The Claimed: A Clash of Copper and Gold

Chapter 13: The Cell

The next several days were a blur of pain, dreams, and drug-induced slumber. At one point, I began thrashing so violently that Physician Matino ordered the guards to cuff each of my wrists to a bedpost, so I wouldn't exacerbate the cuts on my back. I remembered only snatches of reality — the tall guard spoon-feeding me, Physician Matino lathering my back with more salve, Niako's inscrutable gaze.

The bed was comfortable and the hands on me gentle, but the Day of Truth replayed through my mind like a never-ending nightmare. During the day, I wondered how Aunt Mitzy and the rest of Fooja would respond to this betrayal — or if the entire Kingdom already lay in ruins. I fell asleep imagining Finny hiding alone in the dark, scared and hungry, and awoke choking on the smell of burnt flesh. And in between it all, Niako's ominous words.

I've got better, more pleasurable ways to teach him obedience.

The memory of wanting — even craving — what Niako now threatened to do made the idea all the more odious. That night I had almost kissed him, was he already imagining what he would do after he Claimed me? How could I have allowed him to manipulate me so easily?

Almost a week after the Claiming Ceremony, I awoke to fingers skimming my back, delicately pressing the newly-formed scars. The hands felt warm and reassuring, like how my mother once traced my back while I fell asleep. My skin stirred under the touch with goosebumps of pleasure. But when my eyes slid open to meet Niako's dark gaze, I recoiled.

I jerked against the cuffs, still chained to the front two posts with only a foot of moving room. Niako's hand stilled.

"Good morning, Claimed. It appears your scars are healing well."

So this was it. Niako had waited for me to recover first, but it seemed my grace period had ended. Though I knew it was of no use, a desperate threat ripped from my chest.

"Don't you dare touch me, or I'll — I'll —"

Niako raised his eyebrows. "Or you'll what?"

I tugged at the cuffs again, and relentless pressure pulled back against me. Despair and defeat swelled inside my chest. I hadn't been able to save my father. I hadn't been able to save Finny. I couldn't even save myself. My eyes stung, and when I squeezed them shut, cool tears trickled from the corners.

Niako's voice became tentative. "...Toom?"

I blinked back the wetness, bracing myself to meet Niako's triumphant gaze. But his eyes held no triumph. Instead, he looked alarmed.

"What happened?" he said. "Why... why are you..."

"I know I can't stop you," I said, "But please don't. I will do anything. I will even call you..." 

But I still couldn't force the word out.

Niako's hand tensed on my back and then pulled away. "Stop. Don't say it."

Swallowing bile, I let my eyes close once more. If Niako no longer cared about being called Master, I could do nothing to dissuade him from whatever he planned to do to me.

"You really think I would..." Niako's voice sounded oddly strangled. "Don't flatter yourself. When I have my choice between so many willing men, why would I choose you?"

My breath hitched in my chest. I opened my eyes again. "But at the Claiming Ceremony, you said —"

"I said what I had to say to appease the crowd."

Relief flooded my chest, but I pushed back against it, wary of false hope. "Then why Claim me?"

"You know that already. I want to watch you suffer."