Bound In Blood (Bound In Blood - Book One)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I was being shaken violently when I finally awoke from my unsolicited slumber. I felt a cold drench of water wash over my face, bringing me to full consciousness. Silva stood before me, a newly-emptied wooden bucket in her hand. I wriggled in place, coming to the realisation that I had been tied to a chair in the torture chambers that I knew all too well. I remembered my last visit to that place - when Alex was strung from the ceiling like an animal.

"Wakey wakey, my dear boy," she said with a sickly sweet tone. "You have been brought home." I glanced about the cold stone room, noticing the stains of blood that littered the floor and walls. Menacing weaponry hung on racks on the walls and a bench was positioned at the far side of the room with various buckles and straps. The wood was dressed in red. "You must answer for what you have done, boy. And for what you have become," she told me, pulling her dagger from her sheath which had been in my side many hours before.

"I have naught to answer for," I told her. "You are the one whom has forsaken her own child. What honour have you? Perhaps this is not honour but 'business' as you call it. Were we no more to you than mere pawns in your mighty game? Just a means to an end? What lies have you filled our heads with?" Silva seemed not to know how to answer my questions. She simply paced back and forth, twiddling her weapon in her hand. "Do you condemn Alex to the same fate? To die by your hand? After you had given your child a home and a family and purpose, you will take it away for reason even you can hardly justify."

"Alex has desecrated our home. The only fitting punishment is death," she said coldly.

"Then what reason have I to die?"

"You aided in the traitor's protection. You are as much a villain in this."

"You know Alex knew not that man who came. Not really."

"Then how did he come? How did he know my child's name?"

"The world is so broad and so far beyond our minds, it is incomprehensible. It matters not how he happened upon our Sanctuary nor how he knew Alex's name. All you must know is that Alex had not intended for anything like this to happen. It was a simply mistake. We all make them. Even you."

"I do not put my family in danger."

"What do you call this?" I asked her, attempting to gesture at my own situation. Silva had no rebuttal for me. Instead, she considered what I had said, very carefully at that. Perhaps I would win this battle after all.

"Conner, you are no longer my family. You do not deserve to count yourself among us. You can no longer even count yourself among the living. You've become a beast. One we would have enjoyed in our profession, at that. However, there is no place for you here. That is why I will not feel a shred of guilt when you are hanged and gutted like the monster you are," she spat venomously.

She cut my ties to the chair but rebound my hands, pushing me toward the door. I did not fight my mistress; I only thought of my life and how it had played out. She whom I had fled to in my time of need was the one to finally end my life as it would have so many years ago. Scarlet had been wrong. There was no prophecy for I. I could not fulfil whatever role which had been thrust upon me as I soon would not even exist on this plane. I would find myself falling among the ranks of Mallik's mighty soldiers, wreaking havoc in the afterlife and doing his bidding without argument. The scholar's magnificent book surely did not tell of that.

Silva took me to the back of Sanctuary where the gallows were built, near our training area. I was thankful the sun had not yet risen though it didn't seem like dawn was far off. At the foot of the platform stood Hermia, Micah, Romanus and Charlotte, all appearing distraught - even Micah showing some emotion. I was walked up the platform and a noose was placed around my neck.