Page 97

“I think I’d rather have you silent for what’s next,” Creed snarled, slashing through my leathers and ripping them from my body. The freezing winter air stung against my wounds as they pawed at my naked skin and I stilled.

I could feel every scrape of their rough hands.

I could feel everything, yet nothing at all.

In that moment, I was nothing more than a whisper of smoke floating in the ether.

It was as if I had left my body behind, soaring above it as I watched their hands roam over my exposed flesh, their calloused fingers pushing between my legs, clawing at my breasts—digging into the burns and wounds that marred my body. I watched, hovering above myself as Felix cut the binds at my ankles to spread my legs apart and positioned himself between my thighs, his hands slipping on the blood pouring from my wounds.

My body was no longer my own as I watched him enter me. I couldn’t feel it, couldn’t hear the sobs that were rolling from my gaping mouth.

When the women of Nethkar had told me their stories, I had always sworn to myself that I would fight. That I would die before I ever let a man take what he wanted from my flesh—steal that part of my soul. But as I watched myself sit frozen, unmoving against their assault, I realized the truth.

You never really know until you are in that position—the things your body will do to insure its survival.

I was going to die tonight—I knew that.

Maybe this was it.

The last thing I had to give to fix what I had broken.

My penance.

There was a quiet reverence to the pain flooding my body and I let myself slip into it. A moment of clarity hung over me that maybe, just maybe, my redemption could be found in the depths of their violence.

I had spent so many nights wishing I was dead, praying that the void would consume me and I would disappear into nothing.

But today . . . today I felt joy.

I felt the love of my family in every color, in every smell that flowed through a house that was mine.

Mine.

And I think I wanted to fight for that.

If nothing else, I think that, maybe, I wanted to fight for myself.

A sob tore from my chest as my senses—my soul—crashed back into my body with excruciating force and I thrashed with every ounce of strength I had left against their hands.

A harrowing scream erupted from the very depth of my being, and I prayed with every fiber of faith I had that someone,anyone, would hear me.

Then, somewhere in the distance, a howl echoed into the cold winter night and I knew what that meant. Tears began to stream from my eyes.

Cyloe had found me.

Chapter twenty-nine

ATALIIA

Anexplosionreverberatedthroughthe room and my eyes slammed shut as wood and debris flew through the air around us, crashing and splintering to the floor.

Then, there was silence.

Ear shattering silence for only a moment.

That’s when I heard it, the sound of the Gods finally answering my prayers.

The sound that was weaved into every beautiful piece of my soul.