Page 182 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

I feel the air charge as energy shifts. Malik growls out in pain.

The ties must have some sort of spell attached to them.

The leader of the group finds amusement in Malik’s pain before he turns his attention to me.

“Ah, we haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting, Ms. Valdis.” He steps closer.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Malik’s body stiffen. His gaze whips to mine. “Valdis? You’re King’s—”

The guard chuckles, cutting Malik off. He raises a brow, giving Malik a smug look. “Oh, you didn’t know? This one belongs to King.”

“I belong to no-one,” I tell him and Malik.

The guard’s cruel grin grows. “We both know that’s not true.”

Malik snarls, his eyes losing any warmth to them. “Take me back to my fucking cell.”

Malik doesn’t spare me a second glance as the guards take him back.

It’s not long before I hear the machine turn on, and the guards return. The smug guard from before appears in front of me.

Glancing at the strap, he looks over his shoulder. “Make sure you get someone down to fix her straps.”

A grunt of a confirmation is all I hear before a pair of boots gets farther away from me.

The smug guard smiles down at me, his smile anything but kind. “It’s time you find out where you belong on the food chain in here.”

The machine turns on, slicing across my body in sharp jolts. It assaults my body over and over until I can’t take it anymore. The guard’s chuckle follows me into the darkness.

* * *

A vast blacknessbleeds out around me, suffocating me with the absence of even the smallest shards of shadows or light. I’m standing but can’t see or hear anything around me. It’s as if I’m blind. I reach up to feel my eyes to confirm that they are, in fact, open.

Sighing, I drop my hands, feeling stupid. My memories remind me that I was here before. Dreaming of a never-ending, ever consuming pitch-dark.

Why do I keep dreaming of this place?

This time I’m not as panicked, but the fear of being stuck here sits at the back of my mind.

I reach my hands out in front of me and begin to walk. The farther I get, the more I realize that moving is pointless. I end up nowhere fast.

It’s dark wherever I look, and no matter where I move or how long, it stays that way.

I plop down on my knees, trying to think of something else I can do. I mean, this is my dream. Technically, I should be able to control it.

Closing my eyes, I focus on being anywhere else but here. Someplace with light. I picture the sun, the way the light reflects off every surface chasing the dark away.

My body begins to feel lighter, as if slowly moving by itself.

“Kiaaarrraaa,” a deep voice growls.

I jump, getting to my feet at the eerily familiar voice that has somehow found its way into my strange dream. Whipping around, I look for the source but still can’t see anything beyond the endless dark night.

“Who’s there?” This was a dream. Just some fucked up dream my self-conscious came up with to further mess with me. But then, how did that voice follow me in here?

“Releassse meeee.” Again, it asks me to do something I can’t do for myself.

“Who are you?”

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