Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 2 (Afterlife saga Book 7)

by Stephanie Hudson

  “My King forgive me but Stateira is still your favourite, is she not?” Parmida braved to ask and I unfortunately braved to listen to his crushing truth…

  “She is and will be for the foreseeable future.”

  Chapter 42

  Back Stabbing Heartache

  Once I’d heard this brutal statement from Draven I no longer wanted to listen. I threw myself down on the pillows, wrapped myself back up and revelled in the pain these actions caused my body, needing some physical agony to mask the emotional one. This way I could pretend the tears I cried that night weren’t down to the heartache I felt piercing my chest.

  I woke the next morning only to find myself disappointed that this wasn’t all a horrible dream as I’d hoped. I was still trapped in this nightmare and the person who seemed to be pulling all the strings was someone I couldn’t yet reach. I just wanted to go home and feel safe in the knowledge that Draven still loved me the way he always had done. Because even back in the days when we were separated I still knew deep down how much Draven cared for me but this…well this was a different type of torture!

  But I knew I couldn’t just sit like a plump chicken in my gilded cage waiting for my golden egg to hatch. I needed to act and I couldn’t do that here. No, I needed to formulate a plan now and as much as it pained me to say, that plan no longer included Draven.

  Sure he may have given me some attention and shown me that at least he cared about his new prize getting hurt before he could sample the goods. And in whatever way that was for a supernatural King to do I didn’t yet know and didn’t want to for that matter. Because for someone forbidden to bed humans where exactly did that leave me?

  Again I had no answers but one thing was certain and that was I definitely wasn’t going to stick around to wait and find out. Not now I knew there was no hope for me to be the Chosen One to him like I was back in my time. For I knew that falling in love with me was the only way to get him to break his own rules and the reality of that happening now after last night looked impossible. Not when he already had someone he cared for in his life. No, it was time to jump ship and swim as if a shit storm was coming…one that was named ‘the prophecy’.

  So now all I had to do was escape this underground fortress and find the rest of my time travelling party before making my way back to the ocean, or in my case whatever the Hell it was we had jumped into in the first place. It wasn’t as if I could find some tourist office on a street corner and pick up a map to the nearest Janus gate. No, I needed to be clever about this and to do that when I had two guards watching my every move was going to be difficult.

  However, the one thing on my side was that I definitely had enough time to think about it considering I was being treated like the leper of the group. If only I had someone on my side who could help me in all this and as grateful as I was for Ranka, right now who I really needed was Pip, Sophia or Ari.

  “Where are you guys?” I whispered to myself.

  “What did you say?” Parmida snapped from the corner of the treatment room I was currently in. It was another day at Hell’s spa and once more I was laid out naked on the stone slab feeling like a bruised piece of meat. Some of the servants were washing the mushy gunk off my ribs, whilst two other girls worked on rubbing oils into my feet.

  I didn’t answer her but instead just turned my head the other way to stare at the wall. I heard her huff and I knew another lecture was on its way, as I had already heard quite a few today.

  “You don’t know how lucky you are to be singled out by the King like this.” I rolled my eyes which one of the younger servant girls saw and smiled down at me. She must have been no older than sixteen and I had to wonder what unfortunate life choices had been made to bring her to this point. Had it been a case of wrong place at the wrong time or more likely had she been born into slavery?

  “You had better heed my warning child for you could very easily be cast aside and resold to the highest bidder should the King choose to do. And understand me now when I say that not everyone with wealth is as easy on the eye as the King is or as gentle with his women.” Of this I had no doubt but she didn’t need to hear me say that. I knew that to have such a handsome King with the reputation of being good to his women was like winning the royal lottery for girls in a harem but for me it meant nothing. He was my husband first and foremost and no matter how much I tried to distance myself from that fact, I just couldn’t.

  “You should listen to her, for she speaks the truth.” The young girl whispered to me once Parmida had given up trying to get through to me.

  “Look, I know you mean well but I am not going to be happy until I get out of here.” I told her for no other reason than to test her. Her big dark eyes widened in surprise.

  “But why would you want to do that?” she asked freely when the others had finished wrapping my ribs up again in fresh bindings and had their backs turned, cleaning up their supplies.

  “It’s complicated,” I told her, not trusting her with anything that could potentially turn around and bite me in the ass later on. She looked thoughtful for a moment before helping me up off the stone table. Then she leaned in to me and whispered,

  “I might know a way.” This surprised me enough to ask,

  “But why would you help me?”

  “Because I too was sold into this life,” she said, confirming what I already suspected.

  “And what of your family?” I asked softly but she just shook her head telling me all I needed to know…she had none.

  “Alright, so you say there is a way out?”

  “Yes, but not here,” she hissed looking towards the others who she obviously feared would overhear us.

  “Then where?” I asked looking around in the hope that the others would leave but then I saw the young girl’s shoulders straighten up and I knew whose voice I would hear next.

  “Take her back to her room. She needs to eat and then to rest before she bathes.” Parmida ordered and I was at least thankful that unbeknown to her she was giving us the perfect chance to speak.

  “Yes, my Mistress,” the girl said bowing once before leading the way for me to follow. I couldn’t help but notice the imposing presence of the two guards who quickly fell into step behind us. We walked back through the large space and I couldn’t help but notice that the looks I received weren’t all ones of bitter hatred as I expected. Some even looked full of pity and I had to wonder about that, but then one look at the bitch and her posse in the corner and I didn’t have to wonder long. It was obvious they must have known the dangers that came with being chosen by the King for special treatment and the thought made me want to hiss.

  Of course I decided against growling at her as I walked past and instead started laughing, knowing this would annoy her much more. The young servant looked at me as though I had lost my mind but I didn’t care as one look at the head Bitch and I knew my work here was done. In fact, she looked close to choking on her own tongue she was so enraged. Obviously she had never come across someone who wasn’t scared of her position in this place. Good, it was about time she met her match as bullies were something I loathed in life!

  “Why do you choose to anger her so?” The young girl asked me in a hushed voice and once we had passed them I told her the truth.

  “Because if you show a person like her fear they will only feed from it but if you deny them it, then they themselves soon become afraid.” She looked thoughtful for a moment but didn’t say anything and I only hoped that she took the advice I gave her, as I had no doubt that one day she would need it.

  We waited until we made it back to my little room and the guards had situated themselves outside before she started speaking.

  “The only ones who come and go as they please are the servants and guards.” It didn’t take long for me to know where she was going with this and I looked up and down at her grey tunic so that she knew we were quickly on the same page.

  “But how do I get…?” She cut me off with a wave of her hand already
knowing what I was going to ask.

  “You will have to give me time to think of something but it may be possible for you to escape the palace dressed as one of us but it will have to be done at night so it is harder for anyone to see your face.”

  “Wow, you have really thought this through, haven’t you?” I watched the young girl blush and look shameful for a moment which had me worried.

  “Why have you?” I asked frowning, now doubting whether to trust her or not. For a moment she looked as though she wouldn’t answer as she turned her back on me.

  “There was another not long before you who also didn’t want to be here.” Okay, so this made more sense.

  “What happened?” I asked knowing it wasn’t good given the slight emotion in her voice.

  “She was resold to another before we could carry out our plan.” I could tell even without asking that this person had meant something to her but I asked anyway because I wanted to know who.

  “And she was a friend?” The girl looked back to me and I could see the unshed tears in her eyes when she uttered one heart-breaking word,

  “Sister.”

  She left quickly after saying this and I couldn’t say that I blamed her. I couldn’t imagine the pain of seeing your own sister not only sold into a harem but to witness the misery of it each day would be even worse. Not everyone got to taste the sweetness of freedom to choose in life, but this was even less so throughout history. It was a brutal awakening and realisation of truth that was hard to swallow, one made even harder knowing that the man I loved had played his part in this cruel world just like so many others. I didn’t want to learn about this part of his life but I guess in the end it was just one more test I had to face in the eyes of the Fates.

  I remembered Draven once telling me about how humans had to forge their own path through history and that included making their own choices. His kind couldn’t change the nature of humans as much as we could change theirs. So when playing a part in man’s history it had to be done just as they chose to live. After all, it took the will of man to stand and fight for what they believed in and more often than not, it was the fight between good and evil and between right and wrong. Whether you faced an army standing in your way or just one man. Because in the end the most powerful weapon of all was the belief that burned like an inferno in your heart. One that was so strong it could defeat the Gods or in turn give them the power needed to aid us as we passed into the Afterlife.

  Yes, this certainly felt like a test and one that I knew was to be my last.

  Thoughts like this stuck to me throughout the rest of the day like muggy air that just wouldn’t clear without the storm, which in itself had me wondering when my own storm would come. I felt something was coming but without being prepared for it I felt more like I was fumbling around in the dark looking for a way out. Would I have enough time to escape before Draven called for me? And even if I managed to break free from this madness, what dangers lay outside of these walls for me? What of Ari, Pip and Sophia? So many questions and as usual, I had no bloody answers for any of them!

  It was so frustrating, just sat here waiting and feeling utterly clueless. I also didn’t like the idea of involving a girl I barely knew and knowing that there was the possibility of getting her in just as much trouble as I would be in if caught. It was at this point that I decided I couldn’t go through with it if it caused any risk to her at all. If there was even the slightest possibility of her being implicated in my escape, then I would just have to think of something else.

  What exactly I had no clue, but at the moment that was a moot point until night fell and I could find out what she had planned. Which was why I was more than thankful when I was finally told to go back to my room and sleep before eating for the last time today. Hell, living in this place I just felt like I was fattened up ready for an apple to be stuffed in my mouth before I got a good roasting…no pun intended. And with the amount of oil that had been rubbed into my skin in the last twenty-four hours, the idea wasn’t that farfetched as I felt as if I had been marinating all day in a hot sweaty room.

  If anything, by the time I made it back to my little tented room, I almost collapsed onto the pillows, feeling utterly exhausted from doing nothing all day. Thankfully before this I had been allowed to cool down in the main pool before returning as I felt like a sweaty mess after being in that heated plunge pool that they had forced me to spend most of the day in. I had protested countless times only to be ignored every time so in the end I’d just shut up and endured it like a good little slave girl.

  It was no wonder then that when I was finally allowed out that I jumped in the cool pool so fast, I must have looked like a child on the first day of their summer holiday…well, not that any of the others knew what that looked like but it was at least how I felt. So much for playing the dainty flower like the rest who would simply dip their toes in first before slowly sinking the rest of their bodies in like graceful synchronised swimmers. No, not me, I was only a few steps away from dive bombing in there saying to hell with the others.

  And it was whilst I was in there that I received my second warning from Draven’s favourite after she slithered her way into the water like some anaconda lurking in the shallows. Well I had seen the true horrors of what were hidden away in those shadows for most of my life and there were things that would scare the shit out of the bravest of people. I had also dealt with bigger bitches than this pampered princess wannabe and I knew from experience that they had bigger claws than this spoilt brat, so when she approached she obviously wondered why I didn’t look worried.

  “I don’t know what you are smiling at but I warned you that it wouldn’t last long,” she snarled making my smile grow to what I imagined was an annoying level. I had my arms out casually along the sides of the pool as I let my legs float out in front of me. As usual she was accompanied by the two girls she had with her before and I tried to supress a chuckle at how old these school ground antics really were…ancient obviously.

  “Oh I don’t know, because it looks pretty damn funny from where I am.” I told her adding a wink for good measure.

  “And what is that supposed to mean!?” she demanded going red faced and puffing her naked chest out as though it would intimidate me. I guessed ‘boob envy’ was also another tactic used, one that was as old as time in the history of bitchism! Well unlucky for her I won in that department as well, I thought with a satisfied smirk.

  “Just that worried look on your face at finally being replaced…tell me, what will you do with your early retirement? May I suggest getting some cats, they make great company.” I told her and I don’t know what was funnier, the face she pulled at the part she understood or the twisted confusion on her face at the parts she didn’t. In the end she must have decided to focus on the only part she did understand.

  “I am not worried!” she screeched angrily, sounding similar to an angry bird.

  “No? Oh I must be mistaken then because I just assumed that by you coming over here threatening me that you yourself must be feeling the one threatened.” It was at this point that the other two looked at each other behind her back and that knowing exchange spoke volumes, they were thinking the same thing.

  “How dare you! Do you know what my name means?!” she snapped and I laughed once and said,

  “Okay, not sure what that has to do with the price of dates around here but I will take a wild stab in the dark and say that it means a bulldog chewing wasps.” From the look on her face she hadn’t understood the insult, which was a shame as it was one of my best.

  “It means ‘creation of the stars’ and do you know who gave me that name?!” She spat out her words and I held my entire body ridged so I didn’t flinch at the hurt she inflicted. She had no idea what Draven meant to me as she was merely trying to prove a point but in reality the powerful blow she had inflicted cut me to the core.

  However, my face must have given something away as she decided to go one step further and drive her point
home with a razor’s edge.

  “And from what I hear he named you after a piece of meat!” she laughed once and added,

  “And you think I am worried that he will replace me!” She leaned forward and spoke the words that no longer had me smiling but instead looking close to murdering her.

  “I am merely worried for the spectacle my King makes in lowering his standards enough to take you to his bed!” Now she was the one smiling and I knew I had lost my edge with the anger I had shown on hearing this. She knew her words had got to me and that was one of the worst things you could do when dealing with a bully, but all the will in the world couldn’t have had me reacting any other way.

  After this heated exchange that was witnessed by everyone surrounding the pool, we were ushered out of the water as soon as Parmida could see what was going on and the fact that she was obviously failing in her task of keeping Draven’s bitch away from me. But the last thing heard out of Stateira’s mouth to me was a very obvious threat, one even Parmida couldn’t ignore.

  “Watch your back for soon you might be able to see the reflection of your death from the blade sticking out of it.” I wished at this point I had come back with something witty or at least equally as threatening but Parmida put a stop to it before it happened. Which brought me back to now and the conclusion of another full day down in this stink hole of poisonous beauty.

  I was at least thankful that I didn’t have to wait too long before the young servant girl came through my curtains with a tray of food, which as usual mainly consisted of fruit, nuts and something strange they called sweetmeats, which wasn’t meat at all. In fact, it was the opposite of meat and more like their version of candy that tasted of dried fruit caramelised in honey or crystallized brown sugar.

  “I have thought of a plan,” she informed me as she put down the tray on one of the flatter pillows that looked to be there for this purpose. I scooted closer and whispered excitedly,