Free Demon Untamed by Kiersten Fay Page A

behavior.
    With most of her time spent in the control room, Sonya had closed the pub. The galley had become self-serve, with no one available to take Marik’s place as the ship’s cook. As it was, Sonya couldn’t eat. Demons could go months without food, but doing so siphoned much need energy. However, Sonya didn’t feel drained. She only felt the urgency to keep looking.
    Yet, in the back of her mind, she knew stress was taking its toll. Sebastian’s words repeated in her head, taunting her. “Promise me you’ll make the choice if it comes to that.” But had it?
    No. She’d not leave her brothers, Anya, or even Ethan to the mercy of that madman. She would never stop looking.
    What if they’re already dead?
    Her mind cracked against the terrible thought. She pressed her palms to the side of her head. She pictured Anya and her brothers lying broken on a cold stone floor, just as she had witnessed that harrowing day back in her once loving home.
    “You okay, Captain?” Aidan asked from his place at the helm.
    Sonya glanced up, erasing the despair from her expression. “I’m fine, Aidan.”
    Aidan responded with a look that said he in no way believed her.
    To lighten the mood, she laughed and said, “I never thought I’d be worried for a pirate.”
    Aidan responded with a thin-lipped smile and a forced chuckle. “Agreed.”
    What surprised her, however, was the truth of that statement. The fact that Ethan shared equal time in her mind alongside her family confounded her. Perhaps because she knew if anything bad happened to him , the same would befall the others. And he had an arrogant mouth on him that could only invite trouble. Although, wasn’t Cale even worse?
    The two of them together made for a disastrous scenario.
     
    * * *
     
    Ethan tried to stretch his tired muscles as blood seeped from his many wounds, a task made difficult by the metal straps around his wrist and ankles, pressing him to the wall.
    To his left, Sebastian and Cale appeared to be in equally bad shape.
    Soon after they’d caught up to Extarga , the captain, Darius, had allowed them to come aboard with assurances of ransom: Anya for an extreme amount of space credits.
    Sebastian hadn’t hesitated to agree, but Ethan had sensed the demon’s intention. He would never allow Darius to live.
    Over the transmitted conversation, Ethan had been unable to decipher the sincerity of Darius’s motives, but he had suspected the male was merely luring them aboard to double cross them in the end.
    He’d been correct.
    Now they stood, strapped to a wall, bindings around their wrists, ankles, and necks, subject to a regiment of abuse. The psychopath enjoyed causing pain, and had nearly killed Sebastian when he’d refused to cry out from a lengthy punishment. Sebastian continued to flail and snarl like a rabid beast.
    Both Cale and Ethan took turns attempting to draw Darius’s attention away from Sebastian whenever necessary.
    While Darius was running the business end of a blade down Ethan’s face, slicing the skin to the bone, Cale called out, “Hey pirate, that looks like fun. Can I have a turn?”
    Darius hadn’t hesitated to oblige with a succession of hard knuckle-filled jabs to Cale’s face.
    When Darius had backed off to focus on Sebastian once more, who was still recovering from his earlier attention, Ethan asked Cale, “How was your massage?”
    Cale spit out a mouthful of blood before commenting, “Almost tickled.”
    Cale had no idea about Ethan’s ability to heal—a detail he couldn’t afford for Darius to learn now—and that it would be in his best interest to allow Ethan the brunt of the beatings. Still, Ethan was surprised by the tenacity with which Cale would bait Darius.
    Ethan had been using his magic to heal Sebastian and Cale just enough to go unnoticed. He couldn’t heal them completely unless he was physically touching them. But he could send out tendrils of magic that kept their wounds from festering or bleeding