Page 126 of The King's Maiden
Breathing hard, I rolled over and pushed to my feet.
“Stop her!” Vivian shrieked.
Before I could see who they were, her minions grabbed my arms and wrenched them behind my back. Vivian tore toward me, grabbing my hair again and yanking me forward. Draggingher friends with me, she dodged my attempts to bite her arm—the only way I saw to get free—and nearly ripped my hair out.
My scar burned. And although my teeth finally sank into her forearm, it was too late.
We reached the water’s edge.
Vivian shoved me down to my knees. “Hold her fucking still!”
“You’re going to pay for this, Vivian! He’s not?—”
She plunged my face into the water. Holding me down as I writhed and flailed and tried everything I could to get away. A heel digging into my back made me cry out.
And a rush of water flooded my throat.
Pulling me up, Vivian’s palm struck my face.
I choked and spluttered, coughing until I cleared the water from my lungs. Gasping for air, fighting for another breath, Vivian’s cruel smile shone in the moonlight before she commanded her friends.
“Do it again.”
They hesitated. And Vivian shoved my head back under the water herself.
I screamed before I hit the surface, but no one would hear me.
We were too far away. They were inside.
But still, I cried out.
All it did was send water rushing down my throat.
I clamped my mouth shut as I tried to fight my way out of their hold.
Coughing and choking when they pulled me up again, I tried to scream, but I couldn’t get the water out of my lungs fast enough. I retched and heaved, and a heavy hand smacked my back. Forcing the water out, I was finally able to breathe in.
“Heisn’t going to do anything,Princess.”
Vivian sneered as blood dripped down her cheek. She got so close I couldn’t help myself.
I spit in her face.
She recoiled. Slapping her hand across my cheek so hard, pain ricocheted across my skull. “You fucking bitch!”
Her knee connected with my stomach, hitting my diaphragm and seizing my lungs in an iron grip.
I slumped forward. Her friends barely held my arms, but it didn’t matter. I was too worn out to stand. My lungs were too weak. There was no way I could run and get away.
“You’re fucking pathetic,” Vivian snarled. “What the fuck these idiots see in you, I have no idea. Like being a loser with her virginity intact is so goddamn special. It makes me fucking sick!” she shrieked, pacing in front of me and darting her gaze between her two friends and my limp body. “We need to get rid of her.”
“V, I don’t know,” the friend on my left spoke, her grip tightening on my arm out of fear—not force. “We didn’t sign up for this.”
That voice. I recognized it, too. But I couldn’t place it. My head pounded and my brain felt like it had been waterlogged. Blinking up at the girl, my eyes blurred with water and tears. I couldn’t see her.
“Oh, shut the fuck up, Elaine.”
Pain and shock cut through me.
