Hellfire

Fenrys

Fenrys shifted his weight as he stood on the gently rocking ship, gritting his teeth against the pain in his back. He inhaled sharply as he felt blood trickle down to the hem of his shirt. In fact, he knew his entire back, from his neck to his ass, was covered in red, seeping through the fabric. Whatever, he told himself. He'd endure it. It was absolutely nothing compared to the agony he sure was being experienced by the golden queen that was currently locked in an iron coffin in the bowels of the ship. He bared his teeth into the night, at the thought of the nineteen-year-old who had withstood so much from his queen. His queen. He almost choked on the words. At the memory of what he had witnessed her do. If he could, he would leave her, but there was Connall. He wouldn't leave here without him. His brows lowered and a growl worked itself up his throat at what he knew Connall was currently occupied with. His queen had asked after them both. Fenrys, riding the wave of overwhelming rage and grief, had flat out refused. Maeve had simply ordered Cairn to give him what he thought he deserved, and steered his twin out of sight. Fenrys had roared at her, thrashed against Cairn's grip, but Connall shook his head. Fenrys's head slumped as he stood guard, recounting that moment. Con had understood, understood the amount of pain and rage and grief in his onyx eyes, twins to his own, and had let himself be steered down that dark ship passage. To the bedroom.

A board creaked, and Fenrys's head shot up, the movement making his back scream in pain. A growl escaped his mouth as Cairn appeared from the bowels of the ship, his hands caked with blood. Cairn's lips twitched upward at his reaction, and smiled more as he stepped closer, lifting his palms. The scent wafted over to him, and Fenrys's nearly vomited. Aelin. 

"What," he began, growling, hands tightening into fists, "did you do," he roared, facing Cairn fully, the pain in his back fading to a distant memory as he scented the rage and pain and despair lacing the scarlet liquid dripping onto the wooden planks. Cairn just grinned, his eyes lighting in sadistic glee. 

"Tended to her wounds," he answered smoothly, that wicked smile stretching even wider. Fenrys bared his teeth at his smile, his chuckling laugh, as he stood there, enjoying the thought of the young queen in pain and Fenrys being unable to do a thing about it. He said as much, and Fenrys was trembling with enough rage to shatter every bone in Cairn's body.

"You really should consider leaving before you do anything stupid, Fenrys," Cairn cautioned mockingly, leaning over the side of the ship to wipe off his hands with a rag. Fenrys slid into a frozen calm at the tone. It was a tone that had shattered the control of everyone who Cairn had been tossed to. It was a slow, easy drawl, with enough indolence to turn any respectable man's eye red with anger. "But then again, think of your brother, Connall. What fun I shall have with him when you're gone." Cairn chucked the rag into the sea, and turned to flash a grin edged with manic delight before striding off into the gloom. Fenrys clenched and unclenched his hands and uneven breaths rattled through him. This was what Cairn wanted; for him to get riled up and do something stupid. It would give him another reason to put him under the whip again and see pain ripple through his eyes once more. Fenrys choked in a long, solid breath, and stepped to the railing, peering down into the inky depths. With his Fae senses, he could tell that they were currently anchored somewhere in the northeast of the Great Ocean, but were nowhere near Wendlyn. Hell, he didn't even know if there was any sort of land to the northeast, made harder by Maeve's cloaking of the ship. Fenrys's head dipped. What the hell was he doing anyway? He had no way to free the queen or his brother, but he couldn't live this way anymore. He had endured it before. Hated it with every fiber of his being, yes, but endured it. For Connall's sake. For the thirty years old he had been when Maeve had first locked that bedroom door. But now, he sighed. With Aelin and her court, he had felt at home. The way they treated each other, and the way the young queen had cared for each and every one of them, had felt so unearthly and unreal until Fenrys realized that this was what he had thought Maeve's court would be. And now that he had experienced it, he couldn't go back to the way things had been. Not when he knew how they were supposed to be. He wanted to experience again, but this time, he wanted to see his twin's face when he saw it too.