Or did they plan to use the elium here on Earth?

Claire shivered.

"What other plans for the elium do you have?" she asked.

"Time for discussion is over," answered Tevan, moving to her head. "We will take the elium from you now."

Bitterness coated the back of her throat. "At least tell me where you've taken me."

"This is not a relevant piece of information for you. Soon you will be dead."

Houses, oh, please. She didn't want to die.

Claire struggled to sit up. They allowed her to move, probably because she had nowhere to go. She swallowed hard at the sudden wave of nausea. "You don't want to give me information, but I have some for you that might be useful."

Tevan tipped his big blond head to one side. "How so?"

"We've established that you can't be sure your people destroyed the Yrtayi. No matter what you say, I know that you aren't certain."

Kai and Tevan exchanged a glance that let her know she was correct.

Encouraged, she continued. "Keep me alive and I'll tell you everything I know of the Ytrayi and of Yrystrayi. If the Atrika haven't defeated the Ytrayi, the information could be essential to you. After all I've lived at Yrystrayi my entire life as handmaiden to Rue himself. I slept in his quarters. I ate with him, studied with him. There is no one who knows him better than I do."

Tevan pursed his lips. "Information from Rue's pet. It's an interesting notion."

"I know all of Yrystrayi's inner workings." It was true, but, of course, she had no intention of giving them the correct information. There was no place in the entire universe, not any of them, where the Atrika could be allowed to rule.

Tevan pressed a huge hand on her chest and forced her back down. "You are at our mercy, Claire, and not in a position to negotiate. We will torture this information from you, should you live through the extraction of the elium. The elium is more valuable than your knowledge of Yrystrayi. Do you understand?"

Yes, she understood.

"Now lie back and be still and, for the sake of all the Houses, keep your mouth shut."

Did they expect her to be passive in this?

She reached for the elium, barely touched it, and found hard fingers in her hair, head yanked to the side, throat exposed.

Fangs sunk deep.

Pain flared along her nerve endings and venom rushed through her veins. Hot. Metallic. The taste of it sat behind her teeth, made her gag.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

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Claire screamed. Memory flashed.

Standing in the center of the bare, well-warded training room with Rue in front of her. His golden eyes boring holes into hers. His magick ripe and hot in the room, tingling through her as he sank his power into the seat of her magick—twisted here, prodded right there...