He flashes me a smile. “Anytime. I will see you in the morning for our last rehearsal before the guard ball.” He leaves me at the back door to the kitchen.
Darkness sits heavy in the kitchen, and the air hangs thick with a sickly menacing vibration. So different compared to the usual warmth that encompasses the room. A stagnant scent of sweat and cologne lingers in the air.
Someone, not a member of my family, has been in this room. A prickly, crawly sensation ghosts up my spine and raises the tiny hairs at the back of my neck. My breath quickens. Breathe, just breathe. Back up. Get out of the room.And find Charlie, I tell myself.
A nearby shuffling sound cuts through the ominous atmosphere. Warning bells in my head start to scream. My body tenses, ready to move. Someone is in here!
I spin around to run for the kitchen door when a hand clamps over my mouth and nose. A large body presses against my back. Hot, moist breath brushes against the outer shell of my ear. Ijerk and squirm to escape his hold. An arm wraps around my body, pinning my arms down at my sides, giving me little room to attack or break free.
“Not one sound. Don’t move one muscle. If you escape, I will kill your parents sleeping in the master bedroom on the second floor,” he whispers in my ear.
I still my body and squeeze my eyes shut.
I need to get him out of the house and away from my family.
He nuzzles his nose against my hair and takes a deep breath. “I love the way you smell, so sweet. Do you taste as sweet as you smell?” His voice is low, laced with lust. He licks the side of my face and presses his lower body into my back.
I can feel how excited he is. It makes me want to throw up.
Then he bites my jaw, hard. Sharp pain explodes up to my temple and down my neck. I screech in response to the pain. His arm around me tightens.
“I told you to be a good girl.” The hand covering my mouth presses harder against my face. It's getting harder to breathe. His fingernails bite into my cheek.
I can’t breathe. I need air! My head starts to feel woozy. I slam my heel against his shin.
He doesn’t move. It’s like kicking a wall. The room starts to close in on me; my body goes slack before nothingness shuts down my mind.
The sound of fabric tearing brings me back to consciousness. I chance a quick look around. I’m no longer in the kitchen. The scents of damp earth, blooming alfalfa, and cow manure infiltrate my nose. This monster brought me to the pasture not far from the mansion.
I glance up to look my attacker in the eyes. His face fills my vision, and my eyes widen in surprise. Marcus Greystone’s cousin Boris Niles’s face looms directly over mine. Marcusblamed me for getting him kicked out of the program; now he’s probably here to extract revenge.
My hands ball into fists at my side. Pure rage fills every particle of my being. The crackle of my power surrounds me, filling me from within.
He lifts his upper body, pulls his fisted arm back, and delivers a blow to my face. Pain explodes along my cheek.
“Wake the fuck up!” he yells, teeth bare, upper lip curled in a sneer. “I want you present when I bury my dick deep inside of you. I want to feel you fight against me and hear you scream for mercy as I rob you of your innocence.”
I grasp his wrist with both hands. His horrible, filthy thoughts fill my head with what he plans to do to me. He wants to keep me alive just so he can toy with me and come back for more, over and over until he tires of me. Only when he loses the pleasure and peace that torturing me gives him.
Then, he will kill me, slowly, cutting me apart from limb to limb while I’m still alive, still breathing. He plans to leave my head for last so he can stare into my eyes and watch the life bleed out from behind them. Just before I push his disgusting thoughts out of my head, I catch it—a secret—hidden behind the corrupted, sick chaos of his mind. I glimpse secrets of the Resistance.
I gasp in surprise at everything flashing through my mind. This has never happened to me before. It was always my thoughts, my memories, in everyoneelse’smind. My grip slightly slackens. He tears his hand back.
A powerful force whips my head to the side. A burst of light pierces my eyes. Blood pools down my throat. He yanks my head back and forces his mouth over mine, pushing his disgusting tongue into my mouth. My anger grows with every touch, every invasion of my mouth. White-hot light burns behind my eyelids.
A forceful gust of air bursts forward, pushing him back.
He takes me with him. “You disgusting magic wielder!”
I raise my knee, catching him in the groin. His grip on my head releases, and I scramble off him, putting weight on my knee, crushing his balls. He howls in pain. I cock my arm back, hitting him, not giving him a chance to attack me again.
Pushing up to my feet, I run in the opposite direction of my home. Going back isn’t an option; leading that bastard there would endanger my family. Panic forces my legs to move faster. The homes of the dairy hands are not far from here. I need to find Marty, one of the guards. He’ll know what to do.
A heavy weight slams into me from behind, forcing me to the ground. He yanks on my hair, pulling my upper body up into the air, while his lower half sits on my legs to hold me down.
“Did you honestly think you could outrun me? I’m going to enjoy fucking you and then killing you. Ridding this world of one more filthy magic wielder.”
I lift my hand and fill the sky with lightning.
