Alone. We were alone.
With his weight on the balls of his feet, Wynn leaned over to unlock the shackle on my ankle. “Change.”
Momentary hope crested in my chest.Freedom.I lunged without thinking, bolting straight for the sealed door. Wynn snared my ankle with his hand, and I tumbled to the floor. Rolled onto my back and kicked him square in the jaw. Fury burned in his eyes. He pinned me and smacked my temple so hard my ears rang. Heat settled across my cheek, and he grimaced. Flexed his hand twice before dragging me back toward the chains.
“That was stupid. Change. Now.”
Bile soured my tongue. “No.”
“Now, Leena. Unless you’d prefer my help.”
He wanted me bare. Humiliated. Completely destroyed so it would be easier to break what little resolve I had left. He’d test out every emotion necessary to try to get me to submit.
He would not win.
Brown eyes narrowed with intrigue as I stripped, piling my clothes on the floor. I tried to be fast. Tried to give him as little time as possible to take in my flesh, but his piercing stare couldn’t be altered, and the burn along my breasts remained long after I’d donned the white shift dress.
“Good.”
If running won’t work…Before he could read the shift of my weight, I barreled into him, raining punches down on his face. Prayed for at least one solid connection. My fist glanced off the hard bridge of his nose, and he trapped my wrists with thick hands. One hard twist, and my muscles gave. I caved beneath his grasp, weak from lack of food and sleep.
“You really should stick to summoning beasts.”
“Fuck off,” I spat out.
He reattached the shackle on my ankle and pulled a second one out from under the bed, securing it to my other foot. Then, he reached into the front pocket of his trousers and extracted a small vial full of clear liquid. With a softpop, he removed the rubber stopper. “Drink this.” He held it out to me, and the aroma of imperit met my nostrils. My hand drifted to my abdomen, and Wynn’s stern gaze followed the motion.
“Stay away from me.”
“I can’t have you pregnant with that assassin’s seed. Gods only know what that would do to this process.” His hands reached for my face, and I sank my teeth into the fleshy part of his palm. He barked out a curse, but didn’t drop the imperit. With his free hand, he covered my nose, forcing my mouth open, and dumped the tonic down my throat. Sticky heat burned like whiskey, and I swallowed the medicine with a sob.
“Asshole.”
He tossed the vial to the side and settled before me. “Let’s get to it. We’ll start with the obvious. If you feel any inkling to submit, I’d suggest you do so early.”
Ravenous light showered from his frame, reaching out toward me and licking up my exposed legs. I hated that something so beautiful felt all too violating. Transforming into a statue, he sat mere inches from me. Palms up toward the heavens. Chin angled to his chest.
His light turned smothering, flattening me against the smooth wall of the cell. My mind rewound to the first time I’d seen Wynn tame a creature. His light had been so entrancing. A reminder of the sun-kissed afternoons we used to spend lying in the open wheat field beside our cottage. When had his buttery, yellowed-white light shifted to something so stark? It used to be so calm. Soothing. Now…it was almost sinister. As if something had tainted the purity of his color.
Burying the memory, I tipped my head to the ceiling. “Either you’ve gotten worse, or you’ve forgotten how to tame.”
His light slashed against me. Heated welts rose to the surface of my forearms. Still, he didn’t speak. We sat like that for hours. Me, entirely unaffected by his attempts. Him, burning like the center of the sun. His light was all wrong. Intense from sheer power, but completely devoid of love. Devotion. He was trying too hard to snuff out my last shred of humanity with false brilliance.
Sleep teased my senses, but the incessant static from his beast would not allow a respite. So my mind wandered where it shouldn’t have—right back to Noc.
My chest heaved, and Wynn twitched. A misperceived sign of submission. Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the wall. The gaping hole in my chest was endless and ribbed with bloodstained daggers. Being with Noc in Nepheste’s Ruins was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. We had merged. A true and real connection. A bond stronger than anything I had with my beasts. With any other person.
But he hadn’t listened. His actions had brought me here. And the very thing that gave me hope was now a snaking, angry current pulling me under. I was drowning in him.
Tears squeezed through my tightly pressed lids. I wanted to rip my mind apart and remove every image of both these men who’d hurt me so badly.
The sudden absence of light brought me back, and I peeled my eyes open. Before I could react, Wynn pulled handcuffs from his belt and locked my wrists together. Guiding them above my head, he attached them to a metal hook in the wall.
I jerked against him, glaring. “Was that really necessary?”
He snarled back, “I can’t have you fighting me. You’ve done enough of that already.” Reaching for his other hip, he pulled a curved blade from a worn leather sheath. Polished clean, the silver edge taunted me.
As if the blade wasn’t threatening enough, he pulled another vial out of his pocket. Viscous liquid glowed an eerie scarlet, and he doled a small amount over the knife. It sank into the silver and left an iridescent gleam. “Uloox venom. I’m sure you know what it does.”
