"No!" The protest left my lips before Aster had a chance to air the one hers parted to.
I didn't know Aster, but I didn't need to know her to guess why she was being told to leave. She was a safety buffer- they didn't want her to see what was coming next. Which was why she couldn't leave.
And I couldn't do anything to make her stay.
"Did she just say no?" asked an amused new addition as he walked in through the open door. Another man followed the larger one in, a contrasting peeved expression pulling his features. Their faces were vaguely familiar, especially the larger of the two... They were with Cedric that night. They just lacked the extremely recognizable facial scaring he had.
Ezekiel lifted his chin to better glare at me, tilting his head at an angle that accentuated the defined line of his jaw. "It appears so," rumbled the words from the chest that stood inches away from my stomach. I could feel the chill in the air that surrounded him, that radiated off of him. It would have felt far worse if Aster hadn't warmed my wet clothes to dry that left them feeling stiff and itchy against my skin.
I swallowed hard as his head slowly moved to tilt the other way, his eyes moving to roam the length of my hanging body, accessing. What, only he knew.
What I knew, backed by blurred memories, was that no one was coming to save me. The only two who might have were enjoying cells of their own. Aster's kindness was the only hope I could see of making it out of this in a better condition than I arrived. The thought of her leaving was frightening.
Almost as frightening as the dark promises the cold blue eyes dragging over my skin were making.
"Did you get her head?" he asked the man whose rough beauty was as strikingly cold as his eyes. He pulled off the pair of gloves he wore and tucked them into his pocket, not pulling his eyes away to address anyone in particular. They moved down from the exposed skin at my neck they were inspecting to take in my bare foot.
My toes curled at the attention as I moved to hide them behind my booted foot, the movement causing the chain above to creak. The cold temperature almost had them completely numb again.
"Yes," Rory huffed out her answer. Everyone knew the question was for her. "That idiocy is all her," she added while reaching for Aster's arm. "We'll leave you to deal with it."
"What? No, we won't!" she snapped in protest, trying to pull her arm free and failing. "Considering how we found her, I know what'll happen if we do. You can't seriously think she-"
"Smell her."
The two calmly spoken words had her protest coming to a halt. Both Rory and Aster's expressions twisted with disgust at his directive.
"I already have," she reluctantly admitted.
I would have felt offended at the way her nose wrinkled at the thought of doing so again if I didn't have bigger things to worry about. And if my raised arms didn't give me a whiff of the truth.
"No. Again. Concentrate. Use your nose, properly. It may be hard for you to catch at first, but you'll recognize it the moment you do."
"All I smell is sweat and blood. Maybe a little piss," Rory provided while releasing Aster to let her move closer and give me a tentative sniff.
With her eyeing me like I was suddenly contagious, I had to hold back from suggesting she use the wafting technique. She was the closest thing I had to a chance. I couldn't risk screwing it up.
She gave a few small sniffs that had her nose scrunching. Finding nothing new, she shook her head and moved closer, stepping up beside the man who my eyes were actively avoiding. "I'm not-"
