Chapter Three

 

Leo had lost track of whether it was day or night. The guards came and went in shifts, but no one would ever tell him what time it was. And in the dark, windowless room that held the cages, the hours blended together. He hadn’t had a single morsel of food to eat since being thrown into this cage, and the hunger had become so intense now that he found it hard to sleep. The guards did finally bring water for the shifters, which told Leo that the Emperor’s plan to blackmail the Bear Hollow shifters wasn’t going quite as well as he’d hoped. The Emperor had been forced to give his captives water to keep them alive a little longer, in hopes that the Bear Hollow shifters would give in and surrender in return for the lives of the captive shifters.

But they’ll never surrender. Smart shifters. We don’t make deals with these bastards. No sir.

Leo was lying on his back on the cold, hard cement floor of his cell, staring at nothing in particular and fighting the strange hallucinations that hunger seemed to bring. He shivered off and on, another seeming side effect of hunger. His blood sugar had plummeted, and his body was having trouble maintaining the proper temperature. He closed his eyes and wished for sleep, but his stomach seemed to laugh at his effort. He wondered what had happened to Princess Isa. It must have been at least two days since she waltzed out of here with promises to bring food. Otto had been skeptical, but Leo had wanted to believe. Even Leo had lost faith by this point, though. Either Princess Isa hadn’t meant what she’d said, or it had been too difficult for even the daughter of the Emperor to get food to the shifters.

Too bad. A meal would have been nice. And another glimpse at the Princess wouldn’t have been bad either. Leo would never have admitted out loud his attraction to the Princess. But he couldn’t deny to himself that his heart had beaten just a little faster when Princess Isa looked directly into his eyes. She was an objectively beautiful woman. Too bad she was the daughter of Satan himself.

The door to the room burst open with a sudden, sharp bang. Leo sat up abruptly, startled by the noise. He wouldn’t have thought that his reflexes could still work that quickly in his hunger-induced fog, but apparently adrenaline was one of the last things to go when you were starving to death.

The guards seemed just as startled by the intrusion, which told Leo that it wasn’t even close to time for a shift change. He stared at the doorway, unable for a moment to see who was coming in because of how bright the light from the hallway was. He recognized the voice before he could properly see the person.

“All of you guards, out!”

Princess Isa is back! Was it possible that she had managed to snag some food for them after all? Leo blinked desperately in the direction of the doorway, trying to get his weary eyes to adjust to the change in light enough to be able to see clearly.

“My Lady, we have orders to—”

“You dare argue with the Emperor’s daughter? I desire a private audience with the shifters and I will have it. And I will not suffer such disobedience and disrespect from a bunch of lowly guards. Unless you want to lose your jobs, get out. Now.”

“Y-yes my Lady.” The guards all scrambled to the door, tripping over their feet in an attempt to obey the Princess. When the door shut behind Princess Isa, Leo could see that she was holding two giant bags.

“This is all I could carry, and we don’t have much time,” she said. She reached into the bag to pull out a pair of sandwiches, handing one to Otto and one to Kate. Then she reached in again, pulling out another two sandwiches and handing one to Leo and another to the shifter in the cage to his right. Leo wasted no time in sinking his teeth into the sandwich, almost weeping with joy as the flavors of fresh bread and salty roast beef hit his tongue. Working quickly, Princess Isa made her way down the line, giving each shifter a sandwich. There was one extra at the end, which she gave to Leo.

“Here. You were the first one to speak to me last time I was here, so you get rewarded with an extra sandwich.”

Leo stared up at her, wondering if this was some sort of joke. “I did speak to you first. But I wasn’t exactly nice.”

She shrugged. “I can’t say I blame you, after the way my family has treated shifters. At least you spoke, even if your words were harsh. Take the damn sandwich if you want it. Otherwise there are at least a dozen more shifters in here who would be happy to eat it, I’m sure.”

Leo didn’t hesitate again. He was the kind of guy who normally would have tried to do the polite thing and offer the sandwich to someone else first. But his hunger had grown so great that he was beyond politeness. He wolfed down the second sandwich in about three giant bites. Princess Isa was pulling several flasks from the second bag and beginning to pass them out as well. When she handed one to Leo and he drank, the cool water in the flask soothed his parched throat.

A sharp knock sounded at the door and everyone in the room froze. Had Princess Isa been caught?

“Everything okay in there?” It was only one of the guards.

“It’s fine,” the Princess yelled back in a sharp tone. “I’ll let you know if I need assistance.” Then she turned back to the shifters. “Listen. I don’t have a lot of time. If my father knew I was here he’d probably put me on trial for treason. It doesn’t matter that I’m his daughter. No one is above the law in his opinion.”

Leo snorted. “The law? Tell me, Princess Isa: what kind of law requires starving people to death?”

The Princess closed her eyes for a moment, a look of pain evident on her face. “Please. Just call me Isa. I’m no Princess. I only have the title because my father is the Emperor, but I don’t want any part in his corrupt government.”

“Then leave it. Leave Gilt Hollow,” Leo challenged.

Isa shrugged. “I could. Or I could stay and use my position to help you like I did today.”

“What do you propose?” Leo leaned against the back of his little cell, crossing his arms and giving Isa a look that said he clearly didn’t trust her. In the cell next to him, Otto was also unimpressed.

“Look, Princess Isa,” Otto began.

“Just Isa. Not Princess Isa. Please.”

Okay, fine. Isa,” Otto corrected himself. “Listen. We’re grateful for the food you’ve brought. But how do we know this isn’t a trap? You’re the Emperor’s daughter. And it’s nice that you say you don’t agree with him, but if that’s true than why haven’t you stood up for us before? Why are you now, all of a sudden, saying you want to help us?”

Leo watched Isa carefully. Her eyes looked tired but determined, and he had to admit that there was something about her expression that seemed genuine.

“I’ve already told you that I’m sorry I haven’t done more,” she said. “I’m embarrassed that I haven’t, in fact. But I can’t change the past. I can only change the future. And it isn’t entirely true that I haven’t helped you before. I did stick up for Oskar during the last death match.”

Leo’s determination to distrust Isa faltered a bit. He uncrossed his arms and looked over at Otto, who was still staring suspiciously at Isa. Otto distrusted everyone, even many shifters. He’d become slightly more open over the last few months, but only slightly. Overall, Otto seemed to go by the philosophy that it was better not to trust someone until they gave you a reason to trust them. And Isa wasn’t giving him enough reason.

Leo was a bit more open, though. And he remembered well the incident Isa was referring to. Several months ago, one of the shifter competitors, Oskar Warden, had been forced to fight a death match, which had clearly been rigged so that it was impossible to win. Oskar was on the brink of death when Zora Severson, a former Severson noblewoman who was now Oskar’s lifemate, had spoken up for him and stopped the match. Or she had tried to stop the match at least. Zora’s powerful father had yelled at her to step down, but then Princess Isa had stood up for Oskar and agreed with Zora. In front of the entire city of Gilt Hollow, Isa had saved the life of a shifter. That might not seem like much, considering how much the shifters had suffered, and how many shifters had been killed by Gilt Hollow citizens. But still, it had required courage. And it had saved the life of at least one shifter—a shifter who happened to be one of Leo’s best friends.

“If you’ve really changed so much, and want to help us, what do you propose doing?” Leo asked.

Otto swung his head around to look at him. “No, Leo. It doesn’t matter what she says. We can’t trust her.”

Leo hesitated. Otto was considered the leader of the shifter resistance in Gilt Hollow, so Leo knew it was probably best to defer to his judgment. But at the same time, Otto had proven on more than one occasion that he was too cautious. And Leo wasn’t sure that now was the time for caution.

“What choice do we have, Otto? We can trust her, or we can rot here in these cages.”

Otto narrowed his eyes at Leo. “I haven’t given up hope yet that Bear Hollow will come through for us.”

“I hope as much as you do that the Bear Hollow shifters find a way to help us. But I’m not sure it’s wise to pin all our hopes on them. Their resistance force is new and inexperienced, and they’ve suffered a lot of losses in the recent raids. They might not have the manpower or expertise to help us, no matter how badly they want to.”

Otto shook his head. “They’re still our best hope. You’d rather trust the daughter of Gilt Hollow royalty than our own people?”

“What I want to do and what options we actually have are two very different things right now. I say we at least hear Isa out.” Leo turned to Isa. “So tell me. What are you suggesting?”

Isa looked uncomfortably down at her hands for a minute before looking back at Leo. “I was actually hoping you guys could suggest something. I’m not an expert in how to fight against a government, so I’m not sure what the best thing to do would be. But I want to help however I can.”

Otto laughed. “Yeah, see? She doesn’t know what to do…she just wants us to tell her our plans. Wake up, Leo! This is all a ploy by the Emperor. He thinks he can send his pretty little daughter in here to trick us into giving away whatever plans the Bear Hollow shifters might have. No way are we talking to this woman. She’s just like all the rest of the Gilt Hollow scum.”

Leo turned back to look at Isa, who looked devastated now. She was reaching to gather up her bags with a crestfallen look on her face.

“I’m not scum,” she said in a tone that was growing angry now. “I was trying to help, but if you don’t want to believe me then there’s not much I can do. I can’t force you to take the help that’s being offered to you.”

Some strange emotion that Leo couldn’t quite place tugged at his heart as he watched Isa. He had always been a pretty good judge of people, and something told him that Isa was different. He tried to think of all the times he’d interacted with her over the years, or had seen her interact with other shifters. He’d been so young when he first came to Bear Hollow—only a boy of fifteen. She’d been even younger, if he was remembering correctly. But he’d watched her grow up, and he’d seen her at the Seversons’ house quite a few times, since her parents were close friends with the Seversons. He tried to remember a time when she’d ever been rude or mean to a shifter, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t think of anything. In fact, he remembered a few specific times that she’d shushed Loki when Loki had been harassing shifters.

Isa is genuine, Leo thought. But how could he accept her help when Otto was determined not to? He didn’t want to start a fight right in the middle of this damn room of cages. If the shifters were going to have any hope of coming out of all of this alive, then they had to stick together.

Leo’s frown deepened as Isa turned to leave. He had to do or say something, and fast. With the way Otto had driven her away, she might not come back. She might assume that none of the shifters wanted anything to do with her. And who could blame her for that? Leo frantically tried to think of something to say that would make her stay without angering Otto too much. And then, suddenly, it came to him.

“Take me to see your father.”

The room fell completely silent for several long moments after he said those words. Otto stared at him with a gaping expression. Isa turned back toward him with a similarly shocked look on her face. And then, in unison, both Otto and Isa said, “What?!?”

Leo took a deep breath and nodded, looking straight into Isa’s eyes. “Take me to your father. Surely, you can figure out a way to get me out of here to have an audience with him. That’s all you have to do. Get me a chance to talk to him, and I’ll believe you that we can trust you.”

“But…he’s not going to be nice to you,” she said weakly.

Leo laughed. “I’m not expecting him to be. Let me worry about what I’ll say and how he’ll treat me. You just get me in front of him.”

“Leo, you’re insane!” Otto said, his voice full of alarm.

“Maybe. But I have a plan.”

Isa considered this for a moment. “Okay. I’ll do my best to get you in front of my father. As long as you understand that I can’t guarantee your safety once you’re there.”

“I understand.”

Isa nodded. “Alright. I’ll be back soon. And I’ll try to bring more food when I come again. But in the meantime I hope you at least feel a little better after the sandwiches. It was the best I could do for now.”

“We appreciate it,” Leo said. “Truly.”

Otto said nothing, as was typical of the man. Otto didn’t trust easily or say thank you easily, but Leo was hoping to make up for that. He was hoping to find a way to use Isa to their advantage. After all, they were running out of other options.

Isa turned to leave, but before she opened the door, she turned around and smiled at Leo. He felt strangely weak at the sight of her smile, and he gripped the side of the cage he was trapped in to steady himself. A small thrill of excitement passed through his body, and he wondered what it meant. Was he attracted to her?

She disappeared through the doorway, leaving Leo to wrestle with these thoughts on his own. A few moments later, the guards sullenly came back into the room, but Leo hardly noticed them. He sat down at the back of his cage and tried to figure out why his heart was beating faster than normal just from the thought of Isa.

She was a beautiful woman, true. No one could deny that. Isa had inherited her mother’s dark hair, olive skin, and violet eyes. She also, it seemed, had inherited her mother’s tendency toward kindness. The Emperor’s wife was known for being softhearted and for treating the shifters much nicer than most Gilt Hollow citizens. The Emperor’s horrid actions outweighed all of his wife’s kind words, but knowing that Isa’s mother wasn’t a complete monster gave Leo hope. Surely, Isa wasn’t a monster either. Surely, she could be trusted?

Leo had no way of knowing for sure. The only way to find out was to trust her and see if she kept that trust or broke it.

“You’re crazy,” Otto whispered at him in a low hiss, breaking into Leo’s thoughts of Isa. “What are you even going to say to the Emperor?”

“I don’t know,” Leo admitted. “I still have to figure that out.”

Otto rolled his eyes. “You’re gonna get yourself killed, man.”

“Maybe. But I’d rather die doing something than sit here starving in a cell.” And I won’t be able to rest until I can figure out whether Isa is a friend or an enemy.

Leo wasn’t like Otto. He couldn’t so easily write off Isa as untrustworthy. And deep down inside, Leo had a feeling that trusting Isa was going to be the key to the shifters winning this war. There was just something about her that told him she was different.

He hoped he could trust his gut on this one, because the shifters were running out of options and running out of time.