Page 10

My brows furrowed as my fingertips trembled over the concrete floor. But she had magic. I’d seen her using it. Flashes of the blood cellar entered my mind. Along with that log book she had placed on the podium. Milliliter ingested.

I gasped, eyes widening as it clicked. It was my magic. My magic! She had been using my magic all along! My gag reflex triggered as I turned my head and heaved. The violation was unimaginably worse than when I had discovered the cellar.

“So dramatic.”

When the nausea passed, I straightened my spine slowly and steadied to my feet, braving the clawing ach running through my entire body. “Who have you told about me?” I slapped my hand against the glass. “Who have you told about me!”

“Good gosh, no one. You think I want to share you? I think not.” She sighed loud and long. “I’m just glad I have you back before anyone else discovered you.”

The cobwebs of pain receded, sending up an anger so deep it darkened my vision.

She laughed as she jingled coins in her hand. “How else would I get my magic?”

“You mean my magic.”

“Semantics.” She displayed her teeth in a smile and stepped closer to my cage, a predator stalking her prey.

My heart shriveled. My mother had never been Elizian. This entire time she had been using my magic. Those jars of blood I had found in the basement weren’t an experiment to help us control our magic. They had been her never-ending storage.

Outrage took hold of me. Obscurity snaked in around my vision at the edges. My magic gathered in my drained body and pulsed in one bright light that dimmed as fast as it had illuminated.

“Aw, look at you trying to use your magic in a magic-proof box with shackles on.” Her voice morphed into a condescending tone that could be suited for entertaining a child.

“Keep going. You almost got it.” A nasty cackle burst from her lips as she dropped coins in my machine and slammed her fist on the button.

“I told you to take your clothes off, deary.”

She took another sip of my blood, watching my limbs spread with the force of the machine.

I’d never had two sessions back-to-back. This second one was far worse than the first. As if I’d been struck with ten g-forces, my eyes began rolling to the back of my head and my lungs constricted.

The male bellowed behind me, “Stop! She’s had enough! You’re going to kill her!”

Then, the light in my eyes went out.

Defeat smothered me before the dread had a chance. How had I gone from wanting to tear down the Cidris Facility with my bare hands and free all the Elizians to being trapped by Mother.

“Are you okay?” Mirin whispered.

“Peachy,” I croaked.

I looked up to see him sitting cross-legged at the barrier in the tunnel between us. Holes pierced his skin, angry redness surrounding each one. “She did me too.”

“Sorry that bitch of a mother is a lunatic.”

“Yeah,” he muttered.

“Have you found a way out of here yet?” I tried to push myself up to a seated position, but my limbs were far too weak, and I fell back to the ground.

“No. These cages are something else. I am an engineer in Elizy. I have never seen anything so intricately designed as this. I’m inclined to believe these cages were spelled together with magic.

But not just any magic… royal magic, maybe?

” he purred as he ran his hands across the glass as if he was admiring the artistry.

“I’m Ripley.”

His eyes darted to mine. “R-Rip—Princess Ripley?”

I hauled myself up to my elbows and huffed, “Yes.”

I watched as he bowed his head forward and rested his fist over his heart. “It is good to be in your presence.” His eyes opened and latched onto mine. “We have missed you terribly in Elizy.”

“Thanks,” I said dryly.

His gaze wandered the room. “Is this where you’ve been this entire time?”

“Unfortunately.”

An expression akin to sadness overtook him as his hand flattened over his heart. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Just help us get out of here. Can I do something to reverse the spell on these?”

“I don’t know. It would take me lot more time than I think we have.” His eyes shifted back to the glass.

I sighed and grunted through my soreness to sit myself up. “I can’t even do anything because of these stupid things,” I said, lifting my hands to look at the shackles.

“Then, it should appear that we are screwed.”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“You said something about Fletcher. When is he coming?”

“He’s not. I was lying.”

If these cages were magic proof, then perhaps that bond that formed due to the ritual wouldn’t work either. And, even if I could signal to Fletcher that we needed help, did I want to be indebted to him ?

The door at the top of the stairs burst open as Mother stepped down with bare feet, licking her lips of blood.

“Oh, beautiful, you’ve awoken. Let’s get to baby making.”

I darted my eyes to Mirin, sending him a mental warning to remind him to never touch me. But I knew better. I knew the mist would possess him to forget about our deal.

Mother set down her cup on the table beside the clandestine opening in the wall, sauntered to our cage, and yanked on the glass barrier. It freed from the tunnel, leaving two open slits on either side of the cage barely large enough for my fingers to fit through.

Now, nothing stood between my cage and Mirin’s.

The purple mist clouded up his cage, as the swirling magic suddenly appeared across his chest. All elements of Mirin’s friendliness and respect for his princess dispersed as his chin tilted down and his erection began to rise.

“Have fun you two,” Mother sang as she ascended the stairs and sauntered out the door.

Mirin stalked across the cage to me.

“Mirin! Snap out of it,” I yelled, slowly making my way onto my weak, wobbly legs .

A fresh burst of helplessness slithered up my spine as his cold hands grabbed my arms and yanked me to my feet in an effortless movement.

He threw me backward, pressing me against the wall of the cage, the back of my head smacking against the solid glass.

My vision went blurry as his fingers glided up my thighs and stopped at my hips.

“ Stop! ” I gritted out with a heart racing so fast, I thought it would burn out.

In a burst of motion, I swung my arm at his head, golden shackle making contact with his temple, but it didn’t faze him.

I did not have enough energy or power to overthrow him.

The realization that this was going to happen sent tears choking around my throat.

I scrambled to take hold of his hands as they grappled at my blood-soaked clothes.

I couldn’t let him strip me bare. But he succeeded.

His strong hands tore off my sweats in two clean rips.

Then, he focused on my underwear, my screaming plea for him to release me unable to penetrate through the fog.

My feeble punches did nothing to stop his movements.

My magic pulsed. And, so did Fletcher’s.

As if called by my sheer need, they merged together, fusing in my soul to ignite along my skin as a deep magenta that scraped down my arms in blind fury.

My magic and Fletcher’s working together.

This had to work. This had to get me out somehow.

I willed the magic to pour down to my fingertips, but its light faded as it met my golden shackles and drowned beneath whatever blood remained.

“Mirin!”

His hands latched onto my thighs, spreading them with a force that made my muscles scream.

“Don’t do this!”

He aligned himself with me, his tip to my entrance, and plunged forcefully in.

I gasped, my eyes sinking deep into my skull, threatening to drive me blind. Everything went numb as my body rejected the invasion with a violent tremor. My breathing stopped as the beats of my heart echoed in my ears.

My eyes searched for a hopeless escape. My fingers clawed at his chest, expecting some form of pain would make him realize what he was doing. But he was too far gone.

I felt every time he buried himself in me. And every time he peeled out. A growl rumbled through his chest as his hand inched up my stomach, over my breast, and up to my throat, pressing down slightly .

I wrapped my hands around his strong forearm, trying to push it away. “Please,” I cried. “Stop, Mirin.”

He quickened his movements in me. In and out. Faster and faster. His breath grew heavier. His head fell to my shoulder, biting my skin. I yelped as more pain spiked up my center from his thrusts.

My eyes flitted over his shoulder and to the stairs, accepting that I had tried everything in my power to escape. This was happening. My mind exploded, desperate to get out of this trap.

Through blurry tears, I saw movement of something faint and dark forming together. Long legs, tapered torso, broad shoulders, and his handsome face pieced together in front of me.

His dark attire seemed to obscure the room. His brows pulled down with worried confusion rolling in his cinnamon eyes that were not quite looking at me yet.

“Fletch—Fletcher! Help!” I screamed.

His eyes fastened onto me, then at what Mirin was doing. I saw the shock ripple through him as his lips parted and his eyes widened, storm clouds gathering in their depths. He ran to me in two long strides, slamming his hands against the glass, watching each of Mirin’s movements. “Ripley! ”

I was sobbing at both the relief that Fletcher had found me and the grief that he was watching. “Help!” I sobbed. “Please!”

He didn’t say another word. With the tears in my eyes, he looked like a menacing shadow dashing around the cage, searching for a weak point to break in, calling forth my blue magic running in his veins.

“Please!” Mirin’s movements caused shooting pains with every thrust. “Hurry.” It came out as a raspy cry.

A loud popping sound startled me as Fletcher pried apart the glass tunnel through the small gap where the glass barrier used to be with his magic-filled hands.