Page 2 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

ARA

S plintered.

Fractured, but not falling apart—held together by sheer determination.

That was what I was.

Cracked and frayed, but not broken.

Never broken.

My fists clenched in their shackles, and I suppressed a wince. The skin at my wrists had long since rubbed raw, the iron stained a ruddy red from my blood. Scars would remain, I had no doubt. Similarly, I knew I would have scars, because I would live. I would escape.

He would not break me.

I would survive this, survive him before I killed him. Not Rogue or anyone else.

Me.

I had envisioned Adonis’s death over and over again, in every possible way, and I was doing just that as he tugged me forward by the fucking collar around my throat, metal spikes pointing inward, sharp enough to slice but not long enough to kill.

My eyes locked on the dagger strapped to his hip.

He never came without it, and I’d memorized every detail: the black leather-wrapped hilt, a bloodstone in the pommel, and a dark blade, etched with markings.

I’d imagined ripping it from his sheath more than a thousand times. I even tried once, though I didn’t remember much after I managed to wrap my fingers around it, only that I didn’t make it far enough to see the blade, and what followed hurt.

His haunting whistle echoed down the dark tunnel, the stone floor slick with ice in some areas, and my bare feet burned. My toes had long since gone numb, and I’d started to fear I wouldn’t make it out of here with all ten of them.

When he took a right turn into the room he’d dubbed his favorite, my heart lurched. Fear slithered up my spine, and I jerked back, causing the damned spikes to puncture my neck. Warmth trickled down my collarbones, my chest, mingling with the rest of my disgusting blouse.

Worse than the spikes, the metal collar blocked the flow of magic, a special spell-bound iron that left me painfully alone down here.

It cut off my connection to the sky and Rogue, but it was only a temporary severance.

The second I escaped, it’d all come rushing back.

Our mate bond would settle back in my chest where it belonged.

The only benefit—if it could be called that—was that it blocked all magic.

None flowed out, but none could come in either, which made it a double-edged sword.

As long as it remained, I couldn’t use my magic or feel Rogue, but Adonis couldn’t get in, either.

It limited his torture and manipulation to the physical, excruciating but temporary.

All of this is temporary, I reminded myself. Again.

His feet came to a halt, his smile and eyes manic. How he managed to hide this side of himself was truly a miracle. This had to be why he stayed tucked away in his castle, hiding from prying eyes. It seemed much harder a ruse to upkeep than hiding that he was Fae.

“Oh, don’t be scared.” He tugged the chain, and I stumbled forward a step. “We’ve done this before.”

He looked so similar to Rogue, but so wrong.

His eyes weren’t as blood red, more muddled and…

dead. Rather than tanned from time beneath the sun, high in the sky, his skin was sickly pale, like he spent all his days down here.

His hair was black but cropped short, and where Rogue was a massive wall of muscle, Adonis was lean.

I spat at him, despite the pain in my chest and roaring in my ears.

His smile grew, and he inched closer. “I do so enjoy our time together.”

When he pulled the chains again, I staggered forward on trembling limbs. My entire form shook, breaths included, but I would not beg. I would not relent. I would not yield to this monster, not now, not ever.

I climbed onto the table without instruction, its freezing metal biting into my skin, and my body wracked with a bone-deep shiver. Cold metal against chronically cold skin was a horrendous feeling, but nothing compared to the torture that was about to ensue.

My breath burst in and out of my lungs in an uncontrollable rhythm, not bringing enough air when I needed it more than ever. I screwed my eyes shut and clutched the sides of the table.

His vile touch snapped my eyes open, and I glared at him as he ran a fingertip over my shoulder to my throat. He touched my mate mark, and I thrashed. My arm snapped back to the table when I reached the end of the chain, and fresh blood dripped down my fingers.

“Do not touch me,” I panted, the urge to remove his hands before peeling the skin from his wretched face stronger than ever. I wanted to hear his screams while I laughed in his ear for once.

“Why? Don’t I own you, now?” He studied the teeth marks at the base of my throat with more curiosity than anything.

His thumb skimmed over it again, and my body tensed so viciously, I managed to jerk away from his touch at the expense of my neck, the spikes sinking into my skin again.

“You do not own me.”

“I’ve owned you for three months.”

My blood ran cold, and I stilled, my wide eyes searching his face for the truth, the lies, anything. Three months?

The dripping that had tormented me day in and day out had stopped, and I hadn’t noticed—or rather, I had, but I hadn’t questioned it. Instead, I thanked the Goddess for that small mercy. Was it ice now? Had the water frozen because so much time had passed that the seasons had changed?

My chest rose and fell quickly as the dots connected before my very eyes. My lungs started to burn while my mind blurred the lines of panic and despair.

There were no techniques here.

When panic sank its claws in, there was no calm to find, nothing to dispel it.

It claimed me over and over. I’d gone unconscious more times here than I had in my entire life combined.

Adonis had seen it firsthand too many times, and he liked it.

He liked provoking me, stealing the air from my lungs until my vision went black with nothing but his fucking words.

“Maybe I should cut this from your skin since you’re mine, now.”

My gaze snapped back to him.

I shook my head, nostrils flared, and lips twisted into a scowl. Spots appeared in my tunneling vision. I couldn’t find air. I couldn’t . There was none to be found.

He hummed and stepped back to hook the shackles around my wrists and ankles to the Goddess-forsaken table, and my head fell back with a thud.

I screwed my eyes shut when they started to burn, too, tears sliding down the sides of my face.

I will get out of here.

I will return to Rogue.

I will be free.

The soaked cloth was placed over my mouth and nose, and a choked sob clawed at my throat.

He released a quiet shush. “We’re on your time, little mutt.”

Mutt.

Half-human, half-Fae.

I was proud to be both.

When he turned, I glared at him, pouring every single ounce of burning hatred I had into it. I imagined my mother’s sobbing face, Rogue’s wingless back, Alden. My irises might not be able to crackle here, but they didn’t need to.

Rage seeped out of me so viciously that when Adonis met my gaze, he flinched, but only for a second. Then, he lifted the bucket of water and smoothed back my hair, clicking his tongue. “You’ll learn soon enough.”

With that, he poured.

Water smothered me.

Filled my mouth, my nose, my throat, my stomach.

My lungs burned moments ago, but now, I couldn’t breathe at all.

I was going to drown. Suffocate.

Panic filled me, my chest, my veins, my limbs. The innate instinct to fight thrashed my arms and legs against their confines, but I couldn’t feel the bite of metal. Nothing but water everywhere and flames in my lungs.

Nothing but impending death.

Maybe this would be the time.

Maybe this time he’d fuck up and push too far.

Maybe I would finally be free in the form of death.

But when my consciousness started to slip, my body went lax, and my fight left, he threw the bucket to the side, the metal clanging against stone loud and sharp. He ripped the cloth from my face and pulled me into a sitting position.

I sucked in a harsh breath and vomited water.

My throat was already raw when I screamed. I screamed and screamed, choked by sobs, before he pushed me back down and curled his fingers around my jaw, forcing me to look at him.

His eyes were wide, pupils blown to the point that his irises barely existed, fixated on something in my expression.

His lips twitched, his head tilting as he stared.

“There’s something so fascinating about watching someone struggle to stay on this side of the veil,” he whispered in a trance.

“How your soul grasps at life, so desperate to hold on, even when your mind gives up…”

He ran his hand along my cheek, the touch nauseatingly gentle, and I lashed out so quickly, he didn’t have a chance to react. I bit his finger until a crunch met my ears and blood spurted in my mouth. A sickening satisfaction pulsed through me when I bit his finger off and spat it on the floor.

He didn’t make a sound, but he snapped from his trance, his jaw tight, lips pressed together. I smiled at him, knowing my teeth would be coated in his blood, and he flinched—barely, but I caught it.

Good. I hoped it was excruciating and unnerving. I hoped he felt horrified. I hoped I horrified him.

But then he leaned closer, so close to my ear that I felt his whisper, and my smile fell. My heart wrenched, and my eyes bulged. My trembling breath was all I could hear in the silent chamber. Not even the dripping of water or Adonis’s movements. Nothing but my own fear.

“Poor Alivia is going to take your punishment for that.”

Livvy?

“Didn’t I mention that? She’s here too. She’s been here since the day you arrived.”

No, no, no. “You’re lying. You’re?—”

His disfigured hand wrapped around my throat, and his vile, sticky warmth slid down the side of my neck.

“Tell yourself whatever you want. None of it negates the truth or the reality of your situation. Alivia will take your punishment, but if you need to convince yourself she’s not here to save yourself the guilt, feel free.

” He leaned back so he could meet my eyes, his gaze hard. “But she is, and she will.”

My chin trembled, and for the first time since I’d arrived, I begged. “P-please don’t. Do whatever you want to me, not to her. I’ll?—”

His fingers tightened until my airway was closed, veins bulging in my neck. I tried to lift my arms to claw at his hold, but they couldn’t move an inch. “Maybe next time you’ll fucking behave.”

He released my neck, slipped the cloth back over my face, hit me so hard my cheek cracked, then water.

Endless water.