Page 63 of Diamond Kisses

I gave up.

Collapsing against the pillow, I let overwhelming pain carry me away.

The last thing I felt was the sharpest prick in my arm. “When you wake, you won’t feel what he did to you. The drugs will numb everything, and you’ll feel a thousand times stronger than you actually are. Don’t think you’re cured. You’re not. Do too much and your system will shut down. Got it?”

I had no capacity to reply.

Her hand sifted gently through my shaggy hair. “I’m so sorry, Henri.”

And then, I was alone again.

* * * * *

“Tonight, you will get your reward, my sweetling.”

I flinched on my knees, not daring to look up at Victor.

Goosebumps covered me thanks to the cold winter evening and the fact that I wore nothing but white-wrapped cloth around my chest and back.

I’d woken a couple of hours ago and suffered through a shower before Dr Belford came to dress me in the softest bandages and soothing salves. She hadn’t spoken, but I’d whispered a quick thank you.

She was right.

Whatever she’d given me had numbed everything.

I felt nothing.

Nothing but the prickly claustrophobia of being trapped when all I wanted to do wasrun.

My stomach snarled in the quiet ballroom, highlighting my skinniness and the fact that I’d eaten one potato, three finger-sized pieces of fish, and a spoonful of chocolate mousse in twenty-eight hours.

I’d eaten better in the dungeons.

Whatever reward he wanted to give me?

I hoped it was food.

Glorious fucking food so I could get my strength back to kill him.

Standing, Victor clicked his fingers for me to do the same. It took effort to command shaking legs and popping knees to straighten, but I did. Giving Rachel a glance, she winced and looked away.

Her hands cradled her baby bump. She looked plumper and healthier, but the light in her eyes had been snuffed out. The ferocity when she’d lied for me after Emerald Bruises—when I claimed her, Ily, and Mollie as my own—no longer existed.

I hated that she’d given up.

I hated that she was the only jewel who dared make eye contact with me these days and wished she could get a message to Ily. Just a simple message of how sorry I was and just how much I loved her.

“For the past weeks, I’ve diligently proven to you that you are no longer the owner of your senses.” Victor cupped my cheek with a doting smile. “Your ears might be onyourhead, my pet, but they only obey whatIsay.”

I clenched my jaw and said nothing.

If he wanted to believe in his lunatic ramblings, so be it.

The only one who truly owned me was the girl chained to the wall. The girl staring at me even now. The girl sending me silent messages that I could feel but never return.

“If you prove to me that your hearing is completely mine. If your senses belong to me entirely, then you will be allowed to enjoy your reward from start to finish.”

I frowned.

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