Chapter 27

The Necromancer

Freezing cold water hits me, stealing my breath and making me yell.

Cole laughs as he tosses the bucket aside and stands over me, leering over my face with his sadistic grin.

‘Did you tell him?' he asks with excited eyes. ‘Did you tell the General what I've done? What did he say? Was he angry? Upset?' He struggles to stay still, and he's so eager to hear.

I didn't tell Shaw a thing. I need him focused. Not filled with rage.

‘He's going to kill you slowly. And I'm going to fuck him on your corpse.' I spit in his face, and he staggers back, disgusted.

‘Guess I'll have to take it up a notch,' he hisses.

I try to move. My wrists and feet are still bound to this stone table, stretching me out in all four directions.

The dampener on my wrist has sealed away my magic, and I'm so cold I can't stop shaking. My breath hangs heavy in the air, and the water on my body has already started to turn into thin sheets of ice.

He takes my thumb tightly in his hand.

‘Next time I send you to the Dream Walker, you will tell him what I have done to you. That his sleep deprivation bullshit has driven me mad enough to do all of this! Or I will make this so much worse. I want him to know this is his fault. HIS!'

Snap.

I scream as he breaks my thumb, just as he has broken all my other fingers.

I struggle against my bonds but know it's pointless.

His free hand wraps around my throat and squeezes, triggering the flashbacks of my hanging. And even as I'm swinging at the end of a rope, I hear him laugh.

He lets me go before looking down the length of my body.

I'm naked.

My body is covered in bruises, burns and cuts from his hours of torture.

He takes a dagger and cuts across my breast, adding to the dozens of other slices he's put on me.

‘Twenty-three,' he sings.

A flashback of Neve's death strikes. Of Shaw slicing me up.

He slaps me to bring me back to him and bellows out a deep laugh.

There's nothing he wants from me except my suffering. His torture comes with no demands for information. No orders. Just the joy of watching me suffer and the knowledge that eventually, the guys will find out what he's put me through.

So I try not to scream. I refuse to look him in the eye.

‘Neve said I can't hurt you too much,' he tells me breathlessly as he looks at the blood on the tip of his blade. ‘Not in any way that damages you permanently. You need to be in one piece long enough to do what she needs you to do.'

Cut.

‘But considering you heal so quickly now, that leaves the door wide open for opportunities.'

Cut.

‘You look very pretty tied up, you know.'

Cut.

‘You'll look even prettier with your intestines wrapped around your neck!' I spit. ‘And as you lie dying, I'll piss on you just as I pissed on your daddy!'

Cut.

I grunt as he slices my thigh, and I blink away the flashes of Shaw doing this to me.

‘Did he tell you?' he asks. ‘That Dorian is dead?'

I refuse to answer. I don't believe him. The Shadow Master isn't dead and he will come for me. They all will. And Cole will pay.

Cole leans over my face, so I have no choice but to look at him.

‘You killed him, Ashe. You killed those witches.' He grabs my face with his bloody hand so I can't look away. ‘Do you think they will still love you after you murdered their friend?'

‘You're going to die, Cole.'

‘After you, my love.'

He grabs a handful of salt and presses it into the wound.

I scream. My fuck do I scream!

I lunge and sink my teeth into his cheek, biting deep and getting a mouthful of blood. He roars with pain and stumbles back, clutching the gaping wound on his face. And I spit out his cheek before I swallow the mouthful of blood I claimed.

I can't access my blood magic, but it gives me some strength to withstand this torture.

‘Your methods of torture are as bad as your skills in the bedroom,' I laugh. ‘Boring. Predictable. Unimaginative and inadequate. And when they get here, I'll ask Archie to tear off your little dick, just as he did with your hand.'

He roars as he storms towards me, the dagger held high as if he's about to stab me in the heart.

I know Shaw told me not to make him angry. But he's hurting me beyond measure, and all I want is to hurt him just as much.

‘Do it, you fucking coward!' I scream. ‘Kill me!'

‘You won't get off that easy, my love,' he snarls.

He takes the dagger and rests the handle between my spread legs. My eyes widen as I see that sadistic look in his eyes.

‘Not by a long shot.'

He slams it into me with all his strength, penetrating me with the rough handle so hard I scream and go dizzy. My ears ring, and I start to black out. He slaps me around the face.

‘Stay with me, Ashe. I'm only getting started.'

He pushes it in deeper, right up to the hilt.

He leaves it there and pulls out another dagger, panting so heavily that spit flies from his mouth.

He rests the hilt of this one at my other entrance.

‘You like taking more than one, don't you, whore? So here. Let me oblige.'

I scream as he does the same to me again in my second hole.

He triggers me, slamming down my father's cane and speaking those words.

‘You will not make a sound. You will not pass out until I am done. If you obey this, you can breathe freely. If you do not, then you will not breathe.'

Tears spill down my cheeks, and I fall into a distant trance, desperate to separate myself from what is happening.

From the cutting. The choking. The degradation.

Hours pass as he continues his torture. I'm numb inside. Frozen and filled with pain.

When he finally gets tired and leaves me here alone, I close my eyes.

If Cole is telling the truth, perhaps I am alone. Maybe they have abandoned me.

Because I know that if Dorian is… dead… then Archie and Shaw will never forgive me.

I take a shuddering breath.

And I let the darkness claim me.

But Shaw does not meet me in my nightmares. He's nowhere to be found.

And I suffer far worse horrors in my dreams than Cole could ever inflict on me in the real world.