Page 20 of Seized to Sacrifice
Taking a torch from one of the sconces, he led her down the darker, smaller passageways to one of many locked doors. He opened one and ushered her inside, placing the torch in another slot on the wall. It gave out just enough light for the shadows to look sinister.
‘We need this storeroom useable. I want it cleaned thoroughly. There’s a bucket of water over there one of the kitchen girls left,’ he said, pointing to a wooden pail in the corner. ‘Use it.’
She looked around with wide eyes at the piles of debris all over the room. There were crates and chests from long-won campaigns with the Dark Army, old furniture, loose weapons, and various other pieces of detritus they’d accumulated over the years.
‘But …’ She stared at him and opened her mouth to say something more.
Was she already breaking? Surely, she was stronger than that.
He leaned in closer. ‘Yes?’
Her eyes hardened slightly. ‘Nothing.’
‘Good,’ he said. ‘I'll come back for you later.’
Thorne noticed the scrub brush by the wall that Leia had clearly thrown down during her little tantum the other day, baulking at being ordered to do this when she was Rye’s current favorite.
He kicked the brush at Elle with a sniff and left her, locking her in even though Rye had already ensured she could no longer leave the keep.
He peered in through the grate, hiding his grin. ‘Oh, and if you find any large egg sacks, I’d be careful. The females are quite maternal.’
He retreated down the halls, chuckling at her expression, but outside, as he entered the sunlight, he had a moment of hesitation. She hated the cold and the dark, always had. He shook off his unease, resolving to think of her no more until later. The point of all of this was revenge.
He made himself remember the last time that he'd seen her, how coldly she'd looked at them as she’d opened a portal and pushed them out of her life, imprisoning them here, throwing them away as if they’d meant nothing to her.
His countenance hardened as he looked back at the door to the cellars, ignoring the niggling feeling in his gut that said he shouldn't be leaving her down there.
CHAPTER4
ELLE
She heard Thorne trudging back up the steps, doors slamming behind him. As she looked around the small room where he’d left her, the torch that he’d placed in the sconce on the wall beside her spluttered. Her stomach lurched as she stared at the flame. Was it already dimming? What if it went out? There was no grate to see the sun in here. There would be no light at all.
It was already so dark that she wanted to turn and run straight past Thorne. She would have if she’d thought she had even the tiniest chance of escaping him.
She shivered, wishing Rye had found something more substantial than a thin gown meant as an undergarment for her to wear. Perhaps the exertion would warm her.
Gamely beginning to move some of the smaller items to make room, she heaved the old chests across the floor, trying to ignore the shadows of scurrying things that moved out of her way and wondering if Thorne had just been trying to scare her with his talk of egg sacks.
She didn't know how long she worked, but she was dusty and covered in grime by the time the torch really did begin to dim.
She barely had time to panic before it snuffed out, leaving her in the pitch black. She took a breath, and then another one, trying to calm herself, but she couldn’t. She couldn't help the terror she felt. She couldn'tseeanything.
She heard something scratching by the door and closed her eyes, imagining that it was the reason everything was dark.
It was just because she'd closed her eyes, she told herself as she walked forward.
She felt for the iron grate in the door, clinging onto it. And then, with all of her breath, she bellowed out into the hall, screaming for someone to release her. She screamed and screamed until she had no voice left before sinking down to the floor and huddling in the corner.
What if they left her down here? There was no way out. What if no one ever came to release her? She wiped her wet cheeks and wrapped her arms around herself. She could hear noises now, noises she hadn't noticed in here before.
‘Be quiet,’ she whispered, hoping it was just her mind playing tricks on her, that the sounds weren’t real.
She heard them again – closer – and pressed herself into the wall, scrunching her eyes shut as tightly as she could as if that would somehow save her from her own nightmares.
She felt the brush of something against her bare foot and recoiled with a cry. She felt another on her arm. But when she tried to brush it off, there was nothing there.
‘Stop. Stop. Stop,’ she muttered to herself over and over again in the darkness.
