Page 63 of The Oracle's Journey

“What happened?” Lobikno asked, pale and holding an arm to his ribs.He hung his head and looked away from me.

“I don’t want to think about it,” Lhoris grumbled, holding his head as though it was causing him pain and curled up on himself a little. “Oz, are you ok?”

“No?” I answered. “But I’ll live.” We sat quietly for a few minutes. “I’m starting to recall snippets, though.”

“Fuck. I wish you couldn’t,” Lobikno lamented, his voice slightly choked “I’m so sorry.”

Lhoris growled again.

I recalled all three of us reveling in intense lust. Mine for them and theirs for me, though it hadn’t been entirely genuine. None of it would ever have happened without some kind of outside influence.

“None of us meant for this.” I shook my head and slowly sat all the way up. “It must be Emma,” I thought out loud. “He’s done something to Emma. It’s just like Dulhal.” Except so much worse. Bile rose in my throat, although my stomach was empty.

“Then it got violent,” Lobikno murmured. “Maybe he got her to switch from one to the other.” He groaned, “One of you broke my ribs.”

“Probably me,” Lhoris said, “the smaller fingers on my left hand are broken.”

“Sloppy punch,” Lobikno scolded him in a dark tone.

I had some cuts and scrapes, but nothing like the brothers. Feeling as bad as I did probably meant that I hadn’t taken part in the violence. My entire pelvic region felt raw. I looked down and pretended I didn’t see the blood on my inner thighs. We would all need a healer if we could get out of here. “I need water. Either they’ve forgotten we were here, or de Rais ordered them not to bring us anything to keep us alive.”

Rising slowly, Lhoris got to his feet then started looking through the straw for our clothes. He tossed Lobikno’s shirt and pants at him a little harder than necessary. I glared at Lhoris.

“I’m allowed to be angry,” he groused.

“Save it for de Rais,” I snapped at him.

My borrowed dress was in tatters, apparently ripped off in the heat of the moment.

“Sorry,” Lhoris said. Some of his hostility gave way to shame and he handed over his tunic. It at least covered me to midthigh.

I turned my back on him and helped Lobikno get dressed. His broken ribs made it hard for him to do anything, and I wasn’t sure Lhoris would be gentle with him. I didn’t really think Lobikno wanted my help, though he needed it. He could hardly look at me. Considering how he’d been a long-term victim in his last “relationship,” he was probably having some complicated thoughts and feelings. But I wasn’t going to let Lhoris do anything he'd regret later.

The door latch leading into the room jiggled, and the lock clicked. None of us even tried to prepare to fight since there was still a barred door between us and the rest of the chamber. The door opened.

“Eve!” I croaked in relief.

The younger woman looked as though she’d been dragged through the mud, left out to dry in the sun, and then covered with coal dust.

“Gods,” Lhoris said, and approached the bars. “What happened to you?”

“I spent a week hiding in the cold kitchen ovens with mother. It’s been absolutely insane out there.” She carried a bucket of water and some bread. “I had to look over so many bodies before I could find the keys for this prison.”

After unlocking the cell door, Eve brought the water to us with a ladle. The three of us descended upon the bucket and took turns drinking while Eve located everyone’s boots.

Taking mine, I checked inside them. My throwing knives were still there. I pulled out one of the blades, exclaiming, “Thank the Mother they didn’t check my boots!”

Lobikno’s eyes widened. “Thank the Mother you forgot those were in here! We’d be dead if one of us had found those.”

“What’s it like out there?” Lhoris asked while I continued to drink.

The two males seemed to have had their fill of water. I decided to slow down so I wouldn’t make myself sick andnibbled on the hunk of bread Lhoris had torn off the loaf for me.

“It’s horrible. There are corpses and injuries everywhere, but the violence stopped sometime last night. It’s a couple hours after dawn now.” Eve’s gaze darted about, as if she couldn’t stop looking for danger.

“Emma and the duke?” I asked. “His uncle?”

“I haven’t seen them in days. Not since before things got bad,” she answered.

---