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“I—Meridei—” I glance to my left and have to do a double take. Make sure my eyes aren’t betraying me.
Dessin is chained to the wall by his wrists. And he—he looks surprised to see me, like he accepted his fate to be tortured in this room alone. A flash of shock and disgust passes over his face. Eyes covered in storm clouds. Jaw locking down in outrage.
“The only thing you should be saying to me is thank you,” Meridei says, glaring down at me. “You didn’t want to watch him get fried in electroshock, then you’ll be happy to know that this time,”—she leans down to speak to me like a child that hasn’t learned to walk yet—“he gets to watch you.”
Ohhh, Dessin is going to end her.
I can’t look back to see his reaction. Meridei has my chin pinched between her thumb and index finger, digging her nails into me to the point of pain.
Just get it over with then.
She must have heard my thoughts, because her chin flicks to the orderlies behind me and I’m towed upward, aligned in the center of the room. It happens before I can object. My brass shackles unlocked and falling to the floor in a clanking heap, only to be replaced by another set of old, rusted shackles that are instantly snapped tight to my bone.
And I’m truly a puppet now. The chains are attached to the high ceiling, looped through a hook that allows the orderlies to pull my chains until my toes are dangling an inch above the floor.
I groan at the ripping pain in my wrists as they bear all my weight. And without meaning to, I look up at Dessin, chained to the wall in front of me. They gave him a front-row seat. And even though his expression is blank, unreadable. His knuckles are stark white. The rage of an alpha spills over his large, brooding frame. Beastly fury pumps silently through the veins bulging from his tan arms. And they’re ripped, like trunks of a tree emerging from the earth.
But he has to contain it. We’ve come too far in the past couple of days to ruin it all now. All I need is to get someone to reach out to Judas. Someone to—
Ruth! She must know I’m here. Maybe if I can catch a quick glimpse of her in the hallways, I can get her a message.
“Cut it off. We’ll replace it when she’s done,” Meridei barks at the orderly, nodding at my patient gown. The man with a groomed black beard takes two steps toward me, tearing through my white fabric with a blade I didn’t see in his hand.
I yelp as he tosses the shredded white material to the floor, leaving me hanging in only a medical white bra and underwear. It certainly isn’t as flattering as the lace Runa lent me.
I wonder if I hear Dessin growl under his breath.
“You think a good flogging or whipping will get those pesky demons out of you, Sky?”
I hate her. I really hate her.
“What about you, Thirteen?” Meridei glances over her shoulder, dark intent playing over those coy thin lips. “Break her body with a club? Or slice that pretty skin open with a whip?”
To my surprise, Dessin cracks a smirk. “You think it’s wise to provoke me?”
A warning. A strike of lightning shooting across the sky. A plague in the making.
Meridei is smart enough to take pause, considering his words with pursed lips and steadying breaths. She turns to me, holding her hand out to the orderly. “A whip it is, then.”
My eyes fall closed. Don’t cry. Don’t beg. At least it’s me and not him.
Before I can take a deep breath in, prepare for the impact of leather to skin—I’m struck. A strip of fire is ignited across my stomach. It’s a failed attempt on my part to stay quiet because the yelp bursts from my throat like vomit.
The next lash is across my chest. And the pain sweeps over my entire nervous system, forcing out a whimper. My face crumples in a tight point of agony, and I have to will myself to keep my eyes open. I release a determined breath.
I can do this.
But as the third strike wraps around my back, I’m screaming. Fire eating away my flesh, burning through my nerve endings like an infectious disease.
I really fucking hate her!
Dessin has broken his streak of stoic silence. He’s grunting now, yanking at the chains bolted to the wall like a wild animal that hasn’t been fed in days. He’s baring his teeth, snarling at every lash, at every sound of anguish that rips from my lips. I’m sure this is it. He’s going to free himself, wrap his broad, deadly hands around her neck and with one swift movement. Snap! The last unholy noise will be of her body hitting the floor.
And although I don’t agree with him killing… I wouldn’t blink. Wouldn’t lose a second of sleep over it.
The hurdle of her arm meets my neck, punching the air from my lungs. My head falls forward in an effort to suck in oxygen. And that’s not the worst of it. The stinging pain is radiating over every inch of flesh now. Even if that area hadn’t been lashed yet, it still burns like a white-hot branding iron the same.
“Meridei!” Dessin is a disaster waiting to wipe out the room. “Another move and I will rip that arm off with my teeth.”
