She flinched at his touch, and then spat in his face. “You’re vile,” she said in a shaky voice. “Despicable—”
He wiped the spit from his eye, and she felt her breaths begin to quicken once more. The right corner of his lips quirked upwards, and his eyes traveled deliberately over her body.
“Scream for me.”
His hands grabbed her ankles and the pain of fire searing into her flesh caused an unwanted shriek to emit from her lips. She grabbed for anything—the bed, the ground, the rug— but to no avail. He pulled her backwards and hoisted her body up over his shoulder. His skin burned her, and all she could do was will herself not to scream, completely paralyzed by the pain of his flesh burning hers as he carried her off towards the servants’ tunnel.
She felt the comfort of her raven slowly drifting away, replaced with a numbness she couldn’t shudder out.
Lies.
CHAPTER SEVEN
AYDRA’S SKIN WAS stiff and raw. Burns plagued her entire form, but the worst of it was across her stomach where he’d thrown her over his shoulder to carry her to his room. Vomit had evacuated her insides more times than once since he’d left her back on her own bed, exhausted and subdued from the events.
The only good thing to have come from the night before was that once Rhaif had released her body and thrown her on his bed, she’d managed a breath enough to send the raven after him, and it had cut Rhaif’s cheek deep with one of its talons.
Her punishment for it was the heated iron cuffs he’d crudely placed around her extremities.
She’d had the raven take a pail to Arbina’s pool to get water from it, the only thing that would heal the burns on her body. Despite her giver’s waters being poison, it was healing to her children, and Aydra knew she would need it.
The red marks around her wrists and raw of her skin stared back at her as she poured the last bucket of the water into the tub. She hadn’t stopped shaking. Every move she made was precarious, subdued… Flashes of blue kept shattering her mind, her only relief being when her raven would reach out into her core and try to pull away some of the pain.
Once the tub was full, she clenched her teeth and made her legs move, one after the other into the water’s depths.
An audible scream evacuated her lips as she stepped in. Her form shuddered, core evaporating into her gut. A debilitating seizure grasped over her straining muscles. The pain of the liquid wrapping into her skin was nearly as paralyzing as his fire had been.
“Morning, my—fuck—Aydra!”
The noise of Lex’s voice made her nearly fall into the water. Aydra grabbed the sides of the tub and steadied herself just as Lex came running to her. She couldn’t hold back the shriek from her lips when Lex put her hands on her dry shoulder.
“Don’t—” Aydra could hardly form words as the agony swept her bones. She stilled a moment to gather her wit, vomit pulsing up her stomach and into her throat.
“What the—who did this to you?!” Lex demanded in a voice Aydra had never heard of her.
Aydra’s eyes closed and she forced herself into the water. “Don’t touch the water,” she said quickly as Lex started to reach for her again. “It is Arbina’s poison waters.”
“Aydra—Did…” Lex’s voice trailed, and Aydra knew she was figuring it out. “Did Rhaif do this to you?”
The water wrapped around Aydra’s body, and she surrendered to the pain paralyzing her muscles. She couldn’t speak. The agony of her flesh mending itself beneath the liquid making her shudder. A nauseating chill rose on her spine once again, and she pulled herself up quickly to the side of the tub where her insides evacuated onto the floor.
Lex started to reach out for her hair, but Aydra muttered a quick “No, don’t—” and she grabbed her hand before she could—
The water on her fingertips burned Lex’s wrist.
Lex flinched backwards.
“Shit,” Aydra realized. “Lex, I’m sorry—I didn’t mean—”
Fire glowed beneath Lex’s flesh, and she picked at the ash formed from where a water droplet had sat on her skin. “It’s fine,” Lex assured her. “I’m fine.”
Aydra leaned back and closed her eyes. She heard Lex leave her side, and then felt the plop of a chair beside the tub.
“What happened?” Lex asked softly.
“It doesn’t matter—”
“Yes it—” Aydra’s eyes opened just in time to see Lex squeeze and unsqueeze her fist, as though she were wrapping it around someone’s throat and squeezing life from their body. “It does matter,” she continued deliberately. “You are myQueen.I cannot sit back and let you tell me that this is nothing.”
