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She stopped at the gate and turned. Blue fire sparked in her eyes—a quiet imitation of the gift she couldn’t use. “I hate so much of my life and so many people, but you’re the only one here to hate in person. Thank you for making it easier to do.”
“I’m tired of you.”
“You should’ve made the most of your chance,” she ground out. “Turning a blind eye is easy. Let me show you.”
She presented him with her back and the guards with her wrists. One fumbled to find the right key.
There, so close to where he would sleep that night, where the other warriors took their meals and, in their own uneasy ways, socialized—Leto could almost imagine her becoming part of his world. But she never would. Her escape attempts would continue. Her barbs and insults. Hatred, no matter how justified, was blinding her to the value of playing along.
The Old Man wanted them paired in matches, and Leto had never fought with a partner. What a farce. It was hard enough to win without keeping a muzzle and chains on Ny
“Well, now,” came a voice Leto couldn’t place.
Not at first.
Ny
Only, her features were contorted by abject fear.
“No,” she gasped. “No!”
She moved too fast for her own limbs. Spun away from Leto. Slipped. Fell backward onto her ass, scrambling away. The manacle chains draped in a noisy clank around her abdomen.
“Lovely to see you again, Mrs. MacLaren.”
Dr. Heath Aster.
Leto’s gaze was quick. He couldn’t keep both Ny
Ny
“Where the fuck is my son?”
“Where you should be, my dear,” the doctor said. “No matter what my father insists. Leto, restrain her.”
Leto might have hesitated. He might have. A pause waited in the space between one breath coming in and another going out. Ny
Leto lashed out and wrapped an arm around her stomach. Her makeshift weapons hit the floor in quick succession. He caught her manacles and wrapped his i
Sweat formed along Leto’s brow as he held her thrashing body for the second time that night. Both times fighting. But this was a moment outside of his control. His neophyte was his to command only as long as he was alone to make the decisions. Those decisions were no longer his.
That knowledge grated up his spine.
“And silence her.”
Leto dropped from champion to slave in the span of three words.
He adjusted his grip to keep her immobilized and silent. Sharp teeth grazed the inside of his palm—her tongue, her lips, her vicious snarls. When Ny
Why did that make his stomach lurch?
The doctor stepped closer, his chin lifted, inspecting.
Likely mid-fifties, Dr. Aster was glossy as a photograph. His suit was immaculate. Light brown hair was carefully combed back from a face that greatly resembled that of his father. Hawkish. Predatory. With the same jester’s smile. Only, the doctor seemed able to keep his smile just shy of unsettling. More contained. Nothing about him said sadist. Madness. Brilliance. Just a well-ordered sense of competence.
His eyes, however, gave Leto pause. Dull gray. Slow to move. He took his time to linger over every surface, especially Ny
He’d met the man only once or twice. With nothing between them other than a co
“Cutting your hair hadn’t occurred to me,” he said. “Do you miss it, Mrs. MacLaren? I suppose your husband must have enjoyed its beauty a great deal.”
Aster was tempting fate by taunting her. Leto caught her renewed blitz of venom as if holding back lightning. At first he couldn’t identify the wetness along the outside of his hand, but it was her tears. Two blinks of salt water trailed down her cheeks and settled in the crevice between his skin and hers.
That lazy gray gaze returned to Ny
“Yes, sir. She’s a good fighter.”
Dr. Aster stared directly into Ny
She shrieked. Leto’s arms were begi
“Maybe that isn’t such a welcome topic,” the doctor said. “I’ll leave talk of young Jack for another time.”
More salt water against Leto’s hand. This was a torture he’d never experienced.
What was right? Dragon be, he couldn’t tell.
Dr. Aster smiled. “And you remember my companion, I assume?”
He turned to beckon a young woman forward. She walked with slinking grace, moving with a cat’s animal ease. Only when she reached Aster’s side and he snapped his fingers did she squat by his side. Her twisting elegance was u
Leto shivered.
The Pet.
Leto’s interactions with Dr. Aster had been limited, but his contact with the Pet was entirely new. He only ever saw her from a distance. She was the doctor’s constant companion. No one knew who she was or how she’d come to be more animal than woman.
A beautiful woman.
“Up, Pet.”
Dr. Aster’s voice was as deliberate as his slothful gaze.
She stood. An agile unfurling. Leto thought of petals opening—something his mother had described. A blossom went from tight and closed to radiant and ready to receive. In this case, to receive instruction from her master. She eyed Leto, then Ny