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Never again.
In unison, three rough hums of pleasure sounded beside me in agreement.
Another chuckle sounded, followed by the scrape of metal against stone. In the next moment, icy water sloshed over me, forcing me to take a sharp, gasping breath that renewed a fit of coughing and the searing agony in my side.
Having healed enough to open my eyes, my vision swam as three males stood before me. Two fae and one sanguinati. All three were built with lean muscle -too lean-and had a hungry look in their eyes. Their clothes looked worn, their hair unkempt. I would have said it looked like they’d seen better days, but they probably hadn’t.
And I knew that I had something to do with it.
The sanguinati, fangs already descended, bent forward, curling a finger beneath my chin to lift my head up, sending more pain shooting through my spine. Blessedly, it was not nearly as bad as it had been only minutes ago.
“Hello, traitor,”he purred, a malevolent glint in his pale blue eyes.
I gave a mirthless, bleary chuckle. He wasn’t wrong. Zurie had oppressed the sanguinati more than most species of wielders. She ruled, blinded by fear and greed- anyone potentially more powerful than her felt the brunt of her wrath. Though she'd needed us during the war and had bribed us with the chance to escape poverty by joining her revered army. And many of those who didn’t, she executed.
“Hello,” I grinned, fangs lengthening.
His confidence and twisted grin faltered as he recognized the predator within me rising to the surface. The sound of rushing footsteps came from behind me just as I lunged forward, ropes snapping, and dove for his throat just as a collar came around my neck and yanked me backwards, slamming me to the ground.
The sanguinati’s face poured blood as his lips thinned, bringing a hand to his shredded cheek. The collar around my neck pulled tight, dragging me backwards against the grimy stone floor, and fear speared through me when I attempted towillit away, and my magic remained just out of grasp.
“Put her in the fucking shackles,” the sanguinati snapped at the men beside me. I twisted around to jump to my feet, but before I could, the palladium collar around my neck - connected to a thick chain - yanked hard again, slamming me back to the ground and driving that gods-forsaken branch deeper into my side. My throat opened with a gasp from the mind-numbing pain as I was rendered powerless to the explosive coughs wracking my body, blood splattering on the grey stone floor in front of me. The chain connected to the collar lifted, pulled taut through a metal hook fixed to the stone ceiling, dragging meup, up, upwith it.
My hands gripped at the collar, wringing my neck before they attempted to force them back down to shackle my wrists. I kicked out with my legs at the fae male, crushing my wrists with his grip and sending him flying into a wall. The sound of his ribs cracking would have been deeply satisfying if it weren’t for the animalistic fury burning through me.
The all-too-familiar sensation of a blade cutting through flesh and bone had a cry tearing through my throat. Or at least attempting to. Instead, it was merely the sound of gurgled blood that came out.
My body sagged, and their hands came around my wrists and ankles again, shackling them. The shackles at my wrists were affixed to the ceiling, taking off most of the pressure around my neck, whilst the shackles around my ankles were bolted to the stone floor.
The sanguinati, who appeared to be their leader, approached me. The wound on his cheek was now reduced to a gash.
“You fucking cunt,” he spat. His open palm came down on my face, so hard stars burst through my vision. “You’re going to pay for that.”
Hewilleda blade into his hand, pointing it at the center of my chest; his confidence and malevolent delight returned in full force now that I was effectively restrained and choking on my own blood.
As the sanguinati examined me, strung up before him, he noticed the inch-thick branch jutting from my side and wiggled it. My blood splattered his face as I continued hacking and choking. He licked his lips clean of my bloody spittle.
“Delicious… but distracting.”
Without warning, the sanguinati gripped the stub of the branch jutting out from just beneath my ribs and yanked it out.
He watched me with a blank expression as he waited for my body’s violent attempts to clear my lungs of blood to cease as they healed.
When I could finally breathe again, mere minutes later, he gave a sadistic chuckle. “Hmmm… Where should I begin?”
His eyes travelled up and down the length of my body for several moments, like he was trying to decide which cut of meat he preferred.
“Or should I saywe?”He added smugly.
The males around us chuckled.
My face remained impassive as a familiar numbness returned that had nothing to do with my current state of blood loss and everything to do with the trauma I’d experienced at the hands of males in my youth.
The sanguinati’s hand settled at my breasts before he slowly drew the blade through the front of my fighting leathers. The two panels parted, freeing my breasts. My stomach churned at the sight of his pupils dilating and the scent of his arousal. I fuckingwishedthat I would vomit on him.
Instead, my body trembled fruitlessly as it grew cold with a familiar resignation that most anyone who had ever been rendered utterly powerless knew intimately.
After all I’ve done,perhaps this is what I deserve.
