AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The fact is, it unsettles me a bit—the loose restraints and the scent of spiced cider wafting through the cell bars. If anyone can recognize a game, it’s me, but in this instance, I don’t know what he’s playing at.
So he opens the door, the hinges squeaking as he carries in a massive tray of steaming food, and I pretty much just sit there, back propped up against the base of the dais I’m too tired to drag myself back up on.
“Both your hands are occupied. This is the perfect opportunity for me to escape, you know,” I say. Because if I’m too much of a wimp to attack him, I at least intend to remind him how incompetent he is.
“I wish you would,” he says, placing the tray upon the workbench, leaving the dungeon door wide open and unguarded, like he’s taunting me. “I rather enjoy a good chase.”
Okay, so he’s definitely taunting me.
Figuring—Do I even deserve to live if I don’t try?—I plant my palms on the cold stone floor, hoisting myself up to my feet in a single, rather fluid motion if I do say so myself.
I make it about two steps before my wobbly knees give out. Sturdy arms encircle me, catching me just before I permanently dent the shape of my nose in a scuffle with the stone floor.
“I’d say that was a rather admirable attempt, wouldn’t you?” Nox says. I don’t fight him as he runs his arm behind my knees and picks me up, gently setting me back on the table. “Can you sit up?” he asks, his hand lingering on my back.
It takes me a moment to realize he’s not taunting me this time.
“Honestly? I was enjoying the back support.”
Nox’s pale eyes dip to the stone base of the dais, so thick it actually makes the dais more like an altar.
Or maybe that’s just my morbid sense of humor assuming it won’t be long until my blood gets spilled all over its surface.
“Alright, then. Fair enough.”
He picks me up again, and I choose to ignore how sturdy his chest feels underneath his thin gray shirt as he pulls me into him and lowers me to the ground. When he props my back against the dais mount, I let out an exaggerated sigh.
A moment later, there’s a plate of food warming my lap, and Nox plops down beside me. “Are you strong enough to feed yourself, or would you like me to do that for you as well?”
I allow my jaw to go lax and my tongue to loll out of my mouth. When I cut my eyes over toward him, Nox is staring like he doesn’t quite know what to make of me.
That’s fine. I’m terrified of him, but I’ll scoop my eyes out before I let him get a glimpse of my fear.
Yesterday was humiliating enough. I’d rather not hyperventilate in front of him again.
“Fine,” I say, shoveling a forkful of buttery potatoes into my mouth.
They practically scald my tongue, but my stomach is so hollow I don’t really care. I’ll paint my mouth cavity with sores if it means ridding myself of the pangs that assault my belly.
The meat is just as delicious, but I don’t spend enough time with it on my tongue to actually distinguish what it is.
“I see you’ve decided to forgo the chewing process altogether,” Nox says, looking as if he’s reconsidering his own appetite as his fork hovers above his peas.
“Waste of time,” I say. Purposefully before swallowing, I flash him a mouthful of mashed peas.
The grimace on Nox’s face is worth it.
“We went too long without feeding you,” is all he says.
I think I preferred it when I thought he was disgusted by me.
Before Nox can take his first bite, my fork scrapes against an empty plate. “More, please,” I say, flinging a limp arm out to the side and just hoping Nox will catch the plate I’ve tossed.
He does.
“You can have more later.”
“Later? I haven’t eaten in days.” I shoot him a glare, but it doesn’t do much good.
