A loud slap echoed from inside the suite, followed by a cry of pain and a body thudding to the floor. My blood pulsed alongside my power, burning to unleash onto the king for laying a finger on her.
I held out a palm to summon my Elemental magic, ready to warp the hinges and the locks so I could bust through to get to Gray.
“Well, well.” At the sound of Grim’s voice, my spine locked. As usual, my magic went cold in my veins at his presence. “Paying the king a visit, I see.” His smug tone oozed chills down my neck, my stomach souring at the sound. “Please, do explain to me why it appears you’re about to make an assassination attempt on the king.”
I kept silent. There was nothing I could say to avoid trouble at this point. I just needed to get to the princess. Fuck.
Turning around, I met the beady eyes of my tormentor, my teeth clenched together. Grim stood inches away with a smug grin, ready for another excuse to punish me.
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” I gritted out, squeezing the hilt of my dagger, letting my magic roar back to life.
Just as quickly, my power died in my veins, leaving me barren and more pissed off.
Grim laughed. “Are you really?”
Not even deigning him a response, I pulled a knife from my weapons belt and launched it at Grim’s chest. It lodged into his sternum, wiping the smugness from his face as he grunted, stumbling back.
I stalked toward him, throwing a hard punch to his temple just before I kicked the knife deeper into his chest with my heel.
My stepdad crashed to the floor on his back. I straddled his hips, pinning him while I landed blow after blow to his cheekbones, nose, and temples. Blood from his nose and mouth splattered my face, coating my fists. The satisfaction of inflicting pain onto Grim was so easy for me to get lost in. The violence sparked the beast within me to raise its head higher, hungering for the retribution.
These small victories were always short-lived, but I couldn’t help myself, especially when it came to the incessant drive to get the princess. I had to protect her, even if that meant my own suffering.
Grim’s shouts caused more of a distraction than I wanted. If only I had an Elemental blade, I could just fucking end him now, but without my magic, there was no way to truly kill him unless I were to slowly saw his head from his neck with a dagger, but that would take too long.
The cold steel edge of a dagger pressed against my throat. I froze, the blue sigils ignited on the blade, knowing the black crystal embedded in it would poison me. But it didn’t stop the king from cutting my skin just a fraction anyway.
Fuck.
“What have we told you about that lack of free will of yours?” King Forest intoned from behind me as my throat began to burn.
I dropped my knife, gasping for air as the black crystal began to seep into my bloodstream, setting my throat alight with an inferno.
“Time to teach you another lesson. Right, boy?”
“Up,” Grim’s vile voice slithered through my consciousness.
Nausea from the black crystal caused bile to swirl and purge from my body. I heaved into the icy cell devoid of light. Bitterness from the fluids in my empty stomach burned my throat and nose as I coughed, attempting to catch my breath. Despite being weakened and every fiber in my body feeling wrecked beyond repair, I pushed myself to my hands and knees.
Grim’s booted foot struck my exposed ribs, making me collapse into a puddle of my bile. I bit down on my tongue, and all I could do was wheeze from the impact’s violent pain. With my magic drained and suppressed, my body violated and beaten without the ability to heal, I was nothing. No longer the hero that everyone thought I was.
A stark reminder of the hold they had on my life.
I was nothing but a weapon. A weapon that needed to be sheathed when not in use. Or if it became too dangerous to control.
“I’ll ask again,” Grim seethed above me. “Why were you charging into the King’s Suite? And why the fuck were you exposing your abhorrent Elemental side?”
I spat on the floor beside me, trying to block the magic deprivation’s agony. “I…I don’t know.”
Another kick to my ribs; this time, another one broke. A silent scream clawed up my throat as the jagged edge of the bone protruded from my skin. I couldn’t breathe. Surely, a rib punctured my lung.
“Fucking little liar. What are you planning?” I imagined that his beady eyes had formed slits and his crooked nose angled in a way that appeared more grotesque than usual. I could bet that spit clung to his pallid lips.
I wheezed out a cough, nursing my ribs, hoping against all odds he’d remove the shackles just long enough for me to heal. I couldn’t physically respond. The ringing in my head only shrilled louder, and the scrambling of my mind grewto exponential levels. My essence desperately searched for anything to latch onto.
“Let’s go. It’s time for you to see what happens when you think you have a mind of your own.” Cold hands coiled around my biceps, snatching me to my unsteady feet, but the splicing in my ribs rendered me incapable of standing on my own.
The cuffs fell from my ankles and wrists. The raging hunger within my veins ignited an endless hellfire as my essence fought to consume anything that would feed my magic. Grim eased off on his ability just enough, allowing me to absorb what I could to heal the broken bones. But first, I needed to do something about the rib protruding from my skin.
