Page 89 of Griffin Food

The door opens, and Pete enters. He brings me water, but no food.

“So they’re starving me now, are they?”

He gives me a sympathetic look, which does not bode fucking well. “Best on an empty stomach,” he says.

I drink the water that is offered, fill my belly with it, resigned to whatever is about to go down. Maybe nothing. Maybe this is the way it happens. Maybe they’re simply going to lock me up here in isolation with nothing but Pete and his pearls of wisdom to keep me company.

He has not long gone when the griffin wing leaders turn up… along with Lark in direwolf form. They fan out along the outer wall, as they did when Lark was turned.

I do a double-take seeing the red-headed griffin, Fenix. I swear he has grown half a foot and put on fifty pounds of muscle.

Did Pete put something in the water? I’m hallucinating, I must be.

Like last time, there is a pause, and then Atlas steps forward until he is a pace away from me. He takes a key from his pocket and reaches to unlock the cuffs around my right wrist, then my left.

We are getting down to the beating part, it would seem. Lark endured it. I can do the same.

“You are free to leave,” Atlas says.

My stomach drops.

“Or you can choose to stay.”

I don’t fucking blink.

“But know that if you stay, there will be terms.”

“Go ahead and lay them out,” I say. My heart is beating a mile a minute.

“There will be no more servant duties,” he says.

He means chopping wood and grafting, I presume. I’m waiting for the catch.

“And no more ritual chamber.”

My nostrils flare. “I’m not allowed to see her?”

“On the contrary, you will see lots of Violet,” Atlas says. “The ritual chamber served a purpose, but that purpose has now passed. Violet will be given… a place to stay as befits who she is.”

“And who is she?”

“A griffin mate. My future Queen.”

My fingers clench into fists, but I don’t fucking act. He’s setting out his stall, laying out the terms, as he called them. I feel sick. Pete was right not to give me any food.

“You have fucked her.”

His lips curve the tiniest amount. “I have not. Yet. But that is between Violet and me. She has indicated that she has chosen me.”

I swallow past a lump in my throat. I mean, it was fucking inevitable. And why wouldn’t she? This man can protect her. He’s fucking fearsome. I have never doubted that.

“Then what am I?”

“You are to be my adviser,” he says. “We have every reason to believe that troops are mobilizing. Troops belonging to Violet’s sister, a Hydornian Queen. I do not underestimate the threat to our people, nor how that might impact Violet.”

I nod. My empty stomach is roiling. He has not finished laying out his orders—there is more to this.

“Your words yesterday have left an impression upon me. That Violet has lived her whole life terrified to be who she is, an omega,” he continues. “Always hiding. What she needs most is quiet into which she might breathe, learn to nest, and learn to be an omega. An omega can never truly flourish unless she feels safe. That is our job—our duty. We must be united—united in our decision to protect her from this threat. I want you at my side… and hers. Not in conflict.”