𝔸 ℂ𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕎𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕙 (Book 2)

Thirty-Six

I kneeled on the ground, bound in chains to a dark and dust-coated wall.

    The air in the room was cramped and every inhale felt like I was breathing in sand. I could scarcely gulp a breath down with all the pain that radiated from my back in hot waves. Each more painful than the last as I lost more blood.

    My knees were soaked in blood as I knelt in the puddle around me. As I bathed in my own blood. My heart was rapid in my chest, and yet its pulse felt so weak.

    Stijn sat at a table in front of me, smiling giddily at my pain. At the fact that I knelt before him, bleeding and broken. Teetering on the brink of death. The laughs he emitted every time the whip struck home felt like another knife to my gut.

    I pulled upwards on the chains as another lashing hit. Pain laced through my spine as it hit a previous one.

    I whimpered, hissing through my teeth as I refused to scream. A feminine laugh sounded from behind me. A crows laughs. "Come on, pet." the voice that haunted my every waking moment yelled from a few steps away. "You're already broken. Why not just give in?" she laughed again as her whip struck home again.

    I didn't scream.

    She did it again.

    Warm tears fell from my eye and Stijn chuckled as he speared a piece of meat on his plate, "Still so weak, Little warrior. Always crying."

    "Go. to. hell." I said in between pants.

    Another laugh. "Oh, we already are." He smiled and I bared my teeth in a snarl.

    The whip struck again. It had caught me off guard. I screamed then. An ear-splitting noise that surprised me.

    Stijn smiled, and soft heels clicked against the stone as Amarantha came up behind me. Grabbing me by the neck, she yanked my head upwards to look at her, "There it is." Her face was the embodiment of pure evil.

    "Danika," Stijn said, but Amarantha still held my chin to look at her.

    "Danika," he said again, but louder.

    "Where's your family, little worm? Where have they gone?" Amarantha taunted never leaving my eyes. She leaned down to my ear, "They're gone." she whispered and I couldn't help the tear that escaped as I tried and failed to will my face into neutrality.

"Danika?" Stijn yelled but his voice was morphed. Muffled as though he was behind glass.

    Amarantha smiled, "There's no one left to save you now, Danika."

    "DANIKA—"

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

    There was no breath, only conscious suffering. The space around me was dark. Dark and cold and there was no air. No air for my mind to bring me back from. I was drifting, gasping for something that refused to find me.

    Someone was saying my name. Someone was shaking me. But I was too focused on trying to bring in the oxygen my lungs were screaming for. My eyes grew glassy with the struggle and a single warm tear slid from my eye as I choked.

    There was a white glow emitting from the room. Soft and lethal. I looked down at myself finding that the glow was coming from me. My body was wreathed with white fire. Hot as a star and yet it didn't burn me. A new form of panic curled around me and I tried to sob. A sound with no air as turns evaporated along my cheeks with the heat that s3eeped from the fire.

    And then it was gone. The heat. The light. Vanished into the night.

    My body shook with silent sobs as I clutched my throat, wishing that the sweet feeling of air would comfort me. But it didn't.

    Everything still burned. My veins were a new kind of fire that ripped me open.

    I didn't know who else was in the room with me, but I knew they were there. I felt so hot as though my veins had turned to ash.

    I so vaguely felt the soft pattering of hands-on my arms as black spots began to dot my vision. I so vaguely remembered being lifted off the bed and carried somewhere.

    Air assaulted me as the doors to a small balcony were thrown open so harshly that they nearly fell off the hinges. It was only then that I remembered how to breathe. The air-cooled my skin, sending small needle-like pinpricks across it.

I hadn't realized that the heat I felt under my skin was real.

My mind felt jumbled. Dizzy. The world spun around me. Too many lights. Too many everything.

I brought my shaking hands up burying my hands in them as I blocked out everything but the air in my lungs and the wind that whispered in my ears. I sat in the person's arms for a long time until they moved, sitting on something that must have been on the balcony.

I tried to piece myself together. Tried to force me into reality like I'd done every time this happened, but somehow it was different this time. Worse.

I never lifted my head from my palms. Allowing myself the mercy of not allowing anyone to see me cry.

Don't let them see you cry.

I wished I could open up. Let people in. And yet it seemed so impossible. Allowing someone past my walls and letting them see the monster that crawled under my skin felt like the sweetest torture imaginable.

There was a breath at my ear before a soft whisper sounded, "I have this dream," Rhys. "Where it's not me stuck under her, but Cassian or Azriel." his voice was soft. Comforting. "And she's pinned their wings to the bed with spikes, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. She's commanded me to watch, and I have no choice but to see how I failed them."

It took me a moment to respond. I never dared to remove my hands from my face. "You never failed them." I rasped, my voice barely recognizable.

"I did...horrible things to ensure that."

"So did I." my sweat clung to me like blood. So many times I'd been coated in blood.

"I know," his hands gently stroked the hair along my back.

We sat in silence for a time. He still held me and the warmth that emanate from him brought me a comfort I hadn't felt in a very long time.

Just to know someone was there.

I finally broke the silence, "Please—" I practically sobbed into my hands, "Please. Just don't leave me alone." I begged him. "Just for a little while."

I wanted to pretend. Only for a minute. That someone was there for me. That there was someone in my life that didn't think me some soulless creature. I just needed someone then.

"I won't," Rhysand replied.

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

A/N: I know, I know, it's cheesy but none of you will be able to convince me that you don't secretly love it.

(Also, I'm going to start posting longer chapters!! There wasn't much to this chapter but there will be to the next)