Testament to Time - darklina fanfic

Chapter 8 - Sankta

content warning - this chapter features graphic dub-con sex scene. I have surrounded the scene with an asterix for anyone who wants to skip it

"What the hell was that?" She screamed at him, tearing her kefta off and chucking it on the bed.

She was hot, overheating.

It had taken her a few moments to recuperate, both from the shock and the bone deep exhaustion at having so much pulled from her in that manner.

Below, at the foot of the hill, she'd seen the devastated villagers wail as their home fell on itself, some attempting to run back screaming and crying at loved ones left behind.

The village...there was no village. Not anymore. Aleksander had seen to it. Although not a willing participant, so did she.

When all subsided, she'd left him on the grass and trudged straight to her tent, she needn't have looked to know he was at her heels. Likely following to minimize whatever damage he thought her capable of causing.

Alina made no effort to hide her rage from the onlooking soldiers, she doubted he was happy to see her break the image of a unified front to his troops, but his reputation be damned, she was angry.

The tents flapped and she knew he'd followed her inside. Had stood while she paced from one side to the other before needing reprieve from the heat, and was ready to launch the assault she'd been waiting to have since witnessing what he'd done.

"That was war," he answered and his calm aggravated her more than anything else.

How could he keep calm after what he'd done?

"No!" she spun on him, her voice rising. "You took control of my powers, you forced my hand!"

He stilled and his eyes flared just a bit.

"You hesitated," he said his voice low and dangerous. "I told you you could not hesitate."

"I didn't hesitate. I was simply uninterested in destroying an entire village!" She seethed.

He approached her carefully. His face was set without amusement, his eyes hard.

"I told you there would be casualties, that we might have to sacrifice part of the village," he argued in an even tone.

"You never mentioned sacrificing the whole village!" She yelled throwing her arms in the air in anger. "That was not war. That was you losing yourself to your greed and apathy!"

He'd taken the village without so much as a thought for the people below, he cut them through, to have their families sort through body parts with no alternative but a closed casket funeral, if there was even family left for one to be held.

Not satisfied in raining devastation, he'd compelled– no forced – her through it. He'd forced this weight on her. Dunked her in this pool of blood by the neck.

He snorted cruelly, the corners of his mouth souring down with distaste.

"You can't possibly think this war will be won with love, kindness, and wishing upon a star," he mocked.

Alina would not allow it. Not when she'd struggled for so long to come to terms with the reality of this war.

She fumed at seeing it thrown back in her face.

She'd known loss because of this war. She helped pick and choose between who to save and who to abandon at the infirmary. She'd just killed countless soldiers– she'd killed their own. She now understood what war demanded and had agreed to pay whatever it cost her soul to save Ravka.