Page 25 of The Sacred and the Tormented

She let her burning eyes close. Just for a minute. The room spun, bending and twisting like her memories. How long had she been out of the dungeon? How long had she been in captivity? Was Kirian okay or had she done something to earn him another round of beatings?

“I’m disappointed.” The High Lord’s deep voice floated through the room and inside her head as if he were speaking directly to her subconscious. Ellie willed herself smaller, hoping to escape his reach. She didn’t want to ever feel that magic again. It always felt as though he were rooting through her mind, shifting memories as if they were loose papers laid across a desk.

Ellie could visualize the High Lord bringing a stack of his own. He’d mixed them in against her will. They were tattered, frayed at the edges, and stained with oil. But they were getting lost in the stack until she could no longer distinguish one from the other.

Ellie forced her eyes open. She couldn’t afford to cower. She needed to focus on the two figures in the room and collect information. She wasn’t helpless. They’d give her something soon. They’d slip up, thinking her too weak to fight back.

Right?

A sob tried to rise to the surface, but she battled it back. She had to find a way to escape. Shewouldfind a way to escape.She’d get back to Arianna and Rion. To Talon and her father and her country. She’d warn them about everything.

Her pulse quickened as she recalled the information, and warning bells echoed through her head. They didn’t know. They had to know. They had to know. They had to know—

“I made a mistake.” Niall’s voice. Not as sickening as his father’s, but still slick with black oil. His voice made fire burn through her core, renewed anger simmering at the surface. His tone didn’t carry an ounce of apology. He might as well have been talking about the weather.

The High Lord hummed in response and she cringed again, clenching her jaw at the sound. “You allowed yourself to get distracted.”

Niall didn’t respond right away. “I did as I was ordered and seduced the female.”

Arianna. They were talking about Arianna. The memories began swimming again, fighting to the surface. They were plotting against her. No, not just her, the entire continent.Wake up, she screamed at herself, but her body was so tired, her mind even more so.

But she wasn’t useless. She could gather information. She’dbeengathering information, hoping it might prove helpful to ridding the world of this male and his ilk. Someone would come for her and when they did, she’d tell them everything.

The High Lord’s voice turned darker and Ellie swore she could feel the room move and shift. Fear overwhelmed her and she shrank into herself further. She knew they’d be able to smell it soon. She didn’t have her magic to help her.

“No, you took matters into your own hands. I specifically instructed you to bring that male to me.”

“I had the situation under control.”

“Clearly.” His tone was laced with malice, but still, Niall didn’t falter. How could he stand in the High Lord’s presence and not be afraid?

Silence stretched for so long, Ellie feared she’d fallen back into that small room within her mind. The room where the High Lord’s voice echoed from every corner, calling to her, dismantling her piece by piece only to throw her back together again. She still hadn’t recovered from the first time and he’d been in her mind dozens of times since.

She didn’t feel—whole. As if the male were stealing pieces of her and covering his tracks so she couldn’t reclaim them.

“If you’d tell me your plans—” Niall began, as if he’d had this conversation a million times over.

“I have,” the High Lord interrupted, “on a number of occasions.” He bent to pick up a log and tossed it into the fire. Sparks shot out everywhere, fireflies dotting the darkness before disappearing again. Tiny beings winked out as if they were nothing. “You always disappoint.”

Niall stood in silence, but Ellie could sense his shock even if she couldn’t focus on his face. “You’ve manipulated my mind.”

“A time or two.” Silence again. “Things might not have gone as planned, but you did manage to uncover a bit of truth I was blind to.” The High Lord adjusted his robe. Ellie didn’t understand how he could bear to wear the heavy thing when the room was so hot and stuffy.

“Which is?” Niall asked impatiently.

“I’ve always wondered why another Divine wasn’t born. I thought that perhaps the gods had forsaken the land. I failed to realize it was my own actions and hatred of the previous king that kept her out of my reach.”

“Are you going to be cryptic all day?”

Ellie thought she heard the High Lord chuckle. It held no mirth. “The male is always born first. He is required to grow tomaturity in order to function as The Divine’s protector. It’s only when his magic is stable, that the gods will allow the blessed one to descend.”

“You’ve been reading your books too much.”

“Tell me it doesn’t make sense.”

“I’d rather focus on what you meant by a time or two,” Niall growled. “Who do you think you are—” Niall was cut off as the other male moved. Disappeared. He was in front of the fireplace one second, then had Niall slammed against the opposite wall the next. Long, slender fingers wrapped around Niall’s throat, squeezing hard.

A crack raced across the wall and a sconce tumbled to the floor, embers rolling out to cover the very rug she was lying on. Smoke curled from the fibers, quickly filling the room. A flame flickered to life, but neither male showed an ounce of concern.

---