Page 115 of The Forsaken Heir
In a flash, the fantasy burst apart, and I was no longer in the gardens at my family’s estate. I was hanging by my wrists in a cell with Bastien Laurent growling in my face. He looked more than a little crazed.
“What does it take to make you scream?” he hissed.
The pain returned in full force, and a moan escaped my lips, but nothing more. Jamming my tongue against the roof of my mouth, I stifled whatever other sounds might try to rip free from my throat and glared back at him, forcing myself to grin.
“I’m sorry?” I said, panting to keep from crying out. “Were you doing something?”
Bastien’s face went slack with shock. My chest felt as though it was on fire as the Dragon’s Blood sap seared into my flesh. Thick globs of it clung to my chest hair, giving me no reprieve, but I wouldn’t let him see me squirm. Not if I could help it.
“Give me the counter spells!” he shouted, and punched me in the face?—
“Hey there, sleepyhead,” Elle said. “I wondered when you’d wake up.”
My eyes snapped open, and I found Elle gazing down at me and running her fingers through my hair.
“You napped for a long time.”
Somewhere nearby, the hissing sound of ocean waves drew my attention, and I realized I was lying on warm, soft sand.
“We’re at the beach?” I asked dumbly.
“Duh. It was your idea to come here.”
“Right. Sure,” I said as I sat up.
The sun beat down on us, warming my body. The pain was dissipating, and it faded more as Elle rubbed my back.
“You must have been having a bad dream,” she said. “You were moaning and thrashing around.”
“Was I?” I recalled an angry face in front of me, pain, and shouting, but not much else.
Elle’s fingers traced along my shoulders and across my collarbone. “Shhh,” she whispered. “Stop thinking about that.”
As though her words were a magic spell, I sighed and relaxed into her touch. Being with her was like rubbing a balm into my soul.
“This is really nice,” I said, gazing out at the ocean.
Elle wrapped her arms around me from behind and drew light circles over my stomach, tracing the angles of my abs with her fingertips.
“Does that feel good? Do you like that?” she asked.
“I do.”
“Oh yeah?” she said, her voice louder now, her tone angrier. “How about this?”
White-hot agony snapped across my stomach, and for a split second I almost cried out. Bastien was soaked in sweat and holding the whip again. Angry, red welts stood out where the Dragon’s Blood threads had cut into my flesh. The beach fantasy vanished, and with it the comfort I’d taken from it. Every time my mind filled with images and dreams of Elle, I could put the pain aside. She’d become my protection. An escape from the hell I was living.
“Prick,” Bastien grunted and lashed out with the whip again.
Electric pain surged through my body. My legs gave out, and I hung listlessly from my bound wrists. The sizzling sound of the rope fibers and the sap on my chest drowned out any other sound. It was too much for me. My body was giving out.
How much longer could I hold out? How long had he been at this? Hours? Days? Without a clock or windows and no ability to truly sleep, I couldn’t keep track of time. This was like some awful purgatory. The pain ate at me, digging deep, nearly pushing beyond my will to go on. The Dragon’s Blood had forced my dragon to the deepest recesses of my mind. Far enough down that I could barely even feel him. That alone made all of reality feelwrong. I’d never been without him, and now he’d become nothing but a shadow at the back of my mind.
Bastien chuckled lightly. “My hand is getting tired, Aurelius.” He switched the whip to another hand and shook out the opposite, opening and closing the hand. “You think you’re a badass. I get that. I really do. You’ll break, though. It’s only a matter of time. You and I both know that.”
“I…have…something to…say,” I managed, doing my best to keep my voice as calm as possible even though I tasted blood in my mouth.
Bastien’s face went slack, and he dropped the whip. “You do?” He grabbed my hair and pulled my head back. “Do you want to give me the counterspells? Tell me, and this all ends.”
