“The bloody fool, a half-trained witch who convinced herself she’s powerful when she doesn’t even know how to read the veil,” he snapped. “She simply wanted the rituals to stop. But he liked her, so he took her and now he’ll use her as he sees fit before he destroys the lot of you.”

This was met with silence.

Jellan found himself breathing heavily.

And as he did, he realized he’d been calling on his magic, but…

It wasn’t there.

“You might wish to know at this juncture, Hera bound you when she met you downstairs,” Cassius said.

Jellan blinked and tried to pull up his power again.

He could not access it.

Her movement, with her arm.

The chill he felt.

His stomach clutched so violently, he feared he’d be ill.

He then watched as Cassius slouched in his chair, stretched his long legs before him, and crossed them at ankles.

The Regent then linked his fingers over his flat stomach.

“There is a man,” he began, as if he were settling in to tell a story. “Most odd. Here in Sky Bay.”

Jellan glared at him.

“When Mars’s men’s reports started coming in, I remembered talk of him,” Cassius shared.

“If you are to jail me, jail me,” Jellan ordered tersely. “At least if you did that, I’d be closer to a meal.”

“He collects snakes.”

Jellan froze, his mind doing the same, to the point he did not feel the warm trickle running down his leg.

Cassius’s gaze dropped to the floor, and his lip curled before it came back to Jellan’s face.

“True’s men have made inquiries, just in case,” Cassius told him. “Just in case we were to find you, or you were to seek us. This man, he has never seen his pets at work. He was quite keen to be of service, if he were called.”

The room filled with the noises of the air rapidly going in and out of Jellan’s nose.

“It might not be of interest to you, but Mars wishes to keep you alive,” Cassius informed him.

Jellan’s gaze jumped to Mars before returning to Cassius when he spoke again.

“He felt, if we were to lose anyone else who had meaning to us, that you should be breathing so we could share with you the fullness of our ire. True, however, disagrees. And although you committed at least one crime on Firenz soil, you committed incalculable on Dellish. Thus, we’ve decided True gets to do what he wishes to you,” Cassius concluded.

Cassius then turned his head in True’s direction.

“True?” he prompted.

“Is there somewhere he can start digging his own pit?” True asked.

“I’m sure we can figure something out,” Cassius muttered.

“Then let us do that without delay,” True decreed.

Jellan closed his eyes.