I gave him a once over as I turned, about to leave him in peace to heal. His body had begun to work on the worst of his wounds, leaving those less critical alone until his chances of death were stemmed. Just as I was about to pull my eyes away, they narrowed on the worst of his wounds. Or what had been the worst. The lash across his lower stomach that was nearly deep enough to disembowel him had nearly healed completely shut.
My eyes snapped to another severe wound. It wasn't bleeding but wasn't healing anywhere near the rate at which the other wound had.
Was he... was he slowing down the rate that he was healing at? But why would he...
The questions I had surrounding the human and her companion continued to grow. But without the Queen or any of her loyal subjects present, those questions wouldn't become hers. Not unless she discovered them on her own.
I may jump when she says when, but I wouldn't go crawling to her like her loyal dogs looking for a pay on the head. That was always what she had wanted.
Finally pulling my eyes away, I only made it a single step before the fae's rough but determined voice had me pausing.
"If you... if you touch a hair on her head... I'll kill you."
It seemed the little human was already trouble for someone else.
I looked back at him, meeting the rage burning in his eyes. "You'd have to escape those chains first, fae."
He wouldn't do that by hindering his recovery.
Then again, he was delaying when the next round of torment would come. He must have caught on that he was wanted alive for now. If not by the line of questioning, then by the fact that this wasn't the first time his torment was halted just as he was pushed to the brink, teetering at a place where another strike could prove critical.
Yet, the human hadn't reacted to his pain in the slightest when he suffered while the Queen questioned her.
She was captured by the death painting the floor in front of her, clueless to the suffering the fae was enduring.
Terrified eyes flashed through my head as I turned to once again continue down the path lined with empty cells. It had only been a few hours since they had met mine while filled with alarm and fear so potent I could practically taste its bitterness in the air. Or maybe that was just the scent of her insides that she had spilled on my floor.
I wasn't surprised that my thoughts shifted back to the little human that they didn't stray far from them. Unfortunately, they hadn't since I had first caught a glimpse of her rounded ears. The sight had unrelentingly dragged up old memories of a friend who was long dead and that I thought I had finally managed to forget. Until I caught sight of the human hidden under a weak glamour.
He had rounded ears just like hers.
Trying to push troubles associated with humans from my mind, I made my way up the stairs at the end of the long hall. Though the cells were located beneath the castle, spreading beneath the main structures in an expansive maze that allowed enough privacy for interrogations in dark corners, but the only way to access or exit them was through the barracks.
When I emerged out of the door that opened into the open walkway surrounding the empty training grounds in the center, instead of moving to return to the Castle, I turned to head for my office. I knew I should have been making my way back to get started on what the Queen had ordered, but... that could wait. This was the first moment I had in days where I didn't have eyes on me that would run to report to the Queen at the first sign of anything suspicious. Like me leaving castle property.
