Page 50 of Flames and Blood

The first one is carrying my cuffs.

I know them the moment I see them. Not new ones. Mine. The same runed steel they removed when I arrived here. They kept them.

Of course they kept them.

“Screw you!” I go for the window because it’s the only direction that feels like a way out, but I don’t get there.

“Legs,” the first one says, and somebody takes my legs.

They’ve done this before. One man on each arm, one across my back, all their weight, nothing wasted. I get a hand free and put my nails through somebody’s cheek.

“Fuck! She’s got my— Hold the arm. Hold the arm!”

They hold my arm. None of them hits me. They were told not to damage me, and they don’t need to, because there are enough of them to keep me pinned for as long as it takes to get the cuffs on my burned wrists. The runes wake up. My dragon surges and the runes press her flat. My whole body arches once and drops.

Then they hold my head, and Mrs. Nell kneels in front of me with the bottle unstopped.

“Don’t,” I say, twisting my face away. “Don’t do this.”

“I asked you to take it yourself,” she says. “I meant that kindly.”

Fingers force my jaw open. The liquid goes in, sweet and thick. A hand closes my mouth, and another strokes down my throat until I swallow. Then it’s done. Four trained men, one kneeling woman, one small bottle. It took them less than a minute.

Fucking bastards!

Mrs. Nell doesn’t leave the room. She doesn’t look away, and she doesn’t stop being kind. She wipes my chin with a cloth, gently, while the men hold me down on the floor.

The drug comes on fast.

Heat first, rolling up from my stomach through my chest and into my face. Then weight. My arms go heavy. My thoughts stay clear, but my body doesn’t feel like my own anymore.

Kalli. My dragon, far away. Kalli. Get up.

She’s still there. Still furious. But the drug has packed itself between us. Her voice reaches me small, from a long way down. Her fire reaches me as barely any warmth at all.

Mrs. Nell goes to the door. Renwick is standing in it. I don’t know how long he’s been standing in it.

“She’s taken it,” Mrs. Nell says.

“Willingly?”

“No.”

“A pity. The willing ones settle faster.” He looks past her at me, on the floor, in a towel, with my hands cuffed in front of me. “How long?”

“It’s already working. It brings the heat on within the hour. The sedative will keep her manageable through the evening.”

Manageable? We’ll see about that!

I try to fight it, but it’s no use. I’m lying on the floor, and I can hear every word, and I cannot do one thing about any of it.

They dress me. I can’t even make that hard for them. Then two of the men carry me down a hallway I haven’t seen before, into the other wing, and through double doors into a large room.

The room is beautiful. Carpets, carved wood, a fire in a stone hearth, candles already burning. And in the middle of the room, a wide bed made up in white.

They put me in a chair near the fire because I can’t stand. My head keeps sagging, and I keep dragging it back up.

Now what?