AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I reared back, narrowly avoiding being gutted, and two armed men climbed into the wagon. There wasn’t time to consider letting the monster out before they’d grabbed me and yanked me out, hands wrapped around my wrists and ankles, keeping me hobbled.
I hit the hard ground with a grunt and the men practically threw themselves on top of me, and I found myself looking at a pair of blue-embroidered boots.
I looked up at the velvet robes, and then at Father Boridin’s thin, cruel smile.
“Welcome back, Salem,” he whispered, hardly able to suppress the glee in his voice. “These traders tell me they found a lost and confused woman wandering alone in the Wood. Imagine my surprise when they described a woman with white hair.”
He knelt down, and one of the men on me dug his knee into my back, forcing the rest of my air out. Black spots were blooming in front of my eyes.
The Father lifted one of my thin braids, where the ivory bones glinted. “Look at you, dressed like a whore. Oleg, take her to the church. Do not allow her to move; she’s dangerous, even if she doesn’t look it.”
I spit at him, and the Father drew back, wiping his cheek with one hand. “I see you’ve learned no manners while you’ve been gone.”
Despite my small attempt at defiance, I was terrified. I had no doubt they would immediately begin the construction of a pyre.
Oleg finally got off my back, yanking me to my feet. Both of the men kept me between them, my arms forced down at my sides. The church was only feet away, and as they practically dragged me between them, the Father on our heels, I caught a glimpse of the caravan master’s face.
He wore the look of a man who suddenly realizes he has made a terrible mistake.
I almost couldn’t blame him. What were they to think, when a woman came bursting out of the Wood on the heels of a Beast, shouting at them? They probably had thought me mad, some poor fool who had wandered out of Vostok and survived by sheer luck alone.
“Inside,” the Father demanded. “The Augur is waiting.”
I renewed my struggles, but Oleg was squeezing my arm so hard I thought he might crack my bones with very little effort.
They burst through the front doors, and the familiar, sickening scent of dust and incense hit my nose. The next sight was that of Ionna, her eyes wide as the blood drained from her face.
But the Augur cackled as the men carried me into the kitchen. “I’ve been keeping a pot warm for you, bitch.”
The kitchen smelled of the pungent, earthy tea I despised. I saw the pot simmering, slivers of desiccated mushrooms floating on its surface, and tried my hardest to kick the Augur’s legs out from under him.
Oleg drew me back, then landed a heavy blow across my face.
Ears ringing, the taste of copper exploding in my mouth, I sagged between the men.
Come out, I urged the monster.Come out.
I would feel absolutely nothing about killing these particular men.
But I had never summoned the monster myself before, not willingly. I’d spent so long suppressing it that now, when I needed it the most, it seemed impossible to shove away the pain long enough to allow it to take over.
The Father gripped my hair, yanking my head back as the Augur dipped a cup in the pot.
They were not careful with me. Hot tea sloshed down my front, burning my face and chest. I felt hairs part from my scalp as the Father forced my head back and mouth open.
I practically drowned in the tea, choking and spewing it everywhere. Oleg kneed me in the stomach hard, until I went down and had no choice but to drink or breathe.
I wished it would kill me, but the human body is resilient. I could not force my lungs to take in the liquid, heaving it out instead, and as soon as I’d caught my breath the Augur would put another cup to my lips.
They knew when they had won. Oleg released me at the Father’s orders, and I sank to the floor.
The monster within me was quiet. Despite the pain radiating through every inch of me, all I felt was numb. There was nothing left inside me.
My mind knew it was poison, and it simply didn’t care.
I didn’t even care that I was back in the cage from hell.
“What have you been up to, little monster?” the Father asked. He seemed mesmerized by the thin braids with bone beads, touching one once more and winding it around his finger. “Plotting with the Beasts?”
