Page 20 of Guarded By the Orc

“I’ve got you,” he murmured against my hair.

With a happy sigh, I drifted into oblivion, wishing we could always be this way.

CHAPTER 10

Zara

Iwoke up, startled, my body trapped where it was. Recognition filled me as I saw the firelight coming from the corners of the dark, dank cell I was being held in.

No, no, no. Not here again. Please Goddess Mother, this can’t be real.

A dark chuckle filled the void and I cringed as Veron stepped out from the shadows.

“What were you dreaming of, Zara? The way you were smiling made me jealous,” he whispered, leaning closer, his eyes, with that sadistic gleam, narrowed on me. “Is it the male again? You talk to him in your sleep, you know.”

He sneered at me, his lip curling with disgust. “As if you’ll ever belong to anyone else. You’remine.” The word was said with the kind of possessiveness that told me I wasn’t a person to him. I was athing. “And you’ll never get away.”

The promise was filled with the horrors that lay in front of me. I knew what he wanted now. The things my sweet motherhad tried to keep hidden from me. The things that had been done toher. To createme.

A sob gathered in my chest. It was a miracle that she’d still loved me.

“The time of the prophecy is almost upon us,” Veron sneered. “Eight more months and then the stars will be aligned. The Great Conjunction only happens once every twenty years, Zara. That’s when you’ll give me what I want.”

This fucking prophecy.

If only it had never been prophesied, then the women of my line wouldn’t be hunted and used the way these fucking warlocks had done for centuries. My mother hadn’t been the only one to escape, yet somehow, they always found us.

I cursed whoever had given the prophecy, but it was so old that they were long dead anyway.

When the lights of Janus and Lundus are at their peak, the strongest witch of the Aradian witches will become the most powerful vessel ever to be born. The child will bring glory to their kin and downfall to any who oppose them.

With a few short sentences, our fates had been set in stone. No matter how many times we fought against these warlocks, they kept taking our line. And I was the last one.

Helplessness filled me, but I refused to cry. Veron didn’t deserve a single one of my tears.

He leaned closer, fury in his eyes. I knew it was for me. He hated that I still hadn’t given in to him. He thought I wouldwantto be with him.

Pathetic fool.

He reached out, gripping my chin and forcing me to meet his cold gaze. “It seems like you still think you can get away.” He canted his head, and the movement was so snake-like I wondered if he was part serpent. “Like your mother?” He scoffed, squeezing my chin with his nails until they dug in.

I held in the gasp of pain, letting him see the hatred in my eyes instead.

“You’re still dreaming that you’re going to get away and find some poor, pitiful male to protect you. That won’t happen,” he spat, dropping my face until I sagged in the chains that held me.

He studied me for a long moment, an evil smile crossing his thin lips. “But just in case…” he trailed off, moving around the room and lighting black candles as he went. I stiffened, wishing I’d been awake when he’d set all of this up.

A shiver of unease swept through me as I realized he’d been here for a long time while I’d slept—chained to this bed that I was certain would be used in the ritual he was planning in the next eight months.

“I can’t have you tainting yourself any more than you’ve already been tainted,” he laughed, and I flinched as his voice came from behind me. I wasn’t a virgin and when Veron had realized it, he’d slapped me across my face and called me a whore.

I didn’t care what he thought. But the fucker hithard.

Keeping my lips closed and not yelling and swearing at him took all the self-control I had in my body. I could feel myself vibrating with the need to scream that he had a tiny dick. I didn’t need to see it to know that he was the kind of male who wasn’t packing much in that area.

He began speaking behind me. In magick. Words that I wasn’t familiar with. This wasn’t regular magick. It was a dialect. One that my mother had warned me against.Dark magick.Nothing good could come from using it.

Struggling against my bonds, I fought hard to get away, hearing his voice come closer and closer. I watched as the flames of the candles around us got larger with his words, fluttering with a breeze that didn’t exist.

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