Page 65 of The Doll and The Domination

Warrose

The oil doesn’t work on me the way it does the others.

Maybe it isn’t only native to Vexamen. I used to have to trudge through oil in a cave to get to the Nyx-Neruvian Bats. They used to suck me into horrendous hallucinations, but after fifteen or so forced trips from Demechnef, I grew a tolerance. But that’s only half the battle. It numbs the part of your brain that can take action. That motor function where you can command your body to swim your way out of it. All I can do is hook my arms under Ruth’s and hold her to my chest while I kick my legs to keep us afloat.

“You have to think of happy memories. You have to pull Ruth out of the hallucinations with positive thoughts!” Skylenna screams at me in a slur.

Hope spikes through my chest, flipping my heart upside down. I wasn’t sure how long I could hear Ruth scream, feel her shudder in horror at whatever she’s seeing behind her lids.

“Ruth,” I say calmly, even though I want to shout, curse, beg, grovel. Anything to make her feel better. “It’s Warrose. I’m here.”

She continues to thrash in my arms, sloshing the oil around in greasy waves.

The crowd cheers as another inmate sinks to the bottom, drowning in what I can only imagine is an excruciating death.

Happy memories. Do we have any of those? I don’t know much about her past. And we don’t have great ones together.

Uhh, okay, let’s try this. “Think of the time you yanked me in that river, remember? I was pissed, you were stubborn. I yelled at you. You yelled back.”

She cries out in pain, and it feels like someone jabbed a knife in my back.

Fuck.

I suck ass at this. I’ve never been great with my words. With trying to make someone feel better. When Kane cried after training, I would pat him on the back and say, “There, there.”

You have a beautiful voice, Warrose.

The idea sizzles to the surface of my brain. The room is so loud with people drowning, soldiers chanting, no one else would hear me.

I start to hum the beginning of a song. A tune my father used to sing to my mother about the queens of Alkadon. It’s originally about one blue-eyed, blonde queen who ruled beside four kings. But I change one small detail.

“The queen of kings, only one, must she be if there were none. Born in forest, filled with stars, her beauty radiates through her scars.” My voice vibrates my chest into her tense back. She whimpers at my words, stirring slightly.

“Her blood is to rule, her heart is to fight. But when men bring darkness, her brown eyes bring light.”

Find your way back, Ruth.

“My queen is ruby, shining in red, but did you know how hard she tries not to lose her head? Kings are cruel, conjuring war, drawing blood, and craving more. But our brown-eyed queen will outlive the sun, for her reign of peace has only just begun.”

My father said five hundred years ago, she was the only ruler who outlived the other four kings. They tried time after time to behead her, but the people’s love protected her.

“Warrose,” Ruth croaks, her hands tightening around my wrists.

“I’ve got you,” I say huskily in her ear. “I’m not letting you go.”

“I shouldn’t have jumped in,” she groans, letting her head fall back against my shoulder.

I’m just thankful Niles and Marilynn made it across. I know Dessin would have a heart attack if he had to worry about saving everyone. The moment Ruth saw Skylenna fall, she scrambled up that ladder so damn fast. She wasn’t thinking clearly. But fuck, it was brave. Fierce. And kind of funny that she thought she could be of any help to them in here.

“I can see again.”

Thank God.

“Good, I’ll swim us out of here the moment my brain is able to speak to my body again,” I grunt. It’s getting harder and harder to keep us above the pool of oil, but I won’t let her drown. I don’t care if that means letting her use my body as a human floating device.

“You followed me in,” she states with a heavy tone. “You didn’t have to jump in after me.”

“I did.”

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