Page 89 of Outcast Fae
His eyes darted from side to side, and I saw the moment he realized why they’d brought me here. “Don’t tell them anything, Tally. No matter what they do to me. Don’t tell them.”
“Howhonorableof you, fae,” Alexander told Sinasre with a sigh. “You only make things harder for yourself. My time is too precious to be wasted in this manner. I’m sorry, but this issue will be resolved today, one way or another.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Alexander noddedto one of his minions as they prepared to do something horrible to Sinasre. Even though Sinasre was strapped to the chair, the thug held my cousin steady while Alexander plunged a syringe into a vial and began to draw out the oily, brown liquid.
“Do you know what this is?” he asked me, his voice quiet and unemotional as if he wasn’t about to do something abhorrent.
I shook my head. I had to do something, stop him somehow. But what?
“This,” he said, holding up the syringe now full of brown fluid, “is liquid iron. You do know what iron is, don’t you?”
This time his piercing blue eyes found mine and held them.
Iron was poison to the fae. It burned us like acid.
Putting on a forced sad expression, Alexander approached Sinasre and stabbed the needle to the crook of his arm. His finger poised over the needle’s plunger as he eyed us, waiting for our reaction.
“Don’t,” I said, breaking into a sweat. “Please.”
Sinasre panted, his eyes darting back and forth, but his lips remained shut.
“You both have the power to stop this. I really wish you would. Just tell me where Kiana is. If she cared about you, wouldn’t she have sent her warriors here by now? Yet, she hasn’t. Have you asked yourselves why that is?”
Sinasre shook his head, and then his gaze found me. “Don’t, Tally. It won’t hurt me. I’m strong.”
“Youarestrong,” Alexander said, “but this is still going to hurt. Very much.”
He pushed the plunger, sending the iron directly into Sinasre’s veins.
My cousin’s eyes popped open, and his teeth bared. He thrashed against the bonds and the guard who held him. Awful, grunting sounds, like those of a wounded animal, came from his throat as he dropped his head and tried to bear the pain.
I could only imagine what he was going through. It was horrible to watch. Unbearable. I gripped my head as silent tears streamed down my cheeks. This was too much, I couldn’t stand it. I had to do something, but the only thing I could do was go against Sinasre’s wishes.
Alexander gestured and the guard grabbed Sinasre’s hair and yanked up his head. “Care to talk now?” the evil scientist said.
Sweat glistened on Sinasre’s face and dampened his wild hair. His eyes were blank, barely seeing us. Still, he managed to shake his head.
“How about you?” He turned to me.
I shook my head. If Sinasre in all his pain had held back, I owed him to do the same.
Alexander sighed deeply. “Fine. Bring in the other one.”
The doors opened and another bulky guard dragged in a small figure. It was Wren.
Wren was the smallest of the children in my care, the most fragile. She was the size of a seven or eight-year-old human, and, though fae aged differently, about the same maturity. At home, she was sweet, submissive, and prone to letting the others take advantage of her. She had a tender heart and was always befriending stray animals she found around the Academy property. I’d find chipmunks in her shoes and stray cats in her bed.
Seeing her here, so pale and vulnerable, cut my heart out of my chest. Her round black eyes darted all about before landing on my face. “Tally!”
I tore forward, but before I could get to her, the thug that had held down Sinasre, grabbed my arm and wrenched me back. I glared at him, ready to fight, but Alexander stepped into the middle of the room. He held up the syringe with the awful iron liquid in it.
“I’m not going to mince words, Tally. I know you realize how horrible this will be for her. No one wants this, but you know I will do it.” He put the syringe to Wren’s pale throat.
“No, don’t. Please. It’ll kill her.” Wren wasn’t big and strong like Sinasre. She was sickly, having already battled the poison that killed our homeland. One side of her body was blackened and withered causing her to limp, and her left wing to sag uselessly. She was always getting sick at home from viruses that the other children brought back. I had worried about her health constantly.
If he put that iron poison in her, I had no doubt she would die.
