My Knight in Dragon Scales

43. Prince-napped

"Wakey Wakey, Your Highness!" I opened my eyes to see Deceit standing there with this grin on his face. I lashed out trying to punch him but only ended up straining against chains. I just hurt my own wrists in the attempted. "Now, Now, Roman. There is plenty of time for that. I only came to ask how you were feeling. We don't exactly have access to the Astral so... We're stuck using our mundane medicine."

"I feel like I was stabbed three times and chained to a fucking wall!" I yelled, trying and failing to hit him again.

"You should be happy, Roman. I put you in the exact same chains that held Virgil." My eyes went wide and he laughed. "Of course I wasn't the only one that held him in these. His father did it too. In fact... These were salvaged straight from Castle Roe's basement. That whole area was just filled with torture devices. It was a true freak show."

"You're a fucking monster." His smile dropped and I tensed up.

"No, he is. I am going to show you the real Virgil. The monster that he pretends he's not. The monster that you..." He put his hands up doing air quotations and I narrowed my eyes. "...'fell in love with'."

"And how are you..." He shot me this devilish smile and I froze.

"I saw how close he was to breaking. And I know you saw that too. Poor Virgil... I wonder how he'll react to finding out his love is dead!"

"ASSHOLE!" I strained against the chains again and felt it burn against my skin. "You're psychotic!"

"Am I? Really? And here I thought that was Virgil." His smile made me sick. I just could wrap my head around any of this...

"It won't work. He'll know. He'll know I'm not dead. He'll feel it." He just clicked his tongue as he waved his finger. 

"I don't think he will, you see... I made sure to cause you so much pain... He'll feel it as if you were dying on him. And then when he's freaking out..." He reached below my shirt and yanked my slightly blood covered locket off. He held it up to my face and I narrowed my eyes in anger. "...I'll give him the bad news, with this as proof." My body just went cold. He laughed as he started to leave, turning around only just enough to shoot me this evil smirk. "He'll be so distraught, he'll have no choice but to believe me. And then the real Virgil... He'll make an appearance."

"He'll hunt you down." He spun around with his hand on the door nob.

"I'm betting on it." And with that, he slammed the door shut. I was at a complete loss. What was I supposed to do? I pulled on the chains again and frowned... It didn't budge at all. I just hung there for god knows how long. I could feel the usual anxiety start to pick up from being away from Virgil and I didn't like it. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. If I'm going to be like this... You bet your ass I'm not going to waste time feeling sorry for myself.

"Roman?" I opened my eyes to find myself back into the arena Avery had created for our practices. I ran up and hugged her so fast as the tears came pouring down. "Roman what's wrong. You're covered in cuts and bruises."

"Deceit... He kidnapped me." Her eyes darkened as she held me tighter. "He's trying to set him off Ava. I don't know what to do? I-I'm scared... I don't want to l-lose Virgil."

"You love him right?" I nodded and ran her hand through my hair as if petting the had of a small child. It was soothing. "Then you have nothing to fear. He love's you too. I'm certain he won't fall for that snake's lies.

"You say that but... Virgil was already breaking. I could see it in him." She tensed up and I pulled away. "He stole my locket as fake proof. He's going to put Virgil through hell..." I balled my fists and choked back a scream. "I'm going to make that fucker pay." Avery grinned mischievously as she wrapped her arm around my shoulders.

"What do you have planned, my good sir?" I smiled wide and narrowed my eyes.

"I'm gonna put him through hell as well. I just have to be strong enough to do it." Her eyes lit up and she jumped up dancing around. I think she was just excited to get payback against the projector. "First things first though... Who the fuck is the Astral and what the hell do they do?"

"HEY ASSHOLE! WAKE UP!" This blast of water drenched me from head to toe and I woke up gasping for air. I wiped the water from my eyes and glared at Deceit who was just standing there smiling. "I thought you would like to know that the mission was a success."

"Liar!"

"You wish." He growled out as he started to dig around in his bag. I watched as he pulled out this doll and I frowned. It was the same doll he had bought in Riverton before everything went down. A small cloth and wooden army doll that been burned and buried. Except now it seems to be brand new. "I had it fixed. I was going to give it to Virgil as a gift. But now I think It'll serve as a reminder." He placed it down beside me with this serious expression. "You know... You are a very lucky man, Roman Hayes."

"How's that?" Deceit smiled as he took his hat off and ran a hand through his hair.

"I can't kill you, because the whole point of this is to show you the real Virgil. You can't see the truth if you're dead." I narrowed my eyes and he frowned, leaning in close. "I want to hurt you so badly, for what you did to my brother. I heard everything you know. You just couldn't be satisfied with taking the man I loved... You had to hurt Patton too. My brother... blind because of you."

"Y-Your b-brother?!" He moved away and put his hat back on as he crossed his arms.

"Adopted brother really. And despite our volatile estrangement, and numerous death threats I still care for the man. He practically raised me... And you took his eyes. I should take you too." He grabbed a knife off the table and brought close to my face real fast stopping just before it could hit my eye. "Except I can't." He pulled back and dropped the knife on the floor. "If I hurt you any more now that I told him your dead. He'd feel it and know I was lying."