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And screams pierced the air.
Thea nearly gagged. On the far side of the rows of tents, several creatures were bound together by thick rope. Human bodies disfigured with wings and talons, darkness unfurling with their cries.
Anya strode towards them with an air of authority about her – surreal for someone so young, and in this situation. There were a dozen people being tortured before her and yet her expression was cold, impassive.
Wide eyes and shrieks begging for mercy didn’t move her.
Nothing did, it seemed.
Thea’s heart hammered in her chest, but she couldn’t look away. Someone had to witness their suffering; someone had to see them.
Faceless men surrounded Anya, but she continued to stare, drinking in the agony.
‘Should we —’ someone started.
But the girl raised her hand. ‘No. They need to feel it.’
And the screaming went on and on.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
WILDER
Wilder woke with a start, damp with perspiration, to find the fire still crackling and Thea thrashing on her bedroll, faint forks of lightning surging across her writhing body.
Panic gripped him at the sight of her anguish. Gods, he couldn’t leave her. Not this time.
He was at her side in a second. ‘Thea,’ he said gently. ‘Thea, wake up.’
She only contorted further, kicking the blanket back, bolts of magic inching down her legs.
Trying to rein in his distress, Wilder spoke louder this time. ‘Thea?’
The shirt she was wearing was drenched with sweat. Her hair had come loose from its braid and was plastered to her neck. She kept twisting, a soft cry of pain on her lips.
Wilder didn’t think. He reached out, his warm hands closing over her ice-cold, clammy skin. ‘Thea, it’s me. You have to wake up, you have to —’
Her fingers shot out, clamping around his arm with surprising strength.
Suddenly, the night sky was tipping and Wilder was on his back.
How?
Thea straddled him, eyes brimming with violence as she pressed a blade to the soft skin of his throat, her lip curled in a snarl. She was panting, her hair now loose and wild around her face as she stared down at him, no recognition in her eyes.
He considered disarming her for a second, but as the knife broke the first layer of skin, he wondered if he actually could. Her lightning hadn’t hurt him when he’d touched her, but to be on the receiving end of a concentrated bolt would be another thing entirely. He could feel the current beneath her skin, threatening to crackle into something more devastating. Something that even Furies-given strength might not stand against.
‘Thea,’ he murmured softly instead, letting everything he felt for her coat her name on his tongue, hoping she heard those notes in his voice.
His apprentice blinked. Once, twice.
‘Thea…’
She loosed a breath and realisation dawned. ‘Wilder…’ She scrambled off him, clambering back in horror at the sight of the thin line of blood he could feel trailing down the column of his throat.
‘It’s alright,’ he told her. ‘I’m alright. You didn’t hurt me.’
‘I…’ she gasped, her whole body trembling. ‘I didn’t mean —’
