Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 90639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“I may have already taken care of the bleeding part,” I admitted.
Alek looked at me, his eyebrows rising before he gave me a nod. “Excellent.”
“We have to get in there.” Lachlan glared at the shimmering ward.
“How bad can it be?” Ajax asked.
“They’re the strongest wards I’ve ever encountered,” Alek answered.
The Hunter shrugged, then took off at a run toward the wards.
I held my breath, hoping like hell it worked, but knowing—
Electricity jolted over Ajax, holding him with bright white fingers of blinding light before repelling him, throwing his body through the air with the force of a battering ram.
“Shit,” Zachariah muttered, already moving toward where Ajax landed, his body smoking.
“Fucking Greenbriars,” Alek seethed. “Benedict!”
“Just called her. She thinks she might be able to take them down.” Benedict answered. “I need to wend her in. She’s not capable of that yet.”
“Go,” Alek ordered.
Benedict vanished.
We all stood in a line, keeping precious feet between us and the forcefield from hell.
“Zachariah?” Alek questioned.
“He’s just dazed,” Zachariah answered, perched over Ajax. “Give him a minute.”
Something in my chest seized, stuttering my heartbeat as pain erupted throughout my body, centered where I knew my tattoo was inked into my skin. I sucked in a breath and a second wave hit. “We might not have a minute.”
Across the distance, a sound shattered the night and sliced into me like one of my own daggers to the heart.
Avianna was screaming.
20
Avianna
Nausea rolled in my stomach right before my vision went black.
“Do you know how many poisons there are in the world?” Samuel asked from somewhere right next to me, but I couldn’t see him. Couldn’t see anything. “Thousands. So many delightful little ways to torture you.”
It had been hours of non-stop torture that felt like days. I still hadn’t signed the agreement. I would die before I gave this monster any royal power over my kingdom.
I’d wished for death three times in the past twenty-four hours. If that made me weak, then so be it. I was crumbling under all he’d done to me, and he hadn’t even laid a finger on me.
“This particular one,” he continued while I tried to blink away the darkness from my eyes. “Is from a little creature in the sea. A tiny little octopus. Beautifully deceptive. No one knows how dangerous it is until it’s already too late.”
The iron chains around my wrists stopped burning. I tried to move my arms, to pull against them, but I could no longer feel my fingers, my toes.
One by one, my muscles started to shut down, like Samuel was flipping switches that powered down my entire body.
Panic licked up my soul. I was mentally aware of everything happening and powerless to stop it. I felt it in waves, slow and sure as they killed me.
I screamed, terror blasting through me as I tried to stop it. Tried to counteract his power and just couldn’t.
The breath in my lungs slowed until I hiccupped in my air. Little sips of breath were all I could manage. I was suffocating from the inside out. I was drowning. I was…
Air rushed back into my lungs, my eyesight returned, and I could move my body again.
I glared up at Samuel, who crouched before me.
“What do you think you’re proving here, Avianna?” Samuel asked, delight dancing in his eyes. “Do you think you need to impress me?” He tilted his head, and I gaped at him. How fucking self-absorbed was he to think I did this for him? “Consider me already impressed,” he said, standing and turning to where he’d left the formal betrothal agreement. “I never for one second thought you’d be this much fun to play with.”
Now I was going to vomit all on my own. “This isn’t a game,” I said, my voice weak. I didn’t know how much longer I could hold out. And I hated that I knew the suffering would only end when Samuel wanted it to end. He could heal me over and over again for as long as he wanted. He’d already proved as much.
Tears rolled down my cheeks at the thought of him dragging this out for weeks, months. But he couldn’t. Alek had to be furious already. I wondered what excuse James had given him as to why I hadn’t signed the agreement already, why the ceremony party wasn’t happening right now. He’d alert his assassins, and Hawke would know something was wrong. It didn’t matter that I’d rejected the bond, he’d know.
I gripped that hope in my heart, not for being saved, but because I knew Hawke would rip Samuel to pieces for what he’d done. He’d make him suffer before he ultimately ended him, and that was something to smile about.
“Sign this,” Samuel said for the hundredth time, extending the parchment to me.
“Never,” I answered the same every time.
A muscle in his jaw clenched, and he set the parchment down again.