Page 76 of Baneful Magick

“Mother–” Aizel said, trying to reason with her.

“Get. Out.” She pointed at the stairs.

Aizel looked at me and mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ before following her order. Him staying would only make whatever was about to happen worse. She only let her unbridled rage loose with me, and when he delayed it, it always made her more... creative.

Walking up to me, she grabbed a handful of my hair and used it to lead me down the hallway and outside to a small shed. She unlocked it and shoved me inside. The door slammed shut behind us, and I heard the lock snick into place.

She pulled her long gray hair up into a ponytail as she ordered me to stand up.

My memories got a bit spotty after that, my mind refusing to fully recall what she did to me in that shed.

Beaten.

Humiliated.

What I remembered was bad enough.

My throat was so dry it felt like sandpaper when Aizel found me. My body was black and blue, and the blood on the flooralmost made him fall while trying to untie me. When he got me outside, his face was pale in the moonlight.

“Echo? Are you?—”

“I’m tired,” I rasped. “Just leave me.”

“Fuck no,” he whispered, furtively looking around to make sure no one could overhear us. “We’re leaving.”

The echo of a cold laugh made me whimper, and my body tensed. “Where? She’ll find us, me. She hates every breath I take but savors every bit of pain she can put me through. I can’t keep doing this, brother. Just… just let me go.”

Aizel growled and picked me up. That’s when I noticed the bags he had with him.

“Together, brother. We leave together.”

Then he was half dragging me away into the night.

We got the invitation to Greywood two nights after that during a sex party we’d crashed so I could feed and heal. The next day, we were interrupted and taken to Greywood.

Running into Isla and Zhara soon after that was just a stroke of luck. The graduation story Aizel came up with worked like a charm.

I was hidden. Safe. At least for now.

Pounding at my door had me waking with a flinch. I cursed, running my fingers through sweaty hair as I sat up in bed.

“Echo?” Aizel called out.

“I’m here,” I told him, trying to get my breathing under control.

The door opened. Aizel stood there, eyes wide at the state I was in.

“Is Isla?—”

“She’s alive,” I answered roughly. A bark of laughter escaped as I forced myself to stand up.

“That’s good,” he said slowly, cautious hope sparking in his gaze.

“She ran. Afterward,” I told him, tears stinging my eyes. “I fucked up.”

“How didyoufuck up ifsheran?”

“She asked me what was going to happen now.” I gestured wildly. “I just… I avoided it, and she got pissed. Hell, I don’t know? I’ve never come out of a rut with someone alive. I dodged her question, so she left. I tried to catch up to her, but she was gone.”

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