Clay came awake in slow stages. At first, his mind felt as fuzzy and soggy as last week’s newspaper, out in the rain. Whoa, where the f**k am I? Bouncing, smelling a nasty stench…In small increments, memory of the recent past returned. The Trogue and then two more.
The first one had grabbed him after paralyzing him with some kind of stun beam. He had really not seen the weapon, only felt its effects, but he was sure it was a laser-type device rather than magic. After that, everything got dimmer and dimmer. He thought he remembered Stefan approaching and babbling something he could not understand.
The Trogues’ speech made no sense to him at all—grunts, growls, and harsh coughing sounds that refused to shape into any semblance of words. He was good with languages, but not this one.
He sen
