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18: Caged

Vylek's face twists into a sneer as his crimson red eyes grind me down. He lifts his slender fingers into the air and flicks his wrist in a quick twist.

My levitating body shoots through the air, gusting me with musty wind, and my back crunches into the wall of the rocky cave. Pain trembles through my spine and a stinging headache narrows my eyes. My head wobbles in place as I stare across the cave at Vylek and Hyrda, woozy and throbbing with pain.

Hyrda steps toward me, her long legs traversing the gap between us, until she's close enough for me to smell the musty soot scent emanating from her body. A smirk shrivels her tight lips as her angled eyes stare me down.

"She's so weak." Her voice slinks through the cave like the hiss of a snake. "I can't wait to see you break all her fragile little bones."

"You'd die trying." I curl my lip, giving her the best glare I can manage through the pain.

"I can't believe this dumb thing is actually trying to speak." She snickers, crossing her arms and cocking a sharp brow. "You really think you could lay a finger on any of us, with the state you're in? Maybe you're even dumber than you look. Anyway, Vy, it's your fun. I'm just here to watch."

"Sure you don't want to do it for me? I don't want to touch Mexx's..." Vylek slinks up behind Hyrda. "...pet, or whatever it is."

"Well, I want to touch it even less." Hyrda huffs, rolling her eyes. "You brought it here. Do it."

Vylek's eyes narrow and his brow tenses as he glowers down at me. He kneels in front of me, raises his fingertip, and places it in the center of my forehead. A light buzz travels from the spot he's touching to my temples and down the back of my neck.

"Tell me where the chrysallite is." His fiery gaze feels like it's pressing into my soul. I draw in a deep breath of air, trying to ignore the pressure accumulating in my head. I grit my teeth and glare back, pinching my mouth shut, and his upper lip twitches. 

"You want to be a brat? Fine." He pushes his fingertip hard into my skin and a searing pain - like a swirl of lightning and fire - burns through my head, blanketing my vision. My body shakes like a rag doll but I can't move, can't stop the pain or the seizing.

If I had any idea where the thing actually was, I would have screamed it out. If I even had any hint I knew of as to where it was, I would have given it to Vylek. After an unbearably long stretch of the most intense pain I've ever felt, Vylek lowers his hand and shrieks.

"That dumb animal resisted you?" Hyrda's smirk grows even wider, exposing thin, sharp teeth. "I knew you'd grown weak, but that is pathetic. Perhaps I should have helped. Do you have no magick left in you?"

A muscle in Vylek's jaw twitches and the corners of his mouth tense in a tight frown.

Hyrda steps forward, opening her mouth to say more. 

"Of course she didn't resist me!" Vylek screams, turning his hand toward Hyrda and slamming his palm into her temple. Her body erupts with green light and shudders. Her eyeballs roll up in her head and she screams. He jerks his hand away and she falls to the ground. "Not. Another. Word. I know she knows. She must know. I will get the information out of her."