Maybe?
And that was the best I could hope for right now.
Saldrea was in her sitting room with her ladies when I entered.
“Well, what did you find out?” Saldrea said instantly, a devious smile on her lips.
“Nothing,” I said. Then before I could lose my nerve, I added, “And I quit.”
Saldrea was up in an instant. “Quit? You can’t quit. You’re mine to do with as I please until the day you die.”
“You don’t own me. You didn’tbuyme. I’m no slave. I came to work for you willingly.” It was a bad idea to fight her, but there was no way I’d let her claim me like she intended.
Saldrea’s face twisted in rage.
There it was. The inner demon behind the façade of beauty.
“This is because ofher, isn’t it?”
There was zero chance I’d let her get angry at Izzy when I was the one who should be the focus of her fury.
“No,” I said softly, bracing myself for what was to come. I didn’t have the ability to enhance my strength or fortitude, but I could bolster my spirit to endure the onslaught I was about to receive. “This is because of you. You’re cruel and heartless and I can’t work for you anymore.”
I was fast, trained in battle and — knowing it was coming — I probably could have evaded Saldrea’s strike, or thrown up a magical barrier, but I didn’t. Instead, I let her take her fury out on me.
She was an elf, and a strong one, her ability to enhance her body and strengthen herself nearly unparallelled. So, her slap sent me to my knees, pain shattering through my skull, my jaw probably fractured. It was my spirit alone which kept me upright, kneeling, instead of being a pile on the floor.
“How dare you say that to me!” she screamed, spittle flying in my face. “I’ll ruin you, you and your family. You’redone. Finished. If I see your face in Seial ever again, I’ll rip you limb from limb.”
This was the real Saldrea, her face contorted in wrath. Bullying, threatening, hurting others.
A sick smile distorted her face. “And I’ll make sure you can never please your new girlfriend.”
Fuck.
Her booted foot hit me between the legs, sending me flying back into the wall. This time my spirit faltered and I did collapse, the explosive pain in my groin unbearable.
Saldrea was on me in an instant, kicking me there again and again as she laughed. My groin was a mangled mess, staining my pants with blood by the time she finished.
Then she delighted in breaking my fingers, one by one. And when she was done with that, she kicked me one last time in the stomach, rearranging my organs.
I should have lost consciousness long ago, but my spirit kept me awake and aware for all of it. It seemed like a curse now, but after all of this, it would be my spirit which would save me… if anything could.
“Hana, rape his mind,” Saldrea said, her voice distant. Everything seemed far away, as if happening to someone else. To keep me alive, my spirit had distanced my awareness from the pain of my body.
The seeking claws of Hana’s mind-scouring raked through my thoughts. She saw everything, all my memories… but one. As I’d told Izzy, I’d slipped off campus last night and gone to a sylph mystic in Yrensil. I’d paid him a fortune — my own funds — to block my memories of finding Izzy with that shifter on the beach. Her secret would be safe. Everything else I knew about Izzy was either common knowledge or wouldn’t hurt her.
And when they were done with me, Hana used her airpowers to lift me and toss me out into the street, like so much trash.
I needed a healer, badly, but when my spirit urged me to move, broken hands clawing my way along the stone-paved path — everyone around me avoiding me, knowing not to help me — I didn’t head for the infirmary.
My spirit knew only one thing.
Izzy.
I needed Izzy.
And I needed her now!
