“How do you like your new home?” Jordan asked with a sick smile I wanted to wipe right off his face.
“You should be thankful. This is a lot better than where we spent the last seven months,” Bird said. “Which speaks to our generosity.” He pounded his fist on the cement above the cell door. “We built your cage special, to give you an unobstructed view. But it has its drawbacks. Like, don’t bother trying to use any of your godborn abilities to escape. Only our powers are effective here. So, unless you have a key, you’re stuck.”
A single light went on in one of the cells below, and I could see beyond the shield.
I jumped and my head smashed against the cement ceiling, sending a wicked pain down my neck and spine.
“Hondo!” I shouted, gripping the sticky bars.
The winged scorpions whipped their tails ferociously, stinging my skin. I jerked back. My hands seized with pain, then went cold and rigid, hanging off my wrists like ice bags.
“Oh, we forgot to mention, you probably shouldn’t touch the bars.” Jordan’s eyes hardened. “Paralysis, even temporary, is a terrible, terrible condition.”
“What did you do to him?” I stared wide-eyed at my uncle, slumped in his cell, staring straight ahead. Sweat beaded on his forehead. A bloody cut ran down the length of his forearm.
“We didn’t do anything,” Bird said. “No matter how many times we warned him, he shook the bars like a madman, screaming for Brooks and making all sorts of empty threats and…well, this is the consequence.”
“Hondo!” I screamed again.
“He can’t hear you,” Jordan said. “He can’t even see you through the shield.”
My heart shrank to the size of a walnut. Hondo hates small spaces. I could only imagine his panic. I had to fight the urge to reach through the magic-coated bars and rip off the twins’ heads.
The only problem was, my hands were still locked like claws and completely useless.
Another light came on in the cell next to Hondo’s. I wanted to look away, scared of what I was going to see, but I didn’t. A small, battered hawk hopped on one leg, holding a wing close to its body.
Brooks!
An intense rage gripped me so hard, fire burst from my eyes. The flames hit the magic-coated bars and ricocheted on me.
With a twisted laugh, Jordan said, “You can try to burn the place down with your flimsy fire skills, but no way are you strong enough to break through our magic. And that substance on the bars? One touch of flame, and hallucinogenic gas is emitted into the cells below.”
I watched in horror as Brooks shrank into a corner, pressing her beak into the wall to try to avoid the sickly green smoke infiltrating her cage. Hondo just lay there helplessly breathing in the poison.
“No!” I screamed.
Bird smiled as he watched the agony unfold all around him. “We really went to great lengths to build your prison uniquely for you.”
“You’re sick!” I said.
“And you’re doomed,” Bird said.
I struggled to find my breath and the words, but all that came out was “Wh-why?” My voice cut off in a swell of emotion.
“We told you,” he said. “We have a plan—a very big plan. And to think that your godborn-ness, the thing we despised you for, will be what gives rise to our new empire.” He let out a small laugh. “It’s so poetic, isn’t it, Jordan?”
“I will never help you!” I screamed. But that was a lie. I’d do anything to save Brooks or Hondo.
“You’re such an egotistical fool,” Bird spat. “We don’t need your help. Nor do we want it.”
Then why was I there? Just so they could torment me?
He straightened his sleeves, spun to leave, then turned back and looked me straight in the eye. “Have you ever heard what the ancient Maya did to the enemies they captured?”
I could barely look at this guy, never mind talk to him.
“Have you?” he demanded.