Page 55 of Darkness and Deceit
But this time is worse.
Because he’s here.
My captor. My tormentor. My nightmare.
Vaskyr.
They called him that because no one survived long enough to learn what it meant. Some said it was a title. Others a name. He once told me it meant “King” in the old tongue, but he laughed when he said it, like it was a joke he wasn’t letting me in on.
But in the pit?
He ruled.
And when they wanted something done—something brutal, something permanent—they sent him.
He was the one who broke me first.
And the worst.
The moment I locked eyes with him, something inside me snapped—like a wire gone taut finally giving in to pressure.
“Still breathing,Stray?”
The word hit like a boot to the ribs.
I thought I’d buried it with everything else—his voice, his laugh, the stink of the pit. But here it is. Crawling back up my spine like rot.
Stray.
That was what he called me. Not Kai. Not even a number. Just… a thing.
And it stuck.
I should’ve moved faster. Should’ve fought harder. But my body remembered what my mind tried to forget—and now I’m paying for it.
He drags me like a ragdoll, fist clamped around my shoulder like a vice, blood smearing the dirt behind us. My katana’s gone. My snake won’t answer. My magic is fractured—burning from the inside out.
I’m not Kai.
I’m not a weapon.
I’m nothing but a whisper of what I was.
Stray.
Then—
Vaughn crashes through the trees like a beast unchained. His wolf is right beside him, fangs bared, eyes blazing. Twin whips of crackling blue magic lash from his fists, searing through the smoke with every stride.
He doesn’t shout. He roars.
A raw, feral sound that tears through the battlefield like a warning.
I try to shout to tell him to turn back. To save himself from the hell I know is waiting for me. But my throat’s wrecked, my voice lost in the ruin of my body.
Vaskyr drops me, turns and grins at Vaughn like he’s bored.
Savina arrives a beat later, her panther weaving through the smoke. She doesn’t speak. She lunges.
