Ellisandre fell back under the blow, the breath punched out of them. They backhanded him across the jaw, the leather and steel restraints striking him as much as their closed fist. His head jerked back under the blow. Blood coated his tongue. He grabbed Ellisandre by the throat.
A sharp pain lanced into his shoulder.
Ellisandre’s back hit the floor. He loomed over them, pinning them in place. They twisted, grabbing his head, throwing both of them to the side and striking up with their knee into the soft space between his hip and his ribs.
He went down, the two of them locked together, their fist in his hair, his hand still on their throat, but they were leaning into him, his grip almost meaningless, his other arm trapped beneath his body. Their lips pressed into his. He kissed back, bringing his knees up to drive into their groin.
They smashed his head against the floor.
The world shimmered and rocked. His hand fell from Ellisandre’s throat. He couldn’t see. A soft, sick feeling rolled through him.
He whimpered, reaching for Ellisandre.
They moved away, not letting him touch. “It’s a sedative, Vast.”
He growled, wounded and betrayed. So that was what that pain had been, a needle. Drugged. His goddex had tricked him.
He blinked up at Ellisandre from the floor, sluggish, head aching. He touched his face, his fingers coming away streaked with blood.
Ellisandre gathered themselves, straightening their clothes and retrieving the cuffs. They approached slowly. Sevastyan dragged himself upright using the couch. He couldn’t stand. His body was too far away. His foot slid on the carpet, refusing to brace him. He fell sideways against the cushions, head against the armrest.
His god stood above him, wiping hair off their face, eyes dark and frightening. There was a streak of blood on their cheek.
“Kapusta,” he whispered. “Kapusta.” The sedative was dragging him down, taking him away. Fear clawed at his throat. Where would he wake? What would happen while he was gone?
“Kapusta.” Have mercy. He couldn’t leave Rei alone. He should speak now, while he could. If ever there was a cliff on which to break himself, it was now.
The creature above him knelt down and took his hand. They wrapped leather and steel around his flesh and bone. He tried to hide his other limb, but they found it, prying it away from between his bruised ribs and the couch and wrapped it as well. Steel bound his wrists to each other.
His body was heavy. He could barely make it move. There was nothing he could do as his legs were also bound. They dragged him from the floor and onto the couch, laying him out on his back, his head and shoulders lifted on pillows. They stretched his arms above his head and shortened the chain. He pulled his legs up by degrees, trying to throw himself to the floor. They blocked him, doing something that made his feet stay in place.
“Ellisandre, goddess, please. God, please.” He was begging. It didn’t seem like this creature could hear.
They knelt over him. His shirt was open. His bare belly fluttered beneath their fingernails dragging down his soft skin.
“Kapusta.” He needed his mind back. He needed to know up from down and left from right. What if he said something he shouldn’t? What if there was something else in the drugs besides a sedative? What if he revealed the secrets locked inside?
The light dimmed. A warm body leaned over him, bare skin against bare skin. He smelled his Ellisandre against his face. “Ellis.”
“Tell me why you can’t stay, Bal.”
“Promised.”
“Tell me who you promised.”
Sevastyan shook his head. One did not make promises to property. To admit he’d made a promise to Rei was to betray Rei.
“Stay with me, Bal. Vast, stay with me here.”
“Not here.” Sevastyan shivered. There was movement that made his head swim. Then there were bare legs against his waist. He forced his eyes to focus long enough to see Ellisandre sitting on his hips, naked except for a scrap of fabric between their legs and stretched low across their hips.
He hung there, awake and aware and still trapped in horror filling him up from the inside. His goddex reached out, cupping his face with their hand.
“I don’t want to break you.”
Perhaps breaking would stop the fear and the confusion. Perhaps if he were nothing and will-less, then he could lie on the floor and drift in oblivion. Perhaps he could rest.
For the first time.
