They haven’t restrained my legs yet. If I shift my weight left…
She kept her expression neutral, but her fingers twitched as she counted her breaths, timing it.
They now all stood before the chair, turning from her to grab their chains.
With a sudden burst of adrenaline that drowned her pain, she twisted and drove her knee into the younger guard’s groin with enough force to knock the breath out of him.
“Fuck!” he bellowed, doubling over with a grunt before falling to his knees. “Get her!”
The older male lunged to grab her, but she ducked under his reach and pivoted, slipping just behind him.
“Oh, I don’t think so, old man,” she hissed.
In a fluid motion, she dodged him again and leapt onto his back.
Her legs wrapped around his waist as she climbed up his body like a starving wraith. Her weight nearly toppled him, but she held tight, her injured wrist burning with fire as she looped the slack of her cuffs’ chain across his neck.
Then Esmyraheaved.
The chain bit deep into his flesh. He clawed at his throat, gasping as the metal cinched tighter. She bore down with every ounce of fury she had, teeth gritting as her face pressed to his shoulder.
The guard staggered backward, her legs still locked around him as he slammed them both into the wall. The breath rushed from her lungs as her back hit the stone, but she held on, jaw clenched, as the chain crushed deeper into his neck.
The younger guard came charging at them, yelling with his sword half-drawn.
“Stand down!” Esmyra snapped, voice sharp and breathless. “Or I’ll kill him.”
The male hesitated, blade raised as his eyes flicked between her and his choking comrade.
“How about I slice your hands from your fucking wrists and take those chains off. Let’s free that mind of yours,” he spat. “Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.”
Her eyes locked onto his, cold and steady. “Well, lucky for me, I’m not a gentle kind of girl.”
A heartbeat passed, he lunged, and then she struck.
The chain snapped tight with a sickening crunch, accompanied by the sound of vertebrae giving way. The guard’s body went limpbeneath her, and she dropped to the floor with him, landing in a crouch as he crumpled.
The room went silent for half a second.
Then the remaining guard charged at her. “You bitch!”
Esmyra barely rolled away in time, the edge of his blade slicing through her shirt as she tumbled. She came up on one knee, breathing hard, blood pounding in her ears.
He swung again, wild and angry. Noting his frantic attacks, she wondered if they could work in her favor.
One. Two. Three, she counted his swings before ducking low to strike. Esmyra rammed her shoulder into his gut, and they crashed into a table against the wall, sending tools and whatever torture devices they planned to use clattering to the ground.
Esmyra tried to roll away, but he grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her back.
Oh, this stupid bastard. What she wouldn’t give to have her powers back.
She screamed, twisting in his grip, and drove her elbow into his ribs three times, until his hold faltered. He frantically searched for his sword as she wrenched free, both of them sprawled across the weaponry and ruined table.
His hand wrapped around a short-handled axe and he lunged, preparing to bring it down on her for the kill.
Time slowed for Esmyra, and the room narrowed to the glint of the axe’s blade.
Panic erupted through her, limbs shaking with exhaustion as the weight of her broken wrist screamed with every movement. Blood—both hers and theirs—coated her palms. She could barely hold herself upright.
