Chapter 32
The sulfur stench was the first thing he noticed. It was too dark to notice much else beyond the beating of his own heart. Nojan couldn’t remember how he’d arrived there, wherevertherewas. His entire world had narrowed to the smell of rotten eggs.
And then, there was light. A fiery light that threw jagged shadows against what he realized were cave walls. At first, he was near blinded at the contrast of light to the darkness that had surrounded him. And then he could hear voices.
“Let’s fuck it.”
“That’s what you always say. Give someone else a turn.”
“Yeah. This one isn’t a nobody. She’s some sort of special psychic. A clairvoyant.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t fuck it.”
There were several groans following that statement. Nojan couldn’t see the owners of the voices, nor the object of their debate. He lay on the cave floor covered in soot, feeling almost too weak to move. Still, a chilling premonition rolled through his mind, powerful enough to force him to action.
He knew he didn’t have the strength to climb to his feet, but he might be able to drag himself near enough to see what was happening. It was arduous, not to mention excruciating, as he hauled himself slowly across the hard rock surface of the cave.
“The Crown Prince says she can see the future,” a voice hissed. “That’s got to be useful for something.”
Nojan could just peer around the rocks to catch a few members of the group. “I bet she’s seeing herself getting fucked right now,” the original speaker said, a hideous creature with horns and skin like rusty scales. Nojan saw him pull his swollen erection from inside the rags he wore as pants. “Cause that’s the only future she has.”
Please don’t let it be her. Please don’t let it be her.Those words were his mantra. Nojan gathered his strength and pushed forward, needing to see what was causing such a fuss. At last, he could see them all, the horde of demons, that circled around the woman bound in the center.
Her fiery hair was a dead giveaway. Fear rounded her deep blue eyes, making them wider than ever. The Great Oracle, the woman who brought light to his darkness, was wrapped in thick rope, her beautiful pale skin straining at her bindings.
“No!” Not her, not his angel.
He turned his head, not wanting to see her like that. All around him, spouts of fire lit up the darkness, their reflection on the wall a cast of capering shadows that gave the cave the atmosphere of an old funhouse. None of the angles were right. Everything was slightly off.
How did I get here?he wondered, distracted.And why am I so weak?Nojan dug deep in his memory, recalling only being at the console of a ship and then nothing. His mind was working overtime to come up with an explanation for the situation, but none presented itself.
Mayra and Sanri were missing, although Sanri got past her guards without notice. The other set of guards swore they saw me tell them to abandon Mayra. Things were not as they seemed, and they hadn’t quite been, not for a while.
Maybe none of this was real. Maybe someone or something just wanted him to think it was.
Still, Nojan felt hopeless. While he lay there, unable to react and impotent with rage, a gang of hideous creatures was going to rape and abuse his innocent angel. And even if none of this was actually happening, it only proved that somewhere, Mayra was in danger, and he was even more helpless to protect her than he was here, barely able to move.
“Please,” he prayed, whispering to some force to save her. The only deity he’d known from personal experience was Jazmine, and she knew next to nothing about being a goddess. But her mother was a goddess. One who’d appeared to Mayra’s mother to warn her about the enemy. A goddess who was the protectress of Mayra’s family line. If anyone in the universe might be willing to save his angel, it would be her.
“Light Goddess, hear my prayer. Save Mayra, please. My life means nothing without her. I don’t care if I rot in this weird hell for all eternity, as long as my angel is saved.”
Nojan prayed without ceasing, his devotion blocking out everything else. He prayed until the darkness came again, until the voices disappeared, until the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat.
