My whole body tenses, preparing for him to spew a cloud of vitriol. I turn my sights to the ring on my finger.Mi amor.?2
“I touched him first,” I say, my voice muchstronger than it feels, and look up. I refuse to let this memory be anything other than the damned miracle it is.
He moves the torch to the back corner. It lights those ugly, yellow eyes seconds before his body tenses. Then he reaches down, picks up the other untouched chair at the table, and throws it against the bars. The metal rattles upon impact before splinters scatter across the ground.
“Now where will you sit as you watch them torment me?” I say sardonically.
He snarls.
Closing my eyes again, I focus on the cage, feeling the icy cold from the metal seep through my skin and enter my bloodstream, grounding me. Then I return to the image of Teo’s fingers trailing down my scarred back, the sensation of the water surrounding us, and the memory of his lips on my neck.
“Estela,” Rholker shouts, trying to pry my attention away.
My mind feels like it’s being pulled in different directions, with the perfect images of our love-making clashing against the hatred and fury in Rholker’s eyes.
He can’t steal this from me.
Another crash against the cage has the bars shaking, zinging in my teeth.
“Why did you let him fucking touch you? You are mine. You never understand, you?—”
Something sharp scrapes across my face, and my eyes fly open at the exact moment the Fuegorra in my chest glows to life. The brightness from before returns, and this time, I realize that it is no mere glimmer, but a blaze that lights up the entire room. Brighter than the fire in the corner.
Rholker slinks back at the light, as if he weren’t responsible for the smashed wood littering the floor.
I stand, seething and indignant. The Fuegorra makes me feel like I am a million times more powerful than I am.
“That’s right. Cower. You are a weak, pathetic man. I told you that you would regret bringing me here,” I say, each slicing insult shooting off my tongue with expert precision.
Gone is the fearful woman from before. I can do this. I can go back to my love unbroken.
His face sags, almost as if he were about to cry.
“No, you little slut. You think you can threaten me? You couldn’t even save your brother.”
My fists tighten, as a malevolent smile spreads over his face.
“We whipped him when he came back. He was so sick he couldn’t move for months. Every time he was on the brink of death, we would call the healer and bring him back. All foryou.”
A pit forms in my stomach, and this itchy need to see Mikal returns with a vengeance. It feels like I could peel the flesh from my bones.
Rholker watches me, waiting for the moment when my resolve breaks. “When I first felt that power of yours, I thought you’d been turned into a witch. The truth is much worse, and it is you who will regret everything you’ve done in my absence. Slaves do not find new masters.” His face twists and morphs into something monstrous. “In the name of Khuohr, I’m going to kill everything you love. Slowly. Finger by finger. Limb by limb.”
He continues his rampage of words. “When the world is lying at embers at your feet—when the body of your troll is hung up in the streets to rot and the Enduar children’s bodies are scattered in pieces across their enormous tomb of a mountain—then I will bring Mikal to you so you can either watch his final breath or succumb. You will be so steeped in contrition that you will fall at my knees and beg me to take you.”
My heart hollows out with each bloody, sadistic promise. The poison drips off his tongue like acid and burns holes in my resolve.Mierda?3.
“When that gem is out of your chest, it will only be the beginning of your remorse,my little love.”
A part of me recoils at his new name. My love doesn’t belong to him. But a much larger part of me crumbles with each word, and he watches it all.
“The last time we saw each other, you were to be married. Did you kill her too?” I ask, my voice much quieter now.
Smiling like the ugly thief he is, he says, “We didn’t marry, but I have my uses for her.”
While I have never felt much sympathy for a giant, I fear for her. His words shatter my heart into countless pieces. He relishes in my pain, believing that he can break me.
He smiles, turns on his heel, and walks from the room.
