Page 77 of The Rose in the Shadows

He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out a black leather riding crop. My stomach dropped with the full realization of what was about to happen to me. A burst of terror overwhelmed me suddenly before my temper flared.

He was a monster, and he deserved to burn in the Underworld.

“Yes, I’m sure you do this solely formybenefit.”

A wicked smile danced on his lips as his arm flew out. The slap cracked across my face with such power that I saw stars for a few moments. I spat my blood at him as he came to stand behind me.

“I think fifteen lashes should do the trick,” he sighed, and I could sense the excitement in his voice.

My magic rushed suddenly to my fingers, refusing to accept this treatment. Acting of its own accord, it pushed out of me, making the papers on his desk dance. The Dragon laughed as if I had somehow embarrassed myself with its display.

“I wouldn’t do that,” he warned. “You see, part of this exercise is proving that you can show control. For every time you lose that control, your ladies-in-wait shall receive ten lashes as well.”

I stilled, pulling my powers back to my core in a rush.No.No one else would suffer for me. Not Nessira, and certainly not little Geia. Grounding my feet beneath me and my hands on the table before me, I stood tall. I would survive this. House Hyrax would survive this.

And one day, I would watch the Dragon die.

I envisioned that moment over and over in my head as he announced it was time to begin.

I heard the crop flying through the air before I felt the sting of it against my back. The pain was like lightning being struck directly through me. My knees buckled under it, and though I tried not to, I fell. The electricity of my magic surged through every fiber of my skin, and it took all my might to keep it contained. That was a second punishment in itself, I realized.

As Descendants, we relied on our power to protect ourselves. Being forced to stand here, powerless, was yet another moment of humiliation.

No.

This beast didn't deserve my shame.

I had done nothing wrong. I had done nothing to deserve this treatment.

I would feel no shame for this.

I steadied one foot under me, then the other, and stood tall again.

The Dragon chuckled. “I will make you scream for me, Miss Moore.”

It took four lashings before I finally made a sound. He laughed.

By the eighth, the pain was unlike anything I could have possibly imagined, and I was sweating under the exertion of containing my powers. He told me I looked even more beautiful when blood decorated my skin.

By the fourteenth, I couldn’t hold up my weight any longer and the world began fading in and out of view.

“When I fuck my Queen tonight, I’ll be thinking of you like this, bare and crumpled before me,” he declared, as the crop slapped down onto my fractured skin for a fourteenth time.

And, finally, I screamed.

I screamed at the top of my lungs as he finished hispunishment.

He let out a long exhale as I cried, and I felt the air shift as he came to stand behind me. I felt his hands under my arms and he pulled me to my feet. The feeling of his tunic against the raw and bleeding flesh of my back left me screaming once more, and he wrapped an arm around my waist, both to prop me up and pull me tighter against him.

“That’s it,” he crooned, wrapping a meaty hand around my throat and pulling my chin towards him. “Cry for me.”

I had suffered my way through the pain. I wasn’t sure how I’d done it, but I had kept the thought of Nessira and Geia close to me each time that magical power pulsed in frustration. Through all of it, I had fought to keep them safe.

But when his mouth dipped towards my throat and his hand traveled possessively down my body, I couldn’t control it any longer.

“No!” I cried, and the tendrils of my power escaped, pushing him back several feet from me.

In the silence that followed, my stomach catapulted.

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