AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The room he was in was literally a torture chamber. This house had been built centuries ago, in a time when certain practices had not yet been outlawed. It had belonged to an ancient, royal bloodline of witches and warlocks who had used this room to torture the innocent, the disrespectful, the traitors.
Roman had the utter misfortune of feeling their souls every time Donovan ordered his men to drag him down here. The auras of the tortured had long since vanished with death, but there were faint echoes of their suffering left behind, the kind of stain that could not be scrubbed clean with any passing of time. The soul-cutting anguish of those tortured people —visible only with a sixth sense—not only mirrored Roman’s own, but doubled it, making the hurt so much worse. Every strike had double the force. Every blow to the gut, every wooden paddle taken to his back, every searing lash of a belt.
Donovan liked to shackle him. The long chains were fastened to the high ceiling, the rusting cuffs so sharp they pierced Roman’s skin, biting in deeper the longer he hung here like some dead animal. Don let Simon and Trey have their fun with him first, and as soon as Roman was battered and blue to his liking, Don would come down for his own share.
Roman couldn’t wait until it was done. Until he could walk out of here and calm down Paxton. Dry his tears. Give him a hug or ten.
The kid did not deserve this.
Another scorching blow of the paddle across Roman’s back, and he damn near stopped breathing. Thick blood stringed out of his slackened jaws, and his eyelids drooped, threatening to shut. He fought the urge to pass out, willing himself to stay awake in case Donovan dragged Paxton down here to see. He’d done it before, several times. Taking delight in his youngest son watching his eldest suffer. Submit.
He had to stay awake.
His surroundings shimmered. His ears rang, his nostrils so plugged up with blood, he was forced to breathe through his mouth.
Fog swept in, darkening the already dark room—
Sometime ago, Trey and Simon had left. Minutes, maybe, or hours. Roman wasn’t sure. But when he opened his eyes again, chains tinkling under his weight as he swayed in place, feet barely touching ground, he saw a beam of light cut across the winding stairwell. Boots pounded, and Roman could tell from the pattern, the gap between steps, that his dad was coming down here.
His personal devil was coming.
Roman’s fear was so intense, darkness slammed into him—
He must have passed out again. He came to when a hand roughly nudged his face. His eyes slowly cracked open—
At the sight of Don standing before him, Roman recoiled, thrashing against the chains.
“You’re even more pathetic than before you fucked that Selkie out in the desert.” Donovan’s harsh voice slithered over the walls, his shadows echoing every word.
Pathetic, the shadows giggled. Fucked that Selkie.
Shit. Donovan knew.
Donovan fucking knew.
Shayla—
“Stay with me, son,” Donovan said, the words that would’ve sounded kind coming from anyone else’s mouth contrasting sharply with that awful, mocking, hateful tone. “I’m not through with you yet.”
No. No, not this—please, not this.
I’m here, Sayagul said from his shadow, but even she sounded terrified. I’m here with you, my dear Roman. I’m here.
Invisible claws pierced his mind, so sharp they felt like knives thudding into his skull with wicked force. Donovan’s magic dug in deep, and as they pushed even deeper, sinking into the center of his brain, awful, heartbreaking images flashed through Roman’s head.
His mother—lying dead on the bedroom floor in a pool of blood.
“Stop,” Roman ground out, spit and blood dripping from his lips.
Donovan’s claws did the opposite—digging in deeper.
Roman winced. Thrashed against the restraints.
And then the shadows in the room exploded into a massive storm—a literal storm of writhing darkness, so petrifying it made Roman almost piss himself.
Floating in that storm were the same images Donovan was forcing into his mind—making Roman see these memories with his eyes closed and open.
Helen Devlin, her gold eyes bolted open in death.
