He stepped towards me and gripped me by my hair, dragging my body to the centre of the cell. ‘Care to tell us what you were doing at Prince Demir’s tower last night?’ the first guard asked. Demir’s eyes snapped to attention at those words. This is why they were questioning me in front of him. They wanted to gauge his reactions to see if we knew each other. His shocked and confused expression told them what they wanted to know.
‘I-I didn’t know, I was just trying to find some food. I had heard of the abundance within the castle walls. I was starving, please, I was desperate,’ I pleaded, shaking like a leaf for full effect.
‘Where did you enter from? Had you been looking for food, you would have passed the dining hall or the kitchens if you had entered through the main entrance. How did you find yourself at the entrance to the Prince’s tower without coming across any food if you came in through the front?’ the bigger guard asked.
I was furious with myself for not having thought this part of the lie through better, but without hesitating, I dug myself further into the hole I had created and hoped for the best.
‘I snuck in during the day and I was scared, so I ran to the gardens and hid in the bushes. I fell asleep, and once I woke it was dark and I was disorientated; nothing looked the same. Ihad no idea where I was; the castle is so large,’ I said as I made tears well within my eyes to truly sell my fear.
‘Liar. How dumb do you think we are? People do not just come in off the streets to steal food from our kitchens and find themselves in one of the more heavily guarded sections of the castle without ulterior motives. Who are you to the Prince? Are you his whore?’ the second guard asked. The fact that they thought two guards meant heavily guarded was almost comical.
‘No! I’m telling you the truth. I am a virgin! How dare you question my modesty!’ I shrilled in mock horror.
The second guard’s nostrils flared as he licked his lips. ‘Virgin, hey? Perhaps we can change that for you darling.’ He stepped towards me, pulling at my ankles before he pushed me flat against the floor and climbed on top of me. His body pressed against mine as he buried his nose in my neck, inhaling deeply. My skin crawled, and something within me screamed with wrongness. On the other side of the cell where Demir had been, a scuffle broke out, but I couldn’t focus on anything other than the guards’ grimy fingers that tore at what remained of my dress, touching my bare thighs and breasts. I screamed and struggled, playing the weak and fragile thing that had no strength to fight back. If I wanted to use my real strength, I would have to seep back into my original form, which had muscle mass and had been trained for years to become a finely tuned weapon—but that would give me away. I reminded myself that I was safe, that I was me not the girl I was playing and this wouldn’t last. The hulking guard looked at me, laughing at my naked and vulnerable form.
‘Take the day to think about your story. When I come back tonight, if you’re not singing another tune, you’ll be screaming through the pain of your hymen breaking.’
I curled in on myself and shook as though I were on the edge of sobbing before the cell door closed behind them. But there was a small tendril of fear that was real in that moment as images of Zoe’s face flashed through my mind and what thosepigs had done to her. She was broken so completely that she didn’t see the value in living a single day longer after they used her.
Demir had somehow fought through the pain of his injuries to sit beside me. Just as he reached out to touch my hand, I pulled back
‘Don’t!’ I yelled, but it was too late as his skin brushed mine.
He felt it. I could see it in his eyes.
‘Skylar?’
Thirty-One
Demir blinked rapidly, as if he could clear away the girl in front of him and instead see the girl he knew should be standing there. His Ruhi.
‘You just had to be in this cell and ruin my plans, didn’t you?’ I snapped as I morphed back into myself.
Demir looked pale, as though he would pass out, as the smoke dispersed. ‘How?’ he asked.
Brushing the dirt off my clothes, gone was the brittle girl I had been playing as my true presence filled the room.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked, looking me over where the guard had touched me.
‘I am more than fine. It would not be the first time a man thought he could take what wasn’t his from me—it certainly won’t be the last—and every single one that has ever tried has turned into another mark on my skin, when I stole their soul from this existence.’
He nodded, seemingly relaxing his shoulders slightly as he unconsciously moved towards me; it was the pull of his Ruhi bond with me. I could feel the tension simmering in the room, pushing me towards him, humming with explosive energy; but ifanything, it made my skin crawl. The feeling of having my body react outside of my control was something that brought me to the brink of panic, because at the centre of all the scenes I had witnessed during the Awakening with Sienna was a lack of control that had severe consequences. And just like that, while sitting in this cell with my enemy, I had the most profound revelation of all my years. The one Sienna said the Awakening would trigger over time, and now here it was, forcing me to confront the core of my problems. I had a deep, incessant need to control everything, and the moment that slipped away, so did my sanity.
‘Why are you here?’ Demir asked, meeting my gaze with all the steel he had left in him. He was battered and bruised, but not broken.
‘For you,’ I said, testing the waters, watching his reaction. As I had hoped, something panged within him when I said those words; he wanted me to want him. I needed him to feel this way, even if it made my skin itch in a completely different way than it did for those repulsive guards. Demir, however, was far smarter than I gave him credit for, or perhaps I hadn’t done a very good job of concealing my smile at his initial eagerness.
‘You want to use me. You don’t want me, not the way I want you. I can feel it when I touch you; the link between us is there, but there’s a wall I can’t penetrate to reach your core,’ he explained. He knew far too much about the Ruhi, which made me feel as though I was on the back foot. I never quite liked that feeling.
‘Tell me everything you know of this bond. What is it? Why now? How can we break it?’ I asked, knowing it was futile given what information I had already come across, but maybe—just maybe—he knew something we didn’t.
‘I’ve never seen you so desperate, Princess. You’re showing too many of your cards too early; it’s unbecoming,’ he mocked with that arrogant smirk that used to infuriate me, along with that now irrelevant title, but all it did in this moment was send arush of sorts through me. ‘You’ll see with time how fate and this bond will unfold. Now, tell me how you want to use me. I’m yours.’
My stomach clenched at those last words as they fell from his lips, and my mind snapped back to Visarous, overwhelming me with guilt. I had not thought about him once, as this bond claimed me more each day. Maybe I was wrong because even with old magic such as this, if I felt anything genuine for him, surely I could not be so quickly consumed by thoughts of someone else.
‘Why?’ I asked, simply brushing away the nerves that were building inside me, uncertain I wanted to hear the answer.
‘The moment you became my Ruhi, all of my loyalties shifted. Nothing and no one in this realm or the next means anything to a Morgadian when you find your Ruhi. If you want to use me, then do it. If you want to kill me, I’ll hand you the weapon. I am yours to do with as you will. My life is yours in a way you will never truly understand. It is different for our kind; the way this soul bond affects us is unique. I was raised with the knowledge of the Ruhi and what it means; for you and your people, a Zauvek is an old, forgotten folktale. I know what this is and I know you’re not there yet.’
