Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page B

were looking for him. They were. This wasn’t the same as when he was in a mental institution and his friends couldn’t get him out without a court order or his uncle’s permission. He was in a secure facility that would block his chip from transmitting to an outside source. That was the only reason they hadn’t found him.
    It had to be.
    Nykyrian had known that he would be bringing Lise to his home. The minute Nyk caught word of her death and of Darling’s kidnapping, he and the rest of the Sentella would be out scouring space for him.
    So would Maris.
    His friends wouldn’t betray him.
    Only Zarya had done that. And what cut him deepest were the times when he heard her voice through the door as she walked past it. Especially when she was laughing with the very people who tortured him.
    He’d been willing to give her the universe.
    She couldn’t even give him the time of day. How could
she
, as the Resistance leader, not come in here and see what they were doing to their prisoner? Did she know or did she just not care what they did?
    How could she not know? his mind kept asking. The rebels constantly bragged about it to others—another thing he’d heard outside his room at all hours. They thought his humiliation and torture were funny, and they mocked him for it. That was what ate at him constantly.
    How could he have so misjudged the people he’d been willing to die for?
    How could he have ever trusted Zarya?
    All men and women lie. But never lie to yourself.
That had been one of the primary rules his father had forced him to memorize as a boy. Never be deceived by others.
    And never deceive yourself.
    Yet his love for Zarya had blinded him to her real nature. She was every bit as apathetic to the suffering of others as Arturo. She didn’t care enough about her prisoner to even open the door. Or click on the cameras that were pointed at him.
    That would only take seconds of her time.
    Unless she sat in her office watching what they did to him. That one thought alone was enough to drive him insane. Had she watched them as they beat him to the brink of death? Was she one of the people who laughed at him while he suffered? One of the ones who enjoyed watching his misery?
    “You don’t look so regal now, Highness. What? Commoners offend you? You still think you’re too good to be with us, don’t you?”
    But those were their insecurities. He’d never felt that way about anyone. And every time they mocked him, it made him wonder if Zarya was sitting on the other side of the camera, doing the same. Laughing at him. Telling them to hurt him more…
    Had she ever loved him at all? Or had she used Kere for his money and military support? Didn’t she miss him in any capacity?
    From the sounds of her in the hallway whenever she spoke to the others, it didn’t seem like she’d even noticed he was gone.
    Was he nothing more than a means to her end? He didn’t want to think that. He tried not to.
    But nothing else made sense.
    Not that it really mattered to him anymore.
    Nothing did. The one good thing about pain and grief were that they put everything else in perspective.
    Even if he survived this, he was mangled so badly at this point he’d be lucky to walk again. Never mind fight. Every day, his body shut down more and more. It no longer even felt like it was his. Rather, he seemed to be a caricature in a hazy kaleidoscope.
    Just let me die. Please.
He was through with trying to live for revenge.
    Why should he?
    Lise was dead because of him. He should have left her in school. Had he not tried to make it better, she’d be alive and he…
    He’d be in pain, but not like this. As bad as his past had been, it didn’t compare to what they’d done to him since his capture. None of it. His head reeled from memories of their abuse that he knew would never leave him. Those images would torture him into eternity.
    And he didn’t want any more memories shredding his dignity and tearing into what little self-esteem