I didn’t want to die.
Not like that.
Then his mouth touched my neck. Not with a kiss. A bite. Hard enough to slip my skin open. It felt like he’d torn my throat open with his teeth.
The pain came fast. Sharp. Hot.
Then I felt it. Cold steel pressed to my throat—the knife I had stabbed him with. He was going to kill me with my own knife, in my own home.
"Shhh," he whispered, holding a finger to his lips.
The blade kissed my skin and I felt the sting. The warmth of blood spilling out as the cold sank deeper.
I wasn’t really there whenithappened.
Not really.
My body was in that room, but my mind had floated far away.
Somewhere safer. Somewhere warm and unreachable. A place where pain couldn’t follow.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t scream. Couldn’t even cry.
I didn’t hear the rip of fabric.
Didn’t feel his hands.
Didn’t smell the stench of his breath or the sweat on his neck.
My mind had already gone. It had to. It was easier to pretend I was somewhere else than to witness what was happening. I imagined a knight on horseback. Someone riding through fire and ruin to save me. Someone strong enough to stop it.
To stop him.
It was the only way I could survive.
How else could I go on, knowing they had taken everything? How was I supposed to live in a world with men who, at any moment, could turn into monsters?
They had no horns.
No claws.
Just hands.
The dream was mercy.
“There’s leftovers, if you’re still hungry.” I heard Arche scoff through the haze of my mind. His voice sounded like it came from the edge of the world.
“Still warm,” he said.
Boots scraped across the floor, but the sound of laughter scraped at my soul.
My body didn’t move. It was limp. Useless. Pain blurred at the edges of everything, slipping further away as my mind clung to the dream.
It was the only place none of them could reach me. Somewhere far from the ruin. Somewhere the warmth didn’t hurt.
But even the dream began to twist as heat pressed against my skin, and smoke crawled down my throat.
At first it was just a tickle. Barely there. Easy to ignore. But, then it thickened. Turned sharp. Choking.
