Hael went silent.
“You were already seen by half my court, and rumors have spiraled of the two of you spending the night together.” Elion’s eyes were narrowed, and each word was clipped. “So you will be brought in together. For now, Nollie is a spectator, since she hasn’t formally been accepted into my court.” His gaze turned toward me, and I couldn’t breathe. “If I decide to keep you, you will learn and abide by my rules. Is that understood?”
I nodded as I felt his gaze still honed on me.
“Words, Nollie.”
I looked up, meeting his stare. “Yes, King Elion.”
He smiled then, but it was far from warm.
“Bring them both,” he ordered.
I wasn’tsure where we were going, but I wasn’t expecting the throne room, or for it to be filled with an entire crowd.
My gut plummeted when I saw chains suspended from the ceiling.
King Elion’s hand pressed against my back as he murmured in my ear. “You will sit with me and watch.”
I was hardly breathing.
It felt too familiar.
Hael walked over to the chains, taking off his shirt and tossing it to the ground before two Wielders clamped shackles over his wrists. My eyes roamed over his bare abdomen before landing on a necklace dangling past his chest. I couldn’t make out the engravings, but the entire thing was golden and glinted against his dark complexion.
Murmurs were ringing throughout the crowd, and I felt so many pairs of eyes on me, but I could only look at one. Hael was staring right back, and I had no idea what he was thinking or what I was about to witness.
Elion held his hand up and everyone quieted. “Arrik, care to announce your crimes?”
Hael raised his head, his chains rattling, but he didn’t say anything.
“I didn’t think so,” Elion murmured, then addressed the crowd. “I have gathered you all here this morning because Hael Arrik broke my rules.”
“Rules are meant to be obeyed,” the entire room chanted in unison, and the whole thing was hauntingly practiced, like the hypnotic words were carrying weight, pressing down on the air, and tightening my chest to the point of suffocation.
“Rules broken under the general law, first degree, pay the penalty of ten lashes.” As Elion spoke a door opened at the far end of the room, and a large man wearing a black mask slowly stalked in, dragging a whip with spikes embedded into the end. Every inch of him was covered, even down to the leather gloves he wore, but I didn’t need to properly see him to know he was drowning in muscles, that his arms could shred bodies.
Hael didn’t react, didn’t even seem surprised, while I felt like the walls were closing in on me.
“Hael Arrik has broken two of my rules. The first, interfering with my orders to train Nollie.” He gestured toward the man in the mask.
Elion barely finished saying my name when the spiked whip raised above his head before it came crashing down against his back.
I staggered backward like I was the one hit as the sound of it whooshed through the air. The next second, bones crunched as splattersof blood shot around Hael, but the whip was stuck, the spikes embedded into his spine.
Another heartbeat and the man jerked the whip, yanking it from Hael’s back as more blood poured onto the ground. Hael cursed, his body bending forward slightly, sagging against the chains.
Each time the whip flayed his back, my own feet staggered backward as if I could feel the bite in my own skin as it carved into his. My stomach heaved, bile threatening to rise, but the crowd didn’t flinch. They drank it in how I imagined they would one of the Vivenian plays.
Entertainment.
It wasn’t until the tenth strike flayed more skin and cracked bones that I thought it was finally over.
King Elion looked back at me, then flicked two fingers as two men pushed at my back, forcing me forward again.
“The second rule broken,” Elion paused, letting a silence fill the room. “Taking a Wielder into MonClem.”
Gasps rang out among the crowd.
