Page 45 of The Doll and The Domination

“I have a new respect for the women in our city, forced to do the lady-doll regimen. This is brutal. And yet they’d go through this hunger every day.”

Marilynn nods, deep in brooding thought. “Unfortunately, most of them aren’t forced anymore. Not like they were during the first years of settlement. They’re deeply brainwashed. It would take a lot to change that society.”

Before I can think of a response, Skylenna lets out a childlike whimper.

We whip around, turning to face her still nuzzled in Warrose’s arms. But something shifts in the last cage. Dessin shifts, watching her stiffly.

“Have you been awake this whole time?” I ask him.

Dessin gives me a look that could kill. It’s insufferable, full of exhaustion and nervous energy. So, that’s clearly a yes, and also, fuck you, Niles.

Skylenna sucks in a sharp breath before she wakes herself up in a crying fit. Holding her arms up, defending herself from air, from nothing. Tears well over her swollen cheekbones. And her throat is hoarse, scratchy as she pants.

Dessin and I are on our feet, gripping the bars of our cage, powerless to help her. The thrashing wakes Warrose up abruptly.

“Help her,” Dessin barks.

“I got it,” Warrose says, trying to hold Skylenna still. “Shhh, it’s going to be okay.”

But her arms stay up to protect herself, and she isn’t calming down.

“Tell her she’s safe.”

Warrose glances at Dessin, then back to Skylenna’s wincing face. “You’re safe, Skylenna.”

“Keep saying it.”

It takes several times, chanting that phrase that Dessin seems so sure of. He rocks her back and forth, wipes her tears away with the pad of his thumb. And through his gentle voice and soothing presence, I decide I respect him a hell of a lot more. Warrose doesn’t know Skylenna as well as Dessin, Ruth, and me. He’s Dessin’s friend. Yet he’s working so hard to take care of her, to help her sleep peacefully, to assure her that she’s no longer in danger.

“I’m safe,” Skylenna finally mutters back in a disoriented haze.

Dessin sighs, sliding down to the ground.

“Good.” Warrose releases a breath. “Now, sleep, kid.”

I relax my shoulders and take my seat. From this angle, I study the bars on Dessin’s cage. No…that can’t be right. I lean forward to get a better look. Two bars are bent away from each other. As if someone was trying to pull them apart.

My gawking stare flicks to Dessin, arms crossed, brow furrowed as he watches Skylenna like a hawk.

He almost succeeded in prying his cage apart just to save her from the Blood Mammoths. My eyes gloss over with tears, and my throat becomes thick. He really would do anything for this girl.

He’d bend iron with his bare hands.

“Wow,” Marilynn utters next to me.

I peek over at her.

She nods at Dessin’s cage. “Only one explanation for that.”

“Which is?”

“Soul mates.”

~

Ruth

Leaves slap across my face as I sprint through the Emerald Forest. The earthy air is layered with fog, and the soil is damp but soft, sticking to the bottoms of my bare feet.

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