Page 107 of Lifebound

Others watched, whispering in each other’s ears. I looked at Rune, and he looked at me. Shook his head once.

Don’t try anything,I thought he meant.

Once again, I listened.

That’s why, five minutes later, I found myself walking down a set of narrow stairs under the building where Lorei’s little party went on.

* * *

The gold paintof the massive cages was chipped in several places to reveal the dark metal underneath. There were four of them, two in front, two in back, stacked side by side, pressed so closely together it was hard to tell where one ended and the next began. Together, they formed a solid cube, like a cagewithina cage.

They sat at the bottom of yet another set of stairs in a wide room with grey brick walls, a narrow ceiling, and a few of those gas lamps on the walls.

“Lorei used to use them for his acts a few months back, but now they bore him,” said Rogue, and he was talking about those square golden cages. They were as big as a small room and furnished—some had tables and chairs, some couches and armchairs, and all had chains and ropes hanging from the top bars.

“But they’re still as reinforced as the day he had them made,” Rogue continued. “The best Ice magic money can buy. I suggest you save your energy if you’re thinking about trying to run.”

He was talking to Rune, who walked behind me with his head down, never putting a foot out of line. I looked up at him, terrified, but he was perfectly calm. He even gave me a tiny nod that I almost missed, as if to say that it was okay.

I really didn’t believe him this time because we were in an underground room and there were cages in front of us, and Rogue was already holding open the door of the right one of the first two. The wall next to it was made of bricks entirely, no sign of a door or window or anything at all, just some piles of discarded rope on the ground.

For a moment, when I stopped in front of the wide door, the bars as thick as my forearms, I considered begging Rogue to let us go. Maybe it would work. If I begged extra hard, maybe he’d listen.

Except I wasnotabout to beg anyone for anything until the day I died. I’d tried it once when I was a kid. It hadn’t worked.Never again.

I entered the cage with my head up. Rogue’s aura fell over me again and took my breath away—just when I’d forgotten what it had been like up there, surrounded by so many people having the time of their lives. A fucking orgy—and I’d been forced to sit there and take it all in.

Yes, I was definitely not okay.

And it got even worse when Rogue shut the cage door behind mebeforeRune could come through.

I turned, heart in my throat, ready to start screaming my guts out when the incubus said, “You—on the other side.”

Again, Rune looked at me and I could have sworn I heard the thoughts in his mind. He was calm, and he wanted me to remain calm, too.

What the hell other choice did I have but to keep my mouth shut?

With my hands fisted tightly, I watched Rogue and the other four incubi lock Rune in the first cage of the second row. I could still see him—all cages were right next to one another so the corner of mine touched the corner of his. He was right there.

I went closer until the thick golden bars began to buzz with little lightning bolts just like those chains had, and I stopped in my tracks.

“You will stay here until Lorei is available. He won’t be happy that you tried to run, though. He won’t be happy at all,” said Rogue as he and the others stood by the stairs, those large keys in his hand, smiling.

“You think he’ll let us have a go at them once he’s done?” one of the darker, slimmer incubi behind him asked, his eyes moving fast from me to Rune.

“Pretty sure there won’t be much left of them when he’s done,” said another, and all five of them began to laugh.

My skin crawled. Bile rose in my throat instantly.What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!

The incubi proceeded to walk up the stairs, turning to look at us every now and again as they talked and joked and made bets about whom Lorei would take first. The moment they walked out, all the lanterns on the walls dimmed down so that the tiny lightning bolts that went around the bars of the cages became twice as intense.

Heart in my throat, I turned to Rune again.

“What is he going to do to us?” I whispered, terrified now because there was a part of me that insisted that, if that guy Lorei came here and started taking my clothes off, all I’d ask of him was to let me be near Rune.

Fuck!

“Nothing,” Rune said, and the little electricity charges on the cages didn’t seem to hurt him. He had both his elbows on the bar that went around the middle, and he’d reached his hands all the way to my cage. “Come here. Nobody’s going to do anything to us.”

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