by L. E. Bross
Something stirred inside me. Memories tried to find their way out, but ran into an insurmountable roadblock. Kerrigan. The name felt so familiar in my mind, but I couldn't put it with a face. She was my mother? I had a million questions, but the maniacal light in Katrina’s eyes burned brighter.
“I got my revenge. I took away everything that mattered, made sure she would be alone for the rest of her life. Completely and utterly alone like she left me all those years.”
I froze, her words sinking into the very depths of me.
All the air seemed to leave the room and sound existed in a vacuum. My stomach twisted. I didn't remember these people she spoke of, but they were my family. My parents.
“What did you do?”
“I simply removed the things that mattered most to her,” she said offhandedly. “I killed your father…and chased you away.”
Unexpected rage exploded in my chest, and I thought I would burst apart. My skin felt on fire, like a million tiny jolts of electricity shocked me all over. The bonds holding my hands dissolved at the same moment my wings burst free from their constraints. Katrina's eyes widened in shock, but then filled with pure malice.
Her deviant smile told me we were done talking.
Maybe this was what she hoped would happen all along. I growled and lunged for her, but she darted away too fast. The shadows along the walls hissed and writhed with excitement as the beast roared. More joined him, seemingly out of nowhere, and air lodged in my lungs. There were too many to fight. My only chance lie in escape.
They moved at once, and I raced around the room looking for a way out. There was nothing, no doors or windows. How the hell had we gotten in? Backed into a corner I turned and faced my attackers, a mob of disgusting disfigured creatures that advanced with feral glee. Saliva dripped off their teeth, and they pushed each other out of the way. Their collective breath was worse than any full dumpster I had ever come across.
“Do not kill her. That will be reserved for my own pleasure,” Katrina said and disappointment twisted the monsters' faces. “I want to her her beg and scream.”
“You will do no such thing, Katrina.” The deep voice growled from within the shadows.
Katrina's face lost all color, and her hand slid up to her own neck.
“Nephaste,” she whimpered.
The elf stepped out from behind her, breathtakingly beautiful, and just as I remembered. His gaze trapped mine and the familiar wave of want rushed through me. I fought against it, tried to steel myself to his power and slowly, my control returned.
Nephaste lifted an eyebrow and smirked. “Well done. I see you’ve learned a few things.”
The burst of pride almost swept me away before I realized it was him again.
The creatures that were closest slunk away, cowering in the opposite corner, fighting to avoid being the one in front. Just who was Nephaste anyway? I knew he was a Dark Elf, like Torin, but there was an underlying cruelty that Torin didn’t have. And if Katrina quaked in his presence…
“So predictable, Katrina,” he all but purred, stepping close enough to her to tug at a strand of her golden hair.
Katrina whimpered, but didn’t move. Nephaste wound the strand around his fingers and gave a sharp tug, yanking Katrina’s face forward until they were nose to nose. Tears streamed down her face as incoherent noises bubbled in her throat.
“Please,” she whispered.
“You might have succeeded if your own greed didn’t make you sloppy. That was quite a mess you left in New York, my dear.”
My stomach rolled. I had to find a way to get the bodies taken care of.
“No,” Katrina whined. “I…”
She then seemed to think better of talking and simply snapped her mouth shut, though her lips were trembling.
Nephaste took her face between his hands. “No deed goes unpunished, Kat.”
“No, Nephaste please…”
He leaned in and exhaled. A wispy breath left his mouth and slithered towards hers. She struggled in his grasp, twisting and clawing at his hand. When she tried to close her mouth his fingers dug deeper into her cheeks, making her cry out. The mist slipped between her lips and disappeared.
“Now, what did you have planned for your sweet niece?” His voice turned soothing, like he was coaxing nightmares from a small child.
“I was going to kill her.” Even as the words left her mouth, her eyes widened with absolute terror. “But not quickly. First I would have tied her to that pole and stripped her of all her clothes. Then I would have lashed at her skin until the floor was red with her blood.”
As she spoke her eyes grew rounder and her face even paler, but she continued as though she had no control over her own words.
“If she was still aware, I would cut off her wings, slowly, and throw them at her feet. While she screamed, I would have reached down inside her and ripped out her heart. I would have listened to the very last beat of life fade and then given her to them.”
The room swam at her vivid description, and I swallowed back against the bile rising in my throat. She was going to do that to me? I knew it would have been terrible, but that was even more horrific than I could have guessed. She would have made me scream and so much more.
“Such rage, Love,” he said and stroked her jaw with his fingers. She tilted into his hand while whimpers for mercy fell from her lips. “Very unfitting for a future Queen, don't you think?”
“Please,” she begged him. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean…”
He silenced her with a finger against her lips then took her hand. Her eyes went wild, and she struggled against his hold but he was stronger. Dragging her to the pole in the center of the room, he commanded the shadows to bind her there. They weren’t only Katrina’s to control after all.
The darkness slithered along the ground and wound up her body, writhing in anticipation. They wrapped around her wings, pinning them against her side, leaving her back exposed. With one quick tug her delicate skirt fell at her feet.
Naked in the middle of the room, her gaze turned feral and her lips peeled back from her teeth. She snarled at me like an animal. Nephaste flicked his wrist and a whip appeared.
When the first lash fell, she howled in pain, then pleaded for mercy.
I shook my head in horror when he offered the whip to me.
Undeterred, he turned back and sent the leather strip whistling through the air over and over again. Katrina’s cries turned to screams, her screams to howls of agony, as the lash opened long gashes on her perfect skin. All too soon the backs of her legs were coated red and the floor was slick with blood.
Bile burned the back of my throat.
Katrina leaned her forehead against the pole, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Then I saw the glint of the knife that Nephaste pulled from his boot. The monsters came to life again, drooling all over the ground in anticipation of what was to come.
This couldn't be happening, not right in front of me. He couldn't possibly be that brutal. I'd seen violence before, but nothing compared to the absolute lack of feeling in his face. I pressed my hand to my mouth.
With no more than a glance in my direction, he snapped his fingers and the shadows released her wings. They fell limp against her mangled back. He lifted and held them together, then sawed through the tendons holding them in place. She came alive again, her frantic wails echoing in the room.
I clapped my hands over my ears.
“Stop!” I screamed at him. “Please, stop!”
He did, but only for a moment.
“Princess, she would have done the same to you and enjoyed it,” Nephaste said. “This is a just punishment.”
Tears streamed down my face. I looked at her, at the once wavy hair plastered against her back, tangled in the stub of gore where her wings had been. Her skin was mottled and discolored by the rivers of red running to the floor.
“Please stop,” I whimpered.
I couldn't watch her die like this. There was only one th
ing left for Nephaste to do, and I couldn't let him rip her heart out from her throat. No one, not even Katrina deserved that.
He stared at me then took a step back and nodded.
“As you wish.”
I met Katrina's eyes and instead of relief saw only stark terror. Nephaste wiped his bloodied hand on his pants and took my hand, leading me to a door that had appeared on the wall. I went out without question, desperate for fresh air to clear my lungs.
Anything to get away from this place. From the smell of the monsters' rotten breath. The iron-tinged scent of blood saturating the air until I couldn't take one more breath. I started to ask what he would do with her when he glanced over his shoulder and nodded his head. The monsters howled with glee and swarmed at Katrina. Her tormented scream filled the air before it abruptly stopped.
Now the only sound in the room was of flesh being torn from bone.
I gagged and fell to my knees and retched. Nephaste stood over me and when my stomach had nothing more to expel, he offered his hand. Blood caked under his nails, and I dry heaved. When I was done, I stood on my own, ignoring his attempt at gallantry.
The small civility couldn’t hide how barbaric he was.
“Why,” I sobbed.
“Because she needed to be punished for breaking the rules,” he said evenly. Like he had not just mutilated a woman mere minutes ago. The tent had grown eerily quiet, and I refused to look at it again.
“You did the same thing she was going to,” I ground out. “You’re just like her. You’re disgusting.”
His smile deepened, and he reached out to trace my jaw with his finger.
I jerked back out of his reach.
“We are different. She wanted to kill you. I very much want you alive, by my side in truth.”
He reached again but this time, as I pulled back, he grabbed my face to stop me. The blackness of his eyes glittered dangerously. Fingers dug into my cheeks, holding me immobile.
“Kat knew how valuable you are to me. And all of this could have been avoided if the damned prince hadn’t hidden you again, so part of the blame is on you, Princess. If you hadn’t’ve run…”
Was he really saying I played a part in Katrina’s torture? I started to argue when he leaned closer and blew into my mouth. The same wispy mist curled out, and I felt the iciness of its touch against my tongue.
No matter how hard I fought to force it out, it seeped down my throat like liquid frost.
Then exhaustion hit, and my legs buckled. Nephaste lifted me.My head rested against his shoulder. My traitorous mind relaxed and the tension eased out with each step he took. My eyelids felt so heavy that I didn't fight when they closed. I’d gone from the lion's den to the mouth of the very beast of hell, and somehow couldn't manage to care as I drifted off into blackness.
Chapter 12
I floated on a cloud.
When I rolled onto my stomach, my face pressed into the fluffiest softness I’d ever felt in my life. And it smelled so good. A deep inhale filled my lungs with the hint of lemon and sunshine, and I smiled to myself. I flopped onto my back and stared at the ceiling where strange painted animals frolicked around in a large circle.
When I blinked, they suddenly sprang to life, dancing around the edge of the sunken ring gleefully.
It took enormous effort to tear my gaze away and look around the room. Luxury seemed like such a plain word for what I was surrounded by. In my wildest dreams, I could never imagine a place like this existed. My bed was enormous, opulent enough for a Queen. Massive carved wooden posts rose from each corner, and filmy materials draped from post to post, crisscrossing to create a canopy of colors.
A huge rug covered most of the floor, bursting with colors I didn't even have names for. Almost gaudy in their brightness, colors that should have clashed mixed and matched and somehow worked together.
I wished it were a dream, but it was my reality. I’d woken as Nephaste laid me in the bed, the room dark around me, but when I opened my mouth to question him, he’d breathed that cold mist into my mouth and once again I slept.
Now, sunlight streamed in from floor length windows and bathed the entire room in bright, welcoming light. Everything was perfect. Too perfect. In truth it was all just a luxurious, gilded cage. I sank back against the pillow and closed my eyes. This might very well be where I did die.
“Is everything acceptable, Princess?”
It didn't surprise me to see Nephaste leaning against the door jamb. I had sensed him the second before he appeared, as if an electrical wire stretched between the two of us. I did not want any kind of connection to that monster.
“Where am I?” I glared at him over the top of the covers.
“My home,” he said with a sweeping wave of his hand. “Do you like it?”
“No, it looks like a pay by the hour motel room.”
I tried not to let him see how very much I enjoyed lying in a bed with real, clean sheets and a soft pillow. By the smirk on his face, he knew.
“I thought you might be hungry. You've been sleeping almost two days.”
“No thanks to you.”
He ignored my outburst and stepped aside. A small man ambled in, carrying an enormous tray. Chains rattled with each step, and I saw his ankles had been manacled together. I glanced with uncertainty as he set down the gleaming silver platter covered with an equally polished dome.
Without a word, without even meeting my gaze, the tiny man bowed and backed out of the room. The tinkling chorus following behind. I didn't miss the nervous glance he slid upward as he passed by Nephaste.
“I didn't know what you liked so I had a little of everything sent up,” Nephaste said, walking into the room.
He sprawled in a chair in the other side of the table and lifted the lid. Steam rose from piles of pancakes and eggs and bacon. Fresh fruit was cut into intricate shapes and designs and piled high next to a mountain of tiny muffins and toast.
A clear pitcher of orange juice sat in the middle of the tray, and Nephaste lifted it and poured some into a miniature wine glass. When he handed it to me, I shook my head.
“Come now, you must be famished. Eat something. It will make your mind clear.”
“Why am I here?” I said stubbornly, ignoring the way my stomach tried to climb out my throat to get to the food.
There was no way I was accepting anything from Nepashte. I've been hungry before so this was nothing new. With so much delicious smelling food right in front of me though, it was a test of sheer willpower I’d never faced.
He sighed and set the glass down, then reached and plucked a strawberry carved like a rose. It disappeared between his lips, and his eyes closed in appreciation. I closed my own lips before he saw what I’d done.
“Sure you don't want anything? I had them made extra-sweet just for you.”
I wanted to grab everything on the tray and shove it into my mouth, but I didn’t. After what he did to me, I didn't trust him as far as I could throw him. I slid my hand under the covers to find the knife I had strapped to my thigh, but it wasn't there.
In fact, there was nothing under the covers but me.
I was completely naked. Heat blazed up and over my face when I lifted the covers and quickly verified I had nothing on. It flamed even hotter when I realized Nephaste must have undressed me.
“Where are my clothes?” I ground out.
Insecurity crawled all over my skin and I tugged the comforter higher. I was not used to this body with its unblemished skin and perfect symmetry. So much like Katrina's. Or like hers had been. My throat burned when the image of her bloodied and beaten body filled my mind.
I grabbed the glass of juice and swallowed without thought before I made a mess all over the pristine sheets. I felt sick and tired and the flicker of fight died quickly.
“Take me home, please,” I whispered.
Nephaste ignored my plea and walked to a large piece of furniture. The door swung open to reveal hundreds of brightly colored clothes hanging nea
tly from a silver rod. I preferred black. There was no way in hell I’d ever wear anything in that closet.
He held up the most minuscule excuse for clothing I’d ever seen.
“I'm not a whore.”
“These clothes are made from the very finest of silk, fitting only for a Princess. You will wear them. I have much to show you today. And if you do not, then...I will dress you myself. Which I would not mind at all.”
His eyes traveled down the blanket and I gripped it tighter to my neck. He tossed the chosen outfit on the bed then turned and left the room. The click of a lock sliding into place sounded like a canon.
I sank back down into the comfort of the bed and covered my eyes. What the hell was I going to do now? I went from being a prisoner of a crazy woman to the “guest” of a Dark Elf…who expected me to put on that.
The urge to tear the garment to shreds made my hands shake.
Ever since Kalian had taken me to Evelina's, my world was not my own. I was a puppet on strings, being manipulated by whoever held them at the moment.
Clothes, food, my home, freedom, everything had been taken from me.
Was it even worth the effort to fight it? With single-minded intent I stuffed a pancake into my mouth, almost swallowing it whole. The buttery sponge melted on my tongue. Several miniature muffins followed before I grabbed the pitcher of juice and drank, sloshing bright liquid onto the pristine white sheets.
I waited, hoping that food really was tainted and it would kill me right here and now.
Of course it did nothing but fill my stomach.
Nephaste had not said when he’d be back but with time ticking away, I climbed out of bed and wrapped the sheet around myself. I sank into the soft rug as I walked to the armoire. The filmy material of each 'outfit' slipped through my fingers and I cursed Nephaste with every vulgar word I could think of. Then I made up a few of my own.