Page 105 of Jagged Souls

No wonder I can’t move. Eduardo might’ve taken on the bulk of the work needed to heal me, but it’s still my body that had to produce the blood cells and stem cells. He’s used up all of my stored energy and some of my muscle mass by reviving me that much.

“I need him to heal her eyes,” Antonio says.

My eyes?

There’s nothing wrong with –

I jerk towards the door as blatant horror pounds into me. I roll onto my side, then drag myself towards the edge of the mattress, desperate to get away. My limbs are too fucking heavy though. My body has a different master, and I barely make it a full body-length before Antonio grabs me by the back of the neck and hauls me to my feet.

As he shoves me towards a wall face-first, I try to lift my arms before impact, but I’m too slow, and my face smashes into the plaster. He leans in close behind me as pain radiates across my jaw. My heart rate spikes. He presses into me. All six-and-a-half feet of solid, dangerous muscle.

Now every instinct is screaming at me to stay still, to freeze rather than to fight or run as that will only give the predator something to chase.

“If I evensenseyour magic,” he says, his chest vibrating against me as he talks, he’s that fucking close, “I will rip off your arms before you can use it.”

His hands cup my shoulders, sending chills all down my spine. As I tremble against the wall, I’m forced to admit that even if I’d fought him in my prime, with all my magic and a group of bodyguards beside me, he would’ve still won. The power difference between us is too vast.

“Bite another one of my men again,” he says, his fingers digging into me, “and I will pull out all your teeth. Disobey me, and you’ll be punished. Your little tantrums stop now.”

Stepping back, he spins me around to face him. My legs wobble, and I nearly fall over, but he wraps a hand around the lower half of my face. His fingers and thumb squeezing into my cheeks, he keeps me standing. With his other hand, he pulls a switchblade out of his pants pocket and flips it open. He drags the blade up my neck, following my carotid artery, and it takes everything I have not to flinch away. But I can’t stop the goosebumps from exploding across my skin as he raises the knife to my ear.

Then across to my eye.

“Varius has made his choice,” he says.

Pure agony erupts from my mouth as my knees buckle. The scream comes from the very depths of my soul. I could have survived losing my eyes, but my husband’s betrayal is cutting deeper than any knife. It’s destroying every part of me, hurting me more than anything Sadist has done to me.

My body shakes uncontrollably as the grief drowns me in my own tears. I tried so hard to stop this from happening, knowing it would break me. That’s why I offered up Varius’ tattoo even though I knew how much it’d hurt him. Because IknewI wouldn’t survive his betrayal.

The breaking of his promise to never hurt me again.

You fucking promised!I scream at him down our bond.You promised!

Tears rolling down my cheeks, I start to hyperventilate. Antonio stabs the knife into the wall beside my head, but I don’t even flinch, the agony in my chest desperate to be outdone.

He digs a finger into my eye, and I merely welcome the pain. It feels so much better than the black hole growing in my chest, consuming every inch of me. I’m breaking apart, collapsing inwards. No piece of me will survive.

I never should have given Varius a second chance.

You promised…I sob inside my skull.

You fucking promised!

Antonio pulls my eye out, and finally that pain overrides my broken heart. Then he crushes it in his grip, sending fire through my nerves, and I scream for all I’m worth.

I hate him.

I hate Varius.

I hate how I gave him a second chance, listening to all his fuckingliesabout how he was sorry and how he’d never hurt me again.

As Antonio reaches for my other eye though, I start to laugh.

Maniacally.

Brokenly.

Happily.