I move the rest of the way to my stomach, and I feel the blade of the dagger she’s holding slice through the top of the shirt I’m wearing. I want to protest because this is the only article of clothing I possess, and it’d be cool if she didn’t shred it, but I worry she might get stabby, so I shut the fuck up. I feel her grip the back of my neck, and surprisingly there’s heat where her palm and fingers meet my skin.
I gasp, and then I’m suddenly not there anymore.
It hurts so much. Why does it hurt? I struggle to getaway from the hands holding me down in my bed. My screams are accompanied by a rhythmic chanting, but the burning I feel everywhere overshadows it all. I writhe and beg for it to stop. I can just make out my mom and dad.
“Mommy, please, it hurts!” I wail and struggle harder to get away from the hands and the pain they bring with them.
“Shhhh, I know, My Heart, it’ll be over soon. Be strong, my girl. Be strong for mommy.”
I keen and plead for it to stop, but it doesn’t. The fire wants to eat me up whole, and no amount of screaming or begging will keep it from consuming me.
4
“Wake up,” a growly female voice demands.
My cheek lights up with a stinging sensation, and I can feel someone shaking me.
“Wake up!” the voice orders again, and this time I get a hand up before she can slap me another time.
“What the hell?” I groggily ask as I come to.
I catch a flicker of relief in the female lie detector’s green eyes before I look around and try to make sense of what’s going on. I’m still in the weird chapel-esque room. There’s an altar-like pulpit at the front of the room, and pews all lined up like they’re ready and waiting to worship and watch whatever Vows or other bullshit goes down in here. This is the only room— aside from the dungeons—that I’ve seen that isn’t capped by crystal walls and iron. Instead, the whole room is the cream stone I’m used to seeing at the Eyrie, with images of mythical creatures carved into the corners and ceiling. The non-fire torches make the lighting and feel of the room eerie, and I’m instantly not okay with having been unconscious in here.
What happened?
The last thing I can remember is this green-eyed chick threatening to kill me if I exposed their secret and then grabbing my neck. I reach back and rub at the spot where she had her hand.
“Did you do it?” I ask, not feeling anything different back there.
I scan the room again, but I don’t spot any mirrors or other reflective surfaces that I might use to see what’s going on back there.
“It is done,” she answers, but there’s something about the look on her face that gives me pause.
“What happened?” I query, self-consciousness and anxiety slamming through me as I study the haunted light in her eyes.
“What did they do to you?” she asks me almost on a whisper.
I’m confused for a beat by the question. “What did who do to me?” I demand, even more alarmed as she unsteadily moves away from me. “What are you talking about? What did who do to me?” I ask again when it seems like she’s about to make a break for it.
What the fuck could have happened that would have her so fucking freaked out?
“Remember what I told you.” She whirls on me in warning. The fear and trauma are suddenly gone from her eyes, and they’re once again hard and angry. “Stay away from Lazza and his followers. They’re the only ones powerful enough to know your mark is wrong, and they can’t know no matter what. It would mean the death of hundreds.”
With that, she stomps out of the room through a side door I’m just now noticing and leaves me a pile ofwhat the fuckin the middle of the floor. I rub at the back of my neck again, weirded out that there’s something there and I still have no fucking clue what.
For some reason, I picture a big black dick inked on the back of my neck, and I can’t help but snicker. I blame the shock of everything that’s happened and hope to fuck this isn’t some messed up prank. Although at this point, I’d take the big black dick over the real Vow mark any day. I’m shaky as I stand up, and my borrowed shirt slips off my shoulders. I hold it in place against my chest and groan. Of course my only piece of clothing is once again in fucking tatters. It’s like this world wants me to be naked all the time.
No one comes in to retrieve me, and I have no clue what to do now. Thoughts of escape float through my mind. Oddly, the fake Vow sits heavy on the back of my neck. As much as I’d love to figure out how to get out of here, it’s probably not smart. The seer’s warning rings in my mind again, solidifying my thoughts. If I try to run and they try to stop me, I could give myself away. I don’t want to be responsible for blowing hundreds of people’s cover. I also have no idea where I am and how the fuck to get out of here, so there’s that too.
This bullshit tale is way too frustratingly familiar. It’s like being back at the Eyrie, but with more people who look like me, and I’m rocking a tattoo now.Fucking hell. I sit down in one of the stone pews and stew in silence. I’m one fucked up, ragamuffin-looking gryphon shifter who can’t currently shift and just went from the frying pan into the motherfucking fire. Or maybe I’m just in a bigger frying pan...I guess time will tell.
I run my tired hands over my face and feel utterly overwhelmed and exhausted. Devastation slams into me out of nowhere, and my eyes prickle with unshed tears. How is all of this happening to me? I rub my face, refusing to let any of the tears fall. I’m so fucking sick of crying and feeling helpless. I try to think through the lessons that Sutton taught me, but thinking about him makes me think of Zeph...and then Loa and how he stepped in to save her. Then I’m forced to think about what happened between me and Zeph because of it, and all of that just pisses me off.
Lying asshole.
He’s pretty much the fucking reason I’m here, and I swear on everything, if I ever see him again, I’m going to deck him so fucking hard it will break his face. I give a humorless snort. Who am I kidding? That would probably just turn him on and shatter my hand in the process. I look down at my punching hand and flex it. It’s all healed up from my loss against the gryphon’s face earlier when they pulled me out of the water.
Stupid, stupid, stupid me for getting caught.
