Page 27 of Wrath Of Suns And Shadows (The Osparia #2)

Chapter Seventeen

Emelyn

T he iron chains had drained me. My wrists ached and burned, and my skin was broken, bruised, and bleeding.

Being suspended in the air from the ceiling for such a long time had left me feeling exposed and raw.

My feet dangled only about a foot from the ground.

My arms had popped out of their sockets hours ago.

I couldn’t see any of my surroundings. Only one torch remained lit by the large metal door up the stairs.

I could see its faint glow through the bars that surrounded me in my cell.

It revealed little to me but left the room feeling eerie amongst all the other empty cells around me.

This ship's prison was the same setup as Kade’s.

I knew we had stopped because the swing from my chains had slowed and I couldn’t hear the men working coal anymore.

They had docked the ship. I didn’t know where we were, only that my wrists and arms were a mangled mess from the journey of being strung up, but nothing hurt as much as my betrayed heart.

I had let Marlena in; I had thought she was my friend, a role model to look up to for her bravery and courage to have finally left Ember behind like she had always wanted, but in reality, she had just snaked herself into my life before she’d struck me down.

Willow would be ashamed of what she had become.

I wondered if that was why Willow had never told Ace and me about her.

I shoved it aside. There was no time to grieve the loss of Willow or her sister’s betrayal. I knew she would die at my hand. I wouldn’t be merciful anymore. It was a weakness I would stomp out.

The door creaked loudly, and I didn’t have to see her to know who it was. She emitted an aura filled with hatred.

The sounds of her boots echoed against the metal with every soft and calculated step she took toward me before the door closed with a thud behind her.

She moved close enough so I could see half of her face in the dim firelight, and the look in her eyes was one you’d envision as a child from your worst nightmares. She looked like a pleased monster.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” she whispered. It sounded like a hiss from a snake. Her words were the only warning I had for what came next. Pain radiated from my leg as she shoved her dagger deep into my thigh. I leashed my scream, but my labored breathing gave away the pain I was in.

“Oh, don’t hold back, Peacebringer,” she murmured as she yanked the blade free, and warm blood leaked and began creating a small puddle on the floor, dripping from my boot.

“Your screams are my favorite part.” She took the bloody blade and slipped it under my shirt to cut it off of me.

I lifted my leg and tried to attack her, but it was impossible.

My arms felt like limp noodles after being suspended for as long as they had been in irons.

She grabbed my ankles and connected them to another set of iron chains attached to the floor.

There was nothing I could do to stop or defeat her. I was at her mercy.

She shifted behind me, and I did my best to steady my breathing and relax my body, but as she ran the blade down the skin of my back at an angle, I whimpered as a tear slipped down my cheek.

She lifted my skin and peeled as she ran the blade across again.

I screamed out, unable to withstand it as she flayed a small strip of skin down the length of my spine.

Sweat drained from me, causing my cuts to sting as the puddle of blood beneath me grew and grew. My body became a sticky mess of blood and sweat as she did the same motion again on the other side of my back. My surroundings became fuzzy, fading in and out from the pain and blood loss.

I thought I was going to die as she moved around my body and inflicted cuts, big and small, against my skin.

I never got to say goodbye to Ace, to Crow, to all of my friends.

I never saw Baetos grow, never got the chance to restore what I should have been capable of.

Maybe the Kappa was wrong about me, about being able to restore this world.

If something as simple as iron chains could prevent me from saving myself, how would I be able to save everyone else?

Suddenly, I was falling, and my body crumbled to the floor into the puddle of my blood that had gathered there from Valla’s torment.

The irons were no longer on my wrists and ankles, but my power still didn’t thrum through me.

The room was enchanted, just like the cell I had been in on Kade’s ship.

My fae body slowly healed, something that would normally take moments.

At this speed, it would take days to heal completely.

Valla crouched over me. “I’ll be back,” she promised, “and we will do this over and over again. I’ll bring you to the brink of death in chains, and then I’ll let you heal just enough to pull you back from the edge before I carve your flesh and make you wish you were never chosen as the Peacebringer.

By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be begging to oblige to whatever plans my father has for you.

” I gathered what little strength I had to lift my head and spit at her feet.

She swung her foot back, and the pain echoed in my head before darkness claimed me.

My body had become one with the pain. I dazed in and out of consciousness.

I didn’t know what time it was. How long had I been here?

All I knew was Valla would come in and mutilate parts of me before leaving me unchained to let my body recover from the brink of death before coming back and doing it again and again.

My hair was stuck together in clumps from dried blood and tears.

I lay there for several long moments before my mind finally pulled far enough out of the haze to let me know I had to try.

I had to fight through the pain to get out of here.

A part of me wondered if Crow could hear me through the shadows in this room.

Anywhere there are shadows, I can go.

His words from before echoed in my mind. I thought about every clawing emotion that had always festered between us. I focused on it in my mind and heart and tried to ask for help.

Crow. My voice was a broken whisper, no matter how hard I tried to hide the weakness of it.

I don’t know if you can hear me, but I need you.

Nothing. The shadows didn’t move. I was probably losing my mind, considering I thought he might hear me through the enchantments here, shadows or not. Stupid, so stupid to think anyone could save me.

Enchantments stopped my bending and made me feel weak, but my body still performed like a fae, while the iron put a stop to everything, my healing, my bending, my speed, anything that made my kind superior.

I’d have to save myself.

I rose on shaky arms, only to collapse on the floor again.

Blood was everywhere. I was covered in fresh wounds and old.

Some still seeped slowly, while others had already scabbed and begun healing.

The floor was cold, which didn’t help my already tired and tense muscles.

I took deep, steadying breaths through every surge of pain that radiated through me.

Everything burned, and every movement only made my skin stretch against my open wounds, making me hiss as I tried to crawl toward the cell door.

I grabbed on to the large metal handle to try to move it, and my arms shook from the strength I was using in my attempt.

It wouldn’t move. I shifted on my feet, stumbling into the back wall of my cell as I tried to hold myself up.

I looked around my prison, searching for another way, but I came up empty.

I had to think of something else. When I pulled my hand away from the wall, it was wet, not with blood, but with water.

I was so thirsty, I had to stop myself from wanting to lick the wall.

Instead, I placed my hand there again and focused.

I wasn’t in iron chains. The enchantments dulled my abilities, but I could feel the faintest buzz of power thrumming from the water under my hand.

I glanced up at the wall and noticed the smallest slither of light shining from the ceiling.

I could hear the faint sounds of water lapping against the side of the ship outside, and every slap of a small wave sent more water sliding down the wall of my cell.

The ship had sustained damage. The hole in my prison was just enough to weaken the enchantment.

It was no longer a completed seal within the walls of this prison.

That was why I could feel the small buzz under my skin.

I closed my eyes and took deep breaths and focused what little strength I had into that small seed of power.

Sweat beaded my brow at how focused I was, but I had to heal.

I needed my strength. I needed my body, especially if I wouldn’t be able to use my bending completely in this room.

If Valla wanted to break me, I’d let her.

I’d let her think I had completely lost all hope, and then when she came again, I would fight my way out of here.

She wouldn’t expect it, especially not since the last few torture sessions, I’d only taken the pain she dealt before collapsing on the floor.

I just needed to get outside. I could jump ship and escape through the water.

I made my way back to the spot I’d been on the floor.

I wanted to be sure nothing seemed out of place whenever she came back.

I wouldn’t be able to kill her, but I would escape her.