Even without the looming height of the Senith Cliffs, I highly doubted anyone in their right mind would cross them.
Dahes didn’t react, didn’t move a muscle, but the gasps from the other two girls had me whipping my head toward them. They started to transform. Their skin started to reshape, the blood disappearing. I couldn’t see the black grains on them, but if any of the sand was stuck to their clothes, it was now gone.
He was healing them. I tried not to react, tried not to show how envious I was with how stiff my body felt.
But he wouldn’t heal me. He never had from a hunt before. My ongoing theory was that he relished in my suffering. I always found his eyes on me more whenever I was injured.
“Hair holds memories,” the sister said after she inspected her siblings. Her green eyes turned back to Dahes. “A vision from the past will require a single strand of hair plucked from the scalp of the dead.I’m assuming, being the ruler of them, you won’t find that too difficult to acquire.”
Dahes’ eyes narrowed. “I want a vision of the future.”
The other two sisters shifted as the third held her ground. “We don’t do those readings. They’re?—”
“I’m aware that readings of the future were banned by your king. It left you in poverty. No one cares about the past. As soon as you stopped reading the future, the three of you moved from the Second Province to the Fourth. From there, starvation led you to steal, which is why you’re now standing in my kingdom.” One of the sisters shifted from foot to foot, the other narrowed her eyes, while the third looked down at her feet. He struck a nerve.
“I’m also aware the methods are…” He paused, thinking over a word, “Grotesque.” He was smiling now, and my stomach flipped. “But Elion isn’t your king anymore,I am, and if you want to leave this room alive,” he continued, “youwilltell me what is needed for the reading and get on with it.”
I heard one of their breaths hitch, but I had no idea which triplet it came from. They all looked uncomfortable.
“The sight of the future requires a sacrifice from the living, of the seeing. We would need someone’s eye.”
“An eye?”
“Yes.”
Dahes rose from his throne, and I couldn’t breathe. He was walking toward me, his gaze honed on mine.
Fuck. Was he going to take my eye? I went to retreat, but his voice entered my mind.“Do not move away from me, Magnolia.”
It felt unnatural, his voice hitting every nerve in my body and twisting it as his order sang through me. My breathing hitched as every fiber of my being screamed at me to run even though my feet stopped, his compulsion working against me. I was stuck in place, forced to stand still as he walked across the empty throne room.
It was another part of our deal I made a mistake on. I didn’t realize when he said I would have to obey him that he meant itliterally. I thought he would just give me orders, and while he did do that, Iphysicallycouldn’t refuse him. Whatever he told me to do, I did. I was his puppet on strings. His obedient pet. His mindless slave.
My body didn’t react on its own anymore.
Most of the time I obeyed him without him needing to use it, and I swore he got off on the fact that I was willingly doing what he wanted, that he controlled me in every aspect.
I had seen firsthand that being rebellious only made things horrendously worse. But every now and then, he reminded me that I had no choice, my free will was frayed, and I was literally forced to obey.
I was trapped. He made sure of it.
It felt like an eternity until Dahes was standing before me. A single tear slid down my cheek as I looked into his white eyes. I couldn’t help it. I tried not to show any emotion around him, but the thought of him ripping my eye out?—
My breathing turned ragged. I was hyperventilating, on the verge of passing out. I started to brace myself for the pain…
Dahes leaned down until his breath was against my face. It was never foul smelling like the monsters and beasts he ruled over, but reminded me of mint. It made me hate the scent. “Go into the streets and bring me back a civilian.” My head whipped up to his. His gaze was blank, assessing, watchful.
“What?” I breathed, barely getting the word out.
“Bring me someone. Anyone you choose. You have one hour, Magnolia, or I will take that beautiful gray eye of yours.”
I still couldn’t move.
It wasn’t until he entered my mind again and murmured,“Your time has already started, little ghost,”before I bolted toward the doors.
I roamed the streets over and over, making the same turns on repeat in Salvira until I was walking circles around one of the bridges. My breathing hadn’t slowed, and I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to pass out.
I was bringing back a person to get their eye ripped out.How could I pick someone for that?I kept scanning the crowds as people walked past me, and I couldn’t decide. But if I didn’t pick someone, he’d ripmyeye out. I knew he would.
