bChapter /bb209 /b

    Eryx POV

    “What do you care about,” he asks. “Name one thing.”

    ? ??? 55%=

    +23)

    “I care about the heat in my hands,” I say, and I turn my wrists just enough to see the faint glow creep along my veins, that thread of power that won’t die no matter how tight they bind me. It’s not enough to hurt or kill, but it’s there. “I care about the look she had when I told her I would tear her apart. I care about the way the guards swallow when Iugh.”

    “And the child,” he says. “Say the word.”

    I look at him and don’t blink. The word is there. The word is a de that turns on me if I say it.

    “No,” I say. “Bring me the warlock or bring me fire. The rest is noise.”

    He studies me for a long few seconds. The cell breathes with us, a slow wet pulse in the walls, water falling in patient taps

    from the pipe in the corner. The guards stand so still they look carved.

    “You don’t scare me,” he says.

    “Then you are a fool,” I say, and I smile so he can see it. “You think because I’m you’re child I won’t burn you with the rest of this world, you’re wrong. I’ll start with you, and show how the mightly fake rogue fell at his sons hands.

    “You are not the only one who has been used as a weapon,” he says. “I know how to break the hand that tries to swing

    you.”

    “Try,” I tell him. “Make me a lesson. Make me a story mothers tell to keep their pups from wandering. I will give you

    something to point at.”

    He breathes once, slow, lets it out even slower. He is choosing his next strike. He always has been patient. The anger that

    rules me is not his kind.

    “You want me to say it like this, theni,/ii” /ihe says, quiet now. “If you cannot fight for her. If you cannot fight for yourself. Fight for the small thing that does not know what you are. Fight for the soft heartbeat you felt just now. Fight for the chance to look at eyes that are yours and not owned by a queen who eats lives.”

    The tug flickers. I feel it, a thin spark that hits the ck and tries to hold. I bite the inside of my cheek until I taste iron. The spark steadies for a breath. The cell changes shape. It is itoo /ismall. I can’t breathe right. My shoulders hitch, I see a hand t

    have never held. It grips my finger. It thinks I am a world.

    Please,

    The hiss crawls up from the pit in me, cold and sure.

    You are mine,

    My vision darkens at the edges. The spark guttering out looks like a firefly crushed under a thumb. I give my father what the darkness wants.

    09:31 Sat, 30 Aug

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    “I will watch the crib burn,” I say, and I make my voice soft again, so it sinks deeper. “I will hold the door shut and while it happens, I will smile.”

    One guard moves like he might be sick. Another looks at my father like he wants permission to hit me with something heavy until I stop talking. My father does neither. He stares through me like he is reading words I can’t see.

    “Fine,” he says. “Be a monster in your mouth. I will keep speaking to the part of you that still hears me.”

    snarl and pull hard enough that the chain rings like a struck bell. The chair drags a handspan. The cuffs cut deeper. The re tries to rise again along my arms and dies before it gets to my palms. The residue inside meughs without sound. It

    sets my teeth on edge.

    “You doo’nt get to be merciful,” I say. “You domn’t get to be steady. You don’t get to be my father in this room. You are a guard like the others.”

    “I’m your father,” he says. “I am the man who will walk you out of this cell when we are done with her. I am also the man who will bind you tighter than you knew possible if you try to bury your mother under your hate again.”

    I breathe like I am drowning and the air is the water. “Bring me April,” I say, just to feel the words turn sour. “Let me finish it in front of you.”

    “She is somewhere safe,” he says. “The man who thinks he keeps her will learn that safety has a price.”

    “Push him,” say. “Maybe he will break. Maybe she will break too. They can break together. I will send flowers.”

    He moves atst. He looks to the guards. “No one lets Serafine back in here until I say so. If shees, you fetch me. If I’m not here, you fetch Garrick. We increase the seals at night. We add a secondyer inside the cuffs. We put the cold iron ring on the floor again. He will not stand in it, he will try to drag it to him with his rage. Do not let him.”

    “Yes, Alpha,” the nearest guard answers.

    My father looks back at me. He doesn’t say goodbye. He doesn’t say anything. He turns toward the stairs and starts up.

    “You want me to carei,/ii” /iI call after him, letting the cell carry my voice. “Say her name again. Say the little thing again. Say it until it is old and useless.” Iugh loudly

    He stops one step up, half turned. “You will care again,” he says. “I will be here when you do.”

    I spit at the floor and grin. “I was so close to hitting her with my magic,” I say, because I want him to take that picture with him. “Next time my aim will be better. Then she will stay away.”

    He goes without another word. The door above shuts. The quiet returns like a heavy nket. I can taste my own breath. The torch ticks. The drip taps. The chains hum against bone.

    I let my head fall back to the wall and close my eyes. I try to find the tug. There is nothing. No, there is something, smaller than before, far away. I reach for it and the cold pushes my hand away. I reach again. The cold smiles and fills my mouth.

    I breathe until I forget I am breathing. I count my heartbeats. I lose the number. I imagine a hand that does not exist yet. It curls around my finger and holds on like falling.

    I hold on for one breath more.

    09:31 Sat, 30 Aug w.

    The ck wins the next.

    “Burn,” I whisper to the empty, and I don’t know which world I mean.

    AD