Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

EMRYS

I felt it again.

That thrumming in my chest. So profound and liberating with its heady rhythm. That familiar scent of cashmere and pine came next, its intoxicating aroma overriding the stench of rotting flesh and ash. I felt whole in a way but still, I longed for more, for something—no— someone else, only I didn't know who I was missing, just that they existed.

She existed.

The woman on fire whose light was golden. So close, yet so far away. I could almost taste her, could feel her lingering touch on my raised scars.

That overwhelming feeling of satisfaction mixed with despair flooded my bones for what felt like days but I knew it was only hours because the guards had not changed their daily shifts yet. As quickly as that feeling of contentment came, it also left me reeling with anguish.

That was my only way of tracking a minuscule amount of time within these confines. Months, possibly years, had passed but there was no wall for me to make marks upon to record it let alone the tools to do so.

I was in an endless loop of torture, passing out from the agony, and waking and watching those around me until the abuse began once more. Still searching for any escape out of this hell, I had instead found a pattern to my abductor's days.

Each day, he would come down and check to make sure I was still confined within my restraints. With phantom hands powered by his magic, he would find torturous new ways to leave my skin burned or flailed by his blades, my bones broken beyond repair. The large gemstone embedded in the crown upon his pale head pulsed with light, matching the chaotic heartbeat of my abuser.

Such immense power shouldn't be possessed, especially by a male filled with such hatred and malice. But that crown was his for some unknown reason. Only, it seemed more like the crown owned him , with the way it clutched to his head, absorbing him. Its black thorns nested themselves within his pale forehead, little dribbles of blood dripping down his hollow cheeks as his black eyes blazed into me.

When I stared back into that dark gaze, I felt nothing but the need to shred him limb by limb. To rid our world of his existence. That feeling of scorn and vengeance and pure venom was overwhelming.

Every time that obsidian crown came within my vicinity, nothing but pain would come to follow. But the more I stared into the iridescent stone and its swirling pool of colors, the closer I felt to that light and to her .

All I felt was torment, but beyond that affliction was hope.

Hope for her and a way out and back to those gold-flecked green eyes.

That hope fueled me and kept my mind steady as I watched for answers and, possibly, an escape.

Because I knew in the bottomless depths of my broken soul that I would find a way out and back to her.

That no matter what, I would find her again.

My eyes closed for a moment, trying to put together the pieces of my mind. I attempted to string together a memory, even a thought of that woman and who she might be—where she might be and how I could get to her.

As usual, nothing came but that didn't stop me from trying and failing, and then trying again until the familiar heavy thud of boots pierced my ears. They echoed this time, a secondary slap on the stones right after the other.

My captor was no longer alone.

My eyes peeled open slightly as thundering laughter boomed throughout the rocky chasm of my cell. Two males stepped into view, no undead creatures on their tails. My abuser was in his usual attire of all black, including the petrifying crown that brought me an odd serenity. That golden necklace was on display, a bulky obsidian stone absorbing all the light in the center of it. It hung directly in the center of his chest, odd symbols and whirls embedded in the golden casing of the stone.

It sucked me in for a moment, a memory on the precipice of blooming, but I couldn't place it. Couldn't remember it.

Together, the males laughed at my restraints. Hands bound above my head left my shoulders barking for relief but I still kept my face neutral as I studied the male beside him.

His companion's upper lip curled when he saw that I was watching him with a deadly gaze. The faerie male stayed a step behind my captor and was dressed in a ruddy, putrid shade of red from top to bottom.

It made my eyes burn.

Clunky, brown leather boots with brass clasps and an odd feathered cap laid upon his bald skull, his arched fae ears rising above it.

And the gaudy jewelry.

Gold, silver, brass, and platinum with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. The male was a walking treasure chest. A petty thief's dream to rob.

"He is indeed restrained?" the strange male asked warily, eyeing me.

"Yes, Calix," my captor gave a cruel and cunning smile, his elongated canines reaching past his lower lip. "He cannot touch you, just as promised."

"The Prince of Bloodshed," Calix murmured, almost too low for me to hear. He looked towards the crowned male, disbelief in his pale blue eyes before utter fascination took over.

From the side of his face, I could see a grin forming before he peeled his gaze back to me and I bared my teeth. Calix's pupils blew wide as he moved back a step, forgetting I was still bound. His nostrils flared in embarrassment when he remembered I couldn't touch him.

This male was afraid of me.

It was my turn to smile but only for a second until a slicing, hot pain lit up my back. Shadowy hands of wicked fire clawed at my naked flesh, making me groan and writhe. "He does not know who he is," my captor spoke but kept his powers embedded in my skin, flaying my muscles and tendons. He chuckled before spitting on me, "He doesn't know who I am."

The new male, Calix, responded but I couldn't hear him over the shredding of my back. Something about numbers and ships and Sirens an?—

A scream bellowed out of me, the pain too excruciating to contain as he gripped my spinal cord with those hellfire hands and pulled. I was on the edge of blacking out, teetering into the blessed darkness. The chains on my wrists loosened and my body fell to the floor in a heap of bloody, burnt flesh.

No shadows restrained my body upright, so I lay limply on the ground. The male's assault was over, his attention refocused on the bald High Fae. I couldn't move, couldn't feel my back or legs or even my fingertips. My body was paralyzed and all I could do was watch the two males outside my cell shake hands.

"True immortality," Calix pronounced, so prideful and sure. His gaze went up the thorny crown upon my abuser's head but only for a second before he had to look away, its power too much to gaze upon. He kneeled on the frigid, mineral floor and placed a ring-covered hand over his heart. "Insulam will follow you."

"Rise," my captor nodded and Calix obeyed, like the loyal dog he was. The two males both smiled and looked profoundly different yet the same at that moment. Tyranny had many faces, many identities. But they still had the same descent, the same vicious tendrils. It was in their eyes, in their cutting smiles and cruel words.

"The sun will set and rise in my name, in my blood. The stars will spell out my name, cursing the heavens. This world will turn to my command. And you, " his black eyes narrowed at my unmoving form, my consciousness fading but his words rang in my mind as a continuous reminder, "will learn your place."