Just as I have nowhere to retreat to, not when The Nightmare can find me even here, no matter how small I make myself.
He forces his body against mine, immobilizing my legs in the process. His hands slide up my thighs, the pale blue nightgownthe only barrier between us. I buck my hips, desperate to get out of his reach but it only makes the room fill with his laughter.
With a hard slap, his hand comes forcefully on my backside, smarting my skin. He does it again, hard enough I’m sure there will be angry bruising from it.
He doesn’t stop there. His greedy palms knead my skin, grabbing and pinching in ways that make me feel like I’m dying a little.
A sob wracks my body in a full quiver as I’m pressed farther into the bed. His body is too warm, too needy. His forearms bead with sweat that drags across my breasts as he wraps his free arm under me, trapping me further. His fingers dig into my scalp, forcing my face down into the silk sheets. I inhale, the breath fraught, as the fabric pulls in closer with each inhale.
Suddenly the pressure is off of me. He’s no longer pressing down on me.
The air chills behind me and I’m grateful for the iciness.
I dare not move. I can’t risk this reprieve being a cruel joke from The Nightmare.
Another voice calls out—it’s distorted as my bearings still flop around.
A piercing ringing enters my ears and my body suddenly feels too heavy, my limbs threatening to sink through the bed.
I want to lay here on the sullied sheets because at least their familiarity can’t hurt me like other things that walk about.
“Alora,” the voice behind me causes me to flinch.
Maybe this is what The Nightmare meant by breaking me. Maybe the voice wasn’t really there because the last time I saw who it belonged to,heleft me.
It couldn’t be?—
“Kassiel,” another voice calls out, “why is she just laying there?”
Shuffling in the distance prods my senses though I can’t tear my eyes from the silken white sheets. It’s ironic that they look so pure and unblemished and yet would witness such vile things.
The belt that’s cinched around my mouth is loosened and slowly peeled away. Saliva strings from my mouth to the belt as it finally is lifted away. I close my mouth softly and my jaw aches with the movement. My mouth tastes bitter, like leather and copper. I poke around with my tongue and feel the cuts from the belt being pulled too tight, though the lacerations to my will are far deeper.
“Orlin, damned it, what did you do to my starlight?!” The King’s voice booms throughout the room.
A warm hand hovers over my back and holds there for a moment before withdrawing.
The crashing of a vase makes me almost jump off the bed. Worry for Lis allows me to escape the spiral. I flip from my belly and climb off the bed, grabbing the same damned white sheet that I just almost suffocated in and quickly wrap it around my shoulders.
A new wave of numbness is painted over my body and I let it blanket me, using it as another layer of armor.
The Nightmare leans against the nearby wall, his appearance still disheveled and savage. He doesn’t bother to look at me, instead he’s focused on King Euron who’s in the midst of throwing more things.
He continues his tantrum, screaming at Orlin before noticing Lis on the floor.
“I swear to the fates Orlin, if you and Lis can’t be reasonable with one another, the oracles themselves will come down from their mountains and take her. Do you want that? I. Need. Her. Alive.”
He kicks a nearby table and it skitters across the marble floor. King Euron turns around, still enraged and walks to The Nightmare.
I take inventory of the rest of the room, witnessing the sudden upheaval of decor and furniture in just the few short moments King Euron has been here. It’s as if a toddler has had a toy broken and they’re throwing a fit.
And in a sense, perhaps that’s all I am.
Clinging to the shadows by the door standshim,The Devourer.
I pull the sheet tighter around me though he doesn’t notice me either.
The sound of skin being struck draws my attention back to the encounter between Euron and The Nightmare.
