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I sobbed and tried to crawl away from rogue hands and prying eyes, but I was tied to the ground with strands of fiery lightning. I screamed in agony, and the ropes only cut deeper. Then Reyna appeared, handing her whip to Ladon. She didn’t have to speak for me to understand her command. Ladon understood just as well, grabbing the whip and holding it high above his head.
I avoided his gaze as he brought it down. I didn’t think I could handle the wrath I saw in his silver eyes. Wrath that wasn’t his own, but a mere figment of my twisted imagination. I screamed again as lightning ripped through my body, burning me alive from the inside out.
I thrashed, body arching off the floor while I begged for it to stop. Another blinding flash of lightning jolted me awake, but it wasn’t immediately clear if it had been a dream. It might’ve been a hallucination.
My panic slowly subsided while the room came into focus. It took several more minutes for my heart to stop pounding and my hands to stop trembling. Shadows of the horrifying pain lingered, but they were slowly fading.
When I had finally calmed down, an urgent need pressed on my bladder. I needed to relieve myself, but there was no bathroom to use. Not even a portable chamber pot. I rose on shaky legs and slid my leggings down, hovering over the bowl that had held my broth.
Since I was so dehydrated, it was able to hold the contents of my bladder without overflowing. I hovered a few extra moments before pulling my leggings back on. Then I sniffled, wishing I’d been given toilet paper.
And socks. My feet were so fucking cold, it was unbearable. My shoulders ached, and I thought it was from the incessant shivering. Not to mention the ever-present sting on my back. Like a sunburn but ten times worse.
I moved toward the door and ran my hands along the crease. I’m not sure what I was hoping to find. Some magical opening that would allow me to free myself. But all I found was a tight seal.
Resting my forehead against the door, I closed my eyes and wished I still had my magic. I’m not sure how I would’ve used it in this specific situation, but at least I wouldn’t have felt so hopeless. And trapped.
Desperate for something to hold on to, some ounce of resilience, I began to walk the exterior of the room. I ran my hand along the rough and uneven stone, still not quite certain what I was searching for. I’d made it halfway around the room when I heard the door shift.
I made a quick lunge for it, forgetting that I was still healing. My jaw clenched, and I doubled over in pain. When I heard the sound of laughter, I looked up.
Luther was standing above me, his figure dark and contrasting with the light coming from behind him. He sat a new tray on the ground before picking up the old one. Noticing the bowl of urine, he shot me an unamused glare.
I shot it right back.
“If you bothered to give me a chamber pot, I wouldn’t have to use the dishes.”
He narrowed his eyes, but I thought I detected a subtle nod, and hoped the next time he returned would be with a proper basin and maybe something to wipe with, if I was lucky.
Still aching all over, I shuffled toward the meal I’d been brought. Broth and a tiny cup of water again. I stared at it, hoping if I glared long enough, then it might turn into a full feast of roasted chicken, vegetables, and pie.
Unsurprisingly, it did not.
It took all of ten minutes to finish devouring the soup and glass of water. With nothing else to do, I laid down and curled into a ball. Despite the cold and the pain I still felt all over my body, I managed to fall asleep in minutes.
I was certain I’d been in this cell for days. Maybe even more than a week. I attempted to count the days using meals as a marker, but they were brought intermittently. Sometimes it felt like four or five hours, and other times it felt as if a whole day had gone by before I got another feeding of broth.
It was always night inside the cell. Always dark with the smallest flicker of light emitting from a single lamp. And it was always quiet. So disturbingly quiet that I could hear my own thoughts. I even wondered sometimes if I was talking aloud. If I was going mad inside these four walls.
On the bright side, I was given a chamber pot after the unfortunate incident with the soup bowl. However, I was not given anything to clean myself with and the basin wasn’t taken frequently, so I pushed it to one corner of the room while I did my best to stay on the other side.
As I lay on my side on the floor, drawing circles in the dust, I wondered how long Reyna intended to keep me in here. Forever? Until she was no longer angry at my actions? She didn’t seem like the type to forgive and forget. If I had to guess; I was going to die in this cell.
I recalled the reason I was thrown in here to begin with. It was stupid to bait her like that. I knew perfectly well that she would react poorly to the obvious chemistry between Ladon and me. I knew it would turn her into a jealous, raging bitch. But I couldn’t help myself.
I smiled while writing his name with my finger. Did I regret it? Maybe a little. Not because I didn’t want to feel his body against mine. But because I was afraid I never would again. Not while I was locked far away from him.
Did he think I was dead? Was he dead? I squeezed my eyes shut, attempting to blink away the thought. What had she done to him after I’d passed out? I convinced myself that she wouldn’t kill him. She enjoyed toying with him too much to get rid of him.
Tears welled in my eyes, and I erased his name.
I don’t know how long I’d been staring at the wall. Everything seemed to blend together. Every glistening pane of rock. Every shadow and crevice. It all danced and swirled in my tear-filled eyes.
My eyes traveled along the lines and ridges of the jagged rocks. It was like a city map. Full of crossing paths and open spaces. One crack in the rock looked vaguely familiar. I continued following the lines, but something tugged on my mind, bringing me back to that crack.
I sat upright. I wasn’t as sore as when I’d arrived days ago, but I was severely dehydrated and on the verge of starving. Every movement took more effort than it should’ve.
I crawled over to the familiar-looking mark in the rock. Not a crack at all. It was etched into the surface. I recognized it, along with the series of runes next to it.
