Persius used to tell her he planned to break all of the scientist’s teeth from his mouth and rip his tongue out so their torturer would never whistle again.
If only.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon after I arrived,” Lemmuns said. “And to have you left so helpless, caged in iron, where no one could hear you?” Lemmuns turned and walked his bowl toward her cage. “I am a lucky, lucky man.”
Just as Nix summoned her fire, Lemmuns blew out a blue-tinted powder from his bowl into her cage and over her face.
She choked as she inhaled it, feeling her lungs and heart stall. Her limbs went numb, and she slipped to the floor of the cage, twitching as the mystical blue powder infiltrated her system.
“Kellan may not like me starting earlier than we planned, but he won’t have to know. I’ve worked many memory loss potions in my day, little birdie. You won’t remember a thing I do to you.”
As her breaths smoothed out, and her body went limp and motionless in the cage, a tear fell down her cheek.
“There we go, nice and easy,” Lemmuns muttered happily to himself and grabbed her ankle through the cage. The men had not left him the key to the lock, but he could easily reach her between the bars.
I will never forgive them.
He tugged her limp body to the edge of the cage and dug into his pockets for a small switchblade. He calmly began cutting her blouse from her back as her face pressed to the cement floor.
Though she could not move, her brain was fine. Her body stillfeltwhat was happening.
She begged the gods to stop him.
“Now, let’s see what we can do about these wings.” Lemmuns went back to his counter and returned with a different bowl.
He scooped up clear salve and slapped it onto her spine, running it over the back of her shoulder blades.
“This stuff is my best invention. Forces a shift, no matter what state the shifter is in.”
Her shoulder blades throbbed like her pores were ripping apart.Rip. Rip. Pain.
“There we go,” Lemmuns hummed. “What a pretty little birdie you are.”
Pretty little birdie.
Every horrific memory came flooding back. Theyearsof pain. The years of begging for it to end. The years of his proud laughter.
Her red feathered wings sprang from behind her, leaving each sensitive feather free and vulnerable. They fluttered and stretched, unaware of the damage he would do to them.
Her skin crawled as she readied herself for what came next.This is all too familiar.
“I will only take a few for now. Kellan won’t know,” Lemmuns said as he held one of her wings down and…
Pluck.
She cringed and gagged as her stomach turned.
Pluck, pluck. Blood rose from the pores where the roots of her feathers were ripped from her tender skin.
She had finally had wings. Full, beautiful, and powerful wings. And now…
Pluck. Pluck.
She silently wailed and cried, her vocal cords numbed by the blue powder.
I will kill him. I will kill him.
Pluck. Pluck.
