I stared at him as my ears rang with his words. “He’s going to kill me,” I whispered. I’d fucking kill me. No one argued it as I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I nodded. “Thank you, Eliran. I owe you a debt.”
“No, you don’t. You should let me check you, you’re covered in blood.”
“It’s not mine,” I frowned.
“Erie, you took some pretty good blows to the head. You should let me make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine, I’ve had way worse,” I admitted absently, unable to process what or why Callaghan had tried to help me.
“Those were tended to by a healer. I’m a skilled healer; there’s no reason for you to suffer.”
“No, Eliran. This one I earned.” I turned to leave, and he grabbed my arm. “Don’t touch me!” I screamed as Zahruk stepped closer, perceiving me as a threat to his brother. “Please, please don’t ever touch me.”
“I’m sorry,” Eliran whispered as he stepped back, staring at me. “I had no idea you had red hair,” he said, and I frowned as I looked down, taking in the unruly mass of curls and wild hair. I lifted my face to find Zahruk studying me.
“Not everyone is offended by what the druids did to you. You’re rather wild and beautiful. There’s nothing you need to hide from us; we’re all covered in scars we didn’t ask for. You need to stop thinking as if they destroyed you with that pretty woad, and start fucking living. Stop being a fucking crybaby. You’re better than that,” Zahruk said.
“They did this to me when I was a child,” I growled defensively.
“And? So what, Erie? They painted your flesh, but they can’t touch your fucking soul. Only you decide what touches that.”
Callaghan had, even though he’d needed his mouth washed out with soap. I couldn’t even lie to myself about it. I looked at Zahruk and nodded, not bothering to answer him as I left them all in the newly built labs that they’d been working on to get the new Guild up and running. I wasn’t even sure why they did it, other than they seemed to need to keep moving forward.
I pushed through the outside doors and stopped on the top of the stairs, staring down at where the Knights stood, waiting for me. Swallowing hard, my gaze met the Knight who stood in front of the others, noting the way the anger rolled off of him. I closed my eyes, exhaling as I considered what to do, or where to run. I watched as one of the other Knights stepped forward, setting the white cooler at his feet, staring me down.
I stepped forward, my eyes glued to the cooler as I moved to stand in front of Callaghan. His hands fisted at his sides as I refused to meet his angry stare.
“Take her, and the cooler.” His words were cold, filled with something I’d never heard from him before. I turned my head, staring as Rhett stepped forward, his helmet barring me from seeing his eyes as his hand closed around my arm.
“No fight left in you this time?” Rhett asked.
“Would it matter?” I asked. “Would anything I want matter?”
He didn’t answer me, his hand tightening as we walked towards the waiting horses. I was pushed onto one, and I waited for Rhett to mount behind me, but he didn’t. Instead, Uther moved closer, grabbing my hands as he bound them in front of me.
“Can’t say you didn’t deserve this,” he uttered as he looked up at me. “You need to remember the past.”
“My past is filled with torture and horrible shit that never should be remembered, ever. Why would I ever wish to remember any of that?” I demanded.
“Because between it, when there was a calmness that scared you, he was there,” he muttered.
“Who?” I asked.
“You fucking done, Uther? It doesn’t matter; it wouldn’t change anything,” Callaghan snapped as he pushed the other man away and pulled the rope tight, pulling a hiss from my lips. “Onward,” he shouted as I turned, staring at Zahruk, who watched me from the shadows. I nodded to him, watching as Callaghan followed my stare. “You think he can save you? I assure you, not even the Fae will stand between you and me. Not because they wouldn’t want to, but because even the Gods cannot and will not save you from me. Nine months, Erie. Nine months and you can walk away and live your life.”
Chapter 22
Inside the Order’s compound, I was shoved into a shower by a woman who would have given the men a run for their money. I could have fought, but what was the point when they had Fred. Callaghan knew if he took him, I’d go. He’d exploited the weakness I’d allowed to slip without meaning it to. He had used it to bring me here, to bring me to this place where I was nothing and no one other than a womb to be used.
I showered and slipped into the green scrubs they gave me, not bothering to use glamour to hide the marks that marred my flesh. I turned, eyeing the woman who flinched as she took in the pain clearly visible without the blood covering my face.
“This way,” she said. Silently, I followed behind her as we made our way through white hallways and rooms lit by fluorescent lightbulbs that buzzed. Men moved about as others stood guard at every exit we passed. “They’ve tripled the guards and sealed every way in or out of the compound just for you. If you’re thinking to escape, know that it won’t happen.”
Her words didn’t deserve an answer, so I remained silent until we stopped in front of a room. I was led inside, and once there, I stared at the chains that adorned the medical bed. I jumped up on it, sealing one hand before I held my other out as she sealed it. Her chocolate brown eyes held mine briefly before she shook her head and stepped back.
“They will be in shortly to run some tests.”
“Callaghan?” I asked.
“He is not within the compound at this time,” she said. “He’s gone hunting.”
“Oh,” I said.
“She’s ready,” she said into an intercom. Her eyes rested on me a moment before she turned, leaving the room and me in it.
Men moved into the room. One that seemed familiar, and then Rhett slid inside, leaning against the wall as he positioned himself to observe. I watched as a tray of needles was laid onto another tray. A shiver snaked down my spine as one of the men in scrubs stepped closer, wrapping a band around my arm before he tied it off and then pushed the needle into my arm. Tube after tube was filled with my blood as he undid the tourniquet and then slid the needle out, then he pushed the tubes into a machine, and they started spinning.
“Her urine was negative,” he said to the other man. He pushed a button on the machine and then read the paper it spit out. “Blood is negative, as well.”
“I figured as much,” the older man muttered as he turned towards me, lifting my shirt they began to inject needle after needle into my stomach. “This will keep her subdued, as well as safe to remain in the compound. The other injections will create a fertile uterus for the fetus.”
“How many fucking shots do you plan to give her?” Rhett growled as he watched them.
I moaned as my body became numb, and my mind turned fuzzy. My mouth was dry, like the entire Sahara Desert had decided to relocate to it. I closed my eyes, laughing as I envisioned the desert and the sun covering my flesh in heated kisses while animals danced around us.
“The fuck is happening?”
“Side effects of too much of the nulling medication would be my guess. Douglas wanted her unable to use the magic within the compound. The only way to manage that is to almost overdose her on it. He was aware of it.”
“This is going to piss Mason off,” he uttered.
“Mason is on board with the plan. He said she’s unsafe here,” he argued.
I didn’t care. Pink bunnies were bouncing and dancing around me. I laughed louder, my hands moving to catch them as they continued to dance just out of my reach. Unicorns played in the waves on the beach and Fred was bouncing over the sand as he made his way to where I lay, watching them all frolic. Frolic? What the fuck? I blinked, turning to stare at Rhett, and h
is head grew larger, expanding as his hair shook. My gaze narrowed as I took in the wrongness unfolding.
“Help me,” I whispered. “Help.”
More and more drugs were injected. I turned my head, throwing up until everything went haywire. My body bucked and lifted from the bed at an odd angle, slamming against it as the chains on my arms sliced through my flesh and foam started to explode from my throat. The room spun around me, and my scream erupted as pain ripped through me until everything became too much.
“She’s overdosing,” the male said calmly, pushing a syringe into my chest.
“Mason didn’t agree for you to fucking kill her, and she doesn’t come back like we do, assholes. She has to fucking heal completely from within. That’s enough fucking drugs.”
“We need to finish the fertility medications,” he said calmly as I lay there, staring at the wall, foam continuing to drip from my mouth. “She has to be fertile when Mason returns, or Douglas will want to know why and who stopped it.”
“Fine, but nothing else,” Rhett snarled. “She can’t cast or ovulate if she’s dead, and if she’s dead, so are we.”
Hours of shots and temperatures taken later, I was unchained from the table, and Rhett helped me to stand up as the room spun around me. He supported my weight as he washed my face off and then tossed the rag into the trash bin.
He moved us down winding hallways that led deeper into the compound, underground with flickering lights. I swallowed bile as memories and hallucinations started to combine. I muttered to Fred, but when I looked up, it was Rhett, and even though his mouth moved, I couldn’t make out what he said past the ringing in my ears.
Once we reached the lowest level, he turned on the light and cameras beeped to life in each corner of the room. He moved towards the glass room that sat in the center of it, and I screamed, fighting against him as everything inside of me came to life. I scratched, ripping at his flesh as I sobbed and screamed while he pushed me into the room and slammed the door closed behind me. He watched me as I stared out at him as a sob of horror erupted.
“No, not again, no!” I screamed. I ripped at my hair as I fell to the ground, screaming as fear and pain collided, and then everything just stopped. Blackness consumed me as memories replayed in my mind, and I stared, unseeing, through the glass at the kids who laughed and hurt me, watching me die over and over again.
Chapter 23
I wasn’t sure how long I lay there on the cold concrete floor. Hours, days, longer? It seemed endless. Men would come, prod me, check my temperature, and then just as quickly as they had come, they vanished again. I know I stopped living on that floor. The fear and pain that had taken me back to my childhood dug in so deep that I couldn’t escape it. I couldn’t move to get up off of the floor. I lay there, unmoving, uncaring what happened as memories flooded my mind, slamming in harder with each one.
Rhett would come once in a while, speaking to me through the glass, but I never talked back. I wasn’t sure if I even blinked anymore. I never answered any of them when they spoke, because they weren’t real. None of this was real. I stayed on the floor, unable to move as if my spine had been severed again. Days into my captivity, I heard him.
A pounding on the glass forced my sightless eyes to focus, and they touched upon the blue eyes as familiar as my own. I pushed off the ground, staring at Callaghan as he shouted for the key. His eyes filled with pain as he took in my dirty body, my matted hair, and I growled, walking towards him weakly. His hand turned flat against the glass, and I stared at it before I looked back at him.
“I’m getting you out of there,” he growled, and I laughed.
My head slammed against the glass as I stared at him, watching the horror play out on his face as hit after hit smashed against the glass until it cracked. I dropped to my knees, staring at him while the room spun around me. My body dropped and then shouting erupted. I exhaled the pain, breathing in death, the familiar tang of it soothing me to the nothingness I craved. Everything within me closed down, even his touch as he grabbed me from the cell and started carrying me to the medical ward.
Callaghan
I’d killed Arthur over and over again, hunting him and his men down until the fight within me fled, and yet Rhett’s incessant calls continued. I’d ignored it, knowing damn well it was about her. The one woman in this world who could kill me, and I couldn’t bring myself to fight her anymore. I’d ignored it over and over again until Uther had slammed his hand against my chest.
“Your girl is in trouble,” he growled.
“She isn’t my girl anymore,” I snapped coldly. “She doesn’t want me; I can’t keep dancing around it with her.”
“Nah, she doesn’t. She doesn’t want anything. She won’t eat, she doesn’t speak, and she pissed herself,” he snarled back.
“What?” I asked as I wiped the blood from my sword on the cloak of the last traitor I’d slaughtered moments earlier.
“You heard me; she isn’t functioning. They threw her into that fucking cage, and she just stopped everything.”
“What cage? She’s supposed to be in my room, which I’m sure she has fucking destroyed by now.”
“Your father wouldn’t allow it until you returned. It was too much trouble to have her that far away from the medical ward; something about temperatures and tests. He tossed her into some fucking glass box that Arthur had made last year to house magical beings.”
“What fucking box?” I demanded as I started for my mount.
“Apparently, he had a room made of glass. Said that it was needed for a special breed of magic wielders, and had the scientist build it last year.”
“Is Erie in a glass fucking room? Tell me they weren’t that fucking stupid!” I shouted as everything inside of me went deadly calm, and I imagined her inside of it, locked into that fucking room she’d been placed in as a mere child.
“Your father assured them that it would withstand her magic in the event that the injections didn’t work.”
I rounded on him, punching him in the face even though it wasn’t his fault. “Erie was in a cage like that when I found her after they’d snapped her fucking spine while beating her. Why the hell would he do that?”
“I’m guessing because Arthur told him it would hold her, should you fail to impregnate her.”
“Let’s fucking go,” I snapped as I mounted the horse, taking off before the others had a chance to catch up. Once they closed in around me, we rode through the clusterfuck apocalypse as if the riders of hell had been freed and were given chase. “How long has she been in there?” I shouted over the thundering hooves.
“Since she got there,” Uther answered, and my stomach flipped before it sank.
She wouldn’t be easy to deal with after being in that cage, if she even fucking came back from it this time. Last time, she’d been so fucking gone by the time I’d found her that she’d wasted away to nothing more than an emaciated skeleton, unable to die.
At the gates, I shouted out the orders, never slowing the horse until I was at the steps, pushing past those who watched or waited to see what we brought back. The hallways were crowded as I forced myself through them, heading directly to the elevator and slamming my finger into the button as the others caught up to me.
“You need to calm down; you can’t help her like this.” I glared at Uther, the one man who should have told me the moment he’d learned of it. “No, no, you don’t get to put this shit on me or anyone else. I wasn’t the one who ignored the calls or the emergency notifications that Rhett has been sending you for days. You ignored it because you’re fucking furious that your girl isn’t yours at all.” We entered the elevator, and I glared at him. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I get that what she did was harsh, and out of every time she’d ever killed you, there had never been malice involved until now. That girl is fighting for her freedom, something she knows she needs, and
yet realizes she’s never tasted. Even England realized the horror of that when the Scots refused to kneel. The Irish were the same, a rare breed that doesn’t know how to surrender.”
We hit the bottom level, and I pushed past them, heading straight for where they’d have placed the cell. I could make out her matted hair, the filth of her clothes, and the weight she’d lost in the few days I’d been gone.
“Where’s the fucking key?” I snapped, staring down at her as she lifted those sightless eyes towards where I stood. “Erie,” I whispered as I watched her stand up, rising to her feet. I flinched at the emptiness in her eyes as she placed her head against the glass where my hand rested. “I’ve got you. I’m getting you out of there.”
I turned, staring at Uther, who was flinching and recoiling against the mess she’d become. I didn’t care if she was covered in filth; I wanted her out of the fucking box right fucking now. I turned, looking back at her as her head slammed against the glass. Blood covered the glass as, again and again, her face smashed into it, her sightless eyes glazed over.
“Bloody hell,” Uther whispered. “The fucking key now or I’ll take your godforsaken nuts!” he shouted into the intercom as the room exploded into motion. Her legs gave out, and then she fell to her side, blood pouring from her mouth, nose, and eyes.
The moment the door opened, I was inside, picking her up, rushing her towards the medical ward. I didn’t say a thing. Uther shouted orders as I placed her on a table and pushed her hair away from her face, hissing as I took in the swelling and shattered bones in her cheeks and forehead.
“Move,” the medical staff shouted, but I didn’t fucking budge. I kneeled, holding her hand as I prayed to the Gods to save her, to bring her back from where she’d gone in order to survive the cage again.
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