Chapter 118: Chapter 118

The wolves laugh. Valka’s eyes burn into Rafael’s as he chuckles, clapping with delight. "Release me and I will gut you and hang you by your fucking entrails--"

A hand slams against her cheek, hard, snapping her head to the side. It is Lilith’s hand. "I will cut out your tongue, useless bitch." Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs novelFirｅ.net

A warning snarl rips out of me but Rafael’s tut of displeasure stops me. "This won’t do," he purrs, and cocks his head to the side. "Kill her," he orders with serene malice as if asking for tea.

"No!" I roar, but the sound is a thing I do not own, it rakes against the ring of men who flank us.

"Crawl, king," Rafael says. "Tell me why I shouldn’t carve that pretty head from her shoulders."

My lids go heavy. I slip from the moments as if wading through ice, hands trembling with the effort to stay restrained. Sand scrapes through leather, and bleed my knees raw. I hear the words leave my mouth, and yet it is as if someone else tumbles them out. The ground underneath me has begun to turn to ice.

"Look at him," Rafael snarls at Valka. I hear her sob, hear the crack in it. "He is no less than an animal. That is what you chose when you rejected me. Tell me, Valka--what is it about him? His beauty? Will you still want him when I take it all away?"

The guards close in. I let them. A hand fists my hair. I let them. A blade scrapes against my neck and hacks my hair off. I let them. They scatter the silver strands all over her feet, their laughter drowning the sound of her sobs.

The same blade carves a curve down my cheek with brutal efficiency, marring my flesh. A fist slams into my nose, breaking it. I let them. Another. And another. A boot crushes my mouth. It pops with the soft, horrible sound of cartilage breaking.

I do not register the blows in any useful way. My instincts narrow into slow calculation. Every blow is payment traded for a breath, those sweet breaths of hers a commodity bought with my dignity. They unmake every name I have earned since I was born in those moments. They strip my clothes and make incisions into my flesh, only to pour raw, unmined silver into the gashes. They take my boots and slash my heels. They wear me a leash, just like hers and whip my skin with lances.

I feel none of it. And yet, through the bond, I feel it all.

Valka is a raw thing at the center of it--crying, promising murder, pleading. Please. Please. Stop it. Please. I’ll do whatever you want me to. Please stop.

At that, Rafael jerks his chin towards the half-breed holding her and he lets her go. She stumbles, the open wounds preventing her from moving, and Rafael catches her by her hair, dragging her to the forefront of the formed guard by it. She shrieks, twisting, slamming at him, but the silver on her neck sizzles, hisses, keeping her bound, and the harder she pushes, the tighter he drags her through the sand.

Until I have a clear view of his pristine boots and they slam into my face again, forcing my head up from the swaying kneel.

He crouches then, holding Valka still by her neck, so close to me, I can still smell the shampoo on her matted hair. He breathes against the curve of her ear, "Reject him."

Her body begins trembling, her head snapping left and right. She won’t do it. Even if he kills her, she won’t do it. Amused, Rafael presses his nose to her neck, murmuring, "I’ll spare him if you do. I swear it. I just want you, Valka. I’ll let him go if you reject him and come with me, willingly. I don’t like hurting you . This is all meaningless bloodshed, don’t you think?"

It’s a lie. We both know it. He is crazed. Demented. And there is not one chance that I leave here alive, not with all the silver they’ve shoved down my throat. The army of half-breeds waiting around to be ordered are for my execution.

But I see the hope leap into her eyes. Foolish, raw hope. Because we have nothing left but that to rely on.

And I go along with it. Because it makes no damned difference. The bonds between Erasthais can be fractured, but never severed. I have long lost belief in the gods, in my ancestors. But if there is anything I have left to believe in, it is what Valka and I have, that transcends the very will of the Moon Goddess herself.

And even if that weren’t the case, I’ve come to the realization that I may not be as selfish as I think I am. I would much rather her be alive than leashed to me. Oh, disgustingly selfless I’ve become.

So with the last of my waning strength, I reach for that bond between us, stroke the walls of her increasingly hysterical mind and say, "We’ll be fine. I promise."

Tears run down her eyes and nose. "I’m sorry."

The words are as brutal, coming from her sensual, bloodied lips, in a voice that should soothe me, from the person who has become too much a part of me that I cannot fathom a separation. I reject you. I denounce this bond. From this breath forward, you are nothing to me.

It hits like being ripped in two, bone from bone, soul from soul.

The tether between us spasms, burning white-hot, then black. Every nerve riots. I taste her blood in my mouth, feel her heartbeat slam against my ribs though she’s feet away. My lungs seize. It’s not just pain. It’s wrongness, like the world’s spine has cracked and I’m still standing on the fault line, waiting to split.

I am still feeling from the ache of it, Valka gasping, when Rafael takes her from me with two words, "Kill him."

"No!" Valka cries, but the guards wrench her backwards. Farther and farther out of reach.

Lilith blocks his path. "That was not a part of our bargain! You promised I could take him as my prisoner--" she snarls, but she is silenced when Rafael backhands her so hard, she falls into the sand.

"If you are to be my Queen, you must understand this." He leans in. "Never question me again. I have no use for him, and you, I can discard just as easily. Know your place, whore."

Could I have done something in that moment? No. But as I watch them hurl Valka onto the hill of the boat and the half-breeds close in, my teeth grits.

I’ll get her back, even if it’s the last thing I do.