Instead, he hits me with another wave of lust, and my legs give out. I fall to my knees, trying to breathe through the heat. Every piece of me burns like I might combust if I’m not touched.
It’s happening again.
I have no control. My choices are being taken away.
“Please,” I whimper. “Please stop.”
Sin shows no mercy and hits me again with the lust energy. “No one is coming to save you. In this world, your boundaries are useless if you can’t enforce them.”
My body burns with desire. It won’t take much more before I break. Again.
“No more,” I beg.
“Not good enough, mortal. You want to crawl back to someone who used you, who embraces a bond that clearly violates your free will. I’m saving you the trouble.”
Another hit of lust, and I collapse, moaning against the sand.
Sin stands only a few feet away, towering over me. “Now be a good little whore and crawl to me,” he spits out.
Trembles wrack through my body, and sand sticks to my face where my tears fall freely. Every part of me wants to listen, to do what he asks if it will make the burning go away.
My eyes close, and despair floods me as I feel my free will breaking yet again.
He wants me to crawl. The thought comes as an echoing whisper from the angry voice I locked inside me so long ago.
Memories flash before my eyes. Of Cassandra crawling, broken and bloodied after her teachers had their way with her again. Of me crawling in a forest after my classmates tried to kill me. And then of me crawling out of Leon’s castle after he tried to use my body to get what he wanted.
My fists dig into the sand.
They broke me. Every last one of them took what they wanted. They violated me for their own purposes.
The box of repressed emotions in my head turns to dust, and my eyes open.
I say nothing as I slowly pull myself up, ignoring the heat that pulses through me. My legs shake, but I barely feel them. The others on the balcony have been yelling at Sin to ease off, but they’re silent now as if holding their breaths, waiting to see what I’ll do.
Sin watches me expectantly. I can vaguely feel the earth shivering under me, and small stones start to fall from the balcony.
None of it matters.
I will not crawl.
I may be broken, but I’m not dead.
I pull my swords from the sheath against my back, barely realizing what I’m doing. The rage is in control now. My thoughts are locked in fury. Muscle memory guides me, and Cassandra’s many years of training pulses through my consciousness.
Slowly, I start to circle Sin, my body low, as I look for an opening.
He grins at me before asking, “Had enough of the sex energy, mortal? Are you going to ask me to use my mouth instead?”
I bare my teeth at him. “My name is not mortal. And I would rather die.”
Sin lets me circle behind him as he tsks, “Such a shame. You don’t want me to make you purr, kitten?”
My vision goes red. I attack, trying to catch him off guard. But I’m too slow, and Sin dodges easily.
I glare at him as we stand facing each other.
“Don’t call me that,” I spit.
