Page 15 of Vicious Princess (The Trials of Death and Honor #1)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A stinging pain in my cheek rouses me from sleep. When I open my eyes, I’m met with darkness. I’m in my bunk, the hard mattress under my back.
But I can sense the presence next to me.
My head whips to the side when another blow comes. I grunt and cover my burning cheek. “Wha?—”
A hand claps over my mouth, painfully digging into my skin.
Something is very wrong here.
I punch my attacker, catching them in the side. Hard muscles. They grunt, but don’t let go of me. A pair of hands wraps around my ankles and pulls.
Painfully, I land on my side on the hard floor. My temple hits the stone, and sharp pain shoots through my head. I kick my legs, trying to get rid of whoever is holding my ankles.
To no avail.
The hands are gone, but in their place rough jute ropes appear. I hiss when they tighten around my ankles. Despite the pain in my temple and side, I sit down to push my attackers away.
I manage to get a few punches in before they seize my wrists and pull them behind my back hard enough that I think my arms might pop out of their sockets.
A hand around my mouth prevents me from screaming for help. I’m not sure that even if I did, anyone would answer.
I’m all alone here.
Once my hands are secured with ropes, the hand over my mouth is gone. Before I can scream, they stuff a dirty cloth in my mouth. Then my attackers pull me up and toss me over a large shoulder.
When they carry me outside the barracks, I realize it’s the middle of the night. Everyone is sound asleep.
The full moon hangs heavy above out heads, lighting up the square. The only sounds are the melancholic chirps of night birds somewhere in the distance and the rushing water of the fountain.
That’s where they take me.
My attacker tosses me off their shoulder onto the hard stone ground like a sack of potatoes. My bones rattle from impact. I’ll have so many bruises, maybe even cracked bones after this…
I count four attackers. All dressed in black leathers, wearing black hoods with cutouts for their eyes and mouths. As if that can hide them. The moment one of them speaks, I know exactly who it is.
“Time for a little lesson, princess,” Bloom says, her voice full of wicked amusement.
I glare at her, unable to say anything because of the damn cloth stuffed inside my mouth. But that’s not an issue for them. They’re not here to hear me.
The first kick to my stomach forces me to curl up. Bile rises up my throat. I try to get my hands out of the ropes, but they’re too tight. The harder I pull, the more they chafe against my skin.
I manage to turn so that the second kick catches my side instead. I grunt and close my eyes.
“Enough,” says another familiar voice. The damn redhead.
My fellow cadets back off. I struggle to breathe, my core and ribs aching.
She limps forwards, closer to me, but she doesn’t squat. The wound from my arrow on her thigh hasn’t healed yet, despite her fae heritage.
Her voice is soaked in malice when she says, “I don’t know what winds dragged you here to Ekios, nor what sort of delusion gave you the confidence to join Ezkai Academy and train to be one of us . But let us make one thing very clear for you.”
She fists the hair at the back of my head and drags me a few steps closer to the fountain. Tears spring to my eyes against my will.
“Filthy savage yrathi like you, Decarios or not, are not welcome here in Ekios,” she seethes. “You should have fucking stayed in your rotten land of barbarians where you belong.”
She stuffs her fingers in my mouth, gagging me, and rips the cloth out. Before I know it, my head is underwater.
The panic that seizes me is bottomless. I thrash against her hold, desperate to get air into my lungs. But that redheaded bitch is strong. She holds my head underwater for what feels like forever. I try hard not to let the water rush into my lungs, but they burn badly with the desire for oxygen.
Just when I’m about to give into it, she pulls me out of the water. I gasp for air, then cough.
“If you don’t want to suffer anymore, leave ,” the redhead says. “Otherwise, you might not live to see your graduation day.”
Once more, my head is pushed underwater. I’m thrashing as hard as I can, screaming into the dark water. Water burns my eyes and assaults my nostrils and my throat.
She pulls me out again. I’m struggling to catch my breath. The rest of my attackers stand around us… laughing .
That sound fills me with rage strong enough to move mountains.
I did not survive the brutal Decarios training in Wetra, where I needed to carve myself a thousand times to prove I’m strong enough, escape the damn fire that claimed the lives of my family, and withstand the harsh conditions of the sea on my way here just to be mocked by a bunch of self-righteous, elitist fae who think they’re better than me just because they were born with pointy fucking ears.
The scream that tears out of my chest cuts through the silent night. It doesn’t come from fear.
No.
It’s fury, hot and thick like molten lava, burning me from the inside out.
Tensing my core, I swing my legs sideways and kick right where I know the wound from my arrow is in the middle of redhead’s thigh.
The pain forces her to let go of my hair, and she stumbles away with a hiss. That’s all I manage the strength for. I roll away from the fountain, with my lungs still burning, my whole body aflame.
When the redhead approaches, I curl into a ball on my side as I brace for more pain. Towering over me, she removes the mask. Her pretty face is contorted with an arrogant sneer.
She spits on me, then says, “This is just the beginning, yrathi . If I were you, I’d sleep with one eye open.”
They leave me lying there on the stone ground, hands and legs still bound with rope. Only when the echoes of their steps disappear do I allow the tears to flow down my cheeks. But I bite my bottom lip hard enough to draw blood so no sound escapes.
I make a vow to myself.
They’ll never make me feel weak again.
Never.