Born in the Flame

Chapter 20

   
My eyes were still heavy when I awoke. It felt like every ounce of my strength went into just opening them. For a small allotted space of time, I had forgotten what happened. It was brief, but I had missed that slim amount of time. When my eyes opened and all I could see was a dank space with no windows, I began to remember everything. Clenching my jaw, I tried to move out of where I sat, but the metal bindings kept me sitting still. I tried wielding my magic, to no avail. A soreness was creeping up my spine to where I had been crushed down. Nothing was broken, but gods it hurt.

    Steps sounded from behind a wooden door that sat to my right. Listening closely, I could tell they were walking down stairs by the distance and volume of sound. My eyes darted around the room, looking for any chance of escape. I looked down to my bindings and noticed I was still in the blue dress I had worn to Moonlight. I held back a whimper at the memory of the world's worst date. I don't know if Birch was alive. Guns were usually futile against mages, but he wasn't prepared for it. Gods, I was so worried.

    The door creaked open. My head whipped and my eyes wildly followed. A human I didn't recognize stepped in with a container of water.

    "Where am I?" I demanded with a frog-like croak, but the human man ignored me. Instead, he offered the container to my lips. I wanted to spit at him, but my mouth was incredibly dry. My eyes narrowed but my mouth opened. When I tasted something that was suspiciously not water, I immediately spit every last drop on the human's face. I gave the human a vicious grin, bearing the elongated canines.

    "You bitch." He spat. The human began to raise a hand to hit me, but hesitated. He set his open hand back to his side, and took a deep breath. Oh, you need to cool down because of me? I would give him a real reason to take calming breaths.

    "Looks like someone else made you their bitch, huh?" I taunted. Whoever was in charge wanted me unharmed, that must be why he restrained himself. I wanted him to hit me, maybe whoever wanted me so damn bad would kill this one for hurting me, or better yet hurt him and leave my captor with no one to help him when I figure out how to escape.

    "If you don't shut your filthy mouth..."

    "You'll do what? Bitch some more? Tell me." A fury snaked through my words as I taunted him. I reveled in how he clenched his jaw and the way he narrowed his eyes on me. It was a murderous look. Good, hit me. "You must be scared of whoever's in charge and whoever's in charge must be terrified of me if they have to bind me to keep me here."

    "I'm not fucking scared of you, elf." He sneered. My ears twitched at the sound of his racing human heart.

    "You should be. You're just a weak, spineless, little human. Shit, you're probably limp dicked too. No one would bed a sniveling little bitch that aids in kidnapping women." I jeered. The insults flowed out of me like a snake slithering through the grass; except I wasn't the one who needed to strike.

    Exactly like I wanted, the human raised a hand high and slapped me across the face. Pain reverberated against my cheek, but all I could do was laugh.

    "You hit like a limp dick bitch too." I sneered, turning my toothy grin back toward him.

    Without warning, the human punched me in the face, sending my head flying backward into the wooden wall. Another punch landed in my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I felt the thump of the container crashing into my aching skull, followed by the slam of the door. Yeah, it hurt, but I got exactly what I wanted. Whoever took me would probably be hiding upstairs and heard every single thing.

    My mouth, at least a bit more moist than before, was still dry. The only thing I could think of was escaping and getting back to Yaanlian to find Birch. The most important thing to me right now was knowing what happened to him.