⛥𝔗𝔢𝔫⛥

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I remember my first night here. I woke up in dark. Blindfolded. My hands and feet tied. Gloves on. I was too tired to freak out. Before I could pass out again, a door opened. My blindfold was pulled off, and I was sitting in a chair. Van Eck was in front of me with two guards at his sides. He motioned for someone to come in, and a Shu boy walked in and freaked out immediately in a shriek of terror, "that's the Vampress! You've kidnapped the Vampress? Are you crazy!" I found it quite amusing.

All daggered eyes were shot to him. Van Eck slowly turned his head back to me, "I thought having company would be more suitable for you." I didn't answer.

"You've been asleep for two days, I didn't get to ask you: Where did Kaz and the others go?" Van Eck asked, "I'll ask something else: Where's Kuwei Yul-Bo?"

"Rot in hell." I told him in fluent Shu. Van Eck looked at the Shu boy, being unfamiliar with the language. The boy looked as if he didn't want to translate, but he finally did. I could see the flash of anger in Van Eck's eyes. But he brushed it off, "this is Aden Bajan, our translator, my wife's music teacher, and your new friend.

I silently scoffed, friend.

He nodded at Bajan and left with his guards. Bajan stared at me for a second without saying anything.

"Just tell us where they are, and we won't hurt you," he said.

"That's a lie," I replied. I knew Van Eck would infact hurt me, but Bajan looked as if he believed he wouldn't. Stupidity. "Why don't you scurry off and tell Van Eck I'm not telling him anything," I told Bajan. The truth was, I didn't know where they were. I knew every Dreg apartment and hiding place, but there were so many. I didn't know where they could be.

Van Eck came back into the room before Bajan could leave. "Leave," he commanded. After he left, Van Eck walked right up to me and slapped me clean across the face. I laughed, "that all you got?" But that infact, was not all he had. He let his guards punch me, kick me, beat me senseless. And then he left. He left me with my blindfold back on, still tied up, and half conscious on the floor.

Van Eck had sent Bajan to me every day, and he'd been nothing but amiable and pleasant even as he'd prodded me for the locations of Kaz's safe houses. I suspected that Van Eck didn't come himself because he knew Kaz would be keeping a close eye on his movements. Or maybe he thought I'd be more vulnerable to a Shu boy than a wily merch. But tonight something had changed.

Bajan usually left when I had made it clear I would eat no more-a parting smile, a small bow, and away he went, duty dispatched until the following morning. Tonight he had lingered. Instead of taking his cue to vanish when I used my bound hands to nudge away my dish, he'd said, "When did you see your family last?"

A new approach. "Nice joke. "

"How exactly?"

"They've been dead since my fourteenth birthday, my dad lives somewhere in Novyi Zem. He wants nothing to do with me."

"What happened to them?"

"Has Van Eck offered you some reward if you can extract information from me?"

"It was just a question."

"And I am just a captive. Did he threaten you with punishment?"

Bajan glanced at the guards and said quietly, "Van Eck could bring you back to your father. He could pay off your contract with Per Haskell. It is well within his means."

"Was this your idea or your master's?"

"Why does it matter?" Bajan asked. There was an urgency in his voice that pricked at my defenses. When fear arrives, something is about to happen. But was he afraid of Van Eck or afraid for me? Maybe it was both. "You can walk away from the Dregs and Per Haskell and that horrid Kaz Brekker free and clear. Van Eck could give you transport to Ravka, money to travel."

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