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No. Right here was good. Right here, we’d found peace in this hell.
We’d been sitting like this for maybe an hour, or maybe it was only a few minutes. Time didn’t exist anymore, only pure agony and pain. Sie leaned against the dirty cell wall as I sat in between his legs. My back resting on his chest, my head turned toward the nape of his neck. The cell was positioned in the corner of the main room, enough so that the table wasn’t in view. There were rusty bars to our makeshift prison, so we could see Kole, and he could see us. I tried not to look.
I wanted to lift my head to look at Sie, but I didn’t have the energy, so I just curled up into him, embracing the only warmth this place had to offer. Sie wrapped his arms around my chest, holding me tight, and hadn’t let go since. The hold was awkward with both of our chains getting in the way, but I wanted to be close to him. I felt terrible that they’d captured him because of me, but a selfish part of me was grateful that we would go together. I didn’t have to die alone. I felt safer with him here, even though I knew deep down he couldn’t do anything to save me or get us out of this situation.
We didn’t say anything to one another. We didn’t dare speak. So we sat there, curled into one another, and held on, savoring this last moment.
Kole threw his plate away, rubbed his hands against his pants, and stalked toward us. They’d changed, all his men had as their previous attire was stained with our blood. Now they were rested and fed, ready for another day of this nightmare or to finally end it.
The cell bars groaned open as Kole stepped forward. Sie’s grip around my chest tightened.
“I think the time has come, Sie, for you to watch your wife die,” Kole said with a smile as he grabbed me by my hair and pulled us apart. I screamed as he dragged me across the stone floor, my knees scraping against my already raw flesh.
I saw Sie move out of the corner of my eye. He fought the males around him. He fought without any abilities, his shackles barely hindering him as he tore into Kole’s men, ripping them apart, trying to get to me.
Kole yelled, “Fucking inject him. Inject him now!”
A needle flashed in the morning sun. Then a grunt came, and I heard more than saw Sie fall to his knees. The injection rendered him powerless. With the tonic running through his veins and the shackles on his wrists, he could do nothing but watch. He wasn’t going to save me.
“I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill every single one of you if you hurt her!” Sie screamed.
Kole just smiled and continued to drag me toward the center of the warehouse. Toward a tub of water that wasn’t there before.
“I wouldn’t doubt you. I know what you are capable of firsthand from my night in the dungeon cell. But you see, even if you broke out of those Alluse shackles now, it would be too late. My men injected you with the Vir Alluse serum. You will find in a few minutes that you won’t have any power left circulating in your veins for a long, long time.”
I struggled against Kole’s tight grip on my hair as he lifted me. My eyes briefly met Sie’s frantic stare before Kole plunged my head into the cold water.
I kicked and pushed as hard as I could against him, but his grip held firm, keeping my head submerged in the water. He was killing me. Drowning me. I could hear Sie screaming, I could hear him struggling against the men and the chains, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
Kole’s voice came through, muffled by the water, “Bring him closer. I want him to watch this.”
I fought against his death grip, but it was useless. I could feel Kole’s chest heaving as he laughed at my efforts. “Watch her.”
My head started to throb. My lungs burned and ached as I felt my chest caving in on itself. Air. I needed air. I fought the urge to open my mouth. I knew it would only make things worse with the water rushing in, filling the space as I struggled to breathe.
I would have been crying from the pain, but I couldn’t muster the strength. My tears would just blend in with the water, going unnoticed. My fighting against Kole grew weaker and weaker as the seconds dragged on. I was going to die. I was already dying. Weakened from the hours of torture, I could barely fight against Kole’s strong hold.
This was wrong. I wanted to die in Sie’s arms, not Kole’s.
He pushed me further into the tub until my legs were the only thing not submerged. My neck was twisted, and my face was pressed against the slick bottom surface. The burning in my lungs overtook any common sense I had left as I opened my mouth and swallowed. The water came rushing in.
Maybe it would end this torture sooner. Maybe I would die sooner if I just gave up.
I expected more pain, but instead, my lungs expanded. I could breathe. The fire in my chest extinguished. I thought I might already be dead, but then Kole pressed my head further against the tub, his grip tightening around the nape of my neck. I opened my eyes. I was still underwater.
I could breathe underwater.My Luxian ability was water.
My head stopped throbbing as I greedily breathed in the water like air. I could see, smell, and hear everything around me now. The water was no longer blurring my senses but enhancing them.
I could finally hear what Sie was screaming, “I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you.” I could feel his anger stir in me. I heard him fighting against the chains that kept him down.
I fought Kole for a few more seconds, this time acting in pain before I let my body slump. Kole, thinking I had drowned, let me fall. He dropped his hold on me as I slid onto the stone floor. I could feel him watching me as he turned my body over with his boot. The upper half of me was soaking wet. Sie fell silent.
If Kole thought I was dead, maybe I could attack him when he wasn’t expecting it. So I laid there, listening and waiting.
“Such a pity that she was born a nix. Shewasgorgeous,” Kole tsked. “Was it worth it, Prince? Was she worth it?” I could feel Sie staring, I could hear his ragged breaths, but he didn’t respond. A slap sounded, then another. “Answer me!”
“You will die for this.” Sie’s voice was deep and promised bloodshed.
