Page 32

Chapter 32

P ain had become front and centre in my existence. In some moments, it was the only thing that existed. But it had such variety that I couldn't even call the sensations monotonous. Sometimes a fiery sensation tore across my skin, making me feel as though my outer layers were melting off. Other times, I was wracked with electrical shocks that made every limb strain and jerk so violently that my muscles and tendons threatened to snap from each other.

But perhaps the worst of it was when their sordid enchantments touched my very nervous system. Every nerve screamed within me, begging for mercy as white hot agony engulfed them, and I screamed with them, into the ball of rags that Thorton had stuffed into my mouth when my cries grew too loud.

When my vision returned from the last blinding wave of agony, it was peppered with sparks. Thorton retracted his hand, which was gloved with leather and crystals embedded into each of the glove's fingertips, each a different colour, and each with their own painful purpose.

They had dragged me to the basement and chained me to a chair that didn't have a seat; only my bindings held me in place and my bodyweight strained against them. The pressure cut welts into my arms that worsened with every violent movement on my part.

"Anything to say?" Thornton pulled the glove a little further down his arm. The stupid thing was too big for him.

I shook my head, automatically.

We had gone over this rigmarole so many times I'd lost count. I wouldn't talk, no matter what they did to me. Already fearing for Penny and what the Franklins could do to her, I wouldn't put my new family in danger by giving the Bishops what they wanted. I would never.

The pain they inflicted on me down here was nothing compared to the pain of losing my friends, or Hecate. Giving the Bishops their powers back would only empower them to make that happen.

"Let's have a breather." Pearl, who sat filing her nails on a sofa in the corner, said it as casually as if we were playing a few feisty rounds of a family game. "All this shouting is giving me a headache."

Oh, my apologies, your majesty.

If my mouth wasn't full, I would have spat the words at her. I was done indulging this elderly psychopath, no matter what she did to me.

Pearl put down her nail file as Thornton took off the glove and sat down in a wooden chair across the room, wiping his brow. Yeah, torture must have been really hard work.

She got up and walked over to me, shoving two fingers into my mouth and prising the gag out. It fell into my lap, warm and moist, and I leaned my head back to take in a little more oxygen with each shaking breath. There wasn't an inch of skin that wasn't drenched in sweat, and my clothes stuck to me everywhere. It sent a chill skittering across my skin that I tried to suppress.

"You deserve this, Beatrix." Pearl stood over me, her hands folded over her stomach. "You may not feel like you do, but you deserve this. This family has suffered immensely because of your actions." She checked her nails again. "It's important that you learn that they have consequences."

I laughed with too much gusto and no humour. It suited her to pretend I was still young; pre-teen or thereabouts, at the age I had been the most controllable. To my memory, she had never spoken to me like an adult, and it was weirdly nostalgic to hear her speak to me like a misbehaving child again.

"You don't think… that maybe all these… bad things happening to you..." I paused to take a deeper breath. "...are because of your actions?"

" I have done nothing wrong." Pearl looked over the top of her nails to glare at me. "Any misfortune we have suffered is entirely down to you. As always."

As always. Was it any wonder I had only felt the beautiful touch of self esteem when I had left this gods-forsaken place?

I laughed again in between gasps. "You really can't do anything wrong, can you?"

"This isn't about me, Beatrix. Now, do us all a favour and tell me where you've hidden our powers."

"Why?" I took another deep breath, my head falling forward. "So you can kiss up to your new rich friend?"

I wasn't an idiot. She had seen this as an opportunity to cast her wicked net into more influential circles. By doing all she could to get information out of me, in her mind, she was proving herself to Nora Franklin and her family. And get back her slave, her powers, and gain herself a larger status.

"If you're hoping for some credit for bringing our two families together, you're sorely mistaken," she said.

I wouldn’t help her take a step up the social ladder. But if she wanted her power back so badly, maybe I could make her think I would barter for it.

"I wouldn't dream of it." I coughed. "But maybe we can help each other. Maybe I will give your powers back, but I need something in return."

Pearl folded her arms but otherwise didn't so much as twitch, a statue in every regard, and just as stone cold. "You have even more audacity than I feared."

"Terrifying, I know." I grinned, though it made my face ache. "But I'll give you what you want if you tell me what my prophecy said."

She snorted. "Never."

"Why? Scared it'll give me more audacity?"

"Oh, you're so tough aren't you?" She leaned down into my face, and I wanted to shrink away, but thankfully, the bindings wouldn't let me. "Drop the act, Beatrix. We both know that deep down under those layers you've wrapped yourself in is the scared little girl who does as she's told because she's too spineless to stand up against true strength. That prophecy was all I needed to make my decision. You have too much power over others and I won't unleash that on this family or the world."

My jaw clenched and my teeth ground together. Romilda had made the prophecy sound similarly weighty. But this was just little old me we were talking about. My power didn't have that much sway over anything outside of people. What could go so horribly wrong that everyone felt the need to keep it from me? Would I become a monster if I learned my fate?

"Shall we continue?" Pearl straightened up and strode back over to her sofa, whipping the nail file out of her cardigan pocket.

Thornton heaved out of his seat, making it look like a monumental effort. But before he had even straightened up, a crashing noise above made the light fitting swing from the ceiling and dust cascade down onto me.

“Is Lucille trying to brew potions again?” My grandmother glared at the ceiling, but Thornton shrugged.

“She gave up on that, mother,” he said. “She’s waiting until she gets her power back to even attempt it again.”

Oh good. Without their powers, they couldn’t cast magic or brew potions, either. That was an extra special added bonus. But if aunt Lucille wasn’t making a mess up there, who was?

Apparently, the same question had piqued Pearl’s interest because she stared up at the ceiling a little longer before heading to the door. “Carry on.” She waved a hand at Thornton.

He strolled over to me as she left, making a big show of putting on his torture glove again. My skin prickled with each idling step he took closer, and a dark hunk of despair weighed down my stomach. How long would they do this to me before they got bored? Or would there be a point at which I actually broke?

Pearl didn’t give up. Her persistence was the only part of her personality that did her any favours, at least when it came to her interests. She wouldn’t let me die, if that’s what it came to. In fact…

As I watched Thornton come to a stop in front of me, his shadow casting a more monstrous gloom across my mood, a thought occurred to me. Why hadn’t they killed me all those years ago? When I was a baby and they had just learned about my prophecy? They could have gotten away with it. It wouldn’t have been the first time my grandmother had been responsible for someone’s death. Instead, she had gone to great lengths to keep me oppressed and under her control.

What was I missing?

But the moment Thornton touched the blue crystal at the tip of his forefinger to my chest, all thoughts vanished, destroyed by the electricity that coursed through my body. My back arched, straining against my restraints, the chains digging yet more dull pain into my skin, and a muted cry forced its way between my gritted teeth.

When he finally removed the crystal, my head drooped and I inhaled as much air as my lungs could accommodate in one ragged gasp. Thornton held his finger directly in my line of sight, a warning.

“You could make this stop,” he said. “You just have to tell me where they are.”

“But…” I took a few more deep breaths, “...we’ve never spent such quality time together, uncle Thorn.”

“Oh, you want attention? I’ll give you attention.”

Thornton lowered his finger toward my skin and I braced myself by taking another too-large breath. My head spun as the oxygen saturation and the whiplash of the agony teamed up to disorient me. But maybe being out of it would help deal with the next round of torture. With any luck I would lose consciousness and make them give up to try again tomorrow.

A yowl filled the air that I was surprised to hear I could generate with my human vocal chords. It sounded just like Hecate. But Thornton bellowed his own cry and staggered backward, his limbs flailing.

My head jerked up to see Hecate wrapped around Thornton’s face, hissing, spitting, and clawing at every inch of skin she could reach. Thornton reached up with his gloved hand to grab Hecate.