“Do you not think I have heard this bullshit? ‘Sigvid, it is me Avina.’ ‘Look at me, I am here for you.’” His mocking tone tastes bitter.
I would rather die than witness her raped and murdered again.
“Grim, tell him.” She folds her arm while kicking the cell door.
“Beast, it is us.” Grim appears over her shoulder. Concern riddled his usual content features.
Sigvid throws a cup at the bars, showering them with stale water. “What did I say?” He snarls. “You cannot fuck with me anymore, Thrain. Get out of here!”
“What have they done to you?” She reaches through the bars, trying to get him in the corner.
“You cannot force me to watch it again,” he mumbles.
“Touch me! Feel me! I am real!” Her pleadings are enough to force him to relent.
“I have watched my Avina raped in every horrific way imaginable. There’s nothing I can do to save her. They kill my love before my eyes.” His tone is empty, an endless void of sorrow.
“Sigvid,” she throws herself against the bars, untying the bracer on her left arm. “I have your name carved into my skin. You did that after you saved my life from the frozen lake. Remember? You held me naked to conserve body heat. Surely, this misrepresentation of me does not know all of our secrets!”
“I will not allow you to torment me anymore.” His voice cracks.
“Sigvid, I sent you a lock of my hair during the war. The Battlemaster burned it in the Arena with your clothes. You cut another curl while I slept. This one,” she removes the hair tied with ribbon and slips it through the iron bars.
He stands abruptly but does not move toward her outstretched arm. To his knowledge, Thrain does not know about the lock of hair, even if he does know she sent him gifts, which means Mali could not have known how to torment him with it.
Sigvid steps hesitantly up to the cell door. His hand shoots through the bars and wraps around her throat, forcing her to sputter. Grim hastens to her side but hesitates when she signals for him to wait.
“I see you are a real person this time.” Sigvid tilts his head to the side, enjoying the touch of warm flesh under his grasp. The fluttering of her vein is a knife twist to his gut. A reminder that his little Queen is alive and that he may never hold her again. “If you are here to help me, release me from this dark Abyss.”
She nods to Grim, who withdraws a set of keys on a ring andunlocks the door. Sigvid maintains his hold on her column, stepping with the door as it creaks out.
He moves swiftly, pinning her to the dungeon wall. He gropes her curves before tugging the bracer of her left arm until he exposes her skin. The light of the sconces dance across the scarred ‘SIGVID’ in her skin.
Tears burn in his eyes as his hands clutch her face, his thumbs caressing the apples of her cheeks.
My Avina!
He wraps her tightly and kisses her anywhere his lips can brush. He pushes her back again to examine every detail.
“Not a figment of my imagination but my living, breathing Queen!” He kisses her lips deeply. “Thrain will pay for what he has done.” He tightens his hold, inhaling the floral scent of her hair. “My love.”
“Please accept my apologies for my delay.” She fists his ragged tunic.
He touches and kisses her as if she might vanish. He will be damned if this is another illusion.
“Hey, lovebirds,” Grim interrupts. “I am delighted you are alive, Beast, but we must leave. The lack of guards is an obvious trap, and I am ready to spring it.”
As they round the corner to ascend the steps to the blessed sunlight, Mali, flanked by three soldiers bearing the nautilus shell of Salt, waits for them.
“When His Majesty, King Thrain, realized theseidraround your cell door shattered, I hoped to see the infamous Avina Bloodstone.” Mali descends the stairs with slow, measured steps. “Can you imagine the visions I can grant her, Sigvid? Infidelity, betrayal, or your death on a loop.” She smiles wide.
He catches Avina’s glances between him and Mali. Her eyes narrow, and he is sure she understands the bitch has become his newest torturer.
“Mali, dear, long time no see.” Grim positions himself between her and them. “Last I heard, you were a shriveled-up harlot living in a backwater part of Timber.”
She bristles slightly as nasty recognition flares behind her mismatched eyes. “You seek to demonize me and my ability, yet I have punished many who deserved a terrible fate!”
“Horseshit! You used your sister’s death as an excuse to torturepeople. Look at you now!” Grim snarls. “Evie would be ashamed of you.”
