“No.” My voice didn’t tremble in my defiance. It was strong, stronger than ever before in denying King Terym. I wouldn’t play his games anymore. He had taken so much from me. My parents. My sister.
No more.
I was ready to make my wish. One for myself.
The king must have seen the clear resolve on my face because a small smirk pulled at the corner of his lips and I hesitated.
He should be angry. Livid. Notsmiling.
“So stubborn. There really is only one way to motivate you, isn’t there, my dear Adelia?” He raised his voice on the next words, and they echoed around us and slithered into my soul. “Why don’t you join us, Harkin?”
No.
He was lying. He had to be.
I spun toward the approaching footsteps. My heart stuttered in my chest, cool fear filling my veins. Harkin appeared in the doorway, dragging a struggling Eleanor who was supporting a nearly unconscious Wista.
Fire raged through me when I took in their combined state. Eleanor was livid, her eyes burning a hole into Harkin’s head. She couldn’t speak, a dirty rag filled her mouth and was tied around her messy curls, straining against her bruised face.He’dhit her.Her hands were bound at her waist, her dress dirty and creased, though not covered in blood. She supported Wista’s weight, but her back must still be in pain with the way she held it.
Wista …
My friend had been tortured far more than my sister, her face was swollen into a variety of colors. Her clothes torn and bloody in some places. The way she sagged against Eleanor’s side told me she would collapse to the ground if not for her. It seemed only that kept my sister from attacking the young lord.
Harkin was a different man. Gone were his carefree smiles and exaggerated winks, in their place was a deep scowl and malevolent eyes. A small cut split his lip, and there was a light array of bruises dusting his jaw. Pride flickered in my chest. I was sure it had been Eleanor who inflicted those injuries.
That small flickering soured into regret.
I should have told her. Everything would be different if she knew the truth.
Hazel eyes darted around the room, widening when they locked onto me. She stepped forward, pulling Wista with her before Harkin gripped her. He pushed my friend to the ground, who fell with a muffled cry.
Eleanor released a screech of fury and attacked him, but it was clear she was weak, her attempted hit on him sluggish, and he quickly subdued her before pushing her to splay on the floor at Terym’s feet.
“Feisty little thing. If you don’t kill her, I’ll take great pleasure in breaking her in.” Those green eyes filled with the darkest kind of evil, something he hid so effectively I had fallen headfirst into his trap. All of us had.
Terym’s menacing chuckle drew my attention. “I knew from the moment we met, you were the one who would release the magic. All those other useless girls met every condition, bar one.They hadn’t seen death.” He paused, baring his teeth while I stood frozen in horror.
“No matter how many we killed in front of them, none of the girls could open the door. Bleeding on the stone sent them into madness.” Shade’s chest brushed my back as Terym set gleaming blue eyes on me. “Not you though. I knew I would need to keep a close eye on you and Harkin graciously volunteered.”
It was all a ruse. Inserting himself into Eleanor’s life as a way into our inner circle to gain our confidence. Our trust. They played us from the very beginning, and I stupidly trusted him. I’d begged him to take Eleanor and Wista.
He’d hurt them because of my mistake.
I’d failed, yet again.
“Not that it was a hardship, especially once she invited me into her bed.” Harkin sneered and I saw red. Fire consumed my entire being and I exploded, but before I could move, Pierce barreled forward.
He took the young lord to the ground, snarling in his face, “You. Son. Of. A. Bitch.” Each word was accompanied by a vicious strike, his body vibrating.
Everyone seemed to be in just as much shock as me, then Gensen jumped into action, ordering his men, and together, they pulled a thrashing Pierce from Harkin’s limp body. The small rise and fall of his chest indicated he was still breathing, but he was clearly unconscious, his bloody face unrecognizable. No one moved to check on him.
At my feet, Shade’s smoke was subtly inching outward, so slowly no one else noticed. They were too distracted by Pierce, who struggled against the men holding him down. His eyes were locked on Eleanor, and what I saw there was both unbelievable and unmistakable.
Terym tsked. “Pierce, Pierce. So much hope I had for you.” He nodded at Gensen, who slammed a fist into Pierce’s face, knocking him out cold.
Then those icy-blue eyes landed on me again. “You know what I want, Adelia.”
Eleanor pushed herself upright, hazel eyes filled with determination when she shook her head at me. The same way she had just before Lenek had taken the whip to her back a second time. Icy tendrils of fear wrapped me in a chokehold. I couldn’t do it again; I couldn’t witness her hurt or worse.
