“My, my. You are a little witch whore, aren’t you? No wonder Slaide kept you on a tight leash.” He knelt over her then, and she could feel his breath on her skin. With his knee, he pushed hers apart, smiling down at his view as her knees fell to the side.
Hazel clamped her eyes shut. “Please. I am begging you. Don’t…” She didn’t want to fight him, didn’t want to provoke more violence against herself, but she wasn’t just going to put up with this.
“Ooh, beg more, pet. I like that,” he sneered. His eyes landed between her breasts, at the secret notes she'd folded and hidden there. "What do we have here?" He snatched them, his rough, calloused fingers brushing against her soft, sensitive skin. He unfolded one and frowned, clearly unable to decipher the madness written there. "A coded message, eh? Well, now. Seems I have even more reason to punish you, don't I?"
His words were met with a knee to the groin. He bucked and fell to the side, writhing in pain and groaning curse words in her direction. Hazel knew she was going to regret that, but he was making an awful lot of noise. Maybe she’d bought herself enough time for someone to come investigate.
But no one came.
After a few minutes, Oswald was right as rain and royally pissed off. He slapped her across the face and threatened her with the cudgel.
“If you try something stupid like that again, I am going to paint this cell with your blood. Starting with that face of yours. Understand?”
She whimpered, the handprint on her cheek pulsing an angry red.
He lowered his body against hers, and his breath was suffocating as he spoke, sour with the stench of too much ale. “I am going to ruin you, you filthy?—”
He was cut off. Hazel opened his eyes to see Oswald’s face turning an ugly purple hue, his remaining eye turning red with bursting blood vessels. He was being choked to death.
By shadows.
The tendrils of darkness constricted, lifting him up and away from Hazel’s exposed body. But they didn’t release him, not even once he’d been dragged kicking and flailing a safe distance away. Only after he went limp did the shadows release their grip on the man, slinking back to their owner, who stood in the doorway, his ominous form silhouetted by the flickering brazier.
When she noticed him there, Hazel loosed a half-sigh, half-sob.
Slaide stepped into the cell, his wings and claws retracting as though they’d never existed. As he approached, there was a gleam in his onyx eyes as they returned to their normal, golden hue. He came. He came for her.
His face was expressionless, and yet she could feel the rage seething off him as he stepped over her to remove her chains from the iron eyelet.
“Did he hurt you?” His voice was flat but wavered with barely repressed anger.
She shook her head. “Not in any way that matters.” Her voice was unsteady.
“Hazel, look at me. Did. He. Hurt. You?” Each word was ground out. He wasn’t mad at her. No, he was looking for a reason to grind Oswald to a bloody pulp against the stone floor.
He reached for her chin, and she flinched away from him, throwing her arm up in front of her face. Slaide recoiled, his eyes going wide and nostrils flaring. Then he reached more slowly, gently cupping her chin between his thumb and fingerand turned her face to his. When his gaze caught on the redness spreading across her cheek, he let go and looked over his shoulder where Oswald lie unconscious. A growl vibrated deep within his chest.
Hazel reached out and touched his hand. “Slaide.”
He took a deep breath, turning to face her, and pulled her into a hug. “I’m going to fucking kill him,” he whispered into her ear.
Slaide pulled back then, looking into her eyes.
“I-I really am okay, Slaide. He didn’t… it wasn’t… I kneed him in the balls before he could, and I…” She really thought she was alright, but a single tear ran down her face. The shock set in, the reality of what had just happened hitting her with a force. She tried and failed to choke down a sob.
He hugged her again. “Shh, shh. It’s okay. You’re safe now. You are so brave and strong, standing up to him. I am just sorry I was not here sooner.” He stroked her hair. “I knew something was up as soon as I got wind of your transfer. They’re intentionally keeping me out of the loop. I…” He faded off, shaking his head. “This is my fucking fault.”
Hazel sniffled.
“Oswald,” he began. “He didn’t come here to hurt you. He came here to try and hurt me. He saw us that day before the throne room doors and probably assumed I was fucking you. I should have stayed away from you. Far, far away. You would have been better off.”
She looked up at him in disbelief. “Except if you had done that, the Magistry would have received custody of me right off the bat. You said yourself that I might not even be alive.” Hazel thought his actual words were something more along the lines of havingsaved her ass,but she wasn’t going to throw that in his face right now. “I am just glad you got here when you did.”
Oswald groaned behind them, and Slaide silenced him once more with the snap of his fingers.
“We don’t have a lot of time. More guards will be coming around soon.”
“More? What happened to the ones at the door?” she asked in earnest.
