Page 100 of Her Tortured Beasts

The Collector moves closer to me and the scent of floral perfume, mixed with her own salty sweat, fills my nose. I detest it. I detest her and everything she stands for.

Her breath is sour as she whispers in my ear.

“The easiest way to break a woman?” She points to the army of males she’s created. “I will let them all have you. One at a time, against your will. I don’t know how many it will take. Fifty? One hundred? But eventually, you will submit to me. Eventually, you won’t even care what I do to you.”

A chill shoots down my spine. “You’re plain evil.”

Her breath tickles my ear. “You will understand, Aurelia. Soon enough, you will understand why I need you so much. No one knows the real reason. Not even Flores. Not even the Lady Hyena. Not even your beloved Scythe Kharkorous. No one knows whatIhave thatnoone else does.”

I see it now. A feeling snakes between my bones, settling in my marrow. A destiny. A certainty.

I will meet my end here.

Chapter 56

Aurelia

The woman in my head is still screaming.

But something calls to me in the darkness. Something familiar.

Because I am desperate, because I am lost, I reach out to it.

And regret it immediately.

Chapter 57

Aurelia

My hands tremble at dinner that night, alone in my allocated room. It’s bare, with a regular, single bed with a white lacy duvet and cotton sheets. There are no windows, and the door is made of metal. I feel cold as I sit at the small table. It too is steel and bolted to the ground.

It feels more like a prison here than it did at Drakos Estate. I try to assess my options, but my mind is fuzzy like soft drink shaken up in a can. It almost feels like someone else is captive in this cell. Like someone else feels cold inside and numb on the outside.

The only upside is that, despite tasting like ash in my mouth, the food is well made. A classic roast chicken and potatoes and a fresh side salad of cucumbers and rocket. I have orange juice and some pills that smell like vitamins. She’s not going to kill me by starving me, at least.

Sometime in the evening, the lights go off and I get the message that I need to sleep. I use the bathroom in the dark and climb into bed, huddling under the bleached sheets.

I can’t bear to close my eyes. I want them to stay open. I want to be alert when she comes for me. I need to think of a way out of this.

Kicking myself that I didn’t try to think of escape sooner, I recount the events of the day, thinking of the number of times I could have shifted and flown away. But flight would have been impossible. Here, there are beasts with guns in every room and I’d been escorted everywhere with gun-toting animuses. They’re a whole different sort of threat that needs careful consideration. It only takes one person with good aim to catch me in the wing and send me down.

Dread, hard and dense sitting in my gut, doesn’t allow me to sleep at all.

The next morning, she makes me wait.

I’m not given any food through the slot in the door, and straining my ears reveals nothing on the other side.

Hours tick by and I pace the length of the room to keep busy. I’ve been in isolation before, so I’m familiar with this. But Solomon and the other scientists had never said openly cruel things to me. Had never threatened me so thoroughly.

And something about the Collector tells me she’s not one for empty threats. She has a plan, and she’s going to execute it.

By what I estimate is the evening time, the lock at the door jangles open. I stand to attention, my heart pounding as she saunters through the door.

I wonder if I should attack her now and get it done with. Launch myself at her and—but no less than six guards enter the room immediately after her, surrounding us both with their weapons drawn.

“Don’t bother,” she says carefully, examining me from top to toe. “They’d make it hurt.”

I can only blink at her, my coiled muscles needing to be told to soften. The scent of the males crowds me in, filling my head and making me dizzy. I huff to hide my anxiety. “So what’s the plan for today?”

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