Page 163 of Plug and Drain

Henrikk goads Susie, pointing out that Arken is standing by doing nothing to help her, and then he goads her further by asking her to beg for Arken's help. Feeling helpless and abandoned, she remains silent.

Immediately after the assault, Nathaniel enters and looks concerned, crouching down and reaching for her. Susis reacts fearfully, terrified of Nathaniel and of his likeness to his father. Nathaniel urges her to talk to Arken, to ask him a question, but she doesn't understand the request.

Susie is crying and in pain, her vision hazy, and she is dimly aware of Arken and Nathaniel fighting. She feels the urgent need to be alone, to find some place safe to hide. She flees the room, questioning whether she will ever be able to recover from Henrikk's brutality, and from Arken's apparent betrayal.

As she nears the door, she registers blinding pain from her injured tail and collapses. Arken appears in her vision. She accuses him of not helping her. He doesn't respond. She continues, slurring as she struggles to remain conscious, "You abandoned me...You left me to him. Why?"

She blacks out before he can answer. At no points does she understand his silence and inaction.

The remaining chapters are, for the most part, less dark, and explore themes of healing, forgiveness, and romance.

Chapter 38

A Strange Bed

Susie

Susie woke to the sound of men talking, their voices a low murmur. She could not make out the words though.

There was something soft beneath her. A bed, and a pillow. A warm cover. So warm. And soft. Like her entire body was suspended in eternal bliss, floating on a cloud.

A daze. But no more ebbing or flowing.

She tried to open her eyes, but the weight of sleep made them heavy, and several minutes passed before she finally managed it.

Her vision was framed by the dark wood of a four-poster bed. A translucent sheer made up the canopy, and she stared through it at a ceiling with elegant cornices. The room was dark, but she could hear the subdued crackling of flames, presumably from a fireplace. The firelight highlighted the ebony posts with a golden glow and threw shadows across the ceiling’s creamy textured paint.

She stared blearily, unable to summon the energy to move her neck even a fraction to take in the rest of the room. The sound of the fire was reassuring, and the thick warmth of the bed gave her an overwhelming sense of comfort. Drowsy. She would have been quite content to stay here, forever.

The brief glimpse of luxury made her instantly sure that she’d never been in this room before. Was she in the academy?

The temperature was warm, like honey.

Susie drifted. She had no concept of time, or whether she slept or merely shut her eyes for a moment.

She became conscious of the males speaking again, louder this time.

“Give her to me,” said one with a sardonic drawl.

“Her name is Susanna,” replied the other, the voice calm and even deeper than the first. Her heart fluttered as she recognised Arken’s soothing timbre.

“No one calls her that.”

“Well, I do,” Arken said. “That’s the name she prefers.”

“With you, perhaps.”

Arken didn’t reply, and there was a tense pause before the other spoke.

“I shouldn’t have said that. Sorry.” He sounded like Nathaniel, but she couldn’t imagine the prince ever apologising to anyone. There was a sigh, followed by the distinctive sound of a book shutting. “The fact still remains: she will be safer with me.”

“With a sadist like you?” Arken scoffed. “I think not. She is safe here. I’ve taken precautions.”

“I can see that,” Nathaniel said with a snideness that made her positive it was him. “You made quite a mess of your office. I can only wonder why it took you so many years to break the damn thing. I hope you didn’t get splinters.”

“This conversation is giving me splinters.”

A tiny smile tugged at Susie’s lips. Arken actually sounded irritated.