His hand comes swinging. A savage slap. My world shakes. I see white. My ear rings like a struck bell. For a moment, everything seems distant. Darkness nips at the edge of my vision.
“Please,” I gasp. “Please.”
Another titanic slap. On the other side.
“I told you,” he snarls, swinging again.
I taste blood. My neck might snap if he keeps going. I panic. Kicking and snapping my teeth, hoping to bite any part of him. My life is over. I’m fucking done.
“I told you I would make you squirm.”
He punches me in the face before standing. I’m confused, dazed. Up and down. No clue. My hair gets tugged before a searing pain rips through my scalp. Vidar is pulling me by my hair across the floor. I try to spin, to stand, but he yanks me down. My hair tingles like fire. Excruciating.
“Please,” I whisper, but he can’t even hear me.
Metal clanking. I know that sound all too well. A fucking chain. No fucking chance. Never again.
Vidar sits over my stomach. We make eye contact. A wicked grin splits his face.
“We’re not done,” he says. He places a hand on my forehead and pushes my head down on the ground, leaning forward to whisper in my ear. “We’ve only just begun.”
A feral vibration builds in my chest. My arm is free. I hiss like a cat. Like a lynx. I reach into my leather satchel. I feel the warmth of my gold. My necklace.
Vidar laughs.
“So desperate.”
I remember my moment in the darkness of the river. The cold. Alone. Disconnected. But cold isn’t what I need now. I need heat. I need fire.
In the river. No. Out of the river.
Ari’s hand. Pulling me up. The heat of the furs we shared. His hand. Raising me out of the cold.Kilda will live forever.
The necklace burns hot in my hand. I feel its searing heat, but I don’t pull back. I am not afraid. This is me. Mine.Mypower. I grip it tighter, ripping it out of the bag.
Vidar raises an arm. To swing again. To hurt me.
But I am ready. I am faster.
I lift the necklace. It would melt if it were hotter.
I mush it into Vidar’s cheek. Into his eye. A beastly roar escapes my chest as I push the burning gold into his face.
He shrieks, pulling back and bringing a hand to his wound. The smell of cooked flesh taints the air. I slip out from under him. He stays on his knees, holding his fried face.
“Bitch!” he screams.
“Bitch!” I shout back as I smash the lynx necklace into the back of his head. Gold is heavy. The metal crunches into his skull. I love it. Piece of fucking shit.
He falls to the ground. Lying on his side as he feels the back of his head.
“Nasty bitch!” I shout in his face.
I pull my leg back as far as it goes before swinging my boot right into his mouth. Teeth give in. They crack. I hurt my big toe. But I don’t give a fuck. The feeling of making Vidar swallow his teeth outweighs any pain.
He mumbles and wheezes. Blood bubbles from his ugly fucking face. Relief washes over me. Making a filthy pig like Vidar bleed. If I died now, I would leave in glory. I shout at the top of my lungs.
“Fuck you!”
