Rowan was dull to the terror of creepy crawlies. He’d seen enough of them and realized that they could do nothing to him. Of course, his insensitivity only applied to spiders that fit on his palm but when it was the size of a poodle and its fangs dripped viscous venom, that macho attitude was gone

. When he spotted the spider, he screamed like a girl in the most literal sense.

The realization that it was on the other side of his cage reassured him a tiny bit but he was heaving at the end of it. His body couldn’t move, restrained by tight rope. That’s what he assumed until he saw the silky, white substance that had wrapped him into a cocoon. It restrained any and all movement, making it impossible to even reach out to the small knife inside his pouch.

“Shit, shit, shit,” he mumbled like a mantra.

“Shut up,” whispered Grace, snapping him out of his stupor. It came from behind and it took all he had to turn around.

The others weren’t restrained like he was. Only their wrists were bound behind their back. Liz sat leaning on the wooden cage, legs stretched out. Rowan could hear her snoring. Grace, on the other hand, was in the center of the cage, eyeing the surroundings carefully.

Peter, Jason, and Isaac were nowhere to be seen.

The cage around him was made of wood and held together with the same webbing that was around him. It was large enough to fit ten people without making it feel stuffy. It didn’t seem durable but the fact that there were Demons on the other side would undoubtedly be used as a secondary cage.

“They bound you like that since you’re a Cultivator. Stronger and all,” whispered Grace.

He didn’t remember how he got into the cage. The last thing he remembered was running with Liz on his back and then he… fell down. That was all that he remembered.

“Are they Demons?” asked Rowan and imitated Grace, looking around. There were unnatural-looking humanoids around them. That was the best description. They couldn’t be called humans.

Some had fur, some had scales and some had horns. They walked around the village as if it was normal, and Rowan didn’t doubt that. More importantly, there were far too many pets, if he could call them that.

Namely, spiders.

“Where are the others?” Rowan whispered.

Grace grunted in response and that was all Rowan needed to understand the situation. If they thought only they were traveling, then the others could come to save them undetected.

He’d seen the heads on the pikes and had no doubt he’d be hung on it if he didn’t escape. He couldn’t use the light from before. It felt like a one-hit-wonder but rowan knew that he could do it again.

That’d only happen if he knew how to do it.

He closed his eyes and slowly breathed.

It worked before so he had to figure out what ticked. During the ceremony, he was pissed off. He was angry. He wanted to rip out his throat. He hated that demon from before. He hated the world she threw her into. More importantly, more than anything in the world, Rowan wanted to rip out Peter’s throat.

He had to be angry.

His brain didn’t need much convincing. Those heads… those were from people. No one decent would do that, even if it was to send a message. Even if they were in a war. Even if the war wasn’t their fault. Even if they were invaded, doing that required a complete lack of empathy.

That pissed him off.

Rowan focused all that anger on the cocoon, to no avail. It didn’t do anything. The darkness from before didn’t cover his body like before. He couldn’t feel the exhilarating sensation of power inside him.

“Fuck!” he shouted. If he couldn’t use all that anger to do anything at all, it had to be something else. He had to learn how to do that. If he couldn’t even manage that, how was he supposed to escape from this thing?

That’s when he felt something stirring inside him. Something inside his abdomen. It gave off a warm sensation as it swirled. It was both inside him and not inside him at the same time. Like it was a phantom that felt like it existed but in reality, did not.

It was there but all his organs were in their place instead of being pushed away like it could phase through them.

Rowan closed his eyes and focused within. He tried to move it outside his body and as he commanded it, the swirling sensation flowed across his entire body and expanded. The fuzzy feeling covered every inch of his body and was ejected, and just like before, blots of darkness started to cover his body.

They rose with the consistency of smoke and Rowan felt his strength surge. He felt like he could punch through a tree but he doubted that he could do that. He just felt like it.

Armed with newfound confidence, Rowan pushed against his restraints and realized that he could move far more freely than before. He pushed against the cocoon but like rubber, it rebounded but he could push at all. Whereas it felt like he’d been glued to the silk, now it felt like he could actually move.

It was impossible to break through as he was.

That’s when he remembered what Isaac used to jump over the barricades —he condensed more of the green light onto his soles. That gave him a boost in performance. Of that, Rowan was sure, and now, he had to test out that theory.

Rowan directed the brunt of the darkness into one of his hands. He didn’t want to punch or hit harder. He wanted to deal more damage. Having it swirl at speeds comparable to that of a chainsaw was preferable but he didn’t know if that was possible.

As the Qi focused, Rowan could feel an intense warmth in his hand. It was akin to putting his hand into warm water that was near the point where it started to scald.

Much to his delight, his darkness-covered hand penetrated through the silk. It didn’t cut its way through but instead, it seemed to have blended through it. It resembled a drill that came into contact with durable cloth and had it stuck in its engines. However, as Rowan’s entire hand was covered with the drill with no holes, it only served to throw away the torn pieces of webbing.

With his hand, Rowan managed to easily tear his way through the cocoon and took a deep breath after he managed to do that.

Now, they had to escape.

He turned to the cage, ready to break through that as well but jumped back on instinct. In the process, the drill around his hands faded.

There, on the other side, stood a ghastly pale boy. His pure white skin glistened in what little light penetrated through the thick treeline. The grin on his face showed off his sharp teeth that resembled that of a shark and his eyes were blue, with a distinct lack of a pupil or an iris.

The ears that stuck out the sides of his head resembled fins more than they did ears and the complete lack of any hair above the eye made him look far too unnatural.

“Had fun escaping from the cocoon?” asked Lamprey Mouth, his tone playful.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Rowan, nose scrunched. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be natural. It wasn’t human. Not one bit.

“Your captor,” he said and gave him a wink. His eyes turned to Grace and narrowed. Its grin grew cartoonishly large. The edges of his teeth reached just below his eyes, which would be impossible for any human but that was no human —that was a Demon. Lamprey Mouth licked his lips and eyed Liz up and down, sending a shiver up Rowan’s spine, “Mmm, that one looks delicious as well.”

“Try that and I’ll strangle you to death with your intestines,” growled Rowan, his face on the verge of pushing its way out of the cage. Where he gripped the wooden cage, the wood started to crackle and break in half.

“Calm down, pouty boy. Sadly, I can’t. You are to be used as… well, breeding partners. For the more unfortunate of us, that is,” said Lamprey Mouth and its exaggerated smile turned to a frown, just as large as its opposite counterpart. He faked a tear and wiped it away with a finger, “And she’ll die in three months when she gives birth. It’ll claw its way right out of her womb and she’ll bleed to death.”

Rowan knew where he was going. He wanted him to be angry and he knew that. He knew, yet he couldn’t help himself.

He stuck his arm out of the cell and pulled the Demon close from his collar. They were close enough for their noses to reach each other and the smell of rotten fish to reach Rowan’s nostrils.

“You do realize that I’m stronger than you, right?” asked Lamprey Mouth, a smug smirk on his face. Finally, his mouth was closed and that let Rowan notice the scales on his body.

Was this a fish?

“You’re just a Squire and all. I’m a whole stage above you,” he said and peeled Rowan’s hands off his collar. The difference felt like the one he had with Peter back during the ceremony. It was like he was trying to go against a machine —a useless endeavor.

“Just sit there and relax, okay? You’ll get a nice offer in a bit. Oh, and that spider? If you kill it, its back will explode and a hundred tiny ones will come out. You’ll be just fine if you get bitten, but the girls… not so much,” said Lamprey Mouth and walked away after flashing him a grin and a wink.

That bitch!

“It’s useless. They’re born Defiant Squires so even their weakest is as strong as you and Peter,” said Grace and sighed. A stray tear ran down her cheek and she hugged her knees. Slowly, she put her face on them and closed her eyes. Quietly, she whispered after that, “I shouldn’t have come.”

“What about Isaac?” asked Rowan.

“He left us. We’re done for,” whispered Grace weakly.

“I’ll find a way to get us out of here,” he said.

“And what? Become their food instead of slave?” growled Grace and peeled her face off her knees. She was crying now and her entire face had turned red.

“I’ll take my chances at freedom rather than submitting to a lifetime of misery,” said Rowan and he glared at the spider. Its eight, red eyes were on him and both of Rowan’s hazel eyes were on it. It had hair like the larger spiders often did and was brown with spots of black, like an overgrown tarantula that had its colors inverted. Rowan took a deep breath and added, “I’ll never be forced into submission again. Will you be?”

“You’ll be in the army. It’s your duty to submit,” said Grace, her voice strained.

“Yeah, but that’s because I want to do it. If I get an order I don’t want to do, I’ll disobey it,” said Rowan.

“You won’t live long,” growled Grace.

“Yeah, and I don’t care. I’d rather have a short but awesome life than live an eternity as someone’s pet,” said Rowan and raised an eyebrow, “What about you? Well, in your case, your life won’t be long, but you get the idea.”

“So you aren’t a Changeling,” she whispered, almost inaudibly.

“Now then, how do we get the fuck out of here?” asked Rowan, a contagious smile on his face —it was all that he could do to keep his mind off the grim reality.

If this escape failed, they’d die. If they didn’t try to escape, they’d die. The choice was obvious. He’d choose the option that had the best chance of getting him out of this place safe, but for a second, he wondered if being forced to breed with them would be so bad.

No, no.

Rowan shook his head.

That wasn’t the right mindset.

Most of them didn’t look human in the least and if that fish was anything to base his opinion on, they were pricks and there was no larger turn-off than a prick.