of expensive shoes on concrete. He emerged from the shadows as if he’d been standing there the whole time, just waiting for my call. A tall, commanding figure, his sharp eyes gleaming with that infuriating, predatory knowledge. He knew he’d won this round.
“Finally come to your senses, Zarkhan?” His voice was a low, smooth drawl, devoid of any real surprise.
I met his gaze, pouring every ounce of my loathing into that one look. “Don’t flatter yourself,” I rasped, my throat raw. “I just want to hear the full terms of your shitty deal.”
A slow, triumphant smile spread across his face. He took a leisurely step closer, stopping just out of arm’s reach, the way one would approach a dangerous but safely caged animal. “It’s simple. You talk to her. You make her see reason. You convince her that being my wife is her only path to safety, to a future. That resisting me is a pointless, fatal endeavor.”
“And why would she believe me?” I shot back, the words tasting like ash. “She knows what you are.”
“She’ll believe you because you’ll sell it,” he said, his tone chillingly matter-of-fact. “You’ll tell her it’s the only way to save your life. That if she cares for you at all, she’ll do this. Women are so sentimental about that sort of thing.” He waved a dismissive hand. “Play on her sympathies. It shouldn’t be difficult for you.”
The thought of using her care for me as a weapon against her was its own special kind of torture. I’d rather he just cut out my fucking tongue.
“And if I do?” I forced the question out. “If I perform for you like a trained dog and she agrees to your fucked-up proposal? What then? You just let me walk out of here?”
His smile didn’t reach his cold eyes. “You’ll be free to go. I’ll have what I want. A public union with a Zaro daughter, cementing my place. Your usefulness to me will be at an end.”
He was lying. I knew it in my bones. The second Giselle said ‘I do,’ my life would be forfeit. He wouldn’t leave a loose end like me wandering around. But that was a problem for later. First, I had to get to later.
“I want to see her first,” I demanded, putting a shred of my old authority back into my voice. It came out weaker than I intended. “Alone. No audience. I’m not having this conversation with your goons breathing down our necks.”
He considered this for a moment, his head tilted. I could see the calculations running behind his sharp eyes. The risk versus the reward of letting the two of us talk. He believed his wolfsbane had me thoroughly neutered. He believed his threats held her in check.
“Fine,” he conceded with a slight nod, as if he were granting me a great privilege. “A few minutes. To say your… goodbyes.” The way he said it, laced with dark implication, made my blood run cold. “But try anything foolish, and I’ll make you watch what happens to her. Understood?”
The threat was a physical weight on my chest. I gave a single, sharp nod.
He turned and gestured to someone in the darkness. A moment later, the metallic screech of a lock echoed through the basement, followed by the sound of a door groaning open elsewhere. My heart began to pound, a sluggish, heavy rhythm against my ribs. Giselle.
“Don’t disappoint me, Zarkhan,” Blake said, his voice dropping to a intimate, menacing murmur. “The alternative for her is so much less… civilized.”
He turned and walked away, his footsteps fading, leaving me alone with the pounding of my own heart and the terrifying task ahead. I had to look into her eyes and lie. I had to sell her a future with our worst enemy to buy us a sliver of a chance. The cage felt smaller than ever, the wolfsbane’s burn in my veins a constant reminder of my powerlessness.
The only sound was my own ragged breathing and the distant, hesitant shuffle of footsteps coming closer.