Page 13 of Broken Fate
I didn’t answer. What more did I have to say at that point anyway?
A rustle of motion was my only warning, and then my back exploded in agony as thecrackof a whip filled the room. I screamed in pain.
I moaned as warm blood trickled down my back. They’d broken skin with that blow.
“Who sent you?!”
“Nobody!” I cried through the waves of throbbing anguish radiating from the lash mark. “Nobody sent me, I swear.”
A whisper of a footstep, and then a fist thudded against my left kidney from behind. I screamed.
“Tell us the truth, and the pain will stop. Continue to lie, and it will only increase,” a voice said into my ear.
I sat hunched over, trying to breathe through the agony, unable even to look to see who my torturer was.
“Now, let’s try again,” the voice said with a serene calmness. Whoever it was, they weren’t bothered by the idea of hurting me.
They’d tortured before.
“Who. Sent. You.”
I shook my head. “I swear to you. Nobody sent me. Why on Earth won’t you believe me? I’m just a kid. I did something stupid. I don’t know what else you want from me. I don’t have any reason to lie!”
There was a snort from behind me. “You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes, of course I do!” I moaned. “Because it’s the truth.”
Another frustrated noise, and then my back erupted for a second time. My screams filled the room as I writhed in pain, blood soaking my shirt as it ran down my sides.
“I shouldn’t have expected any better from a Calli,” my interrogator muttered as I struggled to recover.
Through the haze of agony, I wasn’t even sure I’d heard him right. How could I have? The Callis weren’t real. I wasn’t a Calli. I was an Arcadian. The Callis were more a myth than anything else. They and their Alpha, Callistus the Betrayer—if theyhadexisted—were destroyed ages ago. Everyone knew that.
“If you don’t speak to save yourself, then speak for your family.”
I jerked upright, looking behind me as my panic at his threat outweighed the pain. “What? What do you mean? What have you done? My family had nothing to do with this! They didn’t know!”
“So, youdoadmit that you planned this!” the voice said triumphantly.
“N-not really,” I said. “I didn’t want to be mated. I wasn’t ready for it. I thought about running away. About faking being sick. But it wasn’t until I was up there—until I touched the stone. I didn’t even reallythinkabout it. I just sort of did it. That’s me. Always acting, never thinking. But my parents had nothing to do with it. They’re good, loving people.”
“We’ll be the judge of that. They are currently being stripped of everything. Their statusremoved. And if you continue to refuse to give up your accomplices, we shall have no choice but to see them punished as well. With a traitor's death.”
I stared in horror as my interrogator moved to the other side of the table, giving me my first glimpse of him.
“Please,” I whispered, shaking my head as I stared at Andracis, the current Beta of the Arcadian pack. “No. They’re innocent. Punish me if you must, but they had nothing to do with it! Let them go!”
“Oh, we’ll punish you,” Andracis chuckled, brushing back some stray black hairs that had come free of his shoulder-length braid. His eyes, one green, one brown, stared at me from underneath hooded lids.
He was enjoying himself. The curve of his thin, pale lips made its way up to his gaunt cheeks, their skin pulled tight over prominent cheekbones, giving him a terrifying smile, which he now graced me with. Fresh tremors ran down my spine, exacerbating the pain from my wounds.
“Why are you doing this?” I whispered, trying to understand. “You’re supposed to lead us. To guide us. You and Arcadus. You’re supposed to begood.”
The look of hatred on my Alpha’s face the night before came back to me …
“If you won’t tell us who sent you …”
The whip cracked.
