Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 32

"Wait, my mother..." she stuttered out, prying open her eyes in time to see the soldier looking white in shock as Bastian shoved her out of the prison door and into the stairwell beyond.

Bastian ignored her for the moment and turned back to the soldier. "Remember," he said, his hand on the prison door. "If you breathe a word of this to anyone, anyone at all, I will find out and make sure your soul screams to be released into death." With that, he slammed the door on the young soldier, and wrenched Cole back up the steps to the palace.

Anger suddenly flared through Cole's blood like spiked iron. She yanked back on her arm, forcing Bastian to pause on the steps ahead of her, though it hurt her shoulder to do so.

"My mother," she hissed through clenched teeth. "Let me at least go back and check the last cells."

"No," Bastian said, trying to force her back up the steps.

"Why? Did you kill her? One of those executions you just weren't in the right mood to perform today?" she spit out.

Bastian's nostrils flared and his skin paled. "I have killed no one," he exploded back. "I work so hard to make sure not even a hair is harmed on anyone's head, and yet I still earn whippings and hatred no matter what I do." He released her arm with such force that she almost fell back down the few steps they'd already come up.

"Maybe that's because you're someone who deserves to be hated."

"And maybe you're someone that deserves to be dominated?" Bastian said back, his eyes flashing.

"Try it," she hissed back.

"I don't have to try. You're already my servant and subject. I can do whatever I wish to you, and no one would even bat an eyelash. You saw what happened to that girl who broke the teacup. If I had done all my father and the others expect of me, she would have been destroyed and tossed aside like a used handkerchief."

"She already was."

Bastian stepped down so that he was only a few inches away from Cole's face. He stared into her eyes with an intensity that her skin prickle. "Believe me, so much worse should have befallen her. She escaped with a miracle, and she is well aware of it."

"Take me back to see my mother," Cole repeated.

"I already said no."

Cole glared and yanked her arm so hard that it slid through his hand. Free, she turned to head back to the dungeon, but before she got more than two steps, she felt Bastian's hands circle her waist. He pulled her back, and she lifted into the air, spinning around so that she was face down over his shoulder. She grunted in pain as his shoulder bit into her ribs, and she smacked his back with her hand.

"Put me down!" she shouted, slightly surprised that he was strong enough to lift her up so easily and maneuver her into place without even struggling.

Bastian ignored her thrashing until they were back in the cellar, where he drop her unceremoniously onto the ground. He pushed the gate closed, breathing heavy from hauling her all the way upstairs, and locked it with a large silver key.

Cole rubbed her elbows that had banged into the ground when Bastian dropped her, and scrambled to her feet.

"Let me back through," she said, glaring at him.

"No, we're not going back down there. That soldier is more likely to keep quiet if we leave him alone, but if we traipse back in again he'll be more likely to say something to someone."

"Why do you even care if he talks?"

"Because if he tells someone about magic being used to break into this dungeon, and that news gets back to Baerghast or my father, you'd find yourself in a literal hell before you could even blink!"

"I'm just your servant. What does it matter to you if he tells or not? I want to see my mother." She shoved past him, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"I care because no one should go through what my father would do to you if he discovered you were using magic."

Cole fumed, wanting to rake his fingers from around her forearm, but knowing that he would always be able to muscle her away from the gate. She couldn't unlock it without her ring's magic, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to concentrate enough with him right there.