Page 17 of Heir of Broken Souls (HOBF #3)

Chapter 17

The Memory

T he bastards will burn. They will bleed for their heinous crimes.

The skin on my forearm peels, dripping with blood as I thrash against the tree they’ve tied me to.

The rope burns my wrists and ankles, but I don’t care. I tug and tug and tug, pulling as hard as I can. Despite the voice in the back of my head telling me it’s impossible, the sight before my eyes will not let me stop.

My mother and two sisters scream at the top of their lungs as the assailants that came for us in the middle of the night pin them to the forest floor. They kill them so painstakingly slowly in a show of mockery, forcing me to watch the life leave their eyes.

They’ve pulled them so close to my tree that with every slash and plunge of their knife, the blood sprays my white nightgown and blonde hair.

Marking me red.

I thrash again, tears pouring down my cheeks in rivulets.

I try to note the details of their bodies, but they're concealed by the black billowing robes, the hoods that cast them into shadows. And with a piece of my sister's torn shirt shoved down my throat, I can’t breathe, let alone scream for help.

Not that it’d be much use. We are so far from civilization that they didn’t even bother gagging my sisters and mother.

They know no one will find them.

They will not rest until they lie dead at my feet.

Because their master isn’t done playing with me. He isn’t done seeing through my mind.

“Ready to watch the show, Elysia?” he purrs.