Chapter 31
Rory
No amount of words can describe the feeling of being dragged through the woods by your hair. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. I try to squirm to get free of my captor’s grip, but it’s no use. He only tugs me harder, which brings more pain.
Behind us is a group of masked cult members who follow us in silence. They watch as I curse and scream to be let go, while wide smiles take over their faces.
When they barged into my home earlier, I asked them what I was being taken for. All they said was crimes against the district.
What damn crimes have I committed aside from murdering their members?
We make it to an opening in the woods, and the smell of a recently lit fire fills my nose. I try to turn my head to see where we’re going, but I can’t move very far in the man's grip. Suddenly, they release and shove me to the ground.
“Stay, dog,” says the man who dragged me through the woods.
I scoff. “I’m not a fucking dog. I don’t follow my master blindly and hope for the best. Like you.”
This earns me a kick to the ribs, and I double over in agony.That was a poor choice on my part.
I groan and lie on my back in pain. “There was no need to kick me. I know who has the upper hand here.” I watch as the man halts his step and glares at me. Then he scoffs and walks toward the fire where the others stand.
I know running my mouth isn’t wise, but I won’t go willingly and in silence. I refuse to be known as the woman who cried and begged for these big, bad men not to hurt her. If I could just get a leg up here, I’d gladly beat all of their asses. I might die trying, but at least I’d go out fucking fighting.
I try to roll and get on my knees to see what’s going on, but the second I move on my hands, a kick slams into my side by a new member of the cult. I groan and decide to lie on my side for now.Yeah, my plan; it has nothing to do with the possible broken ribs I have.
Murmurs sound around me as the members talk amongst themselves, and after a while, a few of them swarm me and lift me off the ground.
“Let me go!” I pull at my limbs attempting to get them to release me, but it’s no use. They only release me when they throw me into the circle of death, as I like to call it, and everyone steps back.
Two men step forward, binding my legs and arms to the cross I’m lying on, and then they tie my waist so I can’t move.
It doesn’t stop me from trying, though. I tug at the binds on my wrist and groan when they bite into my skin.
People start chanting in a different language around me, and the fire seems like it’s burning brighter at the top of my head. I tilt my chin upward to get a better view of the person standing there. That’s when I see him.
Ryven comes rushing out of the woods with an axe in his hand and attacks the first person he gets close to. Blood splatters from the man’s head as his body falls to the ground. Gasps erupt amongst the crowd as the rest of the members realize something is happening, and the man above my head turns to see.
I hear him exhale before turning back around to finish his chant.
“Do you not care about what’s happening to your members right now?” I chide.
He ignores my words and tosses some liquid on my body. I don’t think anything of it until a deep itch stretches over the skin on my stomach, like I’m being burned.
Frantically, I look at my belly.
My shirt is melting—fibers disintegrating, curling back, fusing to my skin as blistering pain blooms across my chest. I scream and attempt to claw at the fabric, but it’s too late and useless. My hands are tied. The damage is done.
“What did you fucking throw on me?” I cry out, voice cracking and raw.
My lungs seize with the rising stench of burnt cotton and flesh.
This isn’t just to hurt me. It’s to mark me. To break me. To make me beg in front of everyone.
And it’s working.
The man still ignores my words. It feels like the liquid is eating away at my soul. I squirm and scream in agony as it scalds my body.
Ryven takes out three more men in this time frame and is currently choking one to death a few feet from me. He’s not fighting clean. He’s reckless. Taking every chance he can find to get to me and my heart studders in my chest.
