“No one knows who I am. I don’t even know.” He didn’t sound threatening, he just sounded sad.

I centered my breathing, refusing to lose myself to the moment. Maybe I could shift away, yet part of me raged against this idea. Part of me wanted him on top, his power weighing me down more effectively than his muscled chest ever could. I took a deep breath.

“I know enough about you to know you have honor. You could have forced me before now, back in Cantrada, and you didn’t. You’re better than this. I’m stronger than my instincts, and so are you. Please, stop.”

Thad froze, every muscle in his body going taut. I held my breath as he hovered there on the precipice of indecision and instinct. His eyes shimmered with awareness and flared to their usual inky blackness. He was panting, breathing heavily as he sucked me into the depths of his gaze, clinging to me mentally like a man drowning out at sea. Thad waited, tense and unsure.

“You make your own choices in life, but if you make this one, I will hate you until my last breath. Is that what you want?”

Thad visibly shuddered, and the magick leaking from him was slowly drawn back in. I yanked again at the bonds on my hand, nearly spitting in frustration. His presence around me withdrew, and he faded back into his normal human body.

“I–I’m sorry.”

“Let me up.”

He looked away. “You know I can’t do that, Wren.”

“You were going to rape me,” I shot back.

His eyes darkened in hurt, but it was the truth. I wouldn’t back away from it now.

“I’d be nicer to someone who is supposed to be examining you right now. I can’t say the same for the other women.”

I tensed, pulling against the bonds again. Did he mean the witches? “Let me up. Now!”

He shook his head and I disappeared from the table, reappearing behind him. He was just fast enough to dodge my claws as I went to slice him across the chest. I missed, and he moved out of reach. I used the split second to quickly survey the room.

It was massive, filled with thirty or so of the same stone tables. Women lay prone on them, unmoving and unconscious.

“Severn calls this . . . the laboratory.” Only the disgust in his voice kept me from running him through from his pinky toe to his eardrums. I moved to the slab next to mine; the one with the fire witch. Her red skin looked much paler than the fire witches I had met in the woods, almost a pink color. Her hair was thin and dirty, and she was naked. Her unclothed body only highlighted how sick she was; thin and gaunt, loose skin hanging off of bones. I gently moved a piece of hair out of her eyes, and they snapped open.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m—”

Her mouth opened in a wordless scream of agony; her face contorted in anguish. No sound came from her mouth, and I wondered if she even could scream anymore. She writhed against her bonds until her skin bled, refusing to stop, refusing to see me. I backed away and behind her, out of her sightline. Eventually she calmed and fell back into unconsciousness.