by Juniper King
That gave the bald finman pause. “Why must I accompany you? You know where Fiske is.”
“Yeah, but you’re the one dragging my ass over there, so you’re coming too.”
Raen dragged me up off the bed, and through the doorway that led to the torture room. He threw me backwards against the wall and pinned my arms above my head. Something closed around my wrists and when he let go, I was practically hanging from the wall, standing on my tiptoes.
“Let’s see how quickly you can get out of these. I won’t be long, then we’ll finish what we started.” My head hung between my arms, but I could feel his breath moving strands of my hair, could imagine the evil grin on his lips.
I heard his feet retreating from the room, and lifted my head at the sound of terrible, squealing hinges. Raen swung an iron gate over the door, one that I hadn’t noticed when I’d escaped the first time, and it closed with a deafening clank.
I let my head fall again. A game. It had all been a game to him. He’d left the door open to see what I would do. He’d wanted me to escape so he could track me down and torment me.
Tears slid down my nose, stinging the deep cut.
I let my heels fall flat to the floor and the shackles around my wrists bit into the base of my hands.
The only thing that could be considered lucky in this situation was the fact that there was fresh blood on my hands from when Raen had violently pinned them to the bed. I wiggled and pulled, and managed to slip them free from their restraints.
I walked over to the door and wrapped my fingers around the bars. I couldn’t see the knife from where I was, and I didn’t have the strength left to try and pick the lock of the door. Even if I did get out what was to stop him from finding me like last the time I’d escaped.
There was nowhere to run down here, nowhere to hide. Raen would find me wherever I went.
I had only one option.
18
I could hear footsteps approaching, the soft, unhurried slapping of bare feet against stone.
The chain wrapped around my hands bit into my skin and I gripped the links even tighter to avoid any clinking that might give me away.
My body trembled and a slight light headedness crept up on me. The more time I had to think about what I was planning, the more agitation I felt.
But it was either kill him here and now, or he would surely kill me after days, possibly weeks of mental and physical torture.
The footsteps halted on the other side of the bars. I pressed my back even harder into the wall beside the door. “Where are you hiding, pet?” Raen murmured. My beating heart hammered through my skull, almost fully overshadowing the sound of his voice.
The lock clicked and the barred door screeched slowly open.
I held the breath in my chest.
The instant his foot breached the threshold I let loose the tiniest burst of magic across the room. The discarded pile of chains clinked and clattered, drawing Raen’s attention to the opposite corner of the room. As he turned to face the origin of the sound, I struck from behind, wrapping my magic around his ankle and pulling hard enough for the telekinetic recoil to hit me like a brick.
His leg was wrenched out from under him, and he landed face first on the stone ground with a crack and a yelp, blood gushing from his mouth as he tried to lift himself up. He thrashed against my magic, kicking and pulling his leg, but he underestimated my determination. I held on to him as tightly as my magic would allow, ignoring the splitting headache and blood gushing from my nose. I couldn’t let him get up now, not having lost the element of surprise, my one advantage against him.
I leapt onto his back, narrowly avoiding being struck by a flailing elbow. With the help of my magic, I looped the length of chain in my hands around his neck. The chain bit painfully into my hands as I reared back and pulled, using as much of my own weight as I could. Raen struggled underneath me as I straddled his back, his fingers digging and clawing at the chain around his neck, horrible choking and gasping sounds sputtering from him all the while.
A gurgle sounded from one of the pools in front of us as a jet of water surged out and streaked towards my face. I looked up just in time for it to plunge into my open mouth and straight down my throat—straight into my lungs. I let go of the chains, reflexively clutching at my throat. As the chain went slack, Raen threw me off his back. I flopped on the ground and barely managed to hack up a lungful of seawater before he reversed our positions, climbing on top of me and straddling my hips, pinning my arms to the ground. The chain, still wrapped around my right hand, cut into my wrists as he held me down.
He looked manic, eyes bulging, mouth covered in blood, several teeth missing or broken.
He was smiling.
“Are we finished? As entertaining as this was, I’d much prefer to finish what we had started in the bedroom.”
No. Not this time.
Grounding my feet, I bucked my hips as hard as I could, setting him off balance and allowing me to pull an arm out from under his fingers. I brought my fist around as hard as I could and caught him in the jaw. The metal chains tore at my knuckles, my already broken hand screaming in agony.
He growled and reared back, a dark red line marring his face as blood dripped off his chin. Before I could even make some distance between us, he bared his teeth and lunged at me. My shoulders collided with the floor, spine scraping against the stone.
“I only have so much patience, Red, and your little antics are beginning to wear thin. That bite I gave you before, that was just a little love bite. I can’t wait to hear your bloody scream as I rip out your throat.”
His lips retracted, exposing his teeth in full like a shark ready to devour its prey. He lunged right for my neck.
I brought my forearm up just in time to catch his teeth. A shriek was ripped from my throat as his teeth shredded into my skin and muscle, blood pouring down my arm. His teeth scraped against bone, sending a rattling pain reverberating through my body. I steeled myself, forcing my arm further into his mouth so he couldn’t dislodge himself and get another go at my throat.
Then, with all of my resolve and no restraint left, I reared up and sank my teeth into his fin-like ear. My teeth easily permeated the scaly flesh. Cartilage cracked between my teeth and metallic blood seeped into my mouth.
He reared back, shrieking and clutching his hands to the side of his head.
I spit out a mouthful of blood and flesh, resisting the urge to fully gag.
His eyes locked with mine. “You miserable sow.” He wasn’t having fun anymore.
As he staggered, his foot slipped in the puddle of blood he’d spewed only moments ago. My eyes were drawn down and I saw a small lump in the blood. A tooth.
Raen regained his composure and began lurching towards me, murder written in his eyes.
I was hesitant to take my eyes away from the man trying to kill me, but I focused my attention on the tooth. This was my only chance.
Just as Raen was reaching down towards me, the tooth jumped up from the floor and whizzed through the back of his throat.
Pulling as hard as I could, I felt everything. The tooth ripping through muscle and bone and sinew until it finally exploded out the front like a piece of shrapnel.
Time seemed to freeze; our eyes locked. His were wide and dazed as he tried to process what had happened.
I watched as he staggered, hands clutching his throat. He took one more faltering step towards me before falling to his knees and finally collapsing.
I watched the blood seep from under his body, my eyes tethered to his corpse.
With each beat of my heart, the tension ebbed from my body, leaving me lightheaded and giddy. Tears welled behind my eyes. I shook on the ground, an unsettled laugh eking out of my throat.
The blood crept closer to me until it touched my bare toes and reality began to sink in.
I’d killed someone.
Relief had washed over me as I watched him die.
I’d relished in killing him.<
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A wave of nausea surged up my throat and I pitched to the side and dry heaved, my throat convulsing painfully.
The room wobbled and my body collapsed to the side, before everything went black.
“Selynna?”
A voice spoken through the fog. I hadn’t heard my name since I’d been dragged down to this hellhole.
“Selynna!” A hand touched my shoulder.
I couldn’t be bothered to open my eyes. I had taken care of Raen, I had done what needed to be done. I deserved to sleep now.
Sleep felt wonderful.
Someone rolled me over onto my back and I groaned in pain.
Just let me go…
When I opened my eyes, they were cruel.
Aksel’s face filled my vision as he knelt before me, deep lines etched into his forehead. For the first time since I’d met him, he looked scared. His fingers hovered over me, restless and twitchy.
Maybe this was what happened to people close to death; they envisioned the person they wanted to see most.
I closed my eyes again.
At the sound of ripping fabric, I opened my eyes again. Aksel had removed his shirt and had begun ripping it into shreds with his flat human teeth. A feeble groan passed through my lips as he lifted my shredded arm and slid one of the thin strips around my bicep. “This is going to hurt, okay? Just bear with it.” His voice was soothing, yet at the same time harsh.
I moaned sharply as he pulled the tourniquet tight.
I desperately wanted to fall back into unconsciousness as he worked on dressing the wound, the pain unbearable, but my body did not oblige. Once he was finished, he laid my arm on the ground beside me so gently that it made me want to weep.
With the most detrimental wound taken care of, Aksel’s eyes continued to rove over my body. His jaw was tight, muscles cording through his neck. I was reminded of an eviscerated carcass of an animal being assessed by a butcher.
Aksel tensed, his attention whipping around to the door. After a moment I heard it too… footsteps.
His shimmer dropped instantaneously as he shifted into a crouch, arms poised away from his body and ready to strike. With great effort I got myself up to a seated position.
The bald finman emerged in the doorway. He studied the scene that lay before him, blood trailing into his eyes from a wound on his forehead.
Aksel was about to lunge for him but I touched his arm, trying to grip, but failing. “Wait, this one helped me.” I tried to put as much authority into my voice as I could, but it still came out as a dry rasp.
“Helped you?” Aksel parroted incredulously.
“He kept Raen from—” the words choked off in my throat. “He helped me.” I reiterated. My eyes were drawn to the blood still dripping down his temple. “You got hurt because of me.”
“It was my fault. I should have come up with a more convincing lie. Raen saw right through it and when we turned down an empty corridor, he knocked my head into a wall. My original intention was for him to leave and I could smuggle you back to the surface.” His eyes drifted towards Aksel, “But I see my efforts were trivial given that someone has already come for you. No matter, you had better hurry if you want to get out of here. There are those who would try to avenge his death.”
“And you won’t?” Aksel asked cautiously.
“We’re not all monsters, deydre,” he responded bitterly. The finman, Caspian’s, attention shifted, giving me a quick once over. Aksel moved in front of me, blocking me from his scrutinizing glare.
“And what of you?” His anger shifted to Aksel. “Did any of our women suffer in the attempt to save yours?”
“She’ll wake up safe in her bed long after we’re gone,” Aksel responded.
The finman seemed satisfied with that answer, though I had trouble following their line of dialogue.
“Now, take your human and leave. The shore is fifteen kilometers northeast of here and four hundred meters up.”
“I’m supposed to trust you?”
“Do or do not, you can either jump indiscriminately, getting caught in the unforgiving currents of the sea until you both drown, or remain here to be killed by other finfolk. If you stay here long enough, she will be taken prisoner again. Who knows how much more she’ll be forced to endure before they finally decide to kill her.”
“You claim to be helping us, yet you threaten her?” Aksel growled.
“A warning. It might surprise you to learn that I do not enjoy the sounds of women screaming in pain. As a neighbour to Raen, I have heard countless women die.”
“Thank you, Caspian.” I said, putting a definitive end to the conversation.
Caspian nodded and walked out just as ambiguously as he had entered.
Aksel watched the spot for a few heartbeats. His posture softened considerably when he turned to me, hands reaching up to touch the sides of my face. His eyes bored into me, pupils wavering.
“I’m going to mist us out of here, okay? I want you to take a deep breath, I’m not sure I trust his directions.”
I nodded and did as he said.
He held onto me as tightly as he could without hurting me. Misting felt just as it had last time, the twisting and tugging of intangible currents. The strength of Aksel’s arms around me provided a sense of warmth in the hollowness of the void.
We re-materialized in darkness. I would have panicked had it not been for the ethereal beauty of the moon and stars surrounding us. I was not in a pit. I was floating within the full expanse of the sky. Fresh air flooded my lungs as I took a deep breath, savouring it.
We hung in the air for a moment, hung like two stars in the sky, before we started to fall. I clung to Aksel as tightly as I could, gravity threatening to pull my stomach into my throat. We hit the water hard, knocking the breath out of me.
Aksel struggled with me in his arms, but together we clumsily broke the surface. As soon as the air touched my face, we misted, this time landing on the cold sand of the beach with a resounding thud.
“Ayre!” Aksel shouted.
Pounding footsteps on the beach and coarse granules of sand digging into every wound on my body were the last things I remembered before everything went black.
19
Sound was the first of my five senses to return. Wind gently blowing through trees, the dulcet chirping of birds, sounds that had a comforting familiarity even in my barely conscious state.
My eyes creaked open like a rusty metal door in desperate need of oil. Harsh light—sunlight, I realized—pierced my vision, feeding the headache that was already forming behind my eyes. It took my brain a moment to figure out I was looking up at a familiar canvas ceiling, flapping slightly with the gentle breeze.
The damp and muddy aroma of the underwater cave had been replaced by a pleasant, earthy scent. The smell of ocean salt replaced by fresh air and pine.
A lump formed at the back of my throat and my eyes began to burn with tears that wouldn’t take form. A shaky breath escaped from my lungs and tension melted from my bones as I bathed in my surroundings. The relief was so strong, so palpable. I wanted to scream, to laugh, to cry. I wanted to run outside and roll around in the leaves and grass.
I tried to hug myself by reflex, to wrap my arms so tightly around myself and reaffirm I was still alive and this was real. But when I tried to move it felt like my arms were buried under bags upon bags of sand.
My body had not yet caught up with my mind, it seemed, instead feeling heavy and sedated. All I could do was flop my head over to the side, even such a simple movement was enough to make me feel exhausted.
To my surprise, I was greeted by a pair of familiar black and green eyes, staring unabashedly. Eyes that had once had such an alluring effect on me, that had made my heart race with their exotic, dark beauty and vibrant expressions of emotion.
The same eyes that had stared me down with cruelty and contempt as he bared his fangs in threat.
Aksel laid beside me on top of the same blankets I was buried under,
using his arm as a pillow. The fingers of his free hand were intertwined with mine, resting on the edge of my pillow between our faces.
Relief shined across his face, softening his sharp features as his mouth broke into a meager smile.
I’m not sure what my features showed before a renewed wave of exhaustion swept over me and everything went dark.
I didn’t know if I had fallen asleep, or just had a long blink, but the light in the tent seemed dimmer the next time I opened my eyes.
Aksel was still lying at my side, seemingly asleep with his fingers limp between mine.
A twitch of my thumb was all it took to have his eyes shooting open and his hand seizing tighter around mine. After a moment of alarm and disorientation, his features softened with relief as he caught my gaze, his muscles relaxing visibly.
I tried again to move my body but faced similar futile results as before. Under the blanket, my fingers twitched and bent, barely able to even make a fist, but that was enough. On top of the pillow, I used what little movement I was capable of to untangle my digits from Aksel’s and slide my hand away, just enough that we were no longer touching.
He didn’t move, didn’t try to keep me from slipping away. The only sign he had even noticed was the sadness that seemed to collect behind his eyes as he stared at his empty hand. His fingers clenched together in a loose fist.
“Why is it so difficult to move?” I rasped, shocked by the sound of my own voice.
“Don’t worry, your body is just tired, exhausted actually,” Aksel replied, his voice quiet. “Magical healing is a strain on the body, you’ve been unconscious for about four days.”
“Four days?” I was shocked, though you wouldn’t be able to tell from the lack of intonation in my voice.
“Don’t worry, that’s fairly normal. The healing forces the body to speed up its natural recovery rate. The more healing you receive, the more your body has to compensate, sending it into a type of comatose state while it catches up.” His reassuring half-smile turned to a frown. “You were… there was a lot of healing that needed to be done.”