Ravenswood would heal me.
What could he possibly do to us?
Hemlock waved his hand, a small flick of his fingers, gesturing the guards.
Both guards drew out a long, curved sword and pressed its blade along each side of Mathias’s throat. I clenched my jaw tight to keep from screaming. Hemlock wouldn’t have his son killed, would he? I wasn’t sure, but the vision of those sharp edges slicing through his skin slammed through my mind, reminding me of what Addy looked like when I found her body. I couldn’t have Mathias end up like that.
Mathias didn’t even flinch. He only locked his gaze on mine.
I sensed the violent anticipation exuding from the guards.Fade away, I wanted to yell.Disappear into the shadows like you always do, get out of the chains.
The sensation of bloodlust thickened around me, the guards humming with a malicious brutal arousal. I felt it against my skin, the cruelty and depravity crawling like millions of slimy worms with sharp biting mouths.
They vibrated with dark thoughts; slicing through skin, the smell of blood and death. They lusted after my terror, my sadness; longed for my grief.
I couldn’t stand there and watch it, didn’t want to feel it near me. It was foul and sickening. My heart pounded wildly. The images and emotions the guards were projecting felt like physical blows, each strike poking fire through my chest.
“Please. No!”
The words screeched out of me without warning, my hands slapping up over my mouth to stop from saying anymore.
“Please, no?” Hemlock’s voice was no more than a whisper, one than clawed icily down the ridge of my spine.
Oh damn.
“You don’t believe they should harm him?” he asked, leaning forward in his throne.
“No, I—”
“Want them to show him mercy?” he said, finishing my sentence.
“Yes,” I said, relief beginning to swell in my shoulders.
He looked up at the guards and back down to where I knelt. “Show him mercy for touching what is mine? Tell me again, where does your loyalty lie?”
Damn, damn, damn. His question raised goose bumps along my arms.
“Honestly? Everyone here has tried to touch me at some point or another.” Maybe if I took all the blame off of Mathias and shined the light on the others here, maybe he’d let him go.
“Do elaborate,” he said, curiously.
“Rose touched me. Bain tried to…and Liam and…”
“Haven’t you been a busy little bee,” he said, motioning to the guards with a quick flip of his hand. He cleared his throat and sniffed, as one of those terrifying guards glided up beside me. The death and hate radiating off the creature had me struggling to breathe. “They will show him mercy, child. However, you will not.”
The monster looming over me clasped his steel-like fingers around the back of my neck, and held me in place. The other dragged Mathias to kneel in front of me, our knees brushing each other’s.
“No, no, no,” I whimpered, looking into Mathias’s eyes. My stomach reeled. “I can’t. I can’t.”
Mathias straightened up, growling at me. Mumbling through his gag.
I flung my hands around his head and peeled it up over his scalp. The guards moved in and I screamed at them to back away. My pulse pounded through my ears, my temples burned from the tears I held back.
“Do it,” Mathias whispered. The guard must have lessened his wrist binds because his hands were clutching at my corset, grasping at the skin of my collar, my throat, my shoulders.
“Are you freaking kidding me? I can’t hurt you,” I cried.
He stilled and brought his hands to my face. “Secure your loyalty with him, my love. You promised to trust me unconditionally, even when I ask the unthinkable.”
