Kate
Fear pierces through my heart. Pious’s faceplate is gone, skidding down the metal grids of the floor. His face is red and angry, his eyes are deep-set and the lightest shade of amber I’ve ever seen. His hair so blond it’s almost white. He looks nothing like Rune.
“You will live just long enough to regret that, girl.”
I pull back into the shadows, away from him, but there’s nowhere to run or hide. The narrow hallway has no give and I feel the walls closing in on me. “Guards!” he shouts, his voice carries ice over my skin.
“Yes, General Pious, sir!” dozens of voices say in unison. An army of voices, filling up the hidden walkways of the core, drowning out any hope I had of ever getting out of here. My heart drums at the base of my throat.
Pious shouts orders, teeth bared, his guards scrambling on the floor for his helmet. I back away farther, wondering how far I can move myself away, but the thought cuts dead as I hit into a solid wall of guards. “Restrain her!”
Cold metal slaps around my wrists and ankles. Then Pious launches at me with enough force to knock me back, crushing me between his body and the barrier of guards. The Caelum shout and rush to crowd around us. My bare skin gets tugged and pulled and scraped as Pious and his men attach chains to the metal bands that bind me. My knees buckle and my body drops. I land hard on my side and struggle to squirm my way free. But I can’t escape. Pious tightens his grip on my restraints and drags me forward.
The Caelum press to the wall and create a pathway for him to lug me through. He walks fast, and my body trails over the smooth metal of the floor until we hit a patch of grids with sharp edges that slice into my skin and have me screaming.
Pious swings around and whips the chains into my thighs. “Enough,” he says. “Your pathetic screeching is just infuriating me more.”
Then he slaps one of the metal bars over my lips. The alloy burns as it seeps into my skin bringing hot tears to my eyes. I make a whimpering sound and struggle against the binding.
Pious’s gaze bores into mine. “When will you learn? The more you fight me, female, the worse I will do to break you.”
I shake my head quickly, screaming in my mind to be set free. Tears stream down my cheeks and his eyes trail after them. The corner of his lip curls up into a smile right before he whirls back around and continues to drag me through the ship.
I try to lift my head, try to force my shackled feet up to walk, but he’s walking too fast, pounding down the passageways, and my feet can’t grasp the floor. My arms pull over my head, the joints in my wrists and armpits stretch and burn. Every time I try to brace my feet to the floor my body twists around on the chains and sharpens the pain.
Prayers fill my head.Please God, please make him stop. Please make this all stop. Get me out of here.
I expect him to drag me for hours, but instead, he abruptly stops and pulls me through a small hidden opening. He shoves me down hard. “Sit,” he demands.
I slide my body along the cold metallic wall and look up at him. I try to move my lips and yell at him, but the binding on my mouth makes anything I say sound like muted grunts and moans.
He throws a quick impassive expression toward me then turns back away to face a floor-to-ceiling cabinet fill of buttons and lights and screens.
I huff out a loud grunt. Can’t he take this thing off my mouth at least? I carefully pull myself up into a somewhat comfortable sitting position, but what I really want to do is stand. My body aches and there are scrapes and cuts all over me, and truth be told, I don’t want him looming over me and looking down on me any longer.
But he’s not looking at me right now—his attention is focused on the flashing lights and digital images that light up at the tips of his fingers. He’s so preoccupied with what he’s doing, he doesn’t notice me scoot my bottom all the way to the closest ledge I can find to hoist myself upright again.
“The arrangements have been set,” he says, slowly turning his gaze toward me.
I freeze, my feet rooted to the floor, my eyes staring up into his.
He smiles. A vicious sickening twist of his lips and a slight flushing of his cheeks. He turns his entire body to face mine, folding his arms across his broad chest. “I’m certain you’re wondering what arrangements I’m referring to, am I correct?”
I don’t show any sign or movement to answer him.
He barks out a laugh and shakes his head. “I’m quite surprised that mouth of yours cannot gnaw through the bonds.”
Oh, there are so many things I want to scream at him right now.
He takes a few steps closer to where I stand. I don’t back away even though I desperately want to. I stand my ground and stare him dead in the eyes.
“The arrangements I set are for an execution.”
An execution? He wouldn’t kill me, not when he needs me to—
“Exactly twenty-four hours from now Rune will be publicly executed for his crimes.”
I shout through the metal bindings, but my words are too muffled and unrecognizable. I end up growling deep in my throat to try and get my point across.
