Page 67 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Her beautiful body, drenched in his blood, slipped from the carnage of him and sank into the blood-soaked bed. Themovement was unbearable, disturbing the deep gouges in his flesh.

Pressed against his side, one pale leg wrapped around his thigh and an arm pulled him into her. Cradling him like a mother soothing a child. Forcing him to cling to her as he trembled, as if she could bring him comfort after.

Another form of her torture.

“Disgusting,” she insulted. “No one will ever want you like this. Repulsing.” His scars, she meant. What she always said after stripping him and leaving him bloody and marked. Never forgetting to remind him how hideous his body looked now. “You’re lucky I can stomach you.”

Garrik believed it.

Not that he would ever escape, but … no onewouldwant him. Not like this.

A nail scratched between them, tracing along his slow-moving chest.She never disturbed the skin there. Likely because one ill-calculated slip could pierce his heart too soon. And she would never end his suffering early. No. Never too early. Never without a great deal of pain that would inevitably have him begging for her to kill him.

He was her plaything. And toys were not enjoyable when they did not scream. So he would suffer, and suffer, until they deemed him truly worthless. Even then, if they did allow him to die, he was unsure he would ever find peace.

Slithers of Snakemares fell across his bony body as she traced designs in the blood. The open wounds of his inner thighs and abdomen still leaked slowly.

Garrik’s mind protested every touch, but his body could not form any amount of energy to push her away.

“Thank me for it,”she seductively whispered.

No.

“Thank me for it or I’ll rip out your heart.”A daggered nail dug deep into a wound, and an agonizing grunt escaped his lips.

She would do it anyway. The threat meant nothing.

But he could not risk another death. Risk his mental shield that magic itself graciously provided when he was unable to.

The nail pressed, threatening to pierce his heart.

“Th”—barely a hoarse whisper—“thank you.”

“Mmm,” she hummed.

Her serpentine smile parted and sucked his blood from her black fingers, her tongue darting out to lick every drop.

Pushing herself up on an elbow, the other hand brushed over his cheek. Icy fingers trailed across his quivering lips before she swung a leg over and straddled him. Leaning down to rub cold lips along his ear, she whispered,“Your father beckons me. I revel in his passion, but it’s your screams I long for. Don’t be jealous. I’ll return for you.”

Bile burned his throat.

Like the viper she was, she slithered off him and wandered to her silken robe pooled on the floor. Opening the blackwood bedchamber door, she ordered,“Malik! Drag him to his hole. See to it he’s returned in an hour. I want him bound for when I arrive.”

Leather boots thumped on the wooden floorboards toward him. His world began fading to blackness, but not before Malik’s night-blue eyes flickered with a heat of utter disgust.

“I’ll see you soon … my pet. Then you’ll remind me what that pretty mouth can do.”

The stars never seemed so beautiful as tonight. A calm blanketed over him, surveying their shimmering magnificence. Was he hallucinating or was he truly seeing them align into different forms?

A lion? They were myths. And as far as he remembered, not one had been sighted since Magnelis had declared himself High King.

And over there—a dragon. Baring its teeth to … another dragon?

A star shot across the sky, grabbing his wavering attention.

Starfire was so beautiful. The most beautiful thing in Elysian—besides the voice. The way its long white tail of flames gracefully danced behind the star as it left the realm. The sudden sapphire burst of light as it shredded through space and perhaps entered a new realm altogether. Perhaps it searched for something. Something lost. Wherever it ended up, he desperately wished he could go with it.

By her malicious order, Malik had discarded Garrik on the balcony when she was finished. His arms lay heavy on the graystones. From the shadows, quiet movements lurked inside the door. She watched him slowly drift away under the haunting glow of amethyst moonlight.

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