Page 84 of A Dance With Fire
“You have to let me leave.”
Valerio sucked in a quiet breath and looked at his father, waiting to see what he would do for that blatant order a commoner was giving him.
Slowly, he shoved the plates aside and pressed his knuckles into the surface of the table and pushed himself to a standing position. His entire expression morphed into something deadly. “Oh, Ihaveto, do I?”
“You do.” Her voice didn’t so much as waver. She portrayed self-confidence, more so than she’d shown against Valerio himself. “I am not your prisoner. You have to let me leave.”
Then Valerio’s father did something strange.
He laughed.
A loud belly laugh. He pushed himself away from the table and lowered himself back into his chair. He wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Ah, the hilarity.” He sighed, composing himself. “Shula Azzarh, can you tell me why the human emperor wants you?”
Valerio looked at Shula then. He could tell she was chewing on the inside of her cheek. “I have no idea.”
“No?” Valerio’s father tapped his fingers against the table. “There are so many possibilities… Here are a few…” He held up one finger. “He wants to keep you as his personal Fae whore.”
Valerio closed his eyes and sighed. Shula gasped.
The king held up a second finger. “He wants to kill you and mount your body parts above his throne.” He held up a third. “He and this mysterious Brotherhood plan to use you in their catacombs and keep you chained there for their own sinister plans.” He smirked. “Do any of those options sound at all appealing to you?”
Shula’s voice trembled. “No.”
“No. Because what you would suffer at the hands of that Fae-hating lunatic is worse than what you could ever suffer here. So the answer is no, I do not have to let you leave. Because keeping you here means the humans cannot have you. Would you rather be used and killed by the human emperor or safe and protected by us?”
Shula didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to. Everyone present in the room knew what the better option was. Despite his father’s cruel way of phrasing things, Valerio knew it was for Shula’s own good. She’d be safer in their clutches. She just couldn’t see it yet.
“Now, if no one else wishes to disrespect their king, I believe you have human scum to interrogate.”
Valerio stood and bowed to his father. “Of course, Your Majesty.”
They all stood to make their exit, Shula slower than the rest. “Your Majesty?” she began in a much more subdued tone, though Valerio could hear the anger beneath it.
“Yes, Shula?” King Ashera’s eyes were shining with begrudging humor.
“I ask that I be present during his interrogation. If… if he knows why the Emperor of Illyk wants me, I think I deserve to know why.”
Everyone held their breath once again. It wasn’t every day Valerio encountered someone brave enough to demand things of his father.
“That you do. Very well, bear witness to it. We will find out what the human wants with you soon enough.”
And just like that, they were all dismissed. Valerio could have told Shula she would have just been wasting her breath. His father bent to the will of no one, not even to the will of his own son. He was ruthless and unkind, and he more than anyone knew that all freedom came with a price.
He would not grant Shula’s so easily.
If he even granted it at all.
For the first time since they found her, Valerio started to feel a modicum of guilt for keeping her tethered to them. Not because she was their well-kept prisoner, but because she’d been forced to endure this.
The sarcastic wrath of his father.
And Shula Azzarh might not know it yet, but that was the worst punishment of all.
30
Torture in a Touch
