Beneath the Blood Moon

Chapter Thirteen: Nevermind

- 1 Day -

Blood.

There was blood. And there was fire. There was pain that spread through Nnandi's entire body, starting at the base of her skull. It blossomed out in blinding waves until her legs gave way and she collapsed to the ground. Her nerves burned like the stacks of books and ingredients in Elrick's workshop. And like the bottom of his shirt, the hems of his pants. Even as the Sentinel fire consumed him, he never cried out. Falling across his wide work table, bottles and papers spilled to the ground and rained down around her. The shattered glass reflected his body as it landed in an unmoving heap, his feet all she could see.

All she needed to see.

More than she wanted to see.

Darkness claimed her and the pain reverberated even then.

It lingered in her unconscious state, into her waking moments as she sat before the Elders and Sentinel. Nnandi could hardly hear their vicious words frothing from their mouths like spittle. Her mind was numb to everything but the profound echo ringing through her. It was the sound of him hitting the ground on repeat. A good man and her opportunity for a somewhat perfect world. Dead.

I look forward to seeing you again.

His words vibrated in perfect tempo with the sound of his corpse falling. She went cold and shivered, shaking her head as her eyes fluttered closed.

A burning sting smeared across her face as the slap rang out. It startled her conscious and what awaited her wide eyed gaze was the seething face of Elder Clarey.

"You dare ignore me as I speak? Insolent child." Her hand flashed out again, streaking a parallel path over her eye. "The damage your selfishness has done to the coven, and you dare sit and tune me out?!"

Something pricked inside of her. It started low and then churned its way up until the blood burned in her face from more than the slaps. A new sound overpowered Elrick's death and last words. The world selfish as it hissed out from between her thin lips.

Selfishness. Selfishness. Selfishness.

An ugly incantation that birthed fresh fury. Nnandi was on her feet, in spite of the golden chains around her neck, wrists, and ankles. She stood, pulling against them, at a speed that sent the decrepit woman stumbling backwards.

"Selfishness," she spat, teeth clenched hard, "You call me selfish when each of you are guilty of the highest crimes of egotistic, self-serving, lecherous-."

The metal grew hot against her skin, because of her skin. Body burning with fresh rage, she pulled against the chains and nearly snapped them all before the guards were on her, plunging the pointed ends of their cattleprods against her bare arms and legs. She didn't feel the jolt of electricity dance across the surface of her skin until the second or third stick. By then, her body was fried and she crumpled to the ground. Groaning, Nnandi clutched her stomach and curled inward on herself.

Hands came from all side and stretched her out, pinning her arms and legs to the ground as a set of familiar fingers pried her mouth open. Saphine's face hovered above her, cold and stiff as smelted gold. She worked to loosen Nnandi's clenched jaw and, when she finally pulled it open, she poured ambrosia down her throat. There was little time for her to gasp for air before the thick, sickly sweet solution slid past the back of her tongue, swelling in her esophagus on the way down.

Nnandi tried to cough and spit it out, but there was no fighting the sheer volume of it being poured into her. Reflexes kicked in and she swallowed. Almost instantly, the burning in her body flickered and went cold.