Cade.
After speaking with Hewn, trying to appear casual about the matter, she found out that his name was Cade. She hadn’t cared to learn his name before. Seeing as he was to be executed, she preferred not to know, but now it was the only thing occupying her mind.
As Deianira made her way out of the palace and into the gardens with her sentinel, she reminded herself that her growing curiosity for the blonde enigma was only to keep an eye on him. Nothing else.
It was nothing out of the ordinary for her to visit the arena’s training fields. She often observed their drills, keeping an eye out for promising candidates. After all, it was Deianira who implemented the disciplinary program some years ago. Out of the tens of thousands of civilians in the Dome, there were currently only a few hundred criminals, and hence, not much need for prisons. Crimes on the more sinister end of the spectrum were punishable by death but petty crimes would land you in her enforcer program. It was her own version of reform and the results had been exceptional. After training was complete, they were allowed back into the general population but were still required to serve their sentence, however long it was, in the Queen’s force.
Exiting the palace gardens and walking into the arena, she allowed herself a small smile as she recognized the drill that they were doing today. It was one of her favorites. A grueling obstacle course that required speed, strength, and teamwork. It was virtually impossible to complete the course by oneself and the key was to move along with your group, separating as little as possible.
Upon arriving at the center of the field, she spotted Crew Bennett dragging himself up a steep inclined wall by a rope. Crew was one of the best. He was very strong and relatively fast considering his size. But he was cocky and impulsive. Being a good enforcer required both physical and mental attributes.
Eyes seeking out the man who had been infiltrating her thoughts since she’d laid eyes on him, Deianira scanned the field and came up empty.
A squeal to the left of the field drew her attention. Passing her gaze over the man crumpled in a pile of limbs on the floor, she snorted and rolled her eyes. Devin Jacobs.
The boy was smart as a whip but may the Gods help anyone in his vicinity if he had to do anything physically taxing. Devin was her youngest trainee and his performance in the program showed that, but he still had a good head on his shoulders. She was sure he would catch up with a little training.
Searching each inmate’s face, she hunted again for the green-eyed man. Just as she was about to turn to Hewn to inquire about his whereabouts, she spotted a tottering man getting to his feet and leaving the mud crawl.
Cade?
Even with all the dirt obscuring his face, she could still make out his features. And the bruises. Deianira was taken aback by the ice-cold anger that slowly crawled up her spine.
He’d been beaten. Badly. Altercations in the dorms were far from uncommon and occurred for a range of reasons. But this felt different. Was different. One man couldn’t have inflicted this much damage. Either he was targeted or he pissed a lot of people off.
As his injuries became clearer, a busted lip, a black eye, an almost broken nose, those green eyes landed on her and narrowed. Deianira quickly realized that she had been walking towards him the whole time. That she was standing right in front of him and all the activity in the arena had paused.
Cade
Breathing heavily, muscles aching, Cade pushed up off his mud-covered knee to stand. This course would be difficult for anyone but in his condition, it was nearly impossible. Cade wasn’t going to draw any more attention to himself by complaining though. Pain was nothing new to him.
“Uh, Cade?”
Cade turned to Devin who had just managed to untangle himself from his comrades. They spat insults at him for slowing them down, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention to them. Devin’s eyes were focused on something over Cade’s shoulder.
He inclined his head to Cade. “Incoming.”
At the same time that Devin spoke, Cade noticed that, slowly, everyone on the field had stopped what they were doing to look at him. A cool sense of dread came over him as he started to turn around.
Pivoting slowly, Cade wasn’t surprised to see Queen Deianira hastily walking towards him. He certainly hadn’t been expecting her, but it was as if he could sense her presence. Like he already knew who was behind him.
He also wasn’t surprised by the anger he could already feel seeping from her pores either, but what did have him shocked was the look in her eye. She wasn’t angry at him. Her rage was zoned in on his cheek, his eye. His bruises.
What shocked Cade, even more, was his own rising anger. Of course, he was grateful to her to an extent. She’d spared his life. But she was also the reason that he’d been in the dorms in the first place. He was an outsider. Was she expecting the other inmates to give him a warm welcome? In his mind, it was as much her doing as it was Crew’s.
He searched her eyes deeply, looking for that same cold-blooded woman who brutally killed two young men, right in front of him. But he couldn’t find her, he only found anger and concern and even…distress.
For him.
Cade didn’t want her sympathy.
Coming to a stop in front of him, she let her gaze travel up and down his body. Cade’s uniform covered most of the damage but his haggard stance alone was telling.
“What happened?” she said in a neutral tone. She didn’t quite whisper but Cade knew that she was only speaking to him.
The lack of inflection in her voice suggested that it wasn’t even a question. She wasn’t requesting information. She was demanding it.
Still feeling the whiplash from her change in character, Cade cast his eyes down at her and spoke his next words without thinking, out of both annoyance and curiosity.
“What do you care?”
All the concern, the worry, and the sympathy bled from her leaving only chilling rage behind.
Shit.
One second, Cade was looking into her eyes, chest heaving, and the next, he was in the air. In the same second, he felt hands around his neck, but not the Queen’s hands. They were shadows. Hands coming to his neck, gasping for breath, eyes wide, Cade looked down to see that he was at least five feet off of the ground and Queen Deianira standing where he left her with her hand in the air.
She inclined her head, speaking calmly, coldly. “What do I care? The only reason I spared you was so that I could make you suffer.” Even with the air rapidly leaving his lungs, Cade could smell the lie. “You murder four of my men, you steal from me, I let you live and you have the audacity to question me?” She tilted her head. “You think a beating is the worst of it? You think this is bad?” The shadowy hands around his neck got tighter and black spots started to fill his vision. “ It can and it will get worse. By the time I am finished with you, you will wish that I ripped your heart out, just like your cowardly friend.”
Just when Cade thought that he would certainly pass out, the shadows disappeared and he fell through the air and onto the ground in a gasping mess. Queen Deianira wasted no time in advancing on him and dropping a knee onto his sternum. Cade’s hands flew up to hold her leg as he squirmed in pain from the pressure on his bruised chest.
She brought her face close enough for him to feel her breath on his lips and whispered harshly, “Cade Alden, I wish you would give me a reason to make an example out of you.”
Despite her words and his current position, he couldn’t help but be drawn in by her eyes. The day before, he was too distracted to differentiate the deep gray from the black. Even as she threatened his life, he found himself spellbound by the way her pupils expanded and contracted as she hissed at him. They doubled in size as she said his name and narrowed as she delivered her lethal words. It was mesmerizing.
After a few seconds, his eyes fell to her lips, which promptly stopped moving. As Cade met her gaze again, the Queen stared back at him for a few seconds before she quickly stood and stumbled back a few steps.
Devin rushed up beside Cade to aid him, drawing his attention away from the Queen. Standing shakily, he let his eyes wander in her direction one last time, but he only saw her retreating figure.
