A jolt of pain vibrated up from the numbed section of my leg as it bounced off the ground to hit the stone corner that the fae dragging me turned around.
I sounded a pained groan into the air that sounded louder than the others that had slipped free. There had been many during the long walk-drag. The dirt floors had at some point turned to stone tiles that had scratched up my dragging feet.
"Marin," came the snapped reprimand from the man following us with his imposing presence and silent steps. It was the first time he had spoken since ordering the man, Marin, to grab me.
"The bitch deserves it," Marin answered. His hand tightened with the disdain his words dripped and managed to draw another moan from me. It wasn't one of pleasure, that was for sure.
"That's not for you to decide," the other man calmly replied. With how little it sounded like he cared, I was surprised he had spoken up at all. "His orders were to bring her, not to harm her," he continued to reason with the man who had yet to loosen his painful grip.
"He wants to save the good part for himself," Marin mumbled under his breath, his voice pitched low as he adjusted his fingers. Not to allow blood to flow to the rest of my arm, but to tighten the tourniquet his hand had become even further. The crescent moons of his nails cut into my bicep to leave their mark as pinpricks travelled down from his hold.
"Stop." The plea came out a slur that ended in another pained groan when I felt my bones creak from the pressure of his hold while I once again tired and failed to support my own weight.
Releasing an annoyed tick when I swayed away from him, he gave me a harsh tug that had me crashing into his side. At the impact, the air from my lungs rushed out, but before I could suck in a sharp breath to replace it, I stiffened as I felt broken ribs shift. Fire laced its way down my side as a scream I couldn't hold back behind clenched teeth sounded through them.
"Stop struggling!" The man barked into my ear. The ringing I was hearing grew along with the migraine pulsing behind my eyes that shut in an attempt to block it out. It didn't work. It only made it harder to deal with Marin's manhandling.
Peeling my watering eyes open, I peered back at the man still following us, looking to him as a final source of aid. I didn't have many hopes left, but he had provided it before when Marin had taken his hate for me too far...
Why did he hate me?
Because I deserved it, whispered the voice that always sounded during my misfortune. This time, it was actually right. When it came to Ash there was so much that I could have done that I was too afraid to... most of the time in fear that we would fail and face the consequences that came with again, but a smaller part that I tried to bury away and forget was a afraid that we would succeed... but only in freeing him.
And that was the part that deserved everything it was getting.
And no one would come to save me.
Just like no one saved Ash. Like I failed to save him.
This was fate once again paying me for sins I had committed.
I expected the eyes that I sought out to reflect a similar sediment to his friends, but they didn't, they weren't even watching me. His one good eye was focused on the man who was holding me and disregarding his words of warning to continue inflicting his torment. Marin couldn't see the disapproval that shone bright in his eyes, but I could. I had strained my neck to catch it. I watched the emotion grow and deepen the longer they watched him shove me, but that changed when his gaze shifted towards me. Noticing my attention, his eyes and features smoothed out to harden into an unreadable expression.
