Slaves of the Night

Chapter 21

Kaisa

We reappear in a cage. I recognize the forbidden halls, but this must be a room off the atrium. There are plants everywhere. And a nice metal cage I've just been apparated too. I burn with someone else's magic, my skin crawling. What the hell?

Thankfully, neither my captor nor my fellow captive are at all calm, so I'm not the only one freaking out.

"WHAT THE HELL THAT WAS YOUR MOST SCIENTIFIC WAY TO DETERMINE IF IT WAS HIM OR NOT??"

"YOU STABBED ME? YOU FUCKING STABBED ME?"

"DIDN'T YOU SKIP A STEP OR TWENTY BEFORE 'KISS THE CROWN PRINCE IN FRONT OF TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE'??"

"YOU PRETEND TO BE  DEAD THEN YOU  STAB ME???"

Rax is of course my fellow captive. He's bleeding out, don't worry, he's bleeding out but still completely incensed against our captor, who is fussing in the shadows and apparently trying to stop his own bleeding. It takes me a moment to recognize him as he steps into the pool of light from the skylight, the scar on his face glowing red as he tries to stop the bleeding.

"Maku? I thought you were dead," I say, sitting up.

"Yeah, so did I," Rax growls, both hands over his own stomach as blood pools around us.

"You gutted me, you actually gutted me," Maku growls, spitting, "You stick your tongue in my mouth, then you gut me??? I thought we were friends??"

"Don't shape shift into people and you won't get cut open---no we're backing well up----why did you fake your death and since when have you been a shape shifter?" Rax grunts, his face white with pain.

"Oh ages, love, that isn't anything new—-you'd have noticed if you weren't so busy being short and queer," Maku hisses before spitting, "And since I told you that can you possibly explain in what universe KISSING ME was the absolute best way to tell?"

"It wasn't his kiss, I knew a reveal spell wouldn't work on a shape shifter and I knew it wasn't a simple possession," Rax says, wincing in pain. I crawl closer, pulling off my headscarf to put to his wound. He's bleeding out. I suspect he's healing, just not fast enough.

"Oh don't do that—he's fine. I didn't cut him like he cut me honestly---this is going to take hours and I had plans—" Maku says, fussing with the coat he threw off and tossing me a new scarf through the bars.

"Had plans??? You're legally dead??" Rax growls, angrily, spitting as well, "Where's the prince?"

"Your precious prince is fine unlike me, your foster brother, who you mercilessly gutted—"

"Where is Eero? What have you done to him?" I ask, packing my hands to Rax's wound through my headscarf. The bleeding is staring to slow. I would pick up the one he tossed me but now I don't dare move.

"Nothing. Now, sit in the cage for naughty faeries while I go heal myself you've ruined my ENTIRE evening. I hope you're happy with yourself—"

"I'm not at all happy I'm completely furious with you! We mourned you---"

"Like you have the moral high ground--- you gutted me!" Maku growls, hands still to his bleeding stomach.

"Because you were shapeshifted and standing two feet away from the princess! I didn't know it was you because---oh yeah—you shape shifted! And kidnapped the prince and faked your death so I had no reason to believe at all it was you when we BURIED YOU, oh and did I mention you were inches from the princess who got attacked last night?" Rax hisses, "Can you begin to understand that that is really, really good reason to gut the potential shapeshifter while he's distracted?"