Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
EMRYS
T he stench of death and rot permeated the air as the clicking of claws neared closer to my open iron cell. Not making a sound, I didn't dare to move a single muscle as an undead creature came into my view, illuminated by the low, fading candlelight. Sunken black eyes stared into the depths of my soul as decaying skin flaked off of its balding skull onto the cold stone floor.
I had once assumed that these beasts were mindless with their decaying forms and weak, feeble bodies but when I locked eyes with the one before me, it smiled . Fear splintered in my chest but I stuffed that useless emotion back down. These monsters clearly thrived off the horrors they bestowed, from my suffering.
The creature tilted its head in recognition while sniffing the air with a rotting nose that appeared to have lost almost all of its cartilage. Yellow teeth with broken bits of bone and blood—and possibly a piece of fabric—gleamed at me as it dragged its claws closer to me. The creature reeked of rotten magic, causing my nose to burn with every intake of breath and bile to crawl up my throat. I knew it could move swiftly and kill anything in its path but this one seemed to really enjoy instilling fear in its prey.
It was like a game to them, a vicious, fucked up game that I always seemed to lose.
Every day—or was it every hour?—these foul beings came to my cell to beat me, torture me, peel the flesh off my bones until I was nothing but an aching heap on the floor. In the beginning, I thought I had hope that I would escape this place or that someone might swoop in and save me, but my memory was fading the longer they beat me unconscious.
I didn't know where or who I was.
Didn't know if there was anybody out there that cared enough for someone like me, cared enough to come and help me, to stop this pain. I didn't know what sins I had committed to live in this eternal hell, but they must've been horrendous if this was my punishment from the Fates. Or maybe I was just unlucky.
No matter what the reasoning was, I needed out.
The iron shackles around my throat, ankles, and wrists bound my magic so all I had to work with was brute force. Once I found a path out of this place, I would crush this entire keep in the palm of my hand, no magic needed. I didn't know the amount of power I possessed, only that I did still possess a semblance of it based on this aching pain in my gut that begged to be released.
The creature's foul breath puffed into my face as its sharp claw trailed over my exposed chest, right where a sloppily branded S was placed again and again. They didn't need to breathe, eat, or sleep, but I noticed that they still enjoyed eating the flesh of their victims and breathing in the scent of the death they caused. I couldn't tell if their master was becoming more sadistic in his tactics, or if his monsters were now becoming sentient beings with their own agendas.
My eyes glared into the vermin's black ones before it struck. Air hissed through my teeth as it tore into the flesh and muscle of my shoulder blade, its jagged teeth gnawing on my bone. I wouldn't give it the satisfaction of my scream, that only egged on its bloodlust when I struggled.
It had to have been months—or years. The hours and days blended together in a haze of torment. There was no way to keep track of when I had been brought here, or if this had always been my life of never ending torture.
Warm blood gushed through my wound when the creature retracted its bite and hollow boots slapped against the stone floor. The beast stayed in a crouched position, still staring at me as it smacked its cracked lips that were covered in my blood. My shoulder was on fire, the beast's disgusting teeth filling the open wound with vile bacteria that would leave yet another infection.
A shadow loomed over my slumped body but I didn't need to look up to know who was there. I could feel his murky aura the moment he entered the room.
"Pathetic," the being spat at my broken form. That voice was always familiar, but I couldn't recall if it was from the endless torture that had been inflicted by his hand, or if I had known this cruel male at another time in my life.
Or if I even had a life before this.
The pet clicked away, my blood still dripping from its maw, and gave me one last look over its bony shoulder. Its black eyes flashed with something akin to exasperation, if it could even feel such a thing. Like it was tired of toying with me and wanted to finish me once and for all.
But its master was keeping me alive for some reason. Each time one of his beasts took their torture too far, he would step in and keep me on the brink of death, never letting me just die like I wished he would. He either needed me for something or just enjoyed watching me suffer.
In between unconsciousness and lucidity, I listened as intently as I could to any conversations being held around me but they were few and far between.
I needed to know who this male was, who I was, and why the fuck I was here.
"Not even going to look at me?" His perfectly polished leather boot kicked my shin, hard . It was definitely going to leave another mark on my already battered skin, unable to heal due to the iron chains around me. I didn't deem him a response. Didn't even look up to his face to know he was disgusted by my presence, but still kept me down in this hellhole for some fucked up reason. "At least now you'll be somewhat useful."
The chains binding my wrists tightened as my body lifted from the floor, hoisted up by the shackles. Phantom hands gripped my chin harshly and jerked my head up so I could meet his onyx gaze. My eyes dragged over his form, catching onto his black breeches messily stuffed into his boots like he'd been in a hurry to come here and provoke me. His onyx tunic was plain besides the gold stitching that was embedded in the collar, but even that was wrinkled. This male bore no jewelry, no finery despite the crown upon his skull and a black obsidian stone necklace peeking through his disheveled collar.
We were face to face now and I could see the harsh lines on his face from the permanent scowl he always wore when he visited me. Shadows rose in an angry wave from behind his back. They were suffocating and heavy, draining the oxygen from my cell. His hair was the deepest shade of black, matching his eyes perfectly, and offset by his pale complexion.
There were rooted indents on his forehead from the crown made of shadowy ebony thorns fusing itself into his skin. Raw power emanated from the circlet, so coarse and harsh that my natural instinct was to look away from it. To flee from its presence and that radiating terror it instilled in my bones. But in the center of the diadem, a large glittering gemstone shone in the soft candlelight and swirled like a vortex of power, causing my gaze to relax and fall into its hypnotizing trance.
All thoughts of the male before drifted to the back of my mind. All I could see, all I could feel was that stone, as if it were calling to me.
Like a phantom wind, the scent of pine and moonlight and cashmere filtered in through my cell and I could feel my heart racing the longer I inhaled that sweet perfume. The ache in my soul lessened as I stared into the reflective stone and saw whirls of green and gold, like an emerald gemstone.
So familiar yet not.
Soft curls and touches paired with tired, hearty laughs. The taste of vanilla whiskey and liquid moonlight. It all came back in flashes, tiny images dancing in my head of a woman on fire, iridescent scales trailing up her spine, and gentle yet firm, slightly calloused hands.
My soul yearned for something I didn't know existed but I could feel it.
There was something there— no —there was someone there. I could feel her, if only for a fleeting moment. If I could just have another taste of her then I would be okay. Green and gold light kept swirling within the large moonstone and I was utterly mesmerized by it.
There was light in this darkness and that light was a deep emerald green with flecks of gold. There was hope and love and fuck —I just needed to feel that luminescent glow once more.
I needed to know that she was real and I wasn't going insane down in this fucking pit.
I had no other option but to believe that she existed, that the woman on fire would light my way back to freedom. I just had to find her. Had to find my way back to hope . Closing my eyes, I tried to inhale the scent that must've been a figment of my imagination because all I swallowed was the taste of dark, tainted magic.
Metallic and bitter with each drag of air.
"You've always stood in my shadow," the male spouted off. I never knew why he came down here to taunt me constantly. Didn't know what I had done to him, to have him come down here so often to tell me of my inadequacy and failings. "And now it's time for you to act like it."
My eyes snapped open at his words, the light within me fizzing out along with the last taste of her. She was gone but not forgotten.
I would never forget her .
The High Fae male's dark eyes were more sunken in since the last time I saw him. The stupid fuck was getting weaker. The putrid scent of bitter magic surrounded him and it was as if it was sucking his life force with each use of that darkness. The more he used it, the more life essence it would take.
Power had a cost and it seemed he still hadn't paid the price.
To him, I was pathetic and useless. I was a failure.
I was nothing.
But he wouldn't kill me. Wouldn't end my pathetic existence.
He needed me for something.
A grin stretched across my face, hurting the freshly made scars on my cheeks. The irony in it all was that to him, I was everything. I was what he wanted, the soul he needed. He was keeping me alive for a reason.
So without me, he was the nothing that he always deemed me as.
He gripped my matted hair within his fist, jerking my head up once again so I could look into his hollow eyes. Out of the corner of my vision, I saw a table filled with various torture devices that he'd conjured with his magic appear out of thin air with plumes of murky smoke. It tasted like ash on my tongue every time he commanded his power.
The male was powerful beyond belief. More power than the Creators should allow one being to control. I didn't know how it was possible but I knew it was wrong. Could feel it in my bones every time he entered the room with that prickly crown upon his skull.
The instinct to turn away from that sickening feeling came over me once more but I couldn't move a muscle with the grip he had on my scalp. All I could do was watch the swirling colors of the stone within his obsidian crown, looking for any trace of that emerald light I had caught a glimpse of before. Earth-crushingly so, nothing came.
Within my time here, I'd witnessed him harness not only every elemental magic my brain could remember but also a revolting type. The kind that would send the most vicious of armies skittering to the edges of our world to escape it. I needed to figure out where I was, who I was, and who the fuck this overpowered asshole was.
Then I could plan my escape and find my way to her .
The woman on fire.
My hope.
A bludgeoning iron with tiny little spikes still coated in my blood was placed in the male's outstretched hand by an undead being. The breath whooshed from my lungs on the weapon's first impact and my body wanted to shake from the pain but I barely held it back. "Worthless." Another slam to the ribs cracked three of them. "Pathetic." A pulsating blow to the jaw had blood filling my mouth from my loosening teeth as he spat, "Traitor."
"I gave you everything." The iron spikes dug into my chest, next to the messy brand that laid upon it. "You could've been great. Could've had all the power in the realm, and yet you chose to be weak ."
But those were choices I didn't remember making.
Who was I? Who was he ?
Another hit went to the other side of my jaw but this time, two teeth flew from my skull to skitter across the stone floor. Fogginess blurred my vision from the stinging pain. Darkness crept in again as the last words barely registered through it all. "Just like your mother."