Archaic (Reverse Harem 2)

Chapter 25

~ Clarissa

Two days. I have been in this cage for almost two days. Feeble amounts of food, disgusting smells I can’t track, and an incessant rage clawing at my mind. Everything about me is muted.

I can’t focus in on Hiro’s voice, I can’t smell Penny’s odor, I can’t hear people coming until they’re right in front of me. It’s like these cages are built to tone down the methods of Primals.

All I can assume is that I’m awaiting a trial of some sort, basing it on the conversation I can pick up around me.

I don’t know where Penny is, but I assume she’s been captured as well. I have no idea where Hiro is, but my assumption is he’s trying to find a way out. I have no idea what has happened to him or how Sebastian and Toshi are doing. I have no way to contact Theo, and no strength to pry these bars away myself.

I’m trapped.

And I don’t like it.

“If someone can hear me, please. I’m in trouble.”

I have no idea if my thoughts are communicated to anyone any longer. I can only assume that ability is suppressed as well. I curl up against the far corner of the cage and pass the time, unable to free myself and unable to get close enough to the guards to take them out. An overwhelming sense of horror becomes me. I’m in a situation no one knows about, in a place no one can navigate, surrounded by individuals that want me dead.

I start coming to terms with the end of my life before I hear a familiar voice.

“This her?”

Hiro?

My ears perk up, and I whip my eyes up as two guards lead him to my cage.

“That’s the animal,” I hear one of them say.

“Pathetic,” Hiro says.

I furrow my brow as I slowly scoot toward the front of the cage.

I recognize his sandals. The tattered end of his robes. I look up into his eyes, and I can see him fighting. Thrashing between relief and anger.

He’s playing along.

And I need to as well.

“Her trial is set for two hours,” one of the guards says.

“Anyway we can get her in there sooner? I’m ready to see how this plays out,” Hiro says.

“That’s the earliest we can do, but don’t worry. Now that the Council knows of her existence, all of them will pay for their lies.”

I growl at the guard as he slaps the bars of my cell with his spear.

“Can it, you abomination! Or you’ll see your death now instead of later,” the guard says.

“No use in robbing the Council of what they wish,” Hiro says.

“Though I would enjoy some alone time with her.”

“We can’t do that, Hiro. You know this,” the guard says.

“The Council granted me five minutes alone with her to do as I please. Maybe there’s some legitimacy to her purpose after all,”

he says.