Page 55 of Spirit Trials (The Spirit Kingdoms #1)

They step forward quickly. I back up, but I’m no match for two powerful male Royal Guards.

One of them shoves me to my knees while the other yanks my hair back, tilting my neck up.

I blink back the automatic tears from pulling my hair but refuse to let them drop.

I stare up at the guard in charge. “Whatever it is, you can just ask me.”

He backhands me across the face, and my head jerks to the side, pulling my hair further.

I blink and try to focus past the ringing in my ears and the pain in my cheek.

I spit out the blood pooling in my mouth from biting my cheek and look upwards again.

“You’re a traitor to this kingdom and to the king.

You don’t do the talking; I do.” I bite my lip, so I don’t say anything in return.

“Why did you lead the Black Clansmen here?”

“I didn’t.” He hits me again; this time on the other side of my face. My head hangs a moment, and I try to breathe past the pain.

“Let’s try that again. Why did you lead the Black Clansmen here?” This time I stay quiet. “Answer me.” I grit my teeth; there’s no winning here. They’re here to break me down and aren’t going to stop until there’s nothing left to break down.

I slowly lift my head and meet his eyes. “I didn’t lead them here. I never even spoke to any of them.” He hits me in the stomach this time, and I can’t catch my breath. Panic courses through me as I fight against the lack of oxygen. My brain knows oxygen will return, but my body isn’t so convinced.

“How did you get them past the guards at the gate?”

I shake my head and regret it immediately. The walls spin around me. Pain is just an emotion; fight past it. I take a breath and lift my head. “I didn’t. I promise. I would never do anything to hurt anybody in this kingdom.”

The world starts to blur around me, and I get lost in the pain. He keeps asking questions, but I can’t do anything to answer right.

“Why did you send the Prince away before the attack?”

I try to make sense of his words. “I didn’t send Rysden away. He was called away before the attack.” I stumble through my words and spit out blood in between. “Maybe you should be asking who knew the attack was coming and sent the most powerful man in the room away before it happened?”

It’s silent for a moment, just a moment; but it’s blessed.

But then it starts up again. They ask a question; I don’t answer the way they want, and I pay the price.

Time ceases to exist outside of my torment, and I’m not sure what the goal here is but I’m pretty sure they plan to kill me this way.

There’s no way my body can keep taking this.

Even bonded to Solace won’t help me survive this.

Once, when I knew they were going to keep torturing me until I was dead, I fought back.

Or at least I tried, but I was too weak, and it failed fast.

Somewhere outside here, we hear a scream.

The men stop, and I try to take in a breath.

There’s more screaming, and I latch on to it—simply because if they have to worry about something else, they can’t torment me.

I hear a bell ringing and realize it’s some sort of alarm, but I’m not exactly sure what.

I can only hope that maybe somebody is attacking the castle, so my captors will have to leave.

I close my eyes as I lay in the dirt; it hurts even to breathe. I don’t think I’m going to survive this. Suddenly, I feel something. I feel... him . I don’t know how I know, but I know. My mouth tries to curve into a smile.

“Travin!” the guard in charge shouts. “What’s going on up there?”

“I’m not sure. It sounds as if—” There’s a gurgling noise as his voice instantly cuts off.

The guard next to me swears. “Go check it out,” he demands of the second guard in the cell with us. I hear the cell open, and footsteps. And then there’s nothing.

The guard still with me growls low under his breath. “Why do I have to do everything myself?”

And then, Rysden enters the cell. I can’t see him, but I feel his dark presence.

The cell door clangs shut, and I wish I could turn to see him.

“Your Highness,” the guard stammers. “Wh-what are you doing down here?” There’s absolute silence.

“Now, let’s not do anything hasty,” the guard says, stumbling backwards.

“The king gave the order, and I was just following his command.”

“The king commanded you to torture my mate?” The words are so low, I can barely hear them; but I can hear the venom dripping from his voice.

Honestly, I’ve never heard Rysden sound like this before.

“Then I will kill him next after you die at my hand after experiencing a very painful and slow death.” Rysden’s words are slow and steady.

“Your Highness, please. She’s a traitor.”

That was the wrong thing to say. I hear a scuffle, and then I hear Rysden’s voice.

“For every mark I find on her body, you’ll receive double.

” Rysden pauses and all I can hear is heavy breathing from the guard.

“You’d better hope she doesn’t have very many bruises and marks.

” And then I hear a dragging, scuffling sound right before a door clangs shut. I jerk at the noise.

“Please, Your Highness.”

Heavy steps come towards me and stop right in front of me.

I finally manage to turn my head. Just seeing Rysden’s boots makes me almost start crying.

Then he’s crouching down next to me, and his dark eyes meet mine.

I shiver at the absolute fury there. “How badly are you hurt?” he asks, his voice dangerously low.

I’m not one for drama, but he also needs to know what he’s dealing with so we can get out of here before something else happens. “I can’t move.”

He stares at me even as a shadow passes over his face. “Will I hurt you if I pick you up?”

“I’ll be fine.” I’m not about to stay here; I don’t care how much pain I’m in. He stares at me and then his eyes pass over my body, but I know he can’t see everything, even using Shade’s vision to be able to see in the dark. Most of the damage is under my clothes.

“Okay.” There’s no emotion in his voice.

He leans forward and puts an arm under my knees and another one behind my back and lifts me gently into his arms. Even as gentle as he is, I can’t help but cry out in pain.

He stills for a moment and then begins walking.

It’s absolute silence around us, and I wonder where all the guards are. I feel us climbing stairs.

Somehow, we get through the castle and outside. I blink at the bright light and turn my head towards Rysden’s chest. He stops a few moments later. “I didn’t think this through.” I open my eyes and see his dark ones staring into mine. “All I have is my horse.”

“I’ll do it.”

“But—” he starts.

“Please, Rysden; please just get us out of here. I’ll survive the ride,” my words are barely a whisper.

His jaw tightens and all emotion once again leaves his face.

He lifts me onto the saddle, and I slump forward.

Rysden settles in behind me and pulls me gently against his body with his arm around my waist, holding me against him.

Every bounce fills me with agony, and I can tell Rysden is going slow because of me.

“Just go,” I say through gritted teeth. “Get us home.” All I can think of is that more guards might come after us. Rysden must agree, though, because he kicks his heels, and we take off towards his home. It’s not a long ride, but I still have a hard time staying awake for it.

“Stay awake, Wildheart,” Rysden says next to my ear.

“Don’t go to sleep on me.” I try, but my eyes keep drifting shut.

Finally, we get to the castle and Rysden jerks his horse to a stop.

Rysden pushes me forward gently, so I’m leaning against the horse’s neck.

He jumps down and then reaches up for me and carries me inside.

The next little bit is a blur. Now that I’m safe, it’s like my body finally realizes the trauma it’s been through. And everything feels like it’s on fire.

“Farrah!”

“What did they do to her?”

“Is she alive?”

I hear Kinsley and Harper’s voices but can’t open my eyes to respond. “Back off,” Rysden barks at them. “Shade let’s go.”

And then I hear a voice that nearly makes me cry. Why didn’t you fight back?

Solace? I reach out mentally.

Who else would it be? She snaps back. I almost smile. I felt your pain through our bond and tried to give you strength, but you closed the pathway. That was stupid!

I didn’t mean to. Honestly, I didn’t know I had done that.

She gives a dramatic sigh. After we get through this, I will teach you how to pull from my strength so that this never happens again. After I feast on the carcasses of those who injured you.

She says it so calmly, it takes a moment for her words to hit me. There will be no feasting on carcasses...of humans anyway.

Solace snorts. Says the human who can’t get out of bed.

Solace, I start. I feel a burst of anger, and it takes me a moment to realize it’s not mine.

Solace? I hear her low growl, and her body pushes closer to mine.

I snap my eyes open to see what the danger is.

It takes me only a moment to realize who it is she’s growling at. Why are you growling at Shade?

Because he’s making me mad.

She doesn’t share anything more, and I’m too tired and in pain to think about it. A wet, rough tongue licks my cheek, startling me. I jerk and curse myself when it causes my entire body to hurt.

“Easy,” Rysden says from right next to me. “She’s just helping to take your pain away and heal you.”

You can heal like Shade? I don’t know why it surprises me, but it does.

What? Did you think only the males could?

I don’t react to her snark. With the mood she’s in, she could decide to stop; and that would literally make me cry.

Because for the first time in maybe hours, I finally am getting the tiniest bit of relief from the pulsing pain.

I find myself starting to drift off. I must move or something because Rysden grips my hand.

“Just rest, Love.” The endearment flows over me, but before I can dwell on it like I want to, the world around me fades away as blessed sleep finally takes over.