Page 98 of Tell No Tales
Klaus didn't say more with the guards looming over them, but he gave her a quick nod. One was all Nola needed to call her water.
Vadim walked with his usual swagger, earning him a cuff to the ear from his guard. Klaus noticed how his hand slipped free of the silver cuff, and he almost missed a step. He glanced up at his guard, but the man was glaring at him like he'd offended his mother somehow by almost tripping over his own feet. Good. No one but Klaus was watching Vadim that closely. Klaus hoped their luck held.
Fanidra ushered them into another room not much larger than the holding cell. Klaus tucked himself into a corner. Roy sidled up to him first, and Klaus worked diligently on the lock. He held onto the right cuff, silently hoping Roy would understand, he could only loosen one cuff at a time, or the guard would notice. He clicked the gold into place, and the guard's head snapped up.
"Hey, you. Get away from the corner."
"Me?" Roy stepped forward.
Ray backed toward the opposite corner, and Klaus took his lead, sliding from one side of the room to the other along the wall. The guard's eyes followed him, but he'd tucked his hands behind his back.
A knock at the door provided the needed distraction for Klaus to slip Ray's lock and click a cuff into place again before the guard noticed.
"One will have to do," he whispered.
"It's more than enough." Ray grinned at him, and a slight breeze lifted Klaus's sweat-soaked hair from his nape.
Klaus nodded and leaned back against the wall. He'd restored everyone's magic to the best of his ability. Now, they had to await the coming confrontation and hope it was enough.
Chapter 24
Vadim
Vadim had questioned their relocation, but as they were led into the throne room, surrounded by mundane guards, he saw the reason for the second delay. Martiz was on his knees before the throne wearing only his small clothes. Thick red lines marred his back from at least twenty methodical strikes with a cane. If that was what Coryn had done to Hugo, he would kill her slowly, bring her back to life, and kill her again more slowly.
"Don't look at me like that, Vadim." Coryn's smooth alto sent a shiver down Vadim's spine. He'd hoped to avoid hearing her voice before she tried to attack him, but she now had the upper hand.
She sat on the throne in a skintight silver outfit much like Fanidra's, her legs thrown over one padded armrest and her shoulders leaning up against the other. Her hair was tied behind her ears with a gray kerchief. She shifted to sit as they came closer and pulled one leg up so she could rest her chin on her knee. "You had two weeks with him aboard your ship. Imagine my surprise when he said you never touched him."
Vadim couldn't bear to look at Martiz. Even now, in pain as he was, Vadim saw only a monster and a threat.
"You were too weak to do to him what he did to you." Coryn shook her head. "I intend to make him pay for every time he cut me open, every time he used me to sate his desires, every time he shoved more and more healing into me without my consent."
"I knew you would." Vadim met her gaze and saw the edge of her madness lingering there.
"You wanted me to take care of him for you." The madness vanished, leaving only rage. "You're no different from him, always making me do the dirty work. I'm tired of being a weapon, Vadim."
He swallowed back his fear. "Where's Hugo?"
"Safe." She nodded to the guard to her right, and he turned on his heel and disappeared into a hall. A door creaked open and shuffling footsteps echoed on the hollow raised floor.
"Vadim!" Hugo's voice echoed in the hall as Fanidra walked him forward. She was Hugo's height. Despite her thin frame, she probably weighed more than he did. Hugo had lost a lot of muscle weight since Vadim had last seen him.
She dragged him into place at Coryn's right and held her dagger to his neck. "We both know I don't need this to kill you." She said the words in his ear but loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
"I dare you to do it," Hugo said. "You won't like how eager I am to die."
Vadim waited in dread, expecting Fanidra to decipher Hugo's words and catch onto their plan. If she alerted Coryn, this would all be over far too quickly. Thankfully, Fanidra said nothing.
"Hello, boys," Coryn said as the guards shoved the twins forward. "You must be my twin air weavers from Brinstock. Come here, let me have a better look at you."
Ray, or Roy, Vadim couldn't tell which, looked askance over his shoulder.
"Go." Vadim motioned with his chin. He didn't know how much help two air weavers would be against Coryn and Fanidra, or the retinue of powerful weavers at their back, one of every element but healing and a spectral weaver to boot. Vadim knew through their link that Klaus had freed them from their cuffs, at least.
Vadim studied Fanidra as Coryn stood and assessed the twins. He still didn't know why the death weaver would help Coryn. She'd never been particularly enthralled by the military, war, or bloodshed.
"Take them back to the academy," Coryn said to the two water weavers standing guard. "We've prepared beds for them on the third floor of the south dorm."
