Chapter 346: Salvation
GABRIEL
Hunger was a living thing.
It crawled through my stomach like an animal with claws. It scraped at my insides and twisted my gut into knots that never loosened. Every breath I took felt hollow. Every movent required effort I didn’t have. My body had started eating itself weeks ago. No... More like months. Years even. I had lost track of ti down here.
The floor was cold against my cheek.
I lay there and stared at the bars across from . They glowed faintly in the darkness. I wondered if it was a mirage or maybe it was the fucking pure wolfsbane that was infused into the damn tal.
It was a constant reminder that even if I had the strength to break free, I wouldn’t make it past the threshold.
My brother was ticulous like that.
He fed
just enough to keep
breathing. Never more. A bowl of thin broth. A piece of stale bread. Water that tasted like rust. And a few tis I sothing actually decent. Just enough so my heart wouldn’t stop. Just enough so I couldn’t die.
I didn’t understand it at first. Why keep
alive? What was the point? If he wanted
dead, he could have killed
a hundred tis over by now. A knife. Poison. A wolfsbane infused bullet to the head. It would have been easy.
But he didn’t.
He kept
here. In this cage. In this space. And he fed
scraps like I was so kind of pet he couldn’t quite bring himself to put down.
I had thought about it. The easy way out. Plenty of tis. There were ways. I could refuse the food. Let my body shut down eventually. Or I could find sothing sharp. A loose stone. A piece of tal by forcing the bars open and burning myself with wolfsbane before I ended it myself by calling into the torn bar.
It was supposed to inconvenience him. Before he had the chance to use
for whatever twisted plan he had brewing.
But every ti I got close to doing it, I stopped.
Because Aldric hadn’t put any safeguards in place. No runes to stop
from hurting myself. No chains to keep
from reaching my own throat. Nothing.
It felt deliberate. Like he was daring . Like he wanted
to know that he didn’t care if I lived or died. That the choice was mine. That he had already won and my survival or death was just a footnote in whatever ga he was playing.
So I stayed alive.
Out of spite. Out of stubbornness. Out of so stupid, flickering hope that soone would co. That Gabriel Donlon wouldn’t die in a cage like a dog.
The hunger made everything sharper. My senses had adjusted over ti. Over ti, I could now hear things I never noticed before. The servants moving upstairs. Their footsteps light and quick as they went about their duties. I could hear water sowhere. A faint drip that echoed through the walls. It grounded . Gave
sothing to focus on when the hunger got too loud.
I lay there and listened.
Footsteps above. The creak of floorboards. A door closing sowhere far away.
Then sothing new.
A hum.
I frowned and shifted slightly. My body protested. My muscles were weak and my joints ached. But I pushed myself up onto my elbows and tilted my head.
The hum ca again. Low and vibrating. It wasn’t chanical. It didn’t sound like anything I had heard before. It felt wrong. Unnatural and inhuman.
Then the screaming started.
My heart lurched. I sat up fully. My hands pressed against the cold stone as I steadied myself.
The screams were distant. Muffled. But there were a lot of them. Voices overlapping with panic and even more terrifying scream.
The hum rang out again. Louder this ti.
Then more screams followed.
Footsteps thundered overhead. Now people were running and they were fast. But too many to count.
What the hell was happening?
I strained to hear more. My ears picked up fragnts. Shouts. Orders being barked. Soone sobbing. Soone else yelling about the periter.
Then the footsteps started getting closer.
Not the chaotic ones above. These were deliberate. Purposeful. Coming down the stairs and... heading toward .
I tensed. My heart pounded in my chest and my hands curled into fists even though I knew it was pointless. I had no strength. No weapons. If soone was coming to kill , there wasn’t much I could do about it.
Was it Aldric?
Was sothing happening?
The scent hit
before I saw anyone.
Blood.
Fresh, tallic and fucking pungent.
I forced myself to my feet. My legs shook and my vision blurred for a second. But I stayed upright. I moved back until my shoulders hit the far wall of the cage. My eyes locked on the door.
The footsteps stopped just outside.
Then I heard the lock.
Soone was fumbling with it. The sound was clumsy and rushed. Nothing like the smooth, practiced motion of my little brother who had done it a hundred tis.
The scent grew stronger. The blood. But it wasn’t just any blood. I could make what what blood it was. Oga blood. Sentinel blood. Mixed together. Killings had definitely happened up there.
Whoever was out there, whoever this was, they had cut through people to get here.
I heard a voice then. I made it out to be male and a young one too.
"Why don’t we just blast it open?" A different voice asked.
Another voice answered in irritation.
"Because there’s a rune that will hurt us like crazy if we do. It’s why I told you to bind my magic in the first place."
The lock clicked.
The door opened slowly then. A crack at first. Then wider.
A face peeked in.
Then another.
The first was a boy. Blonde. Maybe seventeen or eighteen. His face was streaked with blood. His clothes were soaked in it. He looked like he had walked through a massacre.
He stepped inside and his eyes swept the room. When they landed on , they widened.
"Fucking hell. It’s actually a person."
I stared at him. My throat was dry and my voice ca out rough.
"Who the hell are you people?"
The boy stepped closer. His eyes traveled over . Over the cage. Over the bars.
"You’re a Donlon," he said. His voice was quieter now. Almost awed. "I know you from the pictures. Gabriel. Alpha Gabriel."
He paused and shook his head as if he stated to realize a lot of things.
"Hekate. You’re here. You’ve been here all this ti."
I felt sothing twist in my chest. Recognition first. Hope second. Confusion ca last.
The boy was a warlock. I could feel it now. The faint hum of magic around him. Bound but still there.
"Are you a friend or a foe?" I asked.
He raised his hand. His palm facing
in a gesture that was ant to be reassuring.
"I can be a friend," he said. "My na is Wilhelm. I’m the son of Valentine Blossom."
Valentine Blossom.
I knew the na. I knew the Supre too. He was a powerful and influential man. Father to the girl that Cian was interested in. If his son was here, then this wasn’t random.
I nodded slowly.
Wilhelm moved closer to the cage. His eyes stayed on mine.
"We want to take down the monster who trapped you here," he said. "Aldric. And you’re integral to taking him down."
He tilted his head.
"What do you say?"
I stayed where I was. My hands still curled into fists.
"Do you have clean clothes?"
Wilhelm blinked. His expression shifted to confusion.
"What?"
"Clean clothes," I repeated. "Do you have them?"
He stared at
like I had lost my mind. Maybe I had. But I needed to be safe. I needed to hide what I had on
now. The warlock wouldn’t understand. He couldn’t.
Wilhelm turned toward the door. Toward soone standing just outside. Hidden in the shadows.
"Get clean clothes from one of the rooms."
A voice answered from the hallway.
"Okay."
Wilhelm turned back to .
"Yes. We do."
I took a breath. My chest hurt. My stomach twisted. But I t his eyes and nodded.
"Then get
out of this cage."
I paused. My voice dropped lower. Colder.
"That fucker needs to die."
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