Page 107 of The Sacred and the Tormented

“I had a city to save.”

“Yet you’ve abandoned the continent to come look for a sister who doesn’t want to be found.”

She jolted at that. “Where is Ellie?”

He smirked and stood. “I’d tell you, but that would ruin the fun. Perhaps I’ll fill you in once my father is finished with you. Rest assured, what I have planned is far worse so enjoy his company while you can.”

Niall reached for her forehead and Arianna thrashed on the table, yanking at every restraint until she felt the metal bite through her skin. “Go ahead and fight, little dove, it’ll just make this more fun.”

Niall’s clammy hand pressed against her forehead and pain exploded behind Arianna’s eyes. She screamed and thrashed for what felt like an eternity before her world fell into darkness.

ARIANNA’S HEAD was still throbbing when Niall came back the second time. She couldn’t even see past the black dots swimming across her vision, nor remember exactly what he’d done.

Arianna tried pulling at her restraints when he left again, but her efforts were futile. Her body wouldn’t respond. Someone offered her water. A female, but Arianna refused it, certain it had to be poisoned.

She breathed in and out, trying to gather herself. Talon needed her. Rion needed her. Ellie needed her. She had to get out of here.

Her vision faded in and out. Time was a meaningless concept. She tried to pull her wrists from the cuffs again and winced. Both were raw and bleeding. She didn’t remember how or when it’d happened.

Memories assaulted her as she drifted through a meaningless void. Arianna recalled the first time iron had been clamped around her wrists. She’d already hidden herself within her half-human form, per Talon’s instructions. She had remained in the boat, floating there for hours.

None of them had heard the slavers before they’d rushed in and slit her attendants’ throats. They’d shoved a bag over her head. She’d been so distracted. So young and stupid.

The cracking sound of whips echoed through her memories next. She remembered the first one, but even it hadn’t stung as much as Niall’s penetrative magic.

Footsteps echoed outside the door and Arianna’s heart sank when Niall walked through. She turned her head to glare at him, but couldn’t muster the energy for much else. Even her magic had fallen silent.

“Judging from the look on your face, you still know who I am.”

She didn’t answer. Couldn’t from how tired her body had become.

Niall drew closer again and Arianna turned her head away. He gripped the sides of her face with bruising fingers and forcefully turned her back before diving into her mind.

Arianna screamed and thrashed again, her head splitting from the tendrils that raced through her thoughts and memories. They were venomous barbs tearing through the core of her being, ripping her to shreds from the inside.

She didn’t know when he left, only that she was panting, her throat raw and eyes heavy.

Arianna hoped that was the end of it. That he might leave her alone along enough for her to recover and formulate a plan. But he returned a third time.

Then a fourth.

By the fifth, Arianna drank the water.

By the sixth, she was numb.

It wasn’t until the seventh time, when her mind felt as though it’d been wrung out, that Arianna heard another voice. This one deeper and slick like oil.

Niall said something she couldn’t decipher then his hands were on her again and she fell and fell and fell.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Ellie

“Do you remember the day we first met?” Kirian’s voice was a soft murmur, drifting through her, easing the jagged edges of her mind. He pieced together the broken fragments she couldn’t stitch, though something always remained missing—an emptiness she couldn’t place.

A soft smirk played across her cracked lips. She tried to wet them in vain. Ellie couldn’t remember the last time they’d given her water. “It’s hard to forget. You completely wrecked my escape plan.”

“That’s not how I remember it.” Kirian pulled her closer then pushed her dirty hair away from her face. She’d given up trying to tell him not to touch it. They were both filthy anyway.

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