“You don't belong to nobility, regardless of Daddy Death. You're nothing but scum, and he should be as ashamed of you as we are,” Dreadful hissed, her words like venom before her booted heel jabbed into my side.
My vision darkened as I cried out, the sound barely a squeak through the blows and thunder. My hot tears mixed with the cold rain as the agony from each hit reverberated through my body.
Their fists were relentless as the storm raged on above. My world narrowed to the pain and the suffocating grip of my past.
I was in the cellar, chain hooked to my ankle, the darkness absolute, and the pain my constant, only flashes of Mother's sneer showed with every roar of thunder. The physical assault was only a brutal echo of the psychological wounds Mother left me. Each strike was another tick on the list of my abuse.
The fight left my soul in waves, each hit taking with it a piece of my resilience. The wounds stayed, agony exploding inside of me over and over again. The taste of iron filled my mouth again as I lay on the ground, the cold, wetsand beneath me mingling with the warmth of my blood.
I didn’t know how long I was there, but the next thing I knew, the blows had stopped, and I was alone in the storm, bleeding out onto the sand.
My brain couldn’t comprehend what had just happened, but the pain was too familiar.
I slipped my hand down into my bag, the same way I used to sneak my hand into the crack in the floor of the cellar to check on Nebula. His skull was perfect under my trembling fingertips, and a painful sigh of relief escaped me.
The rain had stopped, but I was still soaked with rain and blood—and numb at this point.
Somehow, I dragged myself back to campus by sheer willpower. It was still dark, and thunder still rolled through the sky. I collapsed under Occult Arch, blood pooling around me, but then, I lost consciousness again.
Time lost meaning as I drifted in and out of consciousness, the line between nightmare and reality blurring. Had I been visited by that red-headed drude again? Did thatreallyhappen when I was supposed to be safe?
When clarity returned, I woke to the imposing figures of Dex, Hemlock, and Skel hovering above me.
“What the fuck happened?” Hemlock barked,tossing the bottle in his hand against the arch. The glass shattered, and the remaining liquid splashed on the sand.
“She’s covered in blood,” Skel whispered as if my appearance scared him to his core.
“Who the fuck is dying tonight?” Dex asked, a murderous rage simmering in his eyes.
“Take her to Sunstone Revive—now,” Hemlock growled the order at Dex.
He listened, his shadows slipping around me like a warm cocoon, so unlike the shadows Mother wielded. Dex’s shadowsweredifferent. They didn’t drip, and they knew how to be kind. I wondered if Dex truly knew kindness.
I was moved to Sunstone Revive—the place Dex and Skel had brought me before when they scared me. The place of healing where the stones' magical energy could mend what was broken.
The warmth of the healing took hold, but my recovery was agonizingly slow. It was as if the stones' glow fought against the darkness that had been forced upon me once again. Like it knew the psychological damage it brought to the surface of my soul.
“Why isn’t it working?” Hemlock shouted, his anger palpable through the air.
“It’s fucking working,” Skel hissed, smoking his pipe. His mouth rarely left the mouthpiece as he stared at me like I was dying.
“But it’s slow,” Dex whined lowly. “What the Fates happened to her?”
“Does it look like I fucking know?” Hemlock asked sarcastically, without slurring his words. “This shit is sobering my ass up, and I don’t like it.”
For the first time since I’d known them, I saw a glimmer of care in their eyes.
As my bruises faded and cuts were still closing, I sucked in a dramatic gasp. “Thank you,” I croaked to them before my throat practically closed off.
“Who did this to you?” Hemlock pressed, stomping over the sunstone and pulling me to my feet.
Everything still ached, and the warmth of healing still spread through my bones.
“Come on, Pandora, tell us,” Skel pleaded, his desperate voice echoing through the night.
Dex’s face screwed up with frustration, and he pushed Hemlock away from me before cupping my face in his hands and glaring heatedly at me.“Who fucking did this?”
I shook my head, tears welling in my eyes and rolling down my cheeks over his thumbs. I opened my mouth to tell them, but agony flared through my throat, and it seized.
