The Reawakened by Jeri Smith-Ready Page B

are. We’re actually in a secret cave provided by my associates in the resistance, not far from where you were captured.”
    Rhia ran her hand along the cold stone beneath her. “We are?”
    “Idiot. Of course we’re in prison.”
    Rhia let her forehead drop to the floor. Its coolness eased her nausea and the overwhelming desire to throttle her brother’s former mate.
    She rubbed the back of her head, feeling for a lump or a sticky spot of blood that would indicate a hard blow, and found nothing. “They must have drugged me.”
    “I don’t know why they thought they needed to. A runt like you should be easy to tuck under one’s arm and place anywhere one wants. Like a basket of fruit.”
    “What happened to you?”
    “Arrested, obviously. I didn’t exactly stop in for tea.”
    “Where’s Sura?”
    Mali’s voice lost its edge. “I sent her to Kalindos. You haven’t heard from her?”
    “No, but the weather’s been bad for the homing pigeons.”
    The Wasp woman sighed. “Still no third-phase Hawk in Kalindos, I suppose.”
    Rhia pushed herself to a sitting position, her head reeling. Her vision slowly cleared so that she could see the bars now, and Mali’s long, thin figure. She blinked hard. Her own cell had a bed, such as it was, and enough room to walk about. The Wasp’s, on the other hand, wasn’t even large enough to lie down in.
    “Have they hurt you?”
    Mali snorted. “They tried. They can’t, not by beating me or peeling off my skin or hanging me by my heels, any of those tiresome methods. Once they figured that out, they tried other things, like this tiny cell. When they feed me, once a day, it’s rancid meat, moldy bread—”
    Rhia’s stomach lurched. “Stop.”
    “It’s not too bad. Maggots are nice and chewy when they’re not overcooked.”
    Rhia gulped deep breaths to keep from vomiting. When the wooziness receded, she said, “If we’re going to get out of here, we’ll have to learn to get along.”
    Mali gave a harsh sigh. “You ran away when things got bad in Asermos.”
    “I had to protect my family. We’ve all been helping you from Tiros.”
    “I had a family. I could’ve run. But I stayed to protect our homeland.” The Wasp sniffed. “You ran because you thought one of your children was the Raven baby. You thought that made you special.”
    “You’ll be happy to know they’ve both been claimed by other Spirits.”
    Mali was silent for a moment. “What are they?” she asked in a muted voice.
    “Nilik’s a Wolverine.”
    “Like his uncle. What a plague. And Jula?”
    “A Mockingbird.”
    Mali cackled. “I bet she makes you crazy.”
    “The last three years have been one long argument. I can’t say anything without her contradicting or belittling me. It’s exhausting.”
    “That’s the way they are at that age.”
    “I was never that bad,” Rhia said.
    “Me, neither.”
    “You were horrible.”
    “To you. Not to my parents.”
    “Jula worships her father.” Rhia swallowed the lump in her throat at the thought of Marek. She hoped he would return to safety in Tiros rather than follow her to Asermos alone.
    “Sounds familiar,” Mali said. “Sura thinks her father’s a god.”
    “Lycas, a god? That’s because she’s never known him.”
    Mali laughed. “I don’t know how you lived with him all those years.”
    “Nilo was even worse, in a way, because his torment was stealthy. He’d plan elaborate tricks to scare me, then act completely innocent. There was no justice, because my brothers would punish me if I tattled.”
    “Brutes.” Mali’s tone indicated the word was a compliment. “I miss the way Lycas was before Nilo died.”
    Rhia uttered the next thought only because the bars protected her from the Wasp’s wrath. “I think you’d like him the way he is now.”
    “Shut up,” Mali growled. “He made his choice eighteen years ago, to leave me and Sura.”
    “He left to rescue my son and my husband.”
    “Which I eventually