Soon, I would be torn apart.
Then sensations started to come back again.
One eye opened, the other only barely. Two blades stuck in my legs, one near each knee. The left knee worked; the right one wouldn’t budge. She'd hit something important.
The old pool of crimson beneath me had dried to an almost rusty brown. Drop by drop, fresh blood landed on top.
A purple-haired girl walked into my cell and ran a wet rag across my face. I caught the stray drops with my tongue before she let me drink from a bottle.
‘It’ll be easier if you reveal whatever she wants to know,’ she said, pleading. ‘She will at least kill you quickly then.’
‘I don’t want to die,’ I groaned between the greedy gulps.
The girl looked young, a teenager, maybe. She didn’t appear evil as she continued wiping my damaged skin. ‘There are fates worse than death here; you don’t want her angry with you. Whatever you did, just tell her.’
What did I even do?
The effort it took not to allow myself to collapse against the ropes was too much, but whenever I did, they dug into my limbs, causing agony. And as time passed, it was difficult to imagine my body feeling normal again.
I wasn’t leaving this place. The blade-happy woman would murder me. I reached into the deepest reserves of power within me, the part of magic I had only ever glimpsed when the Isles allowed our connection.
They showed me so much about myself and the realm.
Then sobs raked through my chest. There was nothing there. Nothing left.
They were blood witches.
I was as good as dead.
Chapter Forty-Five
Avari
A shiver ran down my spine the moment I heard the door unlock. They had come back to finish me off.
Instinctively, I reached for the fire I knew was gone. I was a lamb bound for slaughter, utterly and irrevocably defenceless.
I would die.
My body was failing me more than it ever had. My limbs no longer ached; they lay cold and lifeless. A sob escaped me when I realised I wouldn’t even be laid to rest. The deviant woman would probably leave me to rot somewhere for her clan to admire.
Something in her eyes told me she had worse plans still. There was a satisfaction there that deepened every time I grew weaker.
Her minion stepped behind me and forced my head up as she regarded me with a condescending smile.
‘I was expecting more from you. But then again, you’re your mother’s daughter,’ she said, and they laughed. ‘You almost made it too easy. No fun. I hate you even more for that.’
She stepped away, and I couldn’t bear to keep her in my line of sight. I knew what was about to happen. I tried to make peace with it over the past few days. That didn’t mean it hurt any less.
The pain I had endured was nothing compared to the realisation that I would never get to explore what my life could have been. I had never truly lived. I had missed out on so much.
Anya wouldn’t stop until she avenged me. Her whole life would turn into a relentless hunt for truth and revenge. My beast’s loyalty wouldn’t let her rest until she drove herself mad. My weakness would destroy her chance at a normal life.
And River…
Tears welled in my eyes at the thought of him. He would blame himself. By now, I understood it wasn’t him who set up the meeting, but he would learn that a message from his number led me straight into this trap. Even though he had nothing to do with it, he would never forgive himself.
He had always seen me as his to protect. He would believe he had failed me.
