Page 63 of The Forsaken Heir

AURELIUS

“ H ow’s that feel?” Bastien said as he straightened. He wiped the sweat from his brow with one hand, gripping a knife edged in blood in his other.

I gritted my teeth to keep the scream at bay.

The blade was saturated in Dragon’s Blood sap, making the dozens of cuts on my foot burn with exquisite and almost mind-numbing pain.

The lacerations were barely more than paper cuts, but Bastien had taken his sweet time with them.

Sweat beaded on my forehead and upper lip, but I hadn’t cried out.

Not once. This was the third time he’d come here trying to get information out of me.

“Why don’t you go a little deeper next time?” I said, my voice remarkably calm. “You’re free to do it, if you like.”

The grin on Bastien’s face vanished.

“You think you’re such a badass, don’t you?” Bastien sneered. He flung the knife aside, the blade pinwheeling over and over until it lodged in the wall behind me.

I wasn’t strapped down anymore. Bastien and his men now had me strung up, my arms tied above my head with poisoned ropes.

My shoulders ached, and my body begged to lie down, to rest, to sleep, but I couldn’t give Bastien the satisfaction of seeing me miserable.

As the ropes bit into my skin and he continued torturing me, I eased my suffering by thinking of everything I had to live for and all the people counting on me to stay strong.

No amount of pain or agony Bastien rained down on me would be enough to break me.

Remembering what rested on my shoulders fueled my resistance to the abuse.

That, and thinking of Elle. Her face, the sound of her voice, her touch on my skin…

It filled me with more strength than I’d thought possible.

Had things gone differently, it might be her in this room suffering Bastien’s torture.

I’d do anything, suffer any torment, as long as she was safe.

“All right then,” he muttered as he stalked to the rear of the room and started slamming and banging tools around.

“You know, Aurelius, you’re only making this rough on yourself for no reason. Regardless of whether you give me the counterspells, I will gain access to the wellspring. You’re only delaying the inevitable. Why not give me the spells and end all this pain and torment, huh?”

“Nah,” I said. “I’m good.”

“Fucking prick,” he hissed as he carried over a stool and set a little cauldron on it.

“Are we making soup?” I asked.

“You wish.” He placed a few small red stones—hardened Dragon’s Blood sap—into the cauldron, then snapped his fingers. Flames appeared beneath the pot. The fire did nothing to the small wooden stool it sat upon, but it heated the cauldron quickly, melting the sap until it boiled.

Despite my resolve to stay strong, I swallowed hard. What the fuck did he have planned?

Bastien vanished behind me again, then returned with a long, metal rod tipped with a dull spike.

“Do you know what I haven’t done yet today, Aurelius?

” Bastien asked, studying the tip of the tool.

“I haven’t heard you scream. It’s been a while since I heard that sweet sound of agony come from your mouth.

I have to admit, it’s been impressive. Most people don’t last through one of my little sessions. We’ll have to fix that.”

He dipped the tip of the tool into the bubbling sap, then held it up.

The steaming hot, viscous liquid clung to the metal.

Before I could say anything in reply, he lunged and dragged the tip across my bare chest. Pain, the likes of which I’d never experienced, burst across my flesh, searing into my very soul.

But screaming wasn’t an option. In fact, I clenched my jaw so hard, I thought I might break a tooth.

Agony lanced through me, sending white spots dancing across my vision.

Each second felt like an hour, and my entire body vibrated with pain.

It was like having acid or boiling oil thrown across my skin.

Bastien’s leering face faded and dimmed as my mind crashed and went blank.

Rather than passing out or crying out, I slipped into a place that was far more pleasant and soothing than what was being done to my body.

Elle and I were in the gardens, having tea. She smiled at me as she took a sip.

“Elle?” I asked, glancing around. “What is this?”

“A garden. Duh.” She giggled.

My heart lurched joyfully at the sound of her laugh, and my dragon gave a deep, rumbling purr within my mind.

“Am I really here?” I asked.

Elle shrugged as she bit into a small cake. “Maybe. Who knows? What if everything that happens from this moment was nothing but a dream? That would be crazy, right?”

“It would,” I agreed.

As we sat in happy silence, I wondered whether this was a construct of my mind, or if I really had gone back in time. Finally, Elle sat forward, resting her hands on the table.

“Why aren’t you fucking screaming?” she asked, her lips quirking up into a confused smile.

I put my cup down. “Huh?”

Elle stood up and placed her palms flat on the table. She leaned forward and stared into my eyes. “Why the fuck aren’t you screaming, Aurelius?”

In a flash, the fantasy burst apart, and I was no longer in the gardens at my family’s estate. I was hanging by my wrists in a cell with Bastien Laurent growling in my face. He looked more than a little crazed.

“What does it take to make you scream?” he hissed.

The pain returned in full force, and a moan escaped my lips, but nothing more. Jamming my tongue against the roof of my mouth, I stifled whatever other sounds might try to rip free from my throat and glared back at him, forcing myself to grin.

“I’m sorry?” I said, panting to keep from crying out. “Were you doing something?”

Bastien’s face went slack with shock. My chest felt as though it was on fire as the Dragon’s Blood sap seared into my flesh. Thick globs of it clung to my chest hair, giving me no reprieve, but I wouldn’t let him see me squirm. Not if I could help it.

“Give me the counter spells!” he shouted, and punched me in the face?—

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” Elle said. “I wondered when you’d wake up.”

My eyes snapped open, and I found Elle gazing down at me and running her fingers through my hair.

“You napped for a long time.”

Somewhere nearby, the hissing sound of ocean waves drew my attention, and I realized I was lying on warm, soft sand.

“We’re at the beach?” I asked dumbly.

“Duh. It was your idea to come here.”

“Right. Sure,” I said as I sat up.

The sun beat down on us, warming my body. The pain was dissipating, and it faded more as Elle rubbed my back.

“You must have been having a bad dream,” she said. “You were moaning and thrashing around.”

“Was I?” I recalled an angry face in front of me, pain, and shouting, but not much else.

Elle’s fingers traced along my shoulders and across my collarbone. “Shhh,” she whispered. “Stop thinking about that.”

As though her words were a magic spell, I sighed and relaxed into her touch. Being with her was like rubbing a balm into my soul.

“This is really nice,” I said, gazing out at the ocean.

Elle wrapped her arms around me from behind and drew light circles over my stomach, tracing the angles of my abs with her fingertips.

“Does that feel good? Do you like that?” she asked.

“I do.”

“Oh yeah?” she said, her voice louder now, her tone angrier. “How about this?”

White-hot agony snapped across my stomach, and for a split second I almost cried out.

Bastien was soaked in sweat and holding the whip again.

Angry, red welts stood out where the Dragon’s Blood threads had cut into my flesh.

The beach fantasy vanished, and with it the comfort I’d taken from it.

Every time my mind filled with images and dreams of Elle, I could put the pain aside.

She’d become my protection. An escape from the hell I was living.

“Prick,” Bastien grunted and lashed out with the whip again.

Electric pain surged through my body. My legs gave out, and I hung listlessly from my bound wrists. The sizzling sound of the rope fibers and the sap on my chest drowned out any other sound. It was too much for me. My body was giving out.

How much longer could I hold out? How long had he been at this?

Hours? Days? Without a clock or windows and no ability to truly sleep, I couldn’t keep track of time.

This was like some awful purgatory. The pain ate at me, digging deep, nearly pushing beyond my will to go on.

The Dragon’s Blood had forced my dragon to the deepest recesses of my mind.

Far enough down that I could barely even feel him.

That alone made all of reality feel wrong .

I’d never been without him, and now he’d become nothing but a shadow at the back of my mind.

Bastien chuckled lightly. “My hand is getting tired, Aurelius.” He switched the whip to another hand and shook out the opposite, opening and closing the hand. “You think you’re a badass. I get that. I really do. You’ll break, though. It’s only a matter of time. You and I both know that.”

“I…have…something to…say,” I managed, doing my best to keep my voice as calm as possible even though I tasted blood in my mouth.

Bastien’s face went slack, and he dropped the whip. “ You do ?” He grabbed my hair and pulled my head back. “Do you want to give me the counterspells? Tell me, and this all ends.”

I forced a smile to my lips. “I’m getting kinda hungry. Could you get me a cheeseburger?”

Bastien’s face remained emotionless for several long seconds. Then, as what I’d said sank in, he pulled his lips back in a sneer.

“I will break you,” he hissed, spittle spraying across my face. “You. Fucking. Watch.”

He rammed his knee into my stomach. Just as the pain threatened to overwhelm me, I slipped away again, grasping at thoughts of Elle to get me through what was happening to me.

“Open it,” Elle cried, clapping her hands in excitement. “I want to see what you think.”