SHACKLED BY ROYALTY

Chapter 11 - Never Again

Noah sat quietly in the room, the weight of the silence heavy upon him. His pale skin seemed to take an almost ghostly hue in that weak light, his hands clasped tight on his knees seeming to hold onto dear life for him to put himself together. His breathing was labored, invisible chains bounding him closer with every fiber in his being to Andrey's whims. The bruises and marks lining his arms and neck, which told their silent tale of captivity, were now old news.

It was Andrey who finally broke the silence as he entered the room, his predatory calmness sending shivers down Noah's spine. He didn't look in Noah's direction right away but stared somewhere afar, plunged in thought, before moving those ice-cold eyes onto him.

"Noah," he said, his voice low and even, so smooth it was almost gentle. Almost. "There's something you need to understand.

Noah's head jerked up, and in an instant , his hazel eyes darkened with wariness and pain. The urge to talk overwhelmed him-to scream, to beg for answers but his throat seemed to tighten leaving the words imprisoned in his mind.

"You can no longer talk to Damian."

The words hit Noah like a blow, settling in with their meaning, like a slow and aching dread. His eyes widened, hurt flashing in them, but he knew better than to ask, to push. He had learned what happened when he dared question Andrey.

"What..?" It was little more than a whisper, but a desperate fear etched into his voice. What little hope he had carried within himself that he and Damian would somehow come out of this nightmare together, finally flickered out in the darkness.

Andrey smiled without one speck of pity or regret in the curve of his lips. "You really want to know why?" He leaned closer, his face inches from Noah's, the hot breath dancing across Noah's cheek, too sweet. "Because Damian doesn't deserve to have you."

Noah swallowed hard, the taste of bile slicing sharp in the back of his throat. He would have protested, would have defended Damian, but words twisted in his throat as fear wrung his gut tight. Andrey's hand found his chin, jerking his head up to force his gaze to meet his. His fingers dug into Noah's jaw, just enough to send a warning.

"Listen, slave. Damian made his choice. And I made mine. He wanted to defy me, and now he is paying for it." The words were a whisper, each statement imbued with venomous intent, certainty of ownership. "And you will, too, if you ever even think of trying to get in touch with him."

Terror swelled inside Noah, Andrey's words clearly driving home the truth: to him, Noah was a marionette whose strings had been pulled, hanging helplessly at Andrey's mercy, his will slowly breaking with every cruel, depraved game.

"And here I thought that you would at least be relieved to finally know your dear friend's. still alive," Andrey replied mockingly and crouching to Noah's height.

Noah's face set, with his jaws knitted as if holding back a scream, clenched his fists. "Why..?" he finally whispered, voice cracking. "Why is this being done..?"

"Because, Noah, there are lessons that people like Damian need to learn. And there are... limits that people like you need to know."

A chill ran down Noah's back, freezing him from the inside out; the weight of Andrey's gaze seemed to crush the air from his lungs, and his stomach twisted. Andrey leaned forward, resting a gloved hand on Noah's shoulder with mock comfort; the grip, however, was more like a clamp.

"I cannot have the two of you getting any ideas," Andrey snarled in a low, venomous voice. "From now on, you will never speak to Damian again. You won't see him, you won't hear his voice- he does not exist for you anymore."

Noah's heart sank, horror stretching out across his chest. "No, please..." he whispered, his voice tortured; he didn't realize he'd spoken aloud until Andrey's grip on him clamped down hard enough to hurt, and Noah flinched.

"Please?" Andrey mocked the flicker of humor in his eyes alive with it. "Is that all you can say after everything I have done for you?

Noah's mind raced, clutching at anything that might help. "Andre- I mean sir,, please, he's been through enough. You've already. you've made your point, haven't you..?"

Andrey smiled, but his face darkened. "My point," he said, spitting out as if with the edge of a blade, "will come across when Damian realizes he is not a hero, he's not some savior for you. He's nothing but a pawn."

Then hit him the words, like a blow to the gut. He wanted to scream out that Damian was worth more than any of them, that Damian was the only reason for which he continued to cling to hope in this hell. Still, he knew such protest would do but feed Andrey's sick desire for control. Pain was swallowed up into anger; his teeth shook while biting down on the scream that battled its way up his throat.

"'Please... don't do this. You don't understand, he's-he's all I have. Just let me see him one last time,'" Noah's voice finally cracked, the desperation now bleeding openly through his words. "I'll stay. I won't... I won't try to escape. Just-"

A rough laugh cut him off, the coolness of the tone sending a shiver down his spine.

"You don't understand, Noah." Andrey leaned closer, his voice dipping lower, cold as ice. "I don't want you to ever see him again."

The subsequent silence was a brutal acknowledgment, a heavy cloak to lay on Noah's shoulders. Seated, yet not going, in Andrey's clutches, cold, expressionless eyes beheld no hopes for his predicament-no mercy, no hint of understanding. There was only control: raw and unbending.

He finally turned to leave, and in that second, Noah felt the crushing silence close in around him, the feel of complete and total isolation, like a weight upon his chest.

Andrey turned back, smirking once more as he paused in the doorway.

"Oh, and Noah?" he said, soft, low, but venom dripping from it. "If I even think you've tried to reach Damian, that you've whispered his name in the dark, when you think nobody's listening, I'll make him pay the price for it. And trust me, it will be far worse than what you've heard."

The door slammed shut behind him, plunging Noah into dim suffocating quiet.

His legs buckled, and he sank down on the floor, fingers digging into his hair trying not to scream. The silence of the room weighed upon him-or perhaps that was just because it made the emptiness stretching before him so much bigger, a desolation in which he vanished utterly.

There's no Damian anymore. Noah's fingers snared, dug deep into his hair, and a strangled cry ripped past his lips. The pain inside him became too much to bear-a physical pain tearing through his chest, hollowing him out. He wanted to scream and tear at the walls, somehow bridge this impossible distance now lying between him and the only person who had ever understood him.

Damian was gone. Forever. And it was his fault. If only he had been stronger, smarter, more defiant. Blame Twisted inside of him as if some kind of parasite, deeper and deeper until it was all he felt, all he breathed.

His mind filled with memories of how Damian used to smile, how he used to laugh, or how he would stand by Noah's side. How many times had Damian saved him? How many times had he risked everything just to stand alongside him? But Noah had betrayed him, goddamn failed him, and now the only one in all his life he had ever been able to trust, the only one who had ever really understood him, was lost.

The silence became oppressive, weighing upon him with the seeming burden of tons of concrete. He felt as if he could almost feel Damian floating in the room-a ghost in absentia-rending him speechless with what he had lost and what he would never regain. Every nook, every shade jeered at him, silent pitiless witness of defeat.

Noah's fists bunched, nails digging into his palm, but he did not feel the searing pain. His chest felt clutched, constricted as though he was drowning in an ocean of misery that had no bottom.

He fell onto the floor, his head on the concrete, overcome with sorrow, with remorse, with the fact that now he would never see Damian's face, never hear his voice, feel his warmth beside him. Andrey took everything from him, tore out his heart, and left only emptiness.

And still, the shadows loomed around him, pressing in, mocking his helplessness.