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“I wish she would stop waiting for him.”
“Huh?” Arulius sits up and yawns into his palm.
I tip my chin up to Violet’s silhouette against the somber orange sky. Arulius follows my gaze and sighs.
“She willneverlet him go, love.”
I grit my teeth. I can’t understand why she would stay undyingly loyal to him. He’s been gone for centuries. “Why?” I look into his amethyst eyes.
His expression softens and he presses his hand against my cheek. “Would you let me go so easily?”
“If you had never betrayed me… but things are different now. Aren’t they, Arulius.”
Pain spreads through the inner walls of my broken organ and I suppress the urge to clench my hand around my chest. He gives me the same sad expression that he has had day in and day out for months and nods in acceptance. I’m so sick of seeing his pitiful look.
“Let’s get some sleep. Violet wants to start early with the session tomorrow.”
I flinch at the wordsession. That’s what she calls her torture. Maybe it makes her feel better to pretend it’s not as horrible as it truly is. That’s what we all do though, I suppose—isn’t it? Paint something horrible and dark as something brighter. Hide the rot and blood beneath a blanket of reasons.
I nod and lie down next to him. His dark lashes are already falling heavy over his eyes and his arms wrap around me tightly like they do each night. Desperately holding onto times long-since gone. I often find myself slipping back to those days too.
But those are our ghosts.
Wishes.
Ones that we both know will never come true.
Sleep pulls me as I think of Violet’ssessiontomorrow.I’ve made it my purpose for now to find out what she’s collecting my blood for and what she’s really trying to get out of all this pain she’s inflicting on me.
If I can manage that, maybe I can figure out a way to break the bond with Arulius.
2
Elodie
Violet’s bone heelsclackagainst the white tiles. Each step sends a shiver down my spine and sweat instinctively beads down my forehead. My body knows what that sound brings; it’s been ingrained in my marrow.
Panic is always the first response to her blood-red eyes and the fiery rage that she still harbors for me. I focus on the walls of the torture room. The court calls this thepeace chamberdue to the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the lands of Tomorrow, and apparently a God of Peace used to hold meetings here too. But I only know this place as hell. Three gigantic white walls and an entire wall of glass. It’s insanely bright in here and the only color seems to be the stains of my blood.
I try to calm the trembling in my hands, though I quickly lose that fight. She’s coming and bringing her arsenal of pain with her. I close my eyes and manage to at least get my breathing under control.
She’s managed to completely break me. I didn’t think she could do it at first, but she made me eat those words the second I stepped into this room for the first time.
Violet’s a sick woman. She will inflict pain in any way, shape, or form that she can. She knows I loved Arulius, and that he still cares for me, so she makes him watch as I suffer at her hand. He is scathed by my torture too, through the bond. His wounds aren’t visible, but he feels everything I do. At least that’s a small form of revenge I can enjoy during this.
My first shattered hand and twisted leg… I’ll never forget the unexpected pain that I passed out from, and from that day on, the floor has always been bloody by the time she’s done with me. A small drain sits just beneath where she keeps her bucket of blood.Myblood. Fucking bitch—she’s been collecting it religiously since I’ve been here and I still can’t figure out why.
My eyes shift over to her favorite guards, Kol and Willow. I already knew the horribly cruel Dreadius from my encounters with him in battle. His black horns and hair still haunt my dreams. But Willow was new to me, so I didn’t have a predetermined opinion of her upon arriving, and I still don’t have a solid one now.
She’s a beautiful Eostrix. Standard ivory wings, clad in white bone armor much like Arulius’s gold set. Her eyes are a fiery green and her hair a soft light brown. Her olive skin is perfect and so is her smile.
I frown as I watch her engage freely with a few other guards, all Eostrixes as well. The species seems to keep to themselves—that much I’ve noticed.
My eyes dart over to Violet, who stands close to the wall of glass, briefing Arulius as always before beginning our lovely torture session. My bones are already seizing at the thought of her heels grinding into them. Iron is an unfortunate taste I've become accustomed to.
“Willow, get the bucket.” My eyes snap wide open at the sound of Violet’s voice. My stomach churns uncomfortably and I can feel Arulius’s heart falter as it does every day.
Willow bends over and picks up the black metallic bucket. Her brown hair falls over her shoulder and her male Eostrix peers gawk at her as she walks over to me, setting the bucket down gently.
