Page 72 of Secrets & Curses of Cerithia

When I stepped through the gate, no one came for me. My chest filled with anxious tension. I would not get away with this. I had been gone for days. I walked into the castle and was met with an eerie silence. I scanned my surroundings looking for anything out of place, but there was nothing. No one lurked around corners or in the dark. There were no guards standing in the hallways.

I hurried down the stairs to my room. Once there, I shut the door and locked it. A deep breath escaped me, and with it my fear. Only for it to return two-fold.

“You’ve been gone an awfully long time, darling.” Jesper was lying in my bed when I turned.

“Jesper,” I acknowledged him but said nothing else.

His blue eyes cascaded over my filthy clothes, then over my sweaty face. Did he know where I had gone or who I had seen? How could he know? Something in the way he was so calm let me know that he knew. A shiver of fear ran up my spine.

“Where were you?”

“I had to see Exile for myself. I had to see they weren’t there or see if I could find their bodies,” I muttered as fear swirled in my stomach. He stood up and took a small step toward me. I backed up until I was pressed into the door. My dagger was in my boot, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get to it before Jesper got to me.

“You didn’t believe me,” he frowned.

“I couldn’t believe it unless I saw it. They were my family for the last seven years.”

He nodded slowly as he looked over at me. Jesper’s eyes paused on my wrists to make sure my barbs were still in place.

“You shouldn’t have left, but I understand your curiosity.”

My eyes looked at him. He was being too agreeable. Why wasn’t he beating me into oblivion? This was almost worse. He was toying with me. Jesper reached out and swiped the sweaty hair from my forehead. I shook at the small touch. My breath came out shaky, giving away my worry.

“I gave you a chance to tell me, yet you weren’t completely honest,” he tisked.

“I—” The back of his hand cut off my words. His hand wrapped around my throat and slammed me back so roughly that I thought he would crack my skull open on the wooden door. I held onto his forearm, trying to release some of the pressurefrom my throat. I even reached towards his face and scratched deep grooves into his flesh, but it did nothing to stop him. Jesper’s handsome face had contorted into a hideous monster filled with jealousy and rage. My fingers scratched and clawed at him more in hopes he would drop me. Nothing I did seemed to faze him, though. My fire magic surged forward, but couldn’t break free of the magic barbs. Fear laced every fiber of my body as I thrashed around, desperate to run straight back to Crimson if I needed to.

“Crimson,” he hissed. “You went to see him. Even after all the punishment from last time.” He tossed me into my two-drawer dresser, and it shattered under my body. I cried out as the pain shot through me. Something sharp stabbed into my leg, blood spewing from the wound as my adrenaline pumped through me.

“It wasn’t like that!” I yelled, but his fists rained down on me without mercy.

“I don’t care!”

He pulled something from his pocket, and when I saw it was rope, I tried to crawl away. But he gripped my ankle and pulled me back. He tied my hands easily to the bedpost above my head as I sat on the floor.

Then he pulled out his knife.

I screamed for him to not do it, but that only made him smile. Terror ran through me and seized any ability I had to fight. I closed my eyes tightly and screamed to both the heavens above and hell below to save me.

Cassius, please come for me. I begged silently. Cassius, please save me—take me away from the pain. Jesper’s knife carved into the inside of my thigh, and then he moved to the inside of my forearm. He took his time again, and when he was done, I was barely conscious. I closed my eyes and drifted into darkness, but I was awakened by a bucket of hot water.

I bellowed out in pain as the heat scorched my cuts. Then another bucket hit them, and I couldn’t even cry anymore. As I lay on the floor, I wondered if this would be my end. Sometime later, he stopped and left the room after saying something that I could not comprehend in my state. I stared at the cracked ceiling of my room, and my confused mind started counting the nails before darkness beckoned me into it.

?????

My Cerithia uniform was dirty and torn from fighting someone in the Crimson army. His sword technique was impeccable, and I was having a hard time deflecting the blows. We were ambushed in the woods by Crimson’s guard. My eyes had immediately scanned the red uniforms, looking for his black one. I hadn’t seen it.

We had been battling for nearly an hour. The sun had retreated behind the mountains, and the temperature had dropped significantly. Our numbers were dwindling, but so were theirs. I grabbed the dagger from my boot when his last blow knocked me to the ground. I turned quickly and sank my blade into his chest. His dark eyes stared at me, and his red hair whipped in the breeze as he fell to the forest floor.

Fuck.

I stood and turned, stopping when I saw that Cassius stood directly behind me, holding my viper-handled dagger only inches from my heart. Shit. I had thrown it at someone earlier and had not yet had the chance to retrieve it.

“Point,” he whispered, before he handed me my dagger. “I do believe that is five points, so I win.”

“I never agreed to five points being the winning number,” I growled. “You ambushed us.”

“No, this is not my guard,” he sighed. “Illusion magic,” he whispered as I looked back out and saw the dead men wearing gray uniforms. Kizar guards. Why had they attacked us? Iturned back to Cassius, who had a mischievous glint to his smile.

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