I couldn’t even feel the energy that normally swam in my blood, accessible at the snap of my finger. I tried everything: wind, water. fire; nothing answered me.
The guards ripped Stefan away from me and began dragging him out as he kicked and screamed, looking over his shoulder at me. “Dormius!” he screamed with fear, and my chest tightened against the hold of an invisible rope as I began to panic.
I knew this would happen. I knew it, and I let it continue…
“Let’s go,” one of my guards hissed in my ear. I couldn’t even think straight enough todecipher who it was.
We were both dragged through the hall, and as we reached the stairs, I was able to shift enough to kick the ankle of the guard to my left. When he let go of my arm, I yanked myself free of the second guard and raced toward Stefan. But the moment my foot touched the first step, one of the guards behind me yanked at my shirt. The fabric snapped from his fingers, but not before sending me tumbling down the stairs. I landed flat on my face, hard enough that I felt the bridge of my nose crack.
“Stefan!” I groaned, reaching up to cover the blood dripping over my lips. Small droplets of blood were left behind, a stark contrast to the white, marble floor.
His screams vibrated the walls as they shoved him into the throne room. I placed my palms below me and pushed up to stand, but a foot connected with my side and sent me onto my back. Cursing from the pain, I tried to roll away, but someone grabbed me by my hair, lifting my head off of the ground. Once my vision focused on the guard standing over me, I had no time to react before his fist struck my already-broken nose.
I gasped from the hit, swallowing the blood that spilled into my mouth. Somewhere behind me, Stefan yelled my name again, but his words were slowly fading as the guard’s fist hit me again and again. He didn’t stop until I began choking on my own blood, the front of my face almost numb from the pain.
I did this…I thought to myself, no longer able to form the words on my lips.I didn’t want this…
Perhaps this was what I deserved. If the gods had known the true desires I kept hidden away, would they have even blessed me to begin with? Would they have left me in that palace to rot instead?
I knew what was and wasn’t allowed. I had known since the moment a merchant had been brought to the palace when I was twelve, under the accusation of being a “flesh traitor.” I hated that term. It was embedded into me that day.
When I watched the merchant’s neck crack as his body dropped from the platform, the rope of his noose so tight it almost snapped his head from his body, my spirit broke, and with it… my identity. The freedom to live the way I wanted. Tolovethe way I wanted.
When I first met Lyra, I had been surprised by the disparity in her regard, compared to the treatment of the merchant all those years ago. She made it clear to anyone with eyes that she loved Morrigan, but the priests had always been softer on women—the sick fucks.
Large hands grasped both of my arms again, and I bared my teeth at the guard on my right as they began to drag me with my legs dangling against the floor.
“I’d shut your fucking mouth if I were you,flesh traitor,” he snapped just as his foot slammed into my side.
The throne room spun, and I slumped into their hold, staring up at the blurring ceiling above me. The chandeliers turned to golden streaks in my vision, and the dull pain slowly turned into pins and needles, trickling over my skin, intensifying with every passing second.
It wasn’t long before they dropped me onto something hard and metal. With the last of my strength, I turned onto my chest to try and stand once more, but the floor beneath me began to shift. My body dropped, and my arms slipped through holes as I blinked away the fog.
“Dormius!” Stefan screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice piercing my ears as they grew distant. “Let him go!”
When I could finally see, I saw the guards holding him somewhere beneath me. I hovered in the air, lying against hard poles. I was…Oh, Gods…I was in acage.
“Stefan Thornefield,” Priest Julius announced, revealing a large piece of parchment with writing on it that I couldn’t decipher from here. “You have been accused of a heinous crime. While this would normally call for a trialunder different circumstances, we have enough proof to carry out your sentence immediately.”
“No…” I mumbled against the bars as my blood dripped to the floor between the gaps. “No!” I tried to reach for him, begging my powers to help me, but they remained dormant. Even my healing hadn’t kicked in yet. I felt so…mortalagain.
Stefan looked up at me with tears in his eyes as the priest continued. “Do you understand that you are to be executed, Mr. Thornefield?”
Stefan didn’t listen to him. His lips, that were now wet with blood, whispered the words, “I love you.”
Immediately after, those same lips fell open, and his body jerked. My eyes flashed to his neck that now had a single, deep gash across the center of it. I screamed.
“STEFAN!”
It was the last of my energy. The guards held him there, his eyes staring up at me until they lost all of their color, and forced me to watch him die as I dangled in the air.
“I’m sorry,” I cried, gripping the bars until my knuckles turned white. “I love you… I’m sorry…”
A second later, everything went black. I felt my body fall until my feet hit solid ground, and when I opened my eyes, I was… I was in my study again… and Stefan opened the door…
No. Gods… No.
Chapter 32
