The Stains of the Crown

Chapter Twenty Six

Trigger warnings: implied sexual assault of a minor character, aftermath of torture, conversation about torture, trauma response to sex.

I wake up before my mates. They'd stayed a few feet away from me throughout the night, all wanting to avoid accidentally hurting me. When I go to shower, I catch the sight of myself in the mirror. Suddenly, I couldn't pretend their worry wasn't justified.

My cheeks are hollow, my eyes are sunken in. My skin was almost sickly pale, and because of the color of my eyes, I looked like I was moments from death. I pull my shirt off, my body screaming in protest. There were still-red cuts littering my face and my torso. My shoulders were covered in purple scars from where he'd cut them that first day. Burn marks in various stages of healing mar my skin. The missing chunk of flesh from my ribs had returned in a gruesome purple scar, still not completely healed.

My stomach churns as I look at my damaged and broken body. I run my fingertips over every mark, only stopping when my stomach twists violently enough to force me to my knees in front of the toilet. Nothing comes up, but an awful ache settles in my chest as I gag. Jovi stumbles into the bathroom, still dazed from sleep.

"Echo, are you okay?" she asks as she rubs her eyes. I take a deep breath, leaning back against the wall. I wrap my arms around my legs, pulling them towards my body.

"I'm fine," I mumble. She sighs.

"Echo, you're lying to me." She walks closer, crouching in front of me. She rests her mostly-healed hand on my knee. I can't help but be annoyed. She was healing just fine. I, on the other hand, looked worse than I had the day I fought Mazus. "What's going on?" I lean my head against the wall, squeezing my eyes shut.

"I'm fine, Jovi."

"You're not." She presses the back of her hand to my forehead before violently pulling it away. "Echo, you're burning up. Something's wrong." I groan, holding my head.

"Jovi, I'm fine! Just leave it at that!"

"No. You're going down to the doctors, right now." She pulls my shirt onto me, ignoring my protests. She just rolls her eyes and picks me up. If it didn't hurt so bad to move, I'd fight back. Ammae frowns when we walk in. Jovi sets me down on the examination table.

"I don't need to be here." Jovi rolls her eyes.

"She's burning up and was dry-heaving. She won't tell me what's going on," she tells Ammae. I scoff, folding my arms over my chest.

"Jovi, I'm fine."

"Why do you keep lying to me? I know you're not fine." I huff, turning to Ammae.

"Can you please tell her to stop worrying?"

"Nope," she says, rolling an odd looking machine next to the table. "I'm going to examine you. This machine is going to scan your body and it should be able to tell us what's going on." I groan.

"Guys, I'm perfectly fine!" I argue.

"You're not, and I'm not going to keep having this conversation," Jovi says. Ammae pushes a few annoyingly loud buttons on the machine and it begins making a whirring sound. She looks at the screen, frowning at it.

"Echo, when did you last eat?" I look down at my hands.

"Yesterday morning," I mutter. She sighs.

"How much did you eat?" I shrug. I did know the answer. I just didn't want to tell her. "Okay well based off of your scan, it wasn't enough. You need to start eating larger portions. Jovi, do you mind if I speak to Echo alone?"

"I'm her mate," Jovi frowns. Ammae glances at me before replying.

"I know. But this is a conversation I think would be best to have with her first." Jovi frowns. She sighs heavily before nodding her head and walking out.